(Story & Photo by Marco Stoovelaar)
IN MEMORIAM
...Stanley Donen...
(1924 - 2019)
(Publicity-photo) |
 Filmmaker Stanley Donen ('Take Me Out to the Ball Game',
'Damn Yankees!') passed away
Nederlands
 NEW YORK CITY, New York (USA) -
Wellknown American movie-director Stanley Donen passed away on Thursday (February 21) at the age of 94 after suffering a heart attack.
Stanley Donen was the last surviving director from the 'Golden Age of Hollywood', the fifties and sixties of the last century.
In his long career, Donen was the director of many memorable musicals in movie-history, including 'Singin' In The Rain' with dancing legend Gene Kelly in 1952.
Stanley Donen also had a link with baseball, as he was associated with the two most famous baseball-themed movie-musicals.
In 1949, Donen and Gene Kelly wrote the story for 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game' and in 1958, Donen was the producer and director of 'Damn Yankees!'.
Stanley Donen was born on April 13, 1924 in Columbia, South Carolina and initially wanted to be a tap dancer.
To accomplish that, he started attending dance classes since he was ten years old.
While working on Broadway in the early fourties, he befriended actor Gene Kelly, with whom he made several musicals in following years.
The two renewed interest in the big movie-musicals, Donen behind the camera and Kelly in front.
Kelly was a great dancer and choreographer, while Donen went on to direct some of the most famous musicals, who all became classics.
The two also worked together as writer and choreographer.
Stanley Donen was the Assistant Choreographer of Kelly for the movie-musical 'Anchors Aweigh', which starred Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Kathryn Grayson.
In 1949, Donen and Kelly directed 'On the Town', starring Kelly, Sinatra, Jules Munshin, Betty Garrett, Ann Miller and Vera-Ellen.
Three years later, in 1952, they directed 'Singin' in the Rain' with Kelly, Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds.
This last movie has some memorable dancing scenes, including the famous one in which Gene Kelly sings the title song, while dancing and singing in the rain, an iconic moment in movie musical-history.
...Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra perform 'Take Me Out to...
...the Ball Game' in the musical of the same name (1949)... |
In 1949, Donen and Kelly co-wrote the story, which was the basis for the movie-musical/comedy 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game'.
This movie was directed by Busby Berkeley, another icon in this field of movie-making, but Donen and Kelly both also did the choreography.
Starring in this movie were Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, Esther Williams, Betty Garrett and Edward Arnold.
Sinatra and Kelly play baseball-players at the turn of the century in the early 1900s, who work in vaudeville in the off-season.
The two run into problems with the new female owner of their baseball-team (played by Williams) and a gambler (Arnold), who doesn't want them to win the pennant.
In this movie (see the clip at left), Sinatra and Kelly together sing the most famous version of the song 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game', the song that is played in many baseball-stadiums worldwide halfway the seventh inning ('seventh inning stretch').
The title of the movie is taken from the song with the same name, which was written by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer in 1908.
It was first played at a high school-game in Los Angeles in 1934 and later that year, it was played during the World Series.
In 1949, Stanley Donen signed a 7-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which has a long history in making big and successful musicals.
For MGM, Donen directed 'Royal Wedding' in 1951 with Fred Astaire, Jane Powell and Peter Lawford.
This movie also has an iconic scene in which Astaire, another dancing-legend, performed a song while walking and dancing on the walls and the ceiling.
Hereafter, Donen directed 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers' in 1954, starring Howard Keel and Jane Powell.
Donen, who was nicknamed 'The King of Musicals', then moved to Paramount Pictures, for whom he directed 'Funny Face' in 1957 with Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire.
Hereafter, Donen worked for Warner Brothers.
For this studio, he directed 'The Pajama Game' in 1957 with Doris Day.
Next, also for Warner Brothers, Donen was the director of 'Damn Yankees!' in 1958, which was his second musical associated with baseball.
