A Chorus Line of Musicals From Our 1970s Record Cabinet - Part 1
Kristin Nilsen 0:00
Jesus Christ Superstar. This is the song that I fell in love with when I
Unknown Speaker 0:07
was a kid. What's the
Kristin Nilsen 0:09
next line? Who in the hell think you are? Which I think I was like, You should not talk that way to Jesus.
Speaker 1 0:15
Hello, there's a song that we're singing. Come on, get
Unknown Speaker 0:27
happy. We'll make you happy.
Michelle Newman 0:32
Welcome to the pop culture Preservation Society, the podcast for people born in the big wheel generation who collected autographs, but not of famous people.
Carolyn Cochrane 0:42
We believe our Gen X childhoods gave us unforgettable songs, stories, characters and images, and if we don't talk about them, they'll disappear, like Marshall will and Holly on a routine
Kristin Nilsen 0:52
expedition. And today, we'll be saving the records our parents bought after seeing Barbra Streisand or Zero Mostel or Marvin hamlish on the Johnny Carson show today, we'll be talking about the Broadway musicals our parents listen to on the Hi Fi stereo system in the living room. I'm Carolyn, I'm Kristen,
Michelle Newman 1:10
and I'm Fanny Brice and I'm Michelle, and we are Your pop culture preservationists. You
Unknown Speaker 1:33
she takes
Kristin Nilsen 1:36
thrilling combination.
Unknown Speaker 1:40
One, makes
Michelle Newman 1:47
I can't do it without going at nobody.
Carolyn Cochrane 1:52
Of course, you guys would be doing that. I'm the producer person now. I'm like smoking a cigarette.
Michelle Newman 1:59
You're the Michael Douglas character in the movie. It was the most thrilling thing in the world when my daughter was when Emily was in A Chorus Line in high school and they learned the choreo to one, I was like, to me immediately,
Kristin Nilsen 2:16
okay, ever pull myself together? Stop singing and pull myself together. Today's episode is a little bit different. Normally. We're talking about all the things that we had as children, our records, our books, the TV shows we love to watch, possibly while our parents were still at work, or making dinner or smoking Virginia Slims while they water the lawn. It's always about us, right? But the things our parents liked were also a big part of our growing up, because we only had one TV and we may have only had one stereo system in our house, but even if you had your own radio and your own turntable in your room, your parents didn't, their turntable was in the living room, and whatever they were listening to, you were listening to too.
Carolyn Cochrane 2:58
Yes, yes, definitely yes, and that means for me, I was singing along with Vicki Carr and Robert Goulet and Barbra Streisand, Steve Lawrence and Edie gourmet, Frank Sinatra and the Clancy brothers. That was a little Irish band. And as I remember them, picture the covers of all of these albums, and the Clancy brothers were in there, like Irish fisherman sweaters and like, they could be doing an ad for Irish Spring. So yeah, and I just had the opportunity to sit and look at those covers while those you know, albums were playing, and I knew they made my parents happy. So it was kind of always a happy time.
Kristin Nilsen 3:34
Yeah, and it was not something that you chose. You didn't know it on the Clancy brothers, your mom did, and then you looked at the record cover and enjoyed it. It was like they were providing us with this gift that they didn't even know. For me, that was the seekers in Georgie girl. That was my mom's album. But I sat there and I looked at that album cover all day long. But also a huge percentage of my parents' records were Broadway musicals. Huge percentage.
Michelle Newman 3:58
Oh yeah, we had a lot of musical albums, too. And I think I've told you guys before that my mom was a really, really beautiful singer. Fun fact, singing was her talent when she was a contestant in the Miss Grand Prairie pageant in the early 60s. Yeah, but she'd sing loudly and with just great passion to not just the musical soundtracks, but mostly, and especially Barbara. But it was my mom who introduced me to my love of musicals. And I'm quite sure it was from a very early age, just by the absorption into my soul from listening to all those
Carolyn Cochrane 4:35
soundtracks. Yeah, and I think my mom would also then kind of tell me the story sometimes. So like, we'd be listening, and I'd maybe be looking at the cover and and she'd say, Yeah, this tells the story of, you know, the King of Siam, you know. And she's kind of tells me the story of The King and I. And so it was everything that enveloped that moment of just the music playing, but my mom talking to me, and how. How everything felt. It was just a really happy time when that music was playing.
Kristin Nilsen 5:03
Want to really hold on to that community aspect of music, because I don't think there's anything more communal than a musical. And I think it's so interesting that Broadway is a particular place, right? These These shows were being performed in a particular place, and some of them were turned into movies, and that's how we got to know some of them, but a lot of them were not and yet, still, our parents had these albums. Broadway was not in Minnesota, it was not in Texas, and it wasn't in Washington, but still, our parents knew and loved the latest Broadway craze, even if they loved it so much that they would spend their hard earned money to buy the cast recording of the album. I can't, I can't believe I don't remember this. But how did we get to know about the music coming out of Broadway in the pre digital era?
