Loverly Audrey Hepburn
For a change of pace, here’s Audrey Hepburn singing “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” and “Show Me” for the My Fair Lady film. I understand why she was dubbed instead; there’s a lot of strain in her voice. But I like her version of “Loverly” anyway, because it fits and is of a whole. Her version of “Show Me” is less successful. Then again, why not use Julie Andrews, who could do it all? Hepburn herself is loverly, though. And so is that costume for “Show Me”:
The dubbed movie version of “Loverly” is here. No question that Marni Nixon and the technicians did a good job, but it’s somewhat in the Uncanny Valley for me:
I saw the stage original in 1956 with Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews on Broadway when I was a small child. I remember it and I loved it.
My mother loved music, and in the 1960s she was a member of the Columbia Record Club (remember it?) Because she loved to sing, she ordered mainly musicals and Sing-Along-With-Mitch albums. So, when I was a kid, our record cabinet was packed with the classics — My Fair Lady, Oklahoma, The Sound of Music (the original Broadway version, not the movie), South Pacific, The Fantasticks, West Side Story, Camelot and so many more. I listened to them all, over and over (except for The Student Prince, which never appealed), and sang along, so before long I knew most of them by heart. I could still sing you the entire My Fair Lady album, including the male parts (though I wouldn’t blame you a bit if you fled.) “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” was a particular favorite because it was such fun to sing the Cockney accent.
To tell you the truth, it still is . . . but now, I only do it when I’m alone in the car.
Thanks, Neo, for the light-hearted moment in a week full of anything but.
Mrs. Whatsit:
That sounds better than Anne’s accordion experiences. 🙂
My favorite Audrey Hepburn song is “Moon River,” from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Henry Mancini later said that he arranged the melody to accommodate Hepburn’s limited vocal range. The song won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1961.
I like Hepburn’s performance of “Moon River” because it fits her shy and introverted personality so well. And of course the introductory scene of George Peppard typing the beginning of a short story about Audrey (as Holly Golightly) and her “nameless cat” is appealing. (Orangey, the trained cat who played “Cat” in the film, won a Picture Animal Top Star of the Year or PATSY Award in 1962 for his role as Hepburn’s pet).
Here is the clip of Hepburn singing “Moon River”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uirBWk-qd9A&ab_channel=Movieclips
Was it Marni Nixon’s voice on the album, too?
==
Then again, why not use Julie Andrews, who could do it all?
==
Casting and film production is a subject way outside my wheelhouse.
==
Do notice that Julie Andrews was cast as the lead in three films which were shot during the period running May 1963 to September 1964. The shooting schedules covered 12 of the 16 months in question, including 2.5 of the 4 months during which My Fair Lady was filmed. Note also that My Fair Lady was shot at Warner Brothers Studios in Los Angeles. One of Julie Andrews’ films was shot in Los Angeles, one on location in Austria, and one at five different locations (three in Britain, one in the United States). She’d have been in Britain for part of the time My Fair Lady was being filmed.
Phillies gonna crush the Snakes, PA+Cat, 4-1 I’m reckoning!
😉
sdferr–
From your keyboard to God’s eyes, I hope! (I have to admit that the fans in Citizens Bank Park trolling the Braves by making the tomahawk chop during Games 3 and 4 was mean– although it’s a fair question as to why the usual defenders of Indigenous Peoples allow Atlanta fans to get away with such a colonizing gesture!– but after the way the Braves fans trash-talked the Phillies during the Wild Card round, I’m allowing myself a little Schadenfreude.
But we’ll see about the NLCS– the Snakes’ mantra this year is “the chaos continues,” so anything could happen. I appreciate your good wishes, though!
Loverly! Thanks Neo. There’s no question that the range for the song is a stretch for Hepburn, and Marmi Nixon is — loverly.
Audrey Hepburn was apparently an all around Good Person.
Audrey Hepburn was apparently an all around Good Person.
==
With a curious affinity for men who were sketchy characters.
Audrey Hepburn was apparently an all around Good Person.
SCOTTtheBADGER:
Amen.
Not to mention that as a teen during WW2 she supported the Dutch Resistance and crawled out of the rubble with malnutrition, jaundice, anemia, edema, and a respiratory infection.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audrey_Hepburn#1939%E2%80%931945:_Experiences_during_World_War_II
She devoted much of her later life to humanitarian projects, especially those helping children.
Now that I’ve heard it, I prefer Hepburn’s version of “Wouldn’t it be Loverly”. Eliza was a crude street wench after all. Then have her voice graduate along with her manners and diction.
***
@PA+Cat: Moon River -> Andy Williams.
A nice change of pace. I also liked “With a Little Bit of Luck.” as sung by Stanley Holloway.
A nod to neo — Hepburn studied ballet and did reasonably well, though not well enough for her goal of prima ballerina.
_______________________________
After the war ended in 1945, Hepburn moved with her mother and siblings to Amsterdam, where she began ballet training under Sonia Gaskell, a leading figure in Dutch ballet, and Russian teacher Olga Tarasova. Due to the loss of the family fortune, Ella had to support them by working as a cook and housekeeper for a wealthy family.Hepburn made her film debut playing an air stewardess in Dutch in Seven Lessons (1948), an educational travel film made by Charles van der Linden and Henry Josephson.
