Darlings, This Story First Made Me Aware Of Broadway Flops!!!!!!!!!!

                                   I read "The Yearling" when I was in the fifth grade.  I read the Scribner's edition, not the one pictured above, though I still seek this one out at the Strand, whenever I drop by.  If anyone knows where I can find one, girls, be sure and let me know.

                                  But back to the present.  Right now, I happen to be learning the song, "I'm All Smiles," which, by the way BARBRA did NOT sing at Barclay's last night. But that's all right.  Because once I master this song, FUGEDDABOUT BARBRA!!!!!!!!  And I won't charge $650 for you to hear me!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                 This song does have a curious history.  It comes from a Broadway musical adaptation of "The Yearling," which opened on Broadway  at the Alvin Theatre on December 10, 1965, and closed on.......December 11, 1965!!!!!!!!!!!!  That's right, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And this was the first time I had ever heard of a Broadway show having so short a run!  In fact, when it comes to short Broadway runs, "The Yearling" is in the history books!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                 In a way, it was the Broadway musical that introduced me to the story, and got me to read the book.  There was this children's program called "Wonderama", with Sonny Fox (bet some of my girls remember this!!!!!!!!!!!), and, one Sunday morning (it aired Sundays, from the then unheard time of 9AM to 1PM!!!!  Four hours!!!!  An unheard length for any program, let alone a children's, and one I am sure is still unmatched!!!!), he interviewed this young girl (yes, girl!!!!!) who said she had tried out for a role in the forthcoming musical, "The Yearling."  Fox asked her what role she tried out for, and she said, "Jody."  "The boy?," he asked.  "Oh, really?" I said.  First of all, how dare she be allowed to audition for a boy's part, when I was having trouble convincing people I could play Fanny Brice????  And second, why did no one tell me about the role of Jody, so I could audition????????

                              So, this is what got me to read the book.  And see the wonderful 1946 MGM movie (directed by Clarence Brown) with Gregory Peck as Penny Baxter, Jane Wyman, as his wife, Orry, and, in his Academy Award winning performance, (he won a Special Juvenile Oscar) Claude Jarman, Jr. as Jody.  When the musical opened on Broadway, nineteen years later, David Wayne played Penny Baxter, and Dolores Wilson played his wife, here called Ora.  Jody was played by a young man then making his Broadway debut--Steve Sanders.  Interesting thing about Steve, because his career actually did go somewhere, albeit with tragic results.  After the show closed, he kicked around the business, and, from 1988  until 1995,  he was a member of the popular singing group, the Oak Ridge Boys!!!!!!!!  He left the group on November 4, 1995, and had a series of indeterminable personal problems, which culminated in his suicide. On the night of June 10, 1998, Sanders locked himself in the bathroom of his Cape Coral, Florida home, and, for reasons no one was able to ascertain, shot himself in the head!!!  How's that for show biz history, darlings???????????

                      The musical had a Book by Herbert Martin and Lore Noto.  The Music was composed by Michael Leonard, and the Lyrics were by Herbert Martin!!!!  According to history, the score received an Original Cast recording, on Mercury Records!!!!!!!!!!!  To all you Theater Queens out there, I am sure this is one of the rarest of items!!!!!!  Find this one, girls, and you can finance your retirement!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                      Now, by the time this show opened and folded, BARBRA had come along, and had done (or maybe she was still doing????) "Funny Girl" on Broadway.  She was also making albums at Columbia Records, like it was nobody's business.  Two songs from "The Yearling's" score, "I'm All Smiles," and "Why Did I Choose You?," were somehow brought to her attention, and she recorded them.  I have never heard the latter, but the former caught on enough to be a hit, other performers recorded it, and, when BARBRA did her famous Central Park concert, she sang it there!

                      But not last night, so damn it, girls, I will pick up the slack!!!!!!!!  Which is why I am working on the song now.  And to think it is "The Yearling," a story first published in 1938, and which won for its author, Floridian Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, the Pulitzer Prize For Fiction the following year, that started this!!!!!!!   It is all connected, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                       You can bet if I had played Jody on Broadway, the show would have ran, and I'd have won a TONY Award!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And if "I'm All Smiles" was not Jody's number, (since I have never heard the complte score, I have no idea for which character it was intended!!!) by the time of the Broadway opening, it WOULD have been!!!!!!!!!!  And I would have stopped the show with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                       So, now, "The Yearling," the Musical, is just a legendary Broadway footnote, memorable for a relatively minor song made major in its time by BARBRA.  And is what started me on my voyage here, as far back as fifth grade!!!!!!!!!!!

                         You can bet I am smarter than a fifth grader!!!!!!!!!  Hell, I was, even then!!!!!!!!  And, now, thanks to me, "The Yearling," via my rendition of 'Smiles,' will briefly live again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                           Hey, Felix Salten!!!!!!!!!  "Bambi" isn't the only deer story out there, you know!!!!!!!!!!!