Fred Curt: Adventures with Barbra Streisand in Hello, Dolly!
Fred Curt |
Fred Curt has the distinct pleasure of being a part of the
20th Century Fox production of Hello,
Dolly!
The road to this film goes back further than most people
think. The birth of its musical origins derived from Austrian Johann Nestroy’s
1842 play,Einen Jux Will Er Sich Machen
that American playwright Thornton Wilder eventually reconceived and
rechristened The Matchmaker, which is
the basis of Hello, Dolly! (1842), (He Will Go on a Spree or He'll Have
Himself a Good Time), is a three-act musical play, designated as a Posse mit
Gesang, first performed at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna on 10 March 1842.
The music was by Adolf Müller.
On stage, Hello Dolly! had been a grand old show sweeping
the Tony Awards in ten categories in 1964 and was touted to be one of the
greatest musicals ever to be filmed. The
Matchmaker remains one of the great American plays from the latter half of
the 20th century.
Is there anyone who doesn't know straight forward
light-hearted tale, which is blessed
with winning songs by Jerry Herman, concerning a middle aged matchmaker
employed by wealthy hay and feed merchant, Horace Vandergelder to secure
himself a bride?
Michael Crawford and Barbra Streisand |
When Fred was working on the film Star! Starring Julie Andrews, Michael Kidd came up to Michael and
said, “What are you doing next year?” Fred responded by saying he didn’t even
know what he would be doing the next day. Michael then informed Fred that he
was going to be doing Hello, Dolly! starring
Barbra Streisand and asked Fred if he would like to be one of the dancers in
the film. Michael wanted Fred to be on the “skeleton crew.” A skeleton crew is
like a nucleus of about twenty dancers, ten guys and ten girls. They learn all
the numbers and when the director needs fifty people in a dance number, they
bring the other people on and they are taught the dances. That way they save a
lot of money. Michael was one to always make jokes. Therefore, Fred thought at
first it was a joke. The film had already been announced in the Hollywood
Reporter.
Star! was finished in December 1967.
Filming for Hello,
Dolly! began on April 15th, 1968 and lasted almost ninety days.
There was a long rehearsal period prior to filming. The day that Barbra made
her first appearance is a day Fred will never forget.
Everyone had been
anxiously waiting to meet her. Fred had never seen her. Please note that Funny Girl, the film, had not yet been
released. For Fred, prior to meeting
her, she was just a voice. When she first arrived on the set, the first
observation was that she was not very tall.
She was wearing a mini skirt and a
nice blouse and white boots. Within five minutes, she was one of the gang.
She
was unbelievable. They had a lot of fun with her.
Dolly would end up becoming a long period of work. Working
with Michael Kidd is the greatest. Fred considers himself a Michael Kidd
dancer. Working with Michael, you knew you were going to work very hard.
Michael Kidd loved strong male dancers. Fred and Michael had also worked
together on Seven Brides for Seven
Brothers.
Having Michael as choreographer, Michael was convinced that it
would be a good movie. They got to go on location to West Point and Garrison,
New York for exterior shooting. They had
fun except it was HOT! It was in the summer when they arrived for shooting.
Prior to doing the film, Fred had seen Carol Channing play
the role. Fred does believe it is a good movie. We’ve all heard that Barbra was
too young which Fred can see, as well. But as a movie, he thinks it is fine.
Being involved, you also have a different outlook from those that were not.
There were of course some aspects of the show that were gone. Who decides what
the final product will be? He does feel that Michael Kidd did a great job on
the movie.
The dances were not done as
they were done originally by Gower Champion. With movies, everything is more
visual. You can go anywhere. Instead of being a three person scene in a café,
you can open up to include hundreds of patrons inside and outside the café.
Then, you’re out in the streets singing and dancing. Fred can be seen in almost
every number in the film. When they were filming Put on Your Sunday Clothes, the cast called it Take off your Sunday
Clothes because it was so hot! Fred is also in the Waiter’s Gallop and Dancing.
