REVIEW POTPOURRI: Barbra Streisand, Betsy Graves, Lucille Ball / Desi Arnaz, & Eugene Ormandy

by Peter Cates

Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand

Although there was a time when I was quite enthralled by certain Barbra Streisand albums, such as 1969’s What About Today; the early 70s Stoney End, and Barbra Joan Streisand (especially Michel Legrand’s The Summer Knows from the movie Summer of ’42); and 1975’s Classical Barbra, I have not found her artistry wearing well. A cassette I recently reheard, Memories (Columbia TCT 37678), is a best of grab bag anthology of sorts with the overbearing The Way We Were, the grating Enough is Enough duet with the late Donna Summer etc., but her renditions of Memory from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats and the deeply stirring You Don’t Bring Me Flowers duet with Neil Diamond still raise goosebumps.

Betsy Graves

Betsy Graves

From the anthology Maine Speaks, Past the Shallows is a short story by Orono native Betsy Graves dealing with the beginning of a week’s vacation at the family cottage on a lake accessible only by boat. The story has two teenage boys, their sister, mother and grandparents.

It depicts the mixed blessings inevitably found in such gatherings. Young Imogene is relishing”the gentle motion of the water lapping against the sides of the wharf ” upon which she is reclining, “the sun on her face…cool June day, school out…lazy and content as a sleepy cat.”

But a mean-spirited boozy grandfather wreaks havoc at lunch with everybody, especially Imogene’s brother Buddy whom the old man has singled out . The all around nastiness and the two following days of unending rain lead to a much earlier departure.

Then a beautifully written couple of sentences bring respite to both Imogene and Buddy:

“On the calm flat water in the middle of the lake, Imo saw two loons swimming, hardly moving. They spoke to each other in long, mourning cries with a rippling sound like laughter at the end.”

Lucille Ball / Desi Arnaz

Lucile Ball & Desi Arnaz

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s Desilu Productions launched a comedy series, Angel, in 1960 that only lasted one year. It depicted the life of a newly-married couple, the wife being a Parisian whose language barrier and inability to understand American customs lands her in difficulty.

The one-liners were lame in the second episode I sampled, Voting Can Be Fun, which originally aired October 13, 1960, but it interested me because of the guest appearance of Joseph Kearns (1907-1962), then best known as Mister Wilson, on Dennis the Menace, and whose role as the slightly cantankerous city clerk lent a humorous edge otherwise lacking.

In addition, fist fights break out at a voting station between men on opposing sides of the issues. No need to mention possible relevance to this November’s upcoming election!

The episode is on YouTube.

Connie Francis

Connie Francis

Connie Francis’s singing could be a bit syrupy during her peak years but, when I first watched her on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand singing Who’s Sorry Now, I was smitten by her heartfelt beauty and charisma. An MGM 45 of When the Boy in your Arms is the Boy in your Heart, and Baby’s First Christmas, as arranged and conducted by the very gifted Don Costa, is an example of how two basically mediocre songs can be transformed into decent performances.

Who’s Sorry Now was also performed in 1950’s Three Little Words, which just happened to have also been produced by MGM, was a biopic of songwriters Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, and starred Fred Astaire and Red Skelton. In addition, Kalmar and Ruby composed the Betty Boop classic I Wanna Be Loved By You.

Eugene Ormandy

Eugene Ormandy

An early 1930s Victor Red Seal 78 set of five 12-inch discs features music of Johann Strauss Junior (1825-1899) as performed very spiritedly by Eugene Ormandy leading the Minne­apolis Sym­phony (nowadays referred to as the Minne­sota Orch­estra) and includes the Blue Danube, Tales from the Vienna Woods, Accelera­tion Waltz, and the Overtures to the composer’s operettas, Die Fledermaus (The Bat) and the Gypsy Baron.

Ormandy was music director for roughly five years and recorded extensively for Victor before heading to Philadelphia in 1936 to lead its Orchestra for 44 very successful years. Most of Ormandy’s recordings can be accessed via YouTube.

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