MGS 9/11: Lucille Ball Sees MAME for the First Time

[GeoStrum3]

All right so it wasn't Angela but Lucy didn't do too bad.

[pokercards101]

3:05 bob does not care for garry morton

[rickw1100]

A time capsule-a simpler time. I love Lucy.

[rickw1100]

Had she lived-definitely one of the Golden Girls.

[supremester2]

Probably a lot. Like it matters? How many bitch queens does it take to post a yahoo comment?

[ChristophePhilippe]

How much surgical tape and petroleum jelly was used in the making of Mame anyway?

[ChristophePhilippe]

How much surgical tape and petroleum jelly was used in the making of this picture?

[NFitalianGuy]

Lucy was COMEDY personified! great legend/icon and till this day, UNTOUCHABLE as a comedienne!

[thesethingz]

I just love Lucy @ 6:11. She so's happy and thrilled about the clip. I'm loving this interview... it's like sitting around the dinner table listening to old friends talk. Thank you for posting!

[cluvsonj]

@thesethingz I just watched it and thought the same thing. Her reaction just brought a big smile to me. I always loved her. She was my favorite female comedian.

[thesethingz]

@cluvsonj I agree. 

[fiftiesflashback1953]

Lucy was approximately 62 years old when Mame was produced.It was here last feature film in a long, long cinematic career.

[phlashba]

Am I the only one who finds Gary Morton really annoying?

[VintageTelevision863]

@phlashba Not at ALL!

[BobChippewa]

I had a friend visiting from Germany a few a years ago and I was watching I Love Lucy. The esposide was where they Ricardos buy a new washer and sell their old one to the Mertzes and it breaksdown. Well my German friend said "Who is Lucy" Lucy is not world-known more in the USA than world-wide.

[Farrahsmom13]

Still a doll. 6:35 you can catch a glimpse of Lucy Ricardo

[Dakotanjulie]

lucy's so hyper!

[TimeKaiser]

That was classic, thank you for leting all us fans of Bob Hope and Lucille Ball see this wonderful bit of television history!

[BetteDavisMimic]

Bob and Madeline......god love Lucy for giving them credit.....she was first class all the way.....people complain about Lucy and say she was this or that.....but she was SHOW BIZ ROYALTY....first last and always......and a LADY to give credit where credit was due.....i would SELL MY SOUL...and i mean that to spend a sunday afternoon playing backgammon with Lucy.....THAT's my idea of heaven

[lukemack]

she sucks without desi and vivian

[Classicsatdusk]

Lucy's reaction to seeing MAME for the first time, she's like a giddy little girl on Christmas morning. She never lost that child inside of her. She laughs at every little thing Hope says and does a little too much. Merv is a little condescending to Gary in this. Griffin did his 90 minute show from the Cineramic dome at the premiere. He did it for LOST HORIZON at the National too.

[dirtyblondny]

everyone knew it was gonna be a bomb - but Lucy. her money got it produced. hollywood will film anything if someone pays for it........

[cookiedough30]

i love the politcal jokes

[Classicsatdusk]

Angela Lansbury DIDN'T have that good of a singing voice. Haven't you ever heard BEDKNOBS & BROOMSTICKS? It's just an okay voice, range is small. Better than Lucy's of course, but then whose isn't? But not the "great voice" people like to talk about.

[mormonophobic]

She may not sound like what we are used to in mainstream society, but if you listen to ANY of the great theater voices over the years (Ethel Merman, Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, even Lansbury) they are an acquired taste more than anything. But still powerful, emotionally resonating, and truly GREAT voices.

[BabyDillGerkin]

Sorry - wrong. Listen to Lansbury's recording of GYPSY or ANYONE CAN WHISTLE -- or better yet, MAME! She's not a "singer/singer" but she can really belt it out. More importantly, Lucy (who I adore) was too much of a clown to play MAME -- not the right type at all -- and WAY too old. But, let's face it, the movie wouldn't have been made without her or someone equally as big, and Lansbury hadn't done MURDER SHE WROTE yet.

