Lucille Ball decided she would be Mame
, the grandest auntie of them all. She would co-produce the movie adaptation of the Broadway musical which was in turn based on the Broadway play Auntie Mame starring Rosiland Russell, who repeated her performance for a subsequent film version in the '50s. In Jerry Herman's Broadway musicalization, Angela Lansbury "doubled her fame" with a fiery, inspired performance that was also destined to repeat itself for the big screen and be preserved on celluloid till the end of civilization.
, the grandest auntie of them all. She would co-produce the movie adaptation of the Broadway musical which was in turn based on the Broadway play Auntie Mame starring Rosiland Russell, who repeated her performance for a subsequent film version in the '50s. In Jerry Herman's Broadway musicalization, Angela Lansbury "doubled her fame" with a fiery, inspired performance that was also destined to repeat itself for the big screen and be preserved on celluloid till the end of civilization.
Alas, stirrings of a Mame movie didn't surface until Ms. Ball showed a financial interest in the project. But, of course, she wanted to star. It may have worked at one point, but by 1972 (when filming began) Lucy was starting to show some wear and tear. Any credibility she could muster in the role was alarmingly undermined by the fact she was huffing and puffing her way through her performance!
The talk around Hollywood was that Lucy's singing would be dubbed by Lisa Kirk, but it never came to fruition (rumors still circulate about the existence of possible tracks Lisa may have recorded). Lucy did all her own singing and you can blame the movie's reputation on that fact alone. Here, she croaks out "If He Walked Into My Life," backed by searing orchestrations from the mind and soul of Ralph Burns.
