No matter what you’re age, if you’re interested in show biz (as a consumer or as a wannabe) finding REAL, AUTHENTIC examples of show stoppers on video is not easy. For years I’ve remembered a special musical that ran on ABC in the mid-60s due to a show stopper that stayed with me all these years. The number was done by a young Liza Minnelli (showing why she became famous in her own right versus today’s Liza Minnelli popular partially because she is now a show biz legend for Baby Boomers) and Cyril Ritchard, who had special status with Baby Boomer kids because he played Captain Hook in the Broadway and early TV versions of the musical “Peter Pan” (the one where Peter flew via stage hands up above moving actress Mary Martin who played Pan).
But now…after years of searching..I FOUND IT. Here via You Tube is that magical show biz moment from the 1965 taped ABC custom-designed musical The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood.
No matter what your age, you’ll love the energy, pizazz and showmanship of these two entertainers…Minnelli and Ritchard (as the wolf disgused as Granny). Aspiring actors take note and watch the two of these pros carefully:
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.