Carolyn Cochrane 5:52
Well, I think, you know, some shows probably like Ed Sullivan and shows that really showcased artists. Mark Griffin, yes, and then those kind of talk shows, Mike Douglas, those kind of things. I think that was some exposure. I think there might have been some in, like, some print media. I know I've talked a few times about those Saturday and Sunday inserts and the newspapers, and I feel like a lot of those might have been, you know, talked about the latest craze on Broadway, you know, A Chorus Line is here.
Michelle Newman 6:27
And a lot of these soundtracks had had songs that charted on the radio show, yeah, they would maybe hear one song, that's a beautiful song, and then they would go get the album from that.
Kristin Nilsen 6:39
I totally forgot about the talk show piece of it that is huge. That's huge, especially if it included somebody that they already knew and loved, like a Barbra Streisand or a Julie Andrews or somebody like that. And then they'd go and buy the cast recording without ever having seen the show. And then, of course, if you were lucky enough, you would get touring productions coming through your town. And one thing is for sure, this is so this became so apparent to me while I was researching for this episode this week, Broadway musicals played in our homes trigger a lot of feelings, so many feelings. Why does the music from these shows give me such a lump in my throat?
Michelle Newman 7:18
I know I'm raising my hand, just because that for me, it definitely hits differently. Now, yeah, when I remember the albums that were heavy rotation in my house, because for those of you listening that don't know, my mom passed away in the fall of 2024 and I can still hear her singing. I mean, I can hear it perfectly in my head. And when I hear her singing and walking around the house, cleaning the house, or whatever, in my memory, she's probably 40, you know, you know, flipping around the house, just singing the top of her lungs. So the lump is especially large for me. Now, when I'm when I'm thinking about these musicals. But to answer your question, generally, I think maybe it's because the songs, and listen everyone you have to play these songs in order. Yeah, it's very important to to, you know, preserve this, like, emotional ride you're going to be on. But it's because the songs tell a story, and it is often very much an emotional roller coaster of a story, a Broadway musical. So that could be one reason.
Kristin Nilsen 8:28
Yeah, you're right. When I was so frustrated this week, while I was I would oftentimes listen while I was dog walking and things like that. And so then I'm listening to Apple Music and and the songs would shuffle, or they would add in something. No, they would give me a bonus track. It would be a cover by somebody else. I'm like, stop it. That is not why I'm here. And then I would have to go home and thank God I have a turntable and I have records, so I could just put it on the turntable and listen to it the way that I did 50 years ago.
Michelle Newman 8:57
And you gotta start with the overture. Everyone Do you not skip past the overture, even I gotta get to the lyrics. Oh, I gotta get to my favorite. Shame on you.
Carolyn Cochrane 9:07
Yes, that's right, because all of those are in the overture. Like you'll hear those and you get all excited.
Michelle Newman 9:15
I love the overture. Plus the overture is what gives me all the nipple lightning.
Kristin Nilsen 9:21
This is why, when I go to a show, I the overture begins, and that's when I begin to cry, Oh, my God, to cry before the actors are even on the stage.
Michelle Newman 9:29
Can you imagine showing up late? But you're
Kristin Nilsen 9:32
right. It is so it. It is so full and voluminous. Maybe that's what it is, is that I'm being enveloped by music in a way that I'm not with what I'm hearing on the radio. It's so heavy and textured and dramatic. There's so maybe it's the drama of it all too. There's so much earnestness, which is funny. This is why Liam does not like musicals, except for Sound of Music. He thank God. He likes Sound of Music. It's the. The earnestness of it all is very uncomfortable for him, and I think the earnestness is what makes me cry. Oh, yeah. Oh,
Carolyn Cochrane 10:06
for sure. And on an aside, I love the word earnest and earnestness. And Michelle or Kristen says all the time, I feel like that should be a drinking game. Yeah, somebody would have just had to drink like six times in a row in this sentence right before this, or the couple of sentences. But I agree with you, and I agree with what you said about being enveloped, that I think that's a great word for what it feels like. You're kind of in it. It's around you, kind of part of it, in a way that you're more of an observer in other kinds of music, where you're on the outside, taking it in but I feel like these Broadway songs, you are in it, yeah,
Michelle Newman 10:46
you're in it. And then, like you said earlier, it's the massiveness of it, all the orchestra, so all those instruments coming together. And when I go see a musical, and I'm a huge fan of seeing musicals, but I'm a little bit picky. I want a big, old fashioned, big, massive number somewhere in my musical right? I mean, I just about come out of my skin. So those are the feelings, too. It's one part the feelings that we now have, because we're also remembering a lot of memories of our parents are playing into our memories. But if you would throw us back to when we were children and are like, how did we have those big feelings? Then I think it's just because you're, we're the type of people and many of our listeners as well who this type of, all of it coming together, right? The vocals, the music, that we feel it, and it's big feelings, it's big music, it's big and there's some people that just aren't and that's okay. I mean, I feel sorry that you have to live your life without having those big feelings, but you do, they've got something else
