Artist: Rosalind Russell
Song: "Conga!"
[ listen ]
Along with the corporate sponsorship takeover of the Seattle Gay Pride parade and festivities, and the rivers of rainbow-colored vomit flowing through the streets of Capitol Hill after late-night block parties this past weekend, I've noticed yet another disappointing trend that signals the decline of the traditionally intellectual, non-conformist nature of the gay community of decades past: indifference to Broadway musicals! According to the date listed on the price tag, this terrific and campy soundtrack for the 1958 TV show "Wonderful Town"—based on the 1953 Broadway hit for which gay icon Rosalind "Auntie Mame" Russell won her only Tony Award—had been gathering dust at a store in the heart of Seattle's gay district for nearly two years before I finally snatched it up for just .99¢ last month.
"Wonderful Town" concerns the plight of sisters Ruth and Eileen Sherwood, who've fled from Columbus, Ohio to New York City in search of love and fortune. The stage show debuted on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre on February 25, 1953, starring Rosalind Russell as Ruth, the more sensible sister, and Edie Adams as Eileen, the blond bombshell (in the TV show, and thus on my LP, Eileen is played by Jacquelyn McKeever). With music by Leonard Bernstein (WEST SIDE STORY) and song lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green—the duo responsible for songs in popular musicals like ON THE TOWN, as well as story and screenplay for SINGING IN THE RAIN—"Wonderful Town" went on to win the Tony Award for Best Musical of 1953. You can find production details and the entire delightfully-convoluted "Wonderful Town" plot synopsis, in two acts, on Wikipedia here.
Born in Waterbury, Connecticut in 1907, actress Rosalind Russell went on to a prosperous career in movies, television and stage. Initially typecast by Hollywood studios as an elegant and wealthy lady, Russell voiced her frustration with these roles in a 1936 interview: "Being typed as a lady is the greatest misfortune possible to a motion picture actress. It limits your characterizations, confines you to play feminine sops and menaces and the public never highly approves of either. An impeccably dressed lady is always viewed with suspicion in real life and when you strut onto the screen with beautiful clothes and charming manners, the most naive of theatergoers senses immediately that you are in a position to do the hero no good. I earnestly want to get away from this. First, because I want to improve my career and professional life and, secondly, because I am tired of being a clothes horse—a sort of hothouse orchid in a stand of wild flowers." Rosalind Russell eventually did get to take on a wider variety of roles, starting with her breakout performance in THE WOMEN in 1939; she went on to earn four Oscar nominations for Best Actress—first with MY SISTER EILEEN in 1942 (from which "Wonderful Town" is adapted) and lastly for AUNTIE MAME in 1958. Russell had an active career right up until just a few years before succumbing to breast cancer at the age of 69. You can read all about the exciting life and career of Rosalind Russell here and find her complete filmography and list of television appearances on IMDB here. Liner notes from the back of the "Wonderful Town" soundtrack LP are included here:
[ Rosalind Russell: June 4, 1907 — November 28, 1976 ]
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