BROADWAY RECALL: Looking Back With Marilyn Maye and Jerry Herman

Welcome to BROADWAY RECALL, a bi-monthly column where BroadwayWorld.com's Chief Theatre Critic, Michael Dale, delves into the archives and explores the stories behind the well-known and the not so well-known videos and photographs of Broadway's past. Look for BROADWAY RECALL every other Saturday.

This week's initial BROADWAY RECALL video does not delve very deeply into the archives.  In fact, just call it an encore. 

Marilyn Maye has sung plenty of those during her 75+ years in the business.  (She began singing in front of audiences at age 7.)  Still sporting youthful pipes to go with her knack for intelligent phrasing and lyric interpretation, Maye is currently finishing up her most recent engagement at Feinstein's at Loew's Regency, saluting fellow octogenarian Jerry Herman; quite appropriate as Maye frequently uses Herman's rouser from Mame, "It's Today," as an encore for her many cabaret and concert appearances, complete with her customary high kick on the lyric, "Dance your shoes off."  (see photo) 

Here she is discussing the gig with Richard Ridge in a recent edition of Broadway Beat.

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Truth be told, I had never even heard of Marilyn Maye until five years ago, when she made a kind of comeback to the New York cabaret scene.  What I eventually found out was that she was one of Johnny Carson's favorite singers, having appeared on his Tonight Show 76 times.  After one performance, the most influential man in the history of late-night television turned to the camera and advised his viewers, "If there are any young singers out there who want to know how it's done, get her records."

Even though Marilyn Maye has never appeared on Broadway, in her early years at RCA Records she was often assigned to record singles from upcoming Broadway scores in hopes of making them hits before opening night.  In this clip, from the 1967 television show, The Hollywood Palace, Maye is introduced by Donald O'Connor for a rendition of "You're Gonna Hear from Me," before launching into what was, at least until the movie came out, her signature song, Kander and Ebb's "Cabaret."

But now let's get back to Jerry Herman.  In the days when print media was the main source of Broadway news, it's not surprising that even though Hello, Dolly! was one of the biggest smashes of the 1960s, the face of that musical's young composer/lyricist was unfamiliar to even prominent members of the industry.  Here's a clip of Jerry Herman as a contestant on a 1964 airing of the enormously popular game show, What's My Line?

What's My Line? was based in New York in those days and was aired live on Sunday nights at 10:30, allowing for frequent visits from theatre celebrities.  A far cry from the bells and whistles and big prizes generally associated with game shows, host John Charles Daly moderated the program with graceful formality and the trio of regular panelists was among Manhattan's most cultured wits: newspaper columnist Dorothy Kilgallen, actress Arlene Francis and Random House publisher Bennett Cerf.  The guest panelist that week was the popular Tony Randall, promoting his upcoming film, Send Me No Flowers.

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