Kristin Nilsen 11:48
that is very true. There are some people who are very emotionally impacted by listening to music, and there are some people for whom it's just entertainment. And I think the three of us are people who cry when we listen to music. So this is going to be a very emotional episode,
Michelle Newman 12:02
yeah, yeah. It's been a very emotional like three days for me. It
Kristin Nilsen 12:06
really has unexpectedly. So before we begin, we just have to recognize that the Broadway musicals that we know are a distinctly American thing. There is no Broadway equivalent in France, right? We have the West End in London, but that is renowned for theater which is not the same as musicals. It's not the same as a Broadway musical. They certainly produce Broadway musicals, but they are borrowing from Broadway. This belongs to us, and we should be really proud of that. And in the 60s and the 70s, stage productions were changing. We'll talk about some of their very traditional Broadway fare today, but we'll also talk about some that had a distinctly different flavor from the light hearted musical comedies or sentimental love stories that we were used to seeing and that our parents were used to seeing when they were growing up in the 70s. We see things get very real. Musicals are asking us to think, instead of just sitting back and being entertained, we see the introduction of the rock opera, starting with hair in 1968 which some people say is a rock musical and not a rock opera. But whatever, something was definitely something new was in town. And then musicals start weaving in the 70s pop sensibilities into the song, so it sounds more like the songs that you hear on the radio in 1969 the fifth dimension had a six week run at number One with Do you know what song you guys know?
Kristin Nilsen 13:45
Aquarius, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, yes. It was their cover of the medley of songs from hair Aquarius and let the sunshine in. It was one of the biggest songs of 1969 This is what musical theater is coming to us in the 70s, and when Andrew Lloyd Webber debuts on Broadway in 1971 like a new era has officially begun, right? And we're going to talk about it all today, all of it by highlighting some of those records that filled our houses with music. So let's just start one by one. Carolyn, do you want to start with one of the records that was in your house? I
Carolyn Cochrane 14:17
would be happy to so I am going To start with the Broadway musical West Side Story. Oh.
Carolyn Cochrane 14:40
And it's the album cover I remember so specifically, it is actually the soundtrack. Is not from the original Broadway production. It is from the film, and that's what my parents saw. Yeah, so it has Natalie Wood, who played Maria, and the other guy, I don't know his name, that played Tony, and they're sitting on a fire escape. And I remember my mom telling explaining to me what a fire escape was like. I think that was my first introduction to what are these outside stairs on side of a brick building and what's going on. And then my parents, I think, because of the whole New York City connection, they, they lived there. They they knew, like, people that could have been in the jets and whatever, and oh my god, they would just, they would sing the songs, and they would get into, like, the actions that would have been in the movie. Like I could see my dad doing the snapping thing. I'm snapping right now. So if you watch us on YouTube. You can see me trying to dance one of the sharks. Yes, yes, yes. I'll tell you a few facts about West Side Story. Okay, it actually opened in 1957 the original Broadway production at the Winter Garden Theater in New York City. And we have the music. In this case, it's by Leonard Bernstein and the lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The storyline is inspired by Romeo and Juliet, and as I've already mentioned, it's set in New York City during the 1950s and rival gangs, the Jets, who were the white Americans, and the sharks the Puerto Ricans are kind of these enemy gangs. And so we're following along the story, which come to think of it. Now, as I'm actually talking out loud. It's very pertinent today too. I think there'll be a lot of lessons and things we can learn from the musical, West Side Story. The musical is really known for this integration of music, dance and the narrative. Do you guys remember some of the songs that are from
Kristin Nilsen 16:36
immediately? Whenever I think of West Side Story, I think of tuna. Tuna. You have to sing it like that.
Unknown Speaker 16:49
I saw you
Michelle Newman 16:54
loved it well. And I think of my mom singing it like that. And my mom, I think I mentioned before, just she just idolized many people, but Natalie Wood as well, and so she loved it. When I was a sophomore in high school, we got to take dance as one of our, like, physical education electives, and we did our dance to When you're a Jet, you're a Jet, all the way from your first cigarette to your last dying day. And I was singing this is like, goes back to what we were just talking about, how some people grew up with musicals and some people not. And right when she started playing it, I'm singing the whole song, and we all like, walk forward. And I remember we'd like, do we'd go, and if you're watching this on YouTube, I'm doing that. We'd say, from your first cigarette to your last dying day would like, throw the cigarette. But I had people in my dance class going, how do you know these words, like, you're just hearing it for the first time? And I said, because I grew up with this album,
Carolyn Cochrane 17:51
my dad would sing that entire song, and I remember being so impressed with how he knew all the words, like it didn't even have to be playing, like these were songs that my parents would be like, you know, I want to live in America. Never had a skirt on.
