A 70th anniversary salute to the comic strip-turned stage mainstay…
By PETER BOSCH
It already had tryouts in Washington, Boston, and Philadelphia, but now it had reached its destination — BROADWAY! On November 15, 1956 — 70 years ago — sophisticated, dressed to-the-nines New Yorkers stepped out of their limousines and taxis and went into the St. James Theatre to see a new musical about a hillbilly: Li’l Abner!
There had been other times when Abner Yokum went away from the newspaper comic page. Among those were a short-lived radio show (from 1939 to 1940), a terrible 1940 low-budget feature film, and five cartoon shorts produced by Columbia Pictures in 1944 that were even worse than the 1940 movie.
A musical about Al Capp’s famous character was clearly a risky venture unless done right, but it had been considered for a number of years. None of the producing teams that got the option from Capp stuck with it. Well, that is until Norman Panama and Melvin Frank came along.
Norman Panama and Melvin Frank
Here are 13 THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT THE LI’L ABNER BROADWAY MUSICAL:
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1. Panama and Frank were a winning Hollywood screenwriting team, with Bob Hope hits such as My Favorite Blonde (1941), The Road to Utopia (1946), and Monsieur Beaucaire (1946). They also wrote Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), the box-office smash comedy starring Cary Grant and Myrna Loy. Thanks to those successes, they moved up in the industry, becoming a triple threat – writing, producing, and directing. One film that employed them in that capacity was the hilarious Danny Kaye picture, The Court Jester (1955).
That’s right — the team that gave you, “The pellet with the poison’s in the vessel with the pestle. The chalice from the palace has the brew that is true.”
They decided to give Broadway – and Li’l Abner – a try.
The plot they came up with involved the Sadie Hawkins Day race, the possible atomization of Dogpatch, a health tonic called Yokumberry, and a corrupt businessman who wants its formula and plans to have his mistress marry Abner to get it.
The businessman would then arrange for Abner’s “suicide” — but it all comes out right in the end for the citizens of Dogpatch, with the imprisonment of the businessman and his mistress, and Abner marrying Daisy Mae! (Think that’s something? Watch The Court Jester!)
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2. The director, choreographer, and co-producer of Li’l Abner was Michael Kidd, who was also the choreographer for a previous backwoods musical — MGM’s hit movie, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954).
Michael Kidd with a pleasing passel of Dogpatch damsels
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3. Speaking of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, that score was written by Johnny Mercer (lyricist) and Gene de Paul (composer). Guess which duo was hired to write the musical score for Li’l Abner?
Gene de Paul (and Johnny Mercer
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4. The cast’s top-billed star was Edith (“Edie”) Adams playing Daisy Mae. She was a well-known singer and actress, as well as married to one of television’s most inventive and popular comedians, Ernie Kovacs.
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5. For Peter Palmer – the Li’l Abner of the title – this was his very first Broadway role. He was a complete newcomer to the Great White Way. As a matter of fact, in June of that year he made an appearance on Ed Sullivan’s TV show as part of a military salute one Sunday evening. It was there that Panama and Frank first saw him.
They were going to hire Dick Shawn (“Hitler” in Mel Brooks’ later film The Producers) to play Abner but one look at Palmer was a revelation. He was 6’3”, handsome, muscular – the spitting image of Li’l Abner – and he could sing beautifully. Palmer finished his service in the Army and went on his way to rehearsals!
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6. The best-known member of the cast was Stubby Kaye as Marryin’ Sam. In the 1950 Broadway musical Guys and Dolls, he played Nicely-Nicely Johnson and brought down the house each night with one of the most popular songs in the show, “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat.” In Li’l Abner, he got another winner with the song “Jubilation T. Cornpone.”
From the 1959 film version of Li’l Abner, with Stubby Kaye reprising his Broadway role.
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7. Charlotte Rae (TV’s The Facts of Life) was the original Mammy Yokum but was replaced by Billie Hayes when Rae left the show. Hayes would also get to play Mammy in the 1959 film and, actually, she had been Panama and Frank’s first choice for the stage role but she couldn’t get out of her contract with another production at the time. (Hayes became famous later as Witchiepoo on the television series H.R. Pufnstuf.)
