What makes a show business showstopper? It can be a dance, song, musical performance or comedy set that just flows and seems to unleash such joy in the performer and audience. TMVers of ALL ages are urged to watch this little video clip of a short musical shopstopper (one minute and 57 seconds) taped for the Hollywood Palace variety show in 1969. It shows a vaudeville style song with the legendary jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald and the equally legendary comedian Jimmy Durante. The kind of number Americans would see in a nightclub or on a vaudeville stage — before people could do multiple shoots for a You Tube. It was a one shot deal and the energy level had to be perfect…for it to be a showstopper.
Which this is:
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.