My mom liked to sing with us when we were growing up, but unfortunately she wasn't Shirley Partridge and we didn't have a pop singing group. My brother Kurt was cool, but he was no Keith Partridge either....
Of course Shirley Jones was the mom in the 1970s tv series "The Partridge Family" and recently I had a mini Shirley Jones fest after seeing her on tv recently. Apparently she is doing quite well thank you and still doing concert appearances. It was interesting to hear about how her career started. Back in the 50s she went to an audition on a friend's insistence and Rodgers and Hammerstein were so impressed, she was put under contract!
She did so many movie musicals including "The Music Man" and "Carousel." My Shirley fest this week included watching the dvd of "Oklahoma!" which was and still is a Rodgers and Hammerstein masterpiece. Filmed in two versions, including what was then known as a wide screen "Todd AO", it must have been a real EVENT to go to a movie theater and see this wide screen color spectacle.
The "Oklahoma!" dvd features her commentary and much of it is very interesting. Back in those days actors were on the set from sunup to past sunset. Those grueling hours almost led her to quit after one movie! She says she was very naive as she started making "Oklahoma!" as just a short time before that she had Gordon Macrae's picture on her bedroom wall and now here she was starring opposite him in a major motion picture.
Rodgers and Hammerstein were musical geniuses. The songs in "Oklahoma!" were great. Click here for an example. I got out my soundtrack LP and have already played it several times this week, much to my wife's chagrin. Oh well, if she gets tired of that, I can always haul out my Partridge Family albums.
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