Mammy Yokum x 2: Charlotte Rae, left, and Billie Hayes
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8. You know, I’ve mentioned Seven Brides for Seven Brothers a couple of times, but I need to do so once more. In that film, there was a supporting actress by the name of Julie Newmeyer. Because she was one of several brides-to-be in it, she wasn’t given much chance to shine. However, as Julie Newmar, in Li’l Abner, she was stupefyin’! Stupefyin’ Jones, that is!
In the following video (from the film, which Newmar was also in), she shows her man-stopping power (four times!). It is also a brilliant recreation by Dee Dee Wood of Michael Kidd’s original choreography for the “Sadie Hawkins Day Ballet.” (Stella Stevens plays Appassionata von Climax in this version. And that is Al Nesor recreating his Broadway role as Evil Eye Fleagle putting the whammy on Li’l Abner.)
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9. Oh, before I forget… you might be wondering: “When is Sadie Hawkins Day?” The first time it was mentioned was in the Li’l Abner comic strip of November 15, 1937. Over time, that got altered to November 13… and then the first Saturday in November…and then – for the last published daily strip by Al Capp –it was November 26.
Al Capp’s final Li’l Abner published daily strip, November 5, 1977.
And let’s put to rest forever that it occurs on February 29, Leap Year Day (sometimes referred to as “Bachelor’s Day,” which has roots in an Irish legend dating back to the 5th century). February 29 is not Sadie Hawkins Day!
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10. Backstage at the St. James Theatre, Newmar shared a dressing room with another actress, one whose future fame would be playing a movie star on an uncharted desert isle with six other stranded castaways. Yes, Tina Louise was Appassionata von Climax in the original Broadway production.
Left: Julie Newmar and Tina Louise in their dressing room. Right: Appassionata von Climax with General Bullmoose (Howard St. John), the villain out to kill Abner.
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11. Other future TV stars abounded in Li’l Abner. Valerie Harper (Rhoda Morgenstern on TV’s The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda) made her Broadway debut in 1958 as a replacement dancer in the show. (She got cast in the movie, as well. Go back and look at the Sadie Hawkins Day race video. Harper’s the one with the butterfly net!) Another one to look for in the movie version is Beth Howland (Vera on TV’s Alice).
From the movie: Valerie Harper, Carmen Alvarez, and Beth Howland
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12. And, hey, since you are going to look for Harper and Howland in the movie, pay close attention and you will see yet another future television star in a brief moment — Donna Douglas (Elly May on The Beverly Hillbillies).
Donna Douglas, at left
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13. On Perry Como’s January 26, 1957, TV program, his guests were Peter Palmer and Edie Adams, in their Li’l Abner garb. They sang “Namely You” from the show at the 19:08 mark in this clip, and then a follow-up at 28:45, finishing by saying they are due at the St. James Theatre.
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Some BONUS tidbits:
— The Li’l Abner Original Cast Album from Columbia Records’ went on sale November 26, 1956.
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Palmer, Kaye, and Adams during the recording session for the cast album:
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— Life magazine’s cover story of January 14, 1957, gave the production a big plug:
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— Peter Palmer won a Theatre World Award for Li’l Abner. At the 1957 Tony Awards ceremony, Edie Adams received “Best Featured Actress in a Musical,” and Michael Kidd racked up another “Best Choreography” win (his fourth).
— The Broadway production closed July 12, 1958, after 693 performances. Just a year and a half after the closing, Paramount Pictures (which had financed the Broadway production) gave the American public an early Christmas present with the December 11, 1959, release of the Li’l Abner motion picture (directed by Melvin Frank), with many of the original cast members reprising their roles.
— A final piece of fun trivia: A summer stock production of the Li’l Abner musical was put on in Sullivan, Illinois, at the Grand Theatre in 1960. Playing Abner was… Alan Alda, who was 24 years old at the time!
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MORE
— 13 THINGS You May Not Know About MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE. Click here.
— FOUR COLOR RADIO: The Great DICK TRACY. Click here.
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13th Dimension contributor-at-large PETER BOSCH’s first book, American TV Comic Books: 1940s-1980s – From the Small Screen to the Printed Page, was published by TwoMorrows. (You can buy it here.) A sequel, American Movie Comic Books: 1930s-1970s — From the Silver Screen to the Printed Page, is out now. (Buy it here.) Peter has written articles and conducted celebrity interviews for various magazines and newspapers. He lives in Hollywood.