Kristin Nilsen 18:10
Singing America with that skirt she's
Michelle Newman 18:13
swishing America. Oh,
Carolyn Cochrane 18:20
God for the smokey in America. So Natalie Wood, we said, starred in West Side Story, but she did not sing. I have the answer. I know you probably do. So Kristen, I'm gonna ask you who was, whose voice was dubbed in for Natalie Wood. That would
Kristin Nilsen 18:37
be a Marnie Nixon. A
Carolyn Cochrane 18:40
Marty Nixon is correct. We talked about it on a we did, and she has a very famous offspring. That's how we almost brought it up. Who
Kristin Nilsen 18:50
is it? Who is it?
Michelle Newman 18:57
John Sebastian.
Carolyn Cochrane 18:59
It's closer to John Sebastian than it is Garth Williams,
Michelle Newman 19:03
Vivian Vance.
Carolyn Cochrane 19:05
These are not related. It is Andrew gold, Richard, oh, Andrew gold, our lonely boy, my
Kristin Nilsen 19:11
God. Brett.
Michelle Newman 19:22
Only That's right, that's right. God, you guys, we've been doing this now for so long that I'm forgetting now, now I'm getting who screwed dude, by my by things we've talked
Kristin Nilsen 19:34
about, I'm I'm told because I complete. I'm like, I'm as excited right now as the first time you told us. It's like you've never told us before, which means that Marnie Nixon brought home the little sister when Andrew gold, Andrew gold said, but you said I'd be the only one, right? Because that is based on a true story. Yes, and Marnie Nixon was one of the nuns in sound of music. Oh, that's right,
Michelle Newman 19:54
yes. Oh, my God,
Carolyn Cochrane 19:56
the fun facts just she was so um, she does her voice. Dubbed in for Deborah car in the King and I and Audrey Hepburn and my fair lady. I
Kristin Nilsen 20:05
did not know that. Okay? And that poor woman, I hope she got paid a lot of money, yes, and I don't
Carolyn Cochrane 20:12
think together like she did other performances under her own name. So it's not like she was this ghost writer that no one ever knew and she never got credit for that.
Kristin Nilsen 20:21
It's not like her name is splashed on the album cover, because they want you to think it's Natalie Wood. So it's like in the fine print on the back of the album
Carolyn Cochrane 20:29
cover. And I think I have, like, a kind of an icky feeling I get when I learned that it wasn't Natalie Wood singing, because, of course, I'm staring at that album cover that I talked about. You see her face, and she's so beautiful. And I probably caught snippets of the movie if it was ever on TV, and my parents were watching it, and I knew who Natalie Wood was. And then I thought, well, that's not fair. Like, how can she be the star in someone else's singing that's that's cheating, basically,
Kristin Nilsen 20:55
at the same time, think of the This sounds so weird, but it is a gift, nonetheless. How talented Are you? Natalie Wood, if you can portray singing, she's portraying singing and somebody else's voice, like, is she lip syncing? I don't know, but I believed it. It looked good to me. I did
Carolyn Cochrane 21:13
too, hence why I was so disappointed when I found out it wasn't her. I
Kristin Nilsen 21:17
also think about those, those dance sequences, that those are so memorable, and that's exactly the kind of thing that you would see on Johnny Carson. They would take a whole dance sequence from a Broadway musical and showcase it for us, the American public, on late night TV, and you can just that's why we all know the snaps. Everybody knows the snaps, whether you've seen the movie or the show. It doesn't matter. Jerome Robbins was the choreographer. He's, of course, probably one of the most well known choreographers in history. I'm just gonna throw that out there. I don't know, and I'm please don't google this, but I do believe that the choreography from West Side Story was the first choreography to be copyrighted. Oh,
Michelle Newman 21:59
I feel like I've heard that too. Do believe
Carolyn Cochrane 22:04
that's in I've never thought about choreography being copy written, right?
Kristin Nilsen 22:11
And that's all preserved in his in his archives. So when you want to do that choreography, you have to get permission from the Jerome Robbins estate.
Carolyn Cochrane 22:22
Wow, learn something new every day.
Kristin Nilsen 22:25
Yeah, it's that important. It's, I mean, it is iconic choreography. Everybody knows it.
Kristin Nilsen 22:37
Okay, Michelle, it's your turn. What do you have?