As for CABARET - best musical on film. Absolutely BRILLIANT.

[tubeeorrnottubee]

Merv always had such class acts on hisshow.. To me he really represented what true "Hollywood" was all about. And, when he died, that classic Hollywood I grew up with, and knew so well, died with him.

Thank you, fabulous clip! A++

[lucy3142]

Lucy and Lucie have the exact same laugh :-)

It's so cute.

[postgraduate]

For all the optimism and publicity this movie got (Baskin Robbins even had a special ice cream for it) it really is a shame it stunk so badly when it was released. It wasn't all Lucy's fault, though.

I remember falling asleep in the theater while watching it.

[uncoverbrother]

wow 10 million for mame would be an independent today!

[CaptainSqueal]

great clip. thanks for posting.

[crystalstar1219]

i've heard lansbury's recording, and she IS a better singer.

but i think lucy still did a really great job.

the movie was fun and heart-warming, and i enjoyed it.

[Classicsatdusk]

Lansbury really doesn't have that great a singing voice either. It's not that great. If she had done the movie, chances are she would have been criticized too. SHANI WALLIS should have done it. She did the play and nobody did MAME like her or sounded as great singing the songs. Of course, if it hadn't been for Lucy, MAME would never have been made. She put up half of the money to make it. Otherwise WB wouldn't have done it. Musicals were on there way out. They were all bombing.

[moorlock2003]

Not true. "Cabaret" won Academy Awards for Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey just two years earlier. "Mame" could have worked if they had gotten a better lead, a better director, and given it more of a modern edge. As it was, it looked out of date, especially coming after the brilliant "Cabaret".

[Classicsatdusk]

CABARET wasn't the financial hit people think it was. The film made 10 million, which is nice, but not a blockbuster or mega hit. It did change the course of musicals in it's day. Every musical that was worth merit post Cabaret was not well conceived. Thank you Paulene Kael. LOST HORIZON had merit but it had no chance post Cabaret.

[moorlock2003]

"Cabaret" is a classic that looks better all the time. It is not really a mainstream film; it is more of a cult movie. I saw "Lost Horizon" and thought it was dreadful, but an interesting train wreck. It is a cult movie for another reason- for being bad. "Mame" is just plain bad- painful to watch.

[Classicsatdusk]

LOST HORIZON is the most wonderful endearing and campy musicals of all time. It's too extravagant to be "bad". The story is stronger than 99% of most film musicals and that includes West Side Story. It's a strange mixture of straight drama and pop tunes. Quirky and different and visually beautiful.

[hateleyfan123]

"Lansbury really doesn't have that great a singing voice either."

WHAT?!

[vintagemike]

angela lansbury sucks

lucy is MAME

[MargaretDeLorca]

I love you daaahling. You are so exquisitley correct!

[exonian1]

To the MORON who said Angela Landsbury sucked.

SHUT UP!

Lucy stunk. Can't sing.

I dug LUCY in her version but it's just as bad when they used Audrey Hepburn who can't sing either instead of Julie Andrews for

My Fair Lady. Lucy was not the better MAME. She got he part because she put up almost all of the 10 million to make the damn film. The only reason Bea Arthur reprised her role was because directing duties fell to her husband GENE SAKS so she acquised.

[ktm760]

At least they had the brains to dub Audrey.

[Italiabeefy]

Lucy was magic in Mame, i never tire of seeing it, she should have had a huge hit with it, she worked so hard, and she was well into her 60's when she did that movie!

I'd like to see someone today try to do that..never happen!

Lucy was Amazing...i miss her.

[sobeit42]

omg she was so excited thats really cute

[vintagemike]

lucy was the best mame

[AJthemoviebuff]

This makes me sad to see how hopeful everyone was for the movie version and how she seemed to feel so good about it and then she ended up getting slaughtered by the critics.

While I am still one of the people who thinks Angela Lansbury deserved that role, I don't think Lucy was really THAT bad. She wasn't the best choice but she did a decent job nonetheless.

