JUNE IS BUSTING OUT ALL OVER!

[PlayItAgain]

Posted: 6/1/13 at 12:35am

BECAUSE ITS JUNE!

[Wynbish]

Posted: 6/1/13 at 12:36am

Just because it's June June June!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/1/13 at 12:37am

Allow Ms. Uggams to explain.

http://youtu.be/MkHsFA2LS60

[NYadgal]

Posted: 6/1/13 at 12:52am

...no matter how many times I see that "June" video, it still cracks me up!

(Ms. Uggams, it makes me love you even more! No explanation necessary!)

[Jivamutki]

Posted: 6/1/13 at 12:57am

That video of Miss Leslie Uggams trying with all her might to sing that song with the correct lyrics is hilarious. After all else failed she just went with it and filled it in with whatever she felt was appropriate. I think I heard "Heebie Jeebies" in there somewhere.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 6/1/13 at 1:07am

Love has found my brother Junior
And my sister's even loonier
And my Ma is gettin' kittenish with Pap.

[sparrman]

Posted: 6/1/13 at 1:21am

In all fairness to Ms. Uggams, the lyrics to "June is Bustin' Out All Over" ARE pretty weird already. "Huggin' the bejeepers" is actually in there. If you follow along with the actual lyrics, she's really not THAT far off from most of them.

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/1/13 at 7:37am

I love her.

[aasjb4ever]

Posted: 6/1/13 at 7:51am

Her explanation of the situation is hilarious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkHsFA2LS60

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/1/13 at 9:56am

That's what I posted above.

[ClaraJohnson]

Posted: 6/1/13 at 10:10am

Loved hearing her explain it. Rewatching the video, I'm wondering if it isn't a little suspect. I would think the cue card guy would have been walking with the camera since she was at least 7 rows away from a clearing, say about 30 feet, and wouldn't that be too far for her to read the cards? If the cue card guy went down and didn't get back up, shouldn't he be in the shot when she walks down the aisle? How far away could he have been standing so she could see it? My Nancy Drew cap is on. The only possibility I can imagine is that he was in fact in that little clearing area and she might even be looking at him/her when she walks past that area. I guess maybe it could've been one line per card which perhaps she could read. I wonder though...

[all that jazz]

Posted: 6/1/13 at 10:49am

I'm more partial to the lusty month of May myself but June is nice too.

Updated On: 6/1/13 at 10:49 AM

[RaisedOnMusicals]

Posted: 6/1/13 at 2:15pm

A star is a star is a star. And she's a star in more ways than one.

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 6/1/13 at 2:22pm

"Loved hearing her explain it. Rewatching the video, I'm wondering if it isn't a little suspect."

You really think she would have made that up? Why would she do that? There are several places where the cue card guy could have fallen and not been seen.

Even if you're right, why let the truth get in the way of a good story?

[ClaraJohnson]

Posted: 6/2/13 at 12:33am

"Even if you're right, why let the truth get in the way of a good story?"

Ghostlight2, you're clearly part of an intricate and vast Uggams cover-up conspiracy. I say there was no cue card person. Her reasons for making it up? You said it yourself. It's a good story. Much better than simply forgetting the words. :)

[Tag]

Posted: 6/2/13 at 12:50am

I always thought her explanation was a little suspect. Why does no one (Uggams or audience member) react to the cue card guy falling?

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 6/2/13 at 1:20am

"Ghostlight2, you're clearly part of an intricate and vast Uggams cover-up conspiracy. I say there was no cue card person. Her reasons for making it up? You said it yourself. It's a good story. Much better than simply forgetting the words. :)"

How funny that someone with your handle would come up with that theory, for reasons that will become obvious in a moment. Seriously, no one of Ms Uggums experience and professionalism would screw up the words that badly if she knew she had cue cards to fall back on. I believe she is telling the truth - she was relying on cue cards. That you didn't see the cue card carrier after he fell was a result of a good cameraman keeping him out of the frame. I do see some people reacting to something, Tag, but most eyes are on Uggams, and she does get a slightly panicked look on her face.

An example of this sort of thing - the Light in the Piazza Tony performance. Victoria Clark begins the scene carrying a huge handheld microphone. Obviously something had gone wrong with her mic connection just before she entered the stage and she was given the handheld. Right around 50 secs, you see Ms Clark glance briefly to her right, and literally 3 seconds later, the hand held was gone. It didn't just vanish - some stagehand crept onstage, indicated she didn't need it anymore, and took it away - and the cameraman kept them out of the shot.

