Here's another musical number by the Golddiggers from, I believe, their 1970 summer series that occupied Dean Martin's time slot. The song is "Elegance" from Hello, Dolly — and has everyone here heard the rumor that this song wasn't written, like the credits of that musical said all the songs were, by Jerry Herman? Some claim, though I believe Mr. Herman denies, that he had at least one ghost-written tune forced on him by the producer, David Merrick. There was this one and the claim is that it was written by Bob Merrill. Mr. Merrill, of course, wrote a number of fine Broadway scores and also worked as lyricist-only with Jule Styne on Funny Girl and, more importantly, Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol. Talented man.
So did he write this or did Jerry Herman? Beats me.
I have written here before of how I used to trespass in the NBC Studios in Burbank in the early seventies, wandering from studio to studio, trying to look like I knew where I was going and belonged there. I watched Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In tape. I watched Bob Hope do his specials. I watched Johnny Carson, when he brought his show out from New York, tape. I watched Flip Wilson rehearse. And I watched The Dean Martin Show rehearse, which of course meant I never saw Dean…there. I saw him once when I went as a legit audience member but never saw him at rehearsals…which was okay because I usually did see either Lou Jacobi or some other great comic actor. Or sometimes, there were The Golddiggers or their spin-off group, The Ding-A-Ling Sisters. No hardship watching them practice in leotards.
Perhaps you have figured out that I had…well, I guess at age eighteen, I was too old to call it a "crush." What I was doing was trying to strike up a conversation with a certain Golddigger and deftly segue into a suggestion of dinner. I suppose I had other things in mind but was quite willing to settle for dinner. Hell, I would have settled for conversation over a Milky Way bar from the vending machine in the hallway and I had all sorts of witty banter locked and loaded should the opportunity arise then…which, of course, it didn't. (Don't watch this clip and try to guess which one I had my eye on. She's not in it.) But I did develop a fondness for the act quite apart from any physical attractions towards the ladies. Here they be…
