kind of energy? Thatâs what Dexedrine brought. It was a wonderful thing. Too bad it turned out to be so terrible for you.
As for Flahooley , as many lovers of obscure Broadway musicals know,itproved to be among the most peculiar shows to open in the 1950s. First, Yip switched the title of the show from Toyland to Flahooley after the dolls that are at the center of the plot. (Yip once quipped that he chose that kooky title because âitâs the only name we could think of that you canât spell backwards.â) The musical was set in Capsulanti, Indiana, where the B. G. Bigelow company manufactures toys. My role was that of Sandy, a puppet operator at the factory, who is in love with the puppet designer, Sylvester, played by Jerome Courtland. Sylvester has created a fabulous new doll for the Christmas season, one that can blow bubble gum, read comics, and let out belly laughs. It will put the fortunes of Bigelow and Sandy and Sylvester into the stratosphereâuntil a competitor copies the doll and undercuts the price.
Meanwhile, an emissary from Arabia has come to Bigelow to have Aladdinâs magic lamp repaired. This is where the singer Yma Sumac entered the picture. Born in Peruâthe rumors that she was really Amy Camus from Brooklyn were simply not trueâYma was endowed with a truly amazing voice with an almost unbelievable range. I remember standing in the wings during performances and listening to the astounding things she could do with her voice. She had the amazing ability to slide all the way up to the top of her range and then sing a glissando all the way down. When she did the glissando down she sang two notes at the same time, like double-stops on a violin. The conductor, Maurice Levine, and I could never figure out how she did it. âWhat has she got in there instead of vocal cords?â I would wonder. She didnât really sing songsâshe sang special material that her husband, Moises, would write for her. And there she was, in the middle of Capsulanti, Indiana.
Yip had heard Yma sing and been knocked out, so the already crazy plot of Flahooley became a whole lot more complicated in order to include Ymaâs character of Najla, an emissary from Arabia. And just how did the Arabs come to Capsulanti, Indiana? Because just as the fortunes of Bigelow are faltering, due to the cheaper imitation flahooleys being produced by a rival, Sylvester puts one of the dollâs hands on Aladdinâs lamp and out pops a genie named Abou Ben Atom. I told you there was a lot of plot . . . Well, the genie promises to grant Sylvester any wish he desires, and the next thing you know the flahooleys are rushing off the assembly line, causing a flood in the market and a subsequent collapse. Unemployment skyrockets in the town of Capsulanti, and soon mobs are burning piles of flahooleys in the town square. Somehow it all ends happily.
Oy vey , as we used to say on Peachtree Street.
This was not exactly your average Broadway musical. To tell the truth, while I can relate the basic plot of the show, I didnât know then exactly what it was all supposed to be about. I was so green that I would just look at my stuff and think, âHow do I make this work?â I didnât and couldnât see the overall picture. Both Yip and Sammy Fain had pronounced liberal leanings, and just as they had condemned racism in Finianâs Rainbow , Flahooley , too, had a subversive, anticapitalist message embedded within all the whimsy. I donât think I grasped it fully at the time, but it seemed to have been written with the burgeoning resistance to the atomic power movement in mind, not to mention a desire to comment on the witch hunts beginning to take place as McCarthyism swept through Washington; it was the genie hunts and burning of the dolls within the plot that the creators hoped would speak to this shameful chapter in our countryâs history. And, just to makesure no sacred cow was left
As for Flahooley , as many lovers of obscure Broadway musicals know,itproved to be among the most peculiar shows to open in the 1950s. First, Yip switched the title of the show from Toyland to Flahooley after the dolls that are at the center of the plot. (Yip once quipped that he chose that kooky title because âitâs the only name we could think of that you canât spell backwards.â) The musical was set in Capsulanti, Indiana, where the B. G. Bigelow company manufactures toys. My role was that of Sandy, a puppet operator at the factory, who is in love with the puppet designer, Sylvester, played by Jerome Courtland. Sylvester has created a fabulous new doll for the Christmas season, one that can blow bubble gum, read comics, and let out belly laughs. It will put the fortunes of Bigelow and Sandy and Sylvester into the stratosphereâuntil a competitor copies the doll and undercuts the price.
Meanwhile, an emissary from Arabia has come to Bigelow to have Aladdinâs magic lamp repaired. This is where the singer Yma Sumac entered the picture. Born in Peruâthe rumors that she was really Amy Camus from Brooklyn were simply not trueâYma was endowed with a truly amazing voice with an almost unbelievable range. I remember standing in the wings during performances and listening to the astounding things she could do with her voice. She had the amazing ability to slide all the way up to the top of her range and then sing a glissando all the way down. When she did the glissando down she sang two notes at the same time, like double-stops on a violin. The conductor, Maurice Levine, and I could never figure out how she did it. âWhat has she got in there instead of vocal cords?â I would wonder. She didnât really sing songsâshe sang special material that her husband, Moises, would write for her. And there she was, in the middle of Capsulanti, Indiana.
Yip had heard Yma sing and been knocked out, so the already crazy plot of Flahooley became a whole lot more complicated in order to include Ymaâs character of Najla, an emissary from Arabia. And just how did the Arabs come to Capsulanti, Indiana? Because just as the fortunes of Bigelow are faltering, due to the cheaper imitation flahooleys being produced by a rival, Sylvester puts one of the dollâs hands on Aladdinâs lamp and out pops a genie named Abou Ben Atom. I told you there was a lot of plot . . . Well, the genie promises to grant Sylvester any wish he desires, and the next thing you know the flahooleys are rushing off the assembly line, causing a flood in the market and a subsequent collapse. Unemployment skyrockets in the town of Capsulanti, and soon mobs are burning piles of flahooleys in the town square. Somehow it all ends happily.
Oy vey , as we used to say on Peachtree Street.
This was not exactly your average Broadway musical. To tell the truth, while I can relate the basic plot of the show, I didnât know then exactly what it was all supposed to be about. I was so green that I would just look at my stuff and think, âHow do I make this work?â I didnât and couldnât see the overall picture. Both Yip and Sammy Fain had pronounced liberal leanings, and just as they had condemned racism in Finianâs Rainbow , Flahooley , too, had a subversive, anticapitalist message embedded within all the whimsy. I donât think I grasped it fully at the time, but it seemed to have been written with the burgeoning resistance to the atomic power movement in mind, not to mention a desire to comment on the witch hunts beginning to take place as McCarthyism swept through Washington; it was the genie hunts and burning of the dolls within the plot that the creators hoped would speak to this shameful chapter in our countryâs history. And, just to makesure no sacred cow was left
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