[pattimylove]

so exited to see it!

[bm237]

Look how excited she was to see the clip from mame for the first time. She clearly had high hopes for the film. It deserved a better rap than it got, it wasn't a bad movie at all.

[terripbg]

or the other way around..hehehe

[terripbg]

Gary Morton looks like Vincent Cassel who played as François "The Nightfox" Toulour in Oceans 12. Seriously!!

[lsnook]

her daughter has the same laugh

[livuali]

merv was rude to gary morton

[coffield26]

I hate how the interviewer turned his back on the children while talking etc, sorry.

[coffield26]

Miss Desi!!

[wyattphx]

This was in 1974, so you'd have to been around or understand a lot of what was happening in Hollywood and in entertainment back then. And besides, they had both been in the business for nearly 40 years by then.

[seandeyoung]

Awesome history seen in this video. Thanks for the post!

[melaniestevens]

Lucy is so cute

[gabe5carr]

you got some nerve, i guess you have no appeal to others eighter

[pasfresh123]

"wait til the contract burns down" what does that mean? A lot of the stuff Bob Hope says or that they say to Bob Hope seems to be showbiz talk that we're not supposed to understand. Like when he says about the audience "are they just painted?" He only has himself to blame for being obscure.

[Holdenon3]

"Wait 'til the contract burn down" was Merv harking back to the joke about the condition of Bob's house.

Gary made the joke "lemme let you feel at home, Bob" and pulled out the lighter.

Were some of Bob's lines obscure? Maybe. Merv's line? Na-a-a-a-h...

[pasfresh123]

thank you for explaining about bob's house burning, I was not aware of that. what contract???!!! thank you for explaining the lighter joke. I didn't even know it was a lighter. That,s pretty sadistic.

[renitayv]

Even though Lucy was one of the biggest stars ever, she didn't really socialize with a lot of major celebrities except Bob Hope and Carol Burnett.

[renitayv]

It's nice to see Lucy so happy and in such good spirits.

[SEFYH]

Yes it is! To be honest, most interviews I've seen on her, she was a bit crabby and not very friendly. Sorry, I like Lucy but I have to keep it real.

[gymnastix]

Of course it would have been better to have cast Angela Lansbury (lead in the original Broadway production) in the film, just as it would have been to have cast Julie Andrews over Audrey Hepburn in the film version of "My Fair Lady," though Andrews got a great consolation prize in "Mary Poppins," which she was filming at the time.

[gymnastix]

The actress who was perhaps most snubbed in terms of losing lead roles in film renditions of productions she had originated on the "Great White Way" was Ethel Merman, who should certainly been cast over Roz Russell in "Gypsy."

[gymnastix]

Merman should also have been cast instead of Betty Hutton (who could sing) in "Annie Get Your Gun," and even over Judy Garland in "Girl Crazy," the latter which gave "The Merm" her first of three signature tunes in George Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm" (the other two being "There's No Business Like Show Business" from "Annie Get Your Gun," and "Everything's Coming Up Roses" from "Gypsy").

[gymnastix]

But at least kudos to Lucy for actually talk-singing her way through this role, instead of relying on a "ghost singer" like Marni Nixon, as was typically done in such cases. Lucy had a fine background as a dancer from her days as a "Goldwyn girl," though extensive dancing wasn't especially vital to the role in this film.

[renitayv]

Why are you replying to your own comments?

[bigred997]

Actually, when the movie first came out it was panned. The critics complaied about the gauze effect to try to hide her aging and that she was close to 50 years older than her nephew character. But, looking at the movie now gives one a nostalgic effect for how they used to make musicals with innocence.

[DeanLeonard1]

But not ALL critics hated it. Some, such as the one for Variety and Vincent Canby of the NY Times, were favorable toward the movie and Lucy's performance in it.

[ngc6440]

I love the alternative music during "It's today". Watching Lucy's reaction is heartbreaking, knowing how the critics would respond to her performance.

[DeanLeonard1]

Love it!