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Reviews
Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall (1962)
A Great, Fun Show
I saw the telecast twice (it was rerun several months after the premier) and it was fantastic. However, beware the LP of the show: it's not from the show but a re-recording. The performances are slightly different and the audience laughter is weak and obviously fake. Get the original TV version! I haven't seen it but I hope the commercials are left in. Most of them were part of the show and there is some good bantering between Carol and George Fenneman. The show ran 1 hour with hardly any breaks----imagine that today! Carol's persona was so different then; her makeup emphasized the size of her mouth and her character was that of an un-ladylike tomboy. It worked well: don't forget this was a time that, on the East coast anyway, many women in public still wore white gloves! Her character mellowed to perfection in her own show.
Red Garters (1954)
Don't Forget the Soundtrack Album
Red Garters certainly is a peculiar movie. I liked it as a child (where I didn't understand all of it), and not so much as an adult. It's a novelty, to be sure. The best part of this is not the film but the soundtrack. Anyone liking the movie should have the original album. The songs were released on a 10" Columbia red-label LP. This is the best presentation of the music and it really flatters the movie. Don't know about the re-issues and CDs; they often "improve" the sound by adding or removing re-verb, or altering the mix. Find the 10" LP on e-Bay and get the best. As an example, the song "Dime and a Dollar" in the movie is sung as a throwaway, too fast and offhand. On the record, it's presented much slower, more in the cowboy-song rhythm that does it justice. All the songs on the album are better in this kind of way.