RIP Jerry Herman

1931-2019

~ MAME ~

Although musical theatre was not Lucille Ball’s forte, her 1974 film Mame featured music and lyrics by composer Jerry Herman.

“As most ‘I Love Lucy’ fans know, the redhead couldn’t sing. Her ‘Mame’ songs had to be cobbled together note by note. We all thought maybe she should be dubbed, but because it was Lucille Ball, and everybody knew what she sounds like, I knew it would be more honest not to.

Actually, when she’s not singing, Ball’s pretty good in the film, particularly in the second half when the character Mame is a bit closer to the star’s actual age.” ~ Jerry Herman  

In a 1973 episode of “Here’s Lucy” starring Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé, 

Lucille Ball takes an opportunity to subliminally plug her upcoming movie Mame by singing a bit of “If He Walked Into My Life” while typing. 

Coincidentally, Eydie Gormé recorded the song in 1966. It won her a Grammy Award. The song was written for the 1966 Broadway musical of Mame. Steve thinks Eydie may be having an affair with a man named Herman, their musical arranger. The name ‘Herman’ was probably chosen as a tribute Jerry Herman, who wrote the music and lyrics for Mame, including “If He Walked Into My Life.”

On a 1974 publicity tour for Mame, Phil Donahue devotes an entire hour to Lucille Ball, and airs clips from the film that feature Lucy singing the Jerry Herman tunes “It’s Today” and “Mame”.  

When Lucille Ball was celebrated at “The Kennedy Center Honors” in December 1986, Valerie Harper (“Rhoda”), Beatrice Arthur (“The Golden Girls”), and Pam Dawber (“Mork and Mindy”) sang a parody of the “I Love Lucy” theme expressing their affection for Lucy. The medley featured the title song from Mame now extolling Lucy.

~ HELLO DOLLY ~

In a 1965 episode of “The Lucy Show”, Lucy Carmichael went undercover as Carol Channing, disguising herself in Channing’s most famous character, Dolly Levi from Hello Dolly, a musical by Jerry Herman. Lucille Ball gets to sing parody lyrics of the title song, the closest she’ll get to playing the iconic matchmaker.  

Lucille Ball came backstage to see Channing during Hello Dolly!

In July 1965, Lucille Ball and Carol Channing were both mystery guests on TV’s “What’s My Line?” Lucille’s good friend Ginger Rogers, who would take over for Channing as Dolly Levi on Broadway, was also a mystery guest to promote her assuming the role.  

On the October 2, 1964 “The Jack Benny Program” Benny and Lucy play Mr. and Mrs. Paul Revere. When Paul (Benny) sings a few notes of “Hello Dolly,” a jealous Rachel (Lucy) automatically assumes he’s carrying on with Dolley Madison!

Paul (Jack Benny): “It’s not Dolley Madison!  This is a song that hasn’t even been written yet!”

On a 1974 episode of “Here’s Lucy,” to welcome Lucy home after breaking her leg, the Canary Club sings “Hello Lucy” to the tune of “Hello Dolly.” Ball was about to start filming Herman’s Mame when she broke her leg skiing. 

In a 1971 “Candid Camera” themed episode of “Here’s Lucy,” featuring Allen Funt, Lucy, Harry and Kim rob a bank using a song and dance parody specially written for the episode. The medley features “Hello, Dollar!” aka “Hello, Dolly!” the title song of the 1964 musical of the same name written by Jerry Herman.