Starring in this movie were Tab Hunter (who passed away on July 8 last year), Gwen Verdon, Ray Walston, Russ Brown and Robert Shafer.
The movie was an adaptation of the successful Broadway-musical written by George Abbott.
The storyline of this movie, set in the fifties in Washington, DC, is that a frustrated fan of the hopeless Washington Senators makes a pact with the Devil (aka Mr. Applegate) to help the team win the World Series against New York Yankees.
Shafer plays the part of fan Joe Boyd, who makes a pact with Mr. Applegate (played by Walston).
Joe Boyd is transformed into the great and young baseball-player Joe Hardy (played by Hunter), who is seduced by Lola (played by Verdon).
The tagline of the musical is 'Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets', but in the end that is not the case.
The movie was nominated for an Academy Award (Oscar) for Best Music and for a Gloden Globe for Best Motion Picture.
Before becoming a movie, the original musical production of 'Damn Yankees!' ran for 1,019 performances (opening in 1955) on Broadway, first in 46th Street Theatre, then in Adelphi Theatre.
The dance numbers then were staged by wellknown choreographer Bob Fosse.
Gwen Verdon, Ray Walston and Robert Shafer also starred in the Broadway-version.
In 1956, the musical won seven Tony Awards, including for Best Musical and three acting awards.
In 1957, a series of 258 performances opened on West End in London (England).
In the seventies and early eighties, the part of Mr. Applegate was played on Broadway by wellknown actors Vincent Price and Van Johnson.
In March 1994, a new musical version, which was based on both the original musical and the 1958 movie of 'Damn Yankees!' opened on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre, near Times Square in Manhattan, New York.
Coincidentally, the webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News and his father were in New York at that moment and were able to attend one of the first shows, which was a great performance.
...The front of the Marquis Theatre on Broadway in New York...
...in 1994 shortly after 'Damn Yankees!' opened...
...a new series of performances...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Starring in this new production were Victor Garber (as Mr. Applegate) and Bebe Neuwirth (as Lola).
In 1994, Jarrod Emick won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his part of Joe Hardy.
Victor Garber later played a major supporting role in the Oscar-winning movie 'Titanic' (1997).
When she appeared in the musical on Broadway, Bebe Neuwirth already was known for her role as Dr. Lilith Sternin-Crane in the TV-sitcom 'Cheers' (1986-1993) in which she played the wife of psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane (played by Kelsey Grammer) in 80 episodes.
In the spin-off 'Frasier' (1993-2004), she returned in twelve episodes as Lilith, who then was Frasier's ex-wife.
In 1995, Garber was succeeded in 'Damn Yankees!' by comedy legend Jerry Lewis, who then made his Broadway-debut.
Lewis later also played the role in a new West End-production in London (England).
The new Broadway-show closed in August 1995 after 718 performances.
In later years, Stanley Donen also directed movies in other genres.
Amongst them, comedy 'The Grass Is Greener' (1960), starring Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons and the comedy 'Two for the Road' (1967) with Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney.
In 1963, Donen directed the romatic thriller 'Charade' with Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau, James Coburn and George Kennedy.
And in 1966, he was the director of the action adventure movie 'Arabesque' with Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren.
In 1975, Donen directed a comedy crime movie, which was titled 'Lucky Lady' and starred Liza Minnelli, Gene Hackman and Burt Reynolds.
One of his last movies was the not so successful science fiction adventure movie 'Saturn 3' in 1980 with Farrah Fawcett, Kirk Douglas and Harvey Keitel.
In 1986, Stanley Donen also was the director of the music video 'Dancing on the Ceiling', sung by Lionel Richie.
In this clip, Richie dances on a ceiling and as Donen had the experience of putting that on film, as he did the same with Fred Astaire in 1951, he was asked to direct this video.
Stanley Donen directed his 30th and last movie in 1999, which was TV-movie 'Love Letters'.
He also was the producer of 15 movies.
In 1986, Donen was the producer of the 58th Annual Academy Awards.
(February 24)
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