The finale wedding was filmed at West Point. Most of the “principal” dancers
were not part of Before The Parade Passes
By. At the time that was filmed, they were rehearsing other numbers, and
thousands of extras had been hired to film that on the back lot of Twentieth
Century Fox. A portion of the Fourteenth Street set still stands today. The casting office went to the unemployment
office to hire out of work actors for that sequence! The extras guild did not
have as many people as they were requesting. They utilized five thousand
extras! They did the same thing for the Harmonia Gardens to flesh it out. The
parade sequence took one week to film. It was the most lavish movie Fred had
ever been on.
Fred tells me that he cannot recall ANYONE EVER having to
wait for Barbra Streisand. She was the consummate professional at all times and
was just great.
Michael Crawford and Danny Lockin |
It’s easy for people to say that someone is temperamental…especially
when they are not there to work with that person first hand…and it is doubly
easy when it happens to be a woman. Streisand was disciplined from Broadway and
she is a perfectionist.
One day, she said something to a sound guys, as the
cast and crew were standing there. She said something was not sounding right to
her. The sound guy said, “Don’t worry, we can fix it.” And she said, “I just
hear it differently.” The guy went, “Oh. OK.” What she hears and what they put
out mechanically are two different things.
Fred doesn’t believe that Hello, Dolly! is one of the five best musicals ever written. He
believes the greatest musical ever written in Singing in the Rain. Maybe Dolly
IS one of the five, it’s hard to say. If you are up against a hip hop musical,
how do you compare the two? You can’t. He does believe that Hello, Dolly! is
one of the most gorgeous musicals on the screen. Set designer, John DeCuir won the Academy Award for his set designs. He
died in 1991. The day Fred walked onto the set for the Harmonia Gardens, his
heart stopped. It was the most beautiful place he had ever been in. It was
absolutely exquisite. Everything was perfect. He does feel the film is a little
too long. He did not like Horace Vandergelder, not from the very
beginning. When I asked Fred what he was
like on the set, his answer was, “Next question!” He did not treat Barbra very nicely according to various sources.
When the film first came out, Fred was talking with Alice
Faye. She had a desire to play Dolly. The powers at be at the time that she was
too old. Fred thought, “How could they say that to Alice Faye? She MADE
Twentieth Century Fox! He feels that she would have been a great choice at that
time. He says we’re not old. We’ve just been here longer!
The premier in Hollywood was at Grauman's Chinese Theater in
December 1969. It was a great night and to finally see the finished product. At
times, on that screen in 70mm, Streisand looked like the most beautiful woman
in the world. In So Long Dearie and
in the title number, they came in for these close-ups in which she looked
exquisite. When you see pictures of her
in the purple dress from Dancing and Before The Parade Passes By, that’s
exactly how she looked on the set. However,
on film she looks so tall, and she isn’t. She looked beautiful.
He danced his ass off in that movie, his words! He loves
being a part of this film. He is thrilled that Michael Kidd asked him
personally to be a part of it. He is a huge admirer of Streisand and in happy
to have worked with her. He got to go to work every day on something he was
loving.
Gene Kelly was wonderful as a
director. He was a wonderful man. Imagine, as a dancer, getting to work with
two of the movies most prolific choreographers in one film! Gene Kelly and Michael Kidd had previously worked together in It's Always Fair Weather. Kelly was always
looking at the movie through that lyrical line to keep it moving. The line kept
flowing.
Some numbers took a week to film. The Waiter’s Gallop and Hello, Dolly! took a couple of weeks. It
was very involved and people were constantly getting hurt. During the Dolly
number, at one time, one of the dancers did a flip off of the steps onto a
platform with a broom and hurt his foot. He was a blonde dancer. Michael asked
Fred to take over that track. You see a blonde jump, and Fred, a brunette,
land! There are several instances of that happening in the film. The
choreography was hard.
Two of Fred’s favorite memories of the film both involve Put on Your Sunday Clothes. When they were filming in Garrison, it was so
hot that the street melted. They had remodeled the whole front of the town to
look like 1890.