Michelle Newman 22:39
Okay, well, my first one is, I mean, it's, it's pretty obvious and but my first pick is funny girl,
Unknown Speaker 22:51
cause I'm the greatest star. I am by far. But no one knows
Michelle Newman 23:03
it. So the funny girl cast album peaked at number two on the Billboard 200 in June 1964 and it had sold 250,000 copies by the following month. Now, the recording went on to beat Fiddler on the roof and hello dolly to win the Grammy for Best Original cast show album, and that's the one that I have here. This is my mom. Such memories of that. That is from my mom. I brought, I brought, like, 28 Barbara records home with me when we cleaned out her place. And has Angel Hair singing,
Carolyn Cochrane 23:38
because it is a What was it again? Michelle, is it what? What kind of album is it again? Oh,
Michelle Newman 23:43
it's a, it's, it's, it's like, it opens, like a gate. Yeah, yeah. I think all
Carolyn Cochrane 23:50
of those albums, those soundtracks from those Broadway shows, were gate folds. Perhaps that's why I
Michelle Newman 23:55
love so many pictures, yeah, and so
Kristin Nilsen 23:58
much time with them. Yes, Michelle, you need to take the that art from that album cover and put it on your
Michelle Newman 24:05
wall. Yeah? It's so good, the upside down with the Yeah. Well, in our house, my entire life, there was a Barbara album playing about 90% of the time. But here's the thing, my memories of Funny Girl, the Funny Girl soundtrack, aren't as much from hearing my mom play it or even sing the songs. It's it's me, it's all me. I was a bit obsessed with this soundtrack from about first grade to fourth grade, and I hadn't seen the musical, but I the inside of the album when it opens, tells the whole story and those pictures, I would just study those pictures, and I would read about the story. And of course, my mom would tell me the story. I would spend hours and hours you guys singing all the songs, acting them out. I mean, God bless life, pre internet, right? So that we have memories like this, like things we did as children, and I really latched on to I'm the greatest star. So much so that. Believe it was in third grade, because I can remember the street I lived on where we had a little neighborhood talent show. We sold tickets to all our neighbors, and I performed, I'm the greatest star. I performed secondhand rose and along with my magic act, naturally remember I was an amateur magician, but I remember nailing the New York accent, like I'd say, Listen, I got 36 expressions, sweet as pie to toughest leather. And that's and then I would do the whole like, and can't you see to look at me that I a natural Camille. And then my second favorite song to sing, which is actually not on the soundtrack, was secondhand rose. And that's definitely my other favorite barber song to perform, because I love the whole like even Jake the plumber. He's the man I adore. He had the knife to tell me he's been married before. Everyone knows that. Anyway, I remember my mom getting such a kick at this little talent show that I was like everybody was coming out, twirling the baton or doing cartwheels, and I was singing Barbra Streisand, she was very proud. So secondhand Rose is not included on this 1964 Broadway soundtrack, but Barbra Streisand sang it in her 1965 TV special. There we go. My name is Barbara, so it was on one of the two companion albums from that special, and then she went on to include the song in the 1968 movie. And you guys, I listened to the soundtrack in its entirety yesterday, and it's the first Barbara I've been able to listen to since my mom died in September and had a roga cry, and it was like no time had passed. Though, I mean, the song, I'm the greatest star, it has a lot of lyrics, and every single one of them just rolled out of some weird crevice in my brain, and I was just singing along. And then when I heard gene Stapleton, who played Mrs. Strakash, seeing if, if a girl is in pretty like a miss Atlantic City, you know, my head, I think that was very good. That was a very good genius. I had not thought of that song in her voice in decades. Fanny.
Speaker 2 27:14
When people pay good money in the theater, especially the male element, they want something to look at. If a girl isn't pretty, like a miss Atlantic City, all she gets in life is pity and a pat
Michelle Newman 27:32
and and then people came on, and that's when I just lost it. I You guys, I was I was typing notes for this episode, and when people came on, I'm not this is I'm not exaggerating. I could smell my mom as I listened to that song. And you guys, it's like, it's like, this is the power of music and the beauty of music. It is truly like my mom is contained in all Barbara songs full and it's why I haven't been able to really listen to them. Yeah, them. But I could smell. And like I said, Not 80 year old mom, that's a different smell. Didn't want to smell her, no. But you know how your mom always had for my mom, it was Oscar de la Renta perfume. It was just her house. Her clothes had a certain smell. And as I was listening to people, I had to stop typing. I had to just let myself feel I had to cry, I had to I had to have all of the senses. And I was really happy to have had that opportunity. Carolyn, you talk about that a lot the gifts that this podcast gives us. I wouldn't have listened to that because I would have been like, Nope, I'm still you guys, I live very well in my denial and unacceptance of my mom having died. And so I've just been pushing shit like that away, like Barbara songs, Barbara albums. And so I had to for this episode, and I was really, ultimately grateful. Oh,
Kristin Nilsen 28:53
that's beautiful.