Or I'm clearly part of an intricate and vast Uggams (and now Clark) cover-up conspiracy.
Light in the Piazza Tony performance

[strummergirl]

Posted: 6/2/13 at 1:23am

Her eyes go into a panic clearly searching for something in the audience as nothing but pure gibberish comes out. She can't stop or anything.

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 6/2/13 at 2:30am

Also, like sparrman says, the lyrics are pretty wacky: Read them here - she really wasn't that far off:

"June is bustin' out all over!
All over the meadow and the hill!
Buds're bustin' outa bushes
And the rompin' river pushes <---she starts to lose it a little here
Ev'ry little wheel that wheels beside the mill! <----starts to lose it a little more here

June is bustin' out all over!
The feeling's gettin' so intense <----this is where she loses it entirely
That the young Virginia creepers <--this is where she starts to get it back

Have been huggin' the bejeepers
Outa all the mornin'-glories on the fence.
Because it's June!
June, June, June
Jest because it's June, June, June!"

She really only totally screws up two lines.





Updated On: 6/2/13 at 02:30 AM

[John Adams]

Posted: 6/2/13 at 8:03am

Yesterday was also Marilyn Monroe's birthday.

There is a new TV subchannel in Chicago (and other markets) called, Movies! that runs old 20th Century Fox films. They devoted yesterday to Marilyn.

One of the movies they ran was called, Don't Bother To Knock. I like Monroe, but I wouldn't consider myself to be a "real" fan. I'm not familiar with all her work, nor all the details of her private/professional history, so this movie was completely new to me.

I enjoyed it a lot. Monroe is absolutely gorgeous in it. Not being a true fan, I'm more accustomed to the more glamorous screen version of Monroe. The one with a little more eye make-up and a bit more cleavage. In Don't Bother..., she looks young, fresh and completely captivating. I couldn't take my eyes off her.

I read that she did this movie to prove to critics that she could act. Although she has some moments that seem a bit over-the-top, I thought her performance was very well done. Her final scenes in particular feel the most honest and convincing. IMO, the script is kind of melodramatic, so the little bits of over-playing worked well (for my tastes).

This was also Anne Bancroft's first film. Her role is scripted even more melodramatically than Monroe's, and I don't know why I found that so appealing, but I did.

Bancroft plays a lounge singer in what appears to be a high-end hotel lounge, yet the theme of the lounge is "Western". When she performs, she wears a "sophisticated" gown that's accessorized with modified versions of Western attire (including a pseudo-Western bandana tied around her neck). IMO, it's so "wrong" that it's almost comical - but in a good way. (I think you have to see it to believe it.)

Bancroft spends the first part of the movie singing too many songs. One would have been plenty to establish that she's a lounge singer - especially since her singing is dubbed (what a shame!). Although her character (as scripted) is a stereotype and melodramatic, I enjoyed watching her in her first screen role, knowing the actress she would become later in life. ...not to mention that she looks equally as fresh and beautiful as Monroe.

It's not the greatest movie ever made, but I enjoyed it a lot. It also has a line (directed at Monroe), with a phrase that has NOT stood the test of time, and made me laugh out loud: "cooch dancer". I don't think a "cooch" in 2013 is the same thing it was back in 1952... Maybe it was, but people in the 50s were too polite to acknowledge it.
Updated On: 6/2/13 at 08:03 AM

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 6/1/18 at 12:23am

Happy Joan, everybody.

 

[smidge]

Posted: 6/1/18 at 12:33am

Lol, thank you. I almost forgot my favorite tradition.

[darquegk]

Posted: 6/1/18 at 8:45am

In regards to the Marilyn Monroe discussion, "cooch dancer" means slightly more and slightly less than you'd think. The birth of burlesque was the "hoochie coochie show," in which a barely clad woman would provide "educational" demonstrations of what was alleged to be the exotic and sensual dance traditions of Egypt, China or the Middle East. The end of the show, for paying customers only, was a move called the "split beaver," in which the dancer would spread-eagle upside-down for a split second and audiences might have a glimpse of her unshaved privates- or of a merkin, more likely.

As the tradition grew, the faux-educational side of things fell by the wayside, though strippers and burlesque performers were still known politely as "exotic dancers." Gradually, "hoochie-coochie" stopped being faux-Orientalist slang for "exotic" and became very American slang for promiscuity, and "cooch" shortened down to a depiction of what you'd see during the "split beaver."