They also blacktopped all of the streets. Then they stenciled it
to look like cobble stones. The day they
went to shoot the number, the humidity was off the charts. In the middle of the
number, Streisand screamed, “I’m sinking!” She wasn’t the only one. ALL of the
dancers were melting into the blacktopped street! They had to stop shooting for
the day because of this. Fifteen minutes after stopping, the street was melting
down the hill like molten lava! It was that humid. Another memory also
involving this number took place in the finale of this number on the train.
They are weaving in and out with the choreography. This is in three sections.
As they got to the third section, and the train is chugging along, Streisand
suggested that everyone hide in the little baggage compartment on the train. She
also suggested that only two or three remain visible to the film crew. When the
production manager questioned where everyone was, they were told that the
dancer/singers were taking a break and were at the other end where the train
was traveling to.
It was a mile from where they were filming. The production
manager said, “For God’s sake, we now have to go back and get them!” All of a
sudden, the doors burst open, and Streisand id the first one out. She said, “I
had nothing to do with it! They grabbed me and pulled me in!” Gene Kelly looked
at everyone as they stood there shaking their heads.
He knew this cast very well. He simply said, “OK.
Let’s try it again.” They all thought, “God’s gonna get you, Barbra.” Later on,
when they were singing with the playback, she went up on her lyrics drawing a
complete blank. She looked at one of the singers and said, “What are the
lyrics?” He said, “What do you mean? I’m leaning on you! You’re the star, I’m
nobody.” It cracked everybody up. It was all friendly.
I asked Fred if there was anything he learned from Dolly
that he has carried forward throughout the rest of his career.
He said, “Not to
dance outside in high humidity in upstate New York in July or August!”
Fred believes Barbra is a great actress AND funny. Lucille
Ball once said to Fred that she was not funny. He disagreed with her. She said
that she had great writers to make her look funny. She said she simply read it
and did it. He thought at that moment that one has to be a great actor or
actress in order to do that. Barbra
succeeded as Dolly as far as Fred is concerned.
Thank you Fred for the gifts you have given to the world and will continue to give!
Check out my site celebrating my forthcoming book on Hello, Dolly!
I want this to be a definitive account of Hello, Dolly! If any of you reading this have appeared in any production of Dolly, I'm interested in speaking with you!
Do you have any pics?
If you have anything to add or share, please contact me at Richard@RichardSkipper.com.
NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY!
Please do what YOU can to be more aware that words and actions DO HURT...but they can also heal and help!
TILL TOMORROW...HERE'S TO AN ARTS FILLED DAY
Richard Skipper, Richard@RichardSkipper.com
This Blog is dedicated to ALL THE DOLLYS and ANYONE who has EVER had a connection with ANY of them on ANY Level!
Thank you Fred for the gifts you have given to the world and will continue to give!
Check out my site celebrating my forthcoming book on Hello, Dolly!
I want this to be a definitive account of Hello, Dolly! If any of you reading this have appeared in any production of Dolly, I'm interested in speaking with you!
Do you have any pics?
If you have anything to add or share, please contact me at Richard@RichardSkipper.com.
NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY!
Please do what YOU can to be more aware that words and actions DO HURT...but they can also heal and help!
My next blog will be... My Exclusive Interview with Lee Roy Reams with his memories of working on various productions of Hello, Dolly!
Thank you, to all the mentioned in this blog!
Thank you, to all the mentioned in this blog!
Here's to an INCREDIBLE tomorrow for ALL...with NO challenges!
TILL TOMORROW...HERE'S TO AN ARTS FILLED DAY
Richard Skipper, Richard@RichardSkipper.com
This Blog is dedicated to ALL THE DOLLYS and ANYONE who has EVER had a connection with ANY of them on ANY Level!
Fun, fascinating interview! Love these back stories and anecdotes! --Alan K. Choy (alankchoy@yahoo.com)
ReplyDeleteWonderful story today as always! It's time for you to interview Barbra!! Peggy
ReplyDelete