Carolyn Cochrane 28:55
That is it,
Kristin Nilsen 28:56
is it is it's just, yeah, it's what we always talk about that, that these things can transport us. And what you had there was a transporting experience. Literally. You were literally transported, basically to a different dimension, because your mom doesn't live in this dimension. That's amazing. I'm happy for you. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 29:22
People. Who need people.
Kristin Nilsen 29:38
I'm going to start with the 70s of any show ever produced in history, in my humble opinion. And that is what was our very first taste of Andrew Lloyd Webber in his first ever production for Broadway in 1970 and that is Jesus Christ. Superstar.
Speaker 1 29:59
Oh. Every time I look at you, I don't understand why you let the things you did get so out of hand. You'd have managed better if you'd had it planned. Now, why'd you choose such a backward time in such a strange land?
Kristin Nilsen 30:15
Jesus Christ Superstar tells, or, I mean, superstar, superstar tells the biblical story of the clash between Jesus and Judas, and how Judas doesn't like this new direction that Jesus is going in, and it lets you into the psychology of all of the characters in the story of Jesus's death and resurrection, which the Bible doesn't really do so much. So it's a bit of speculation, and it's also super controversial, both from the Bible purists, and also because there is some anti semitism and how those various roles are portrayed. This production was pushing buttons all over the place, and it is bonkers. This show is bonkers. If you want to feel the 70s, watch the 1973 movie version, directed by Norman Jewison and filmed in Israel. I made my husband watch it recently, and he was like, What is even happening right now? So just picture this. This is how the movie opens. So, you know, you just you picture your picture opening your Bibles to read about Jesus, and what you see on the screen is a school bus full of disciples. They're like on their way to school, and they're all getting off at their stop, which is in the middle of the desert. And it sounds like this.
Kristin Nilsen 31:37
Very aggressive. Yeah, it's very aggressive. Just reading my Bible, just reading my Bible is very aggressive. But then Mike really lost it when the disciples start singing this song out in the desert, what's the buzz? Tell me what is happening. What's the buzz. Tell me what is happening. What's the buzz. Tell me what's happening. What's and Jesus, so 70s. It's so 70s in all of their like, desert garb and everything. And Mike is like, almost get he's gonna walk out. I'm like, no, no, no, stay. Please. Please stay. I can't believe
Carolyn Cochrane 32:05
he didn't ever see that in school. Like, I remember watching, because I know Mike went to Catholic school and we watched it always, like, around Lent, oh, did you really, yeah, that God spell. It's
Kristin Nilsen 32:17
so bonkers. It is so bonkers. And strangely enough, the album Jesus Christ Superstar came before the show. Oh, this is a really strange chicken or egg situation. No one wanted to stage this production because it's bonkers. So they made Andrew Lloyd Webber at all. They made a weird, wacky concept album instead, they're like, Screw them. We're not gonna do a show. We're just gonna do this album, Jesus Christ Superstar. And it was a hit, a huge hit. The album reached number one with no show. Then they're like, oh, okay, okay, okay, we'll do a stage show. And they quickly bankrolled the show, and they debuted it in 1971 so album 1970 it charted in 1971 here comes the show in 1971 and then the movie comes in 1973 The album also released several chart hits, including superstar Jesus Christ. Superstar. This is the song that I fell in love with when I
Unknown Speaker 33:17
was a kid.
Kristin Nilsen 33:19
Who in the hell, that's why you think you are, which I think I was, like, you should not talk that way. To Jesus.
Carolyn Cochrane 33:26
Is that really what the words are? No, it's not close. I remember thinking that I was getting away with stuff like, like, I knew those weren't the words, but I'm saying them anyway.
Kristin Nilsen 33:36
Yes. Okay, so we both thought that, and I sang it all the time. No, though I was just listening to it, those words are Not in the song. What is it?
Kristin Nilsen 34:02
It's just so so 70s. Who in the hell do you think you are Jesus,
Carolyn Cochrane 34:08
even though that's not what they say, Yeah, but that's
Kristin Nilsen 34:10
kind of what the movie is about. This song sounded like the way I wanted my life to be. Picture the kids dancing on electric company. That's what kind of music this is with your Bibles. And there's also another one of the hits that came from this album. Is this very familiar tune, which was also a chart topper, Sung very famously by Mary Magdalene about Jesus, which is,
Kristin Nilsen 34:38
but you all thought it was Helen reddy singing about her amazing boyfriend, but no, it was Mary Magdalene singing about Jesus. Actually, Helen Reddy was never in the stage production of Jesus Christ. Superstar. No, she's not Mary Magdalene. I just made these vast assumptions that she was Mary Magdalene, but she just recorded her own version of the song in 1971 and. And it totally launched her career. A string of Helen reddy hits came after that one. That was the song that gave us Helen Reddy. The person who did sing that song as Mary Magdalene in both the original Broadway production and in the movie was Yvonne ellieman, who also gave us, do you know what song she gave us? Yeah, it's
Carolyn Cochrane 35:19
some Yeah, you do. It's, you do grease. I mean, not grease Saturday,
Unknown Speaker 35:26
baby. Hey,
Kristin Nilsen 35:31
that is, so it's like Mary Magdalene was in Saturday Night Fever.
