Winds of Summer

Celebrated being able to sleep in a little bit this morning with blueberry pancakes and Yankee Doodle Mickey. The Disney gang, Disneyland Chorus, and a kid's chorus perform popular American folk tunes and patriotic songs. Favorites include an ebullient young Molly Ringwauld joined by the kids on "This Is My Country," the Disneyland Glee Club's rousing "The Liberty Tree" from the 1950's adaptation of Johnny Tremain, and the Armed Forces Medley, featuring Mickey singing for the Marines and Air Force, Goofy for the Army, and Donald of course representing the Navy.

Switched to Take Me Along while I finished breakfast and cleaned up the mess. The 1959 stage version of Ah, Wilderness! somehow morphed into a vehicle for Jackie Gleason, who plays Uncle Sid. He may have the big star build-up (including his entrance during a chorus number, "Sid Old Kid"), but Walter Huston as Nat and Robert Morse as Richard have the better material. Richard's "I Would Die" with Susan Luckey is a hilarious take on how melodramatic teenagers can be (even today), while Huston gets the touching "Staying Young."

Put on By the Beautiful Sea while getting organized and changing into work clothes. This is another vehicle for a star comic, this time Shirley Booth. She plays Lottie Gibson, a vaudeville performer staying at her father's boarding house in Coney Island during the summer of 1907. Her father has sunk all her money into a ride on the boardwalk and is doing everything he can to keep it afloat. Meanwhile, she's there with her new beau, a handsome singer (Wilbur Evans). Unfortunately, so is his ex-wife and their daughter, Baby Betsy, a teen who has been kept in child roles by her doting stage mother. Betsy tries to break up the romance, but when Lottie gives her one of her dresses, she starts acting her age and even pursues the singing waiter who had interested her but thought she was a little girl.

I've listened to this CD at least once a summer since about 1996. It was among the few cast albums I was able to find at the now-defunct music store down the street from my family in North Cape May. Truth be told, it's far from a masterpiece. If the extensive liner notes are to be believed, they never did really figure out what to do with the Baby Betsy storyline (she doesn't even have a song). The show seems to come across today the same way it did in 1954 - pleasant enough, but not really that memorable. Favorite songs include Booth's comic lament "I'd Rather Wake Up By Myself," her maid's catchy "Happy Habit," and the lovely ballad "Alone Too Long" for Evans.

Work, thankfully, was no problem. We were busy for most of the day, to the point where the carts kept vanishing, and kept me outside. At least it was a nice day for it. Though it remained sunny, it was dry and very windy. The winds kept it from feeling as hot as it has the past few days. I did manage to gather the trash and recycling once another bagger arrived to help with the carts.

Clouds had started to gather by the time I left around 3:30, but this time, they never burst. It was so nice, I switched off the air conditioner when I got home and haven't had it on since. Did some writing after I changed. Harris is recruited to find what downed a snowmobile guard early the next morning. He drives out with Chewie, discovering one of Vader's mooks leaving a radar tracker device that explodes. He manages to dodge the explosion, but he's pretty sure that the Empire now knows their location...

Watched Body Language on Buzzr as I finished up my writing. This game show from the mid-80's seems to be "Password, but with charades, or charades crossed with Mad Libs." Two celebrities act out words to fill in the blanks for a silly story that the contestants have to guess. Charles Nelson Reilly and Vicki Lawrence were the celebrities. Indeed, this episode was run as part of Buzzr's afternoon and evening Pride Month Marathon; Reilly's many game show appearances were a big part of that. (I also liked the lady on What's My Line? who worked as a Naval mechanic and a WAVE...in what was likely the mid-60's. That's just awesome.)

Broke for dinner at 6:30. Made a cheese and grape jelly omelet to go with my leftover pasta salad. Listened to George M! while I ate. This 1968 Broadway show is a more accurate retelling of the life of George M. Cohan than Yankee Doodle Dandy. He'd passed away shortly after the release of that movie, allowing them to make mention of his ambition and workaholic tendencies that drove off his first with Ethel, his second marriage to Agnes Nolan, and his fight with Equity in later years. The main attraction are several rare Cohan songs, like "Ring to the Name of Rosie," "Twentieth Century Love," and "Popularity," that give a more complete view of his talents. Joel Gray was Cohan; Bernadette Peters was his sister Josie.

Moved on to Lego Pirates of the Caribbean after dinner. I'm getting so close! I'm up to at least 90 percent now. Turns out I needed Blackbeard to get the last piece in London Town, which finished out On Stranger Tides. Finding the last piece and two compass points in "A Touch of Destiny" completed Dead Man's Chest. Now I just need to figure out Curse of the Black Pearl, then see what's in that last gold brick barrel.

Ended the night after a shower with Ragtime, one of my favorite musicals. Three families - one black and working-class, one white and upper-middle class, one Jewish and newly arrived in America - converge in New York and Atlantic City in 1902, as their lives and those of many celebrities of the time like Harry Houdini and radical anarchist Emma Goldman intersect. The release of this in 1998 and Anastasia a year earlier made Lynn Aherns and Stephan Flahtery one of my favorite Broadway composing teams. Some of their best work can be found here, including the epic title song, "Journey On" introducing Mother, Father, and the immigrant and his daughter, "Wheels of a Dream" for the black couple Coalhouse and Sarah, and the touching "Our Children" for Mother and the immigrant Tateh as they watch their children play on the beach in AC.

I've had the 2-disc original cast recording since it came out. It was expensive, but so worth it. If you can find it and you love Aherns and Flahtery, the book or movie it's based on, or historical musicals, I can't recommend it enough.