Later that year, Hepburn moved to London after accepting a ballet scholarship with Ballet Rambert, which was then based in Notting Hill. She supported herself with part-time work as a model, and dropped “Ruston” from her surname. After she was told by Rambert that despite her talent, her height and weak constitution (the after-effect of wartime malnutrition) would make the status of prima ballerina unattainable, she decided to concentrate on acting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audrey_Hepburn#1945%E2%80%931952:_Ballet_studies_and_early_acting_roles
_______________________________
Maybe Hepburn’s beautiful posture was on the natch, but it doesn’t surprise me to see ballet on her resume.
Hubs and I love musicals. One year he bought a CD of “My Fair Lady” for my birthday. He didn’t realize it was the Broadway cast version with Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews. I had never heard Ms. Andrews sing the Eliza role and I love it.
Marni Nixon had a small role in “Sound of Music” as one of the sisters in “How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria.”
Perhaps the best testament to her character is that despite her father being a fascist sympathizer, and having abandoned the family when she was very young, much later “Hepburn renewed contact with her father after locating him in Dublin through the Red Cross; although he remained emotionally detached, Hepburn supported him financially until his death.” (Wiki)
My Fair Lady is easily one of my most favorite musicals (I have a lot of favorites; Music Man is actually Number One).
There are lots of stories about the show and cast, but the funniest one I recall, from some long-forgotten source, involves Harrison’s very limited talents as a singer (to balance his immense acting skills, perhaps) and his struggles with the musical role (see another anecdote in the first link below).
After a grueling rehearsal in which Rex found fault with every part of one of his numbers, continually asking the conductor to alter the tempo, the phrasing, and even the key of the song, the conductor finally asked in exasperation, “Well, Mr. Harrison, how would you like to do it?”
To which Rex replied (and you MUST imagine this in his glorious Henry Higgins accent), “I would like to do it as a straight play!”
https://www.tatler.com/article/my-fair-lady-julie-andrews-rex-harrison
https://parade.com/1211251/walterscott/my-fair-lady-facts/
Perhaps the best testament to her character is that despite her father being a fascist sympathizer, and having abandoned the family when she was very young, much later “Hepburn renewed contact with her father after locating him in Dublin through the Red Cross; although he remained emotionally detached, Hepburn supported him financially until his death.” (Wiki)
==
The source for that is sketchy.
The source for that is sketchy.
The NYT seems to corroborate it here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/22/arts/antiques-to-daddy-dearest-from-audrey.html
The reason I have heard for Julie Andrews not getting the role was that the producers wanted a “name” to pair with Mr. Harrison and Ms Andrews had really only her stage experience at that point in her career. She did end up in another minor movie in that period, Mary Poppins, perhaps you’ve heard of it? 🙂 I think My Fair Lady would have been enhanced (if that is possible) by Ms Andrews talents and the fact that she had worked with Harrison and Stanley Holloway who played Mr Doolittle. What would have happened to Mary Poppins can’t be predicted. It had a rough start as the author really wasn’t fond of the idea of a movie so we might have not gotten it or gotten a lesser version of it.
I first saw Audrey Hepburn when I and a couple of buddies hitchhiked to a larger town to watch the Saturday matinee. I was just starting to notice women (OK, girls) then and when I saw her in Breakfast at Tiffany’s I thought “Well that’s it. I’m never going to see a more beautiful woman.” By God I was right! As if she needed anything else, she exuded class.
I thought “Well that’s it. I’m never going to see a more beautiful woman.” By God I was right! As if she needed anything else, she exuded class.
She was, though I think Grace Kelly and Ingrid Bergman gave her a run for the money in both departments.
Marni Nixon sang for Natalie Wood in West Side Story and for Deborah Kerr in The King and I. I knew this from way back because I was a musical nerd in high school and hung with a crowd of musical nerds, one of whom said he was going to write a letter to Marni Nixon, saying, “What’s wrong with you? Are you old? Are you fat? Are you ugly? Can’t you act?” because her voice was quite beautiful. I learned later that she did perform fairly extensively and taught classical singing at various conservatories.
I think tregonsee314 hits on one of the main reasons that Julie Andrews was passed over. The story I’ve heard is that the producer of the film of My Fair Lady wanted a bigger name for the film and vetoed Julie Andrews for that reason. When Julie Andrews received a Golden Globe award for Mary Poppins, the last person she thanked was Jack Warner, the producer of My Fair Lady. You can read the summary and see the relevant video clip at this link. https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/julie-andrews-speech/
“Well that’s it. I’m never going to see a more beautiful woman.” By God I was right! As if she needed anything else, she exuded class.
==
She was poised and her appearance satisfactory. I don’t think she was peculiarly attractive. Among her contemporaries (those born 1922 to 1934), I’d rate the primes of Piper Laurie, Grace Kelly, Nancy Olson, Lauren Bacall, and Ava Gardner higher than her’s in this respect. I’d rate Marilyn Monroe and Betsy Palmer higher as well, though I disapprove of coloring one’s hair. (I’ve never found Elizabeth Taylor all that appealing; comparing Kim Novak ca. 1955 to Kim Novak later is a study in the principle of ‘less is more’ in re women’s grooming).