Michelle Newman 35:36
It's the same, naturally, yeah, naturally. That's in the 70s. Anything is possible. Anything
Kristin Nilsen 35:41
goes in the 70s.
Kristin Nilsen 35:50
It's kind of weird, but here's the best nugget I've got for you. This is so good, and I never knew this until I watched it recently. I really love to read credits. It drives people crazy, but I do not leave the movie theater until I've read every word as fast as I can. So we're sitting there watching the credits of Jesus Christ Superstar, and I catch a name really quickly. I'm like, oh, rewind, rewind. I see a name that I recognize, and I see this name, and I'm like, No, it cannot be the same. It can't be the same. But I did a little Googling and it is the same. I'm gonna say this name to you, and you tell me who this person is, Darcelle, Leonard Winn, you're gonna die. You're gonna
Carolyn Cochrane 36:41
die. Do they have another name that they go by?
Kristin Nilsen 36:43
Yes, sometimes they're simply known as Darcelle. That doesn't Michelle and I are just like, doesn't help. All right, I'm gonna tell you. I'm gonna tell you, I'm just I'm thinking
Michelle Newman 36:57
somebody from electric company, or I was thinking someone Sesame Street, and then, no, we just didn't read. I just re listened to those Sesame Street episodes, or
Carolyn Cochrane 37:04
maybe a solid gold dancer. But no, is
Kristin Nilsen 37:12
it? Is it a she? Yes, Darcelle is the one with the long braids communicated with.
Carolyn Cochrane 37:21
But when you said Leonard, I then I went, good guy in my head, no, so, oh yeah. Darcelle.
Kristin Nilsen 37:27
Darcelle. Darcelle was in Jesus Christ Superstar as woman,
Michelle Newman 37:33
as a woman, woman.
Kristin Nilsen 37:35
So I found the clip. You can see Darcelle is just shaking her groove. Thing in the desert, you'd
Speaker 1 37:40
come today, you could have reached the whole nation, Israel, lympho, BC had no mass communication, don't you? Get me wrong.
Carolyn Cochrane 38:02
We Oh, okay. The second musical I want to talk about is one that I chose particularly for a moment in a memory that I have that's associated with my dad so, so deeply. I'm not even sure if I followed the rules in picking this musical, but I had to, because it it's such a distinct memory. Okay with that being said, first, let me give you a quick did I say what it was? Yet? No. Oh, okay, this would be the Rogers and Hammerstein classic carousel. I life.
Carolyn Cochrane 38:45
Let me give you a little synopsis of the musical. Okay, it's a romantic musical drama set in the picturesque coastal town of booth Bay Harbor Maine in 1873 and it tells the story of Billy Bigelow, a charming but troubled carnival Parker and Julie Jordan, a quiet mill worker. Okay, whatever mill workers are. After a whirlwind romance and marriage, Billy struggles to provide for his family and makes a desperate choice that leads to tragedy and from the afterlife, he is given a chance to return to earth for one day to make things right, particularly for his daughter, whom he never knew. So that sets up what this musical is for you guys. Okay, it was the second musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein, and it was a quick follow up on their groundbreaking success Oklahoma. The Broadway production premiered on April 19, 1945 at the Majestic Theater. So this particular Broadway musical really broke theater norms because it integrated these songs so deeply into the shows, and really showed the character development as part of the song. That's what propelled the character and how you got to see them change and grow over time. It also included Amy. A 12 minute bench scene, which was considered a milestone in music storytelling. It is when they sing, if I loved you, which is one of the most beautiful songs, if I loved you, words wouldn't
Unknown Speaker 40:22
come in an easy way. Oh.
Carolyn Cochrane 40:28
See so the signature songs, some you might remember from carousel if I loved you as one, how about June? Is bustin out all over? Love that one. And then, of course, there is the iconic anthem of hope you'll never walk.
Unknown Speaker 40:51
Yes, that one,
Speaker 3 40:52
when you walk through a storm, hold your head up. Ah. Head,
Michelle Newman 41:08
and don't be afraid. There's a big moment. There's a big moment.
Carolyn Cochrane 41:11
A huge, huge moment. So in 1956 the Broadway production was made into a musical, okay, so if you remember, we've got Gordon McCray as Billy Bigelow. Oh my gosh, he previously starred in Oklahoma, as did his beautiful co star, Shirley Jones. It always struck me that it was the same couple, like it was hard for me to separate, like, these are two totally different movies, two totally different like, time periods, and yet it's the guy and girl from Oklahoma. Like, I think I always thought of them as the Oklahoma characters. So my interest, I guess, initially, in this musical, was piqued when I'd be watching the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. And at the end of every Jerry Lewis telethon, if you remember Jerry Lewis, would sing when you walk through and they would always he and Ed McMahon would kind of have this bet as to whether or not he could get through it kind of without crying. Yeah, and I always wanted him to cry, like, is he crying? Is he crying? Yeah. Well,
Michelle Newman 42:13
besides, he's like, so tired. Oh, he's so tired. That's right. Should do an episode sometimes that airs around,
Kristin Nilsen 42:23
oh yeah, Labor Day. That's right. Yes,
Carolyn Cochrane 42:26
I have a fond feeling in my heart for that. We've talked before about, like I did the McDonald carnival. I
Kristin Nilsen 42:31
sent it away for that. Do that. We have to do that.
Carolyn Cochrane 42:35
Yes, it was just such a great memory. But, and then I remember my mom saying, Oh, that song comes from a musical called carousel, and your dad loves that musical. And when that song plays in that musical, your dad, the first time you saw the movie, your dad cried, like, really cried. And so I was like, my dad cried, and Jerry Lewis is crying like, what is, what is so great about this song? And so one day I must have been in high school. This movie must have been on on, like, a Saturday afternoon, one of those, like, million dollar movie things, and my parents calm me down. They're carousels on you've got to watch it with us. So the epic scene that we're talking about, it's the very it's the finale. We'll include a link to that final scene in our show notes, but basically Billy Bigelow, who plays Shirley Jones's husband, doesn't know that he has a daughter. Okay? His daughter is born after he dies in this botched robbery attempt kind of a thing that's not important. Just know He's dead. He's not there. His daughter's graduating. Peter and the people up in heaven say you can go down like one time and be there, but, but like, as an angel, like one of those kind of, like the littlest Angel, where he's there, but they don't know he's there. And so that's already heartbreaking. And the song is playing while that is happening. And so he's watching his daughter, and then he's like, kneeling down next to Shirley Jones, who's sitting in a chair watching the graduation, and she's just looking up, you know, you could just see her, her eyes, and he's right there. So it's really good acting that she wasn't like, you know what I'm saying, She's not reacting, being right there. He's so close, and her eyes are filling up, and then everyone starts singing the song. So talk about, like, crescendo and all of that. So everybody that's at the graduation, and then he has to walk away. Then he walks to the beach, and he kind of turns back one last time, and that song is still playing. And then, of course, at this point, I'm kind of crying when I'm watching the end of this movie in my little panel den. My dad is a little bit teary. I remember so distinctly getting up from the floor, walking over to him, reclining in this like Tweety recliner rocker thing we had, which was very ugly. And I just hugged him so, so so hard, and just told him how much I loved him, because now I realized why he cried the first time he had seen it his father, who was. Went there to watch his daughter graduate, and and just this just wave of emotion came over me, and I just held on to him so tightly, and I couldn't even really talk. So that is why I chose carousel. Oh,
Kristin Nilsen 45:36
okay now that you're all crying, I need you to dry your tears and listen to this very unusual announcement. We've run into a snag in five years of this podcast, 230 plus episodes. This has never happened, but today is the day Carolyn, who is our producer and editor, is stuck on an airplane. She is sitting on the tarmac as we speak, a prisoner in a metal tube for hours without access to her editing equipment, and for the first time in the history of this podcast, she's not gonna make it in time to finish the episode and get it uploaded before midnight. That is just how time works. This, I guess, is one of the downsides of being an independent podcast. We don't have a team of editors to call on in a pinch. It's just Carolyn, and yet we wouldn't have it any other way. And we also know that you all have our backs and you are here for us without judgment. So thank you for that. And so we've decided to give you just the first half of the episode, the done half today, and bring you the second half next week, when Carolyn can get off that damn plane, and I can't help but wonder if this is the universe saying you need to end this episode with the story about Carolyn hugging her dad during you'll never walk alone. People will be crying too hard to listen to whatever comes next, and so hold those feelings close and come back next week for the conclusion of a chorus line of musicals from our 1970s record cabinets. Thank you for understanding. Thanks for sticking with us, and we will see you next week. The information, opinions and comments expressed on the pop culture Preservation Society podcast belongs solely to Carolyn the crushologist and hello Newman and are in no way representative of our employers or affiliates. And though we truly believe we are always right, there is always a first time the PCPs is written, produced and recorded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, home of the fictional wjm studios and our beloved Mary Richards Nanu. Nanu, keep on trucking and May the Force Be With You. You.