Saturday, November 25, 2006

THE DAY AFTER "BLACK FRIDAY" AND AN ANNIVERSARY FOR "ONCE UPON A MATTRESS"


Today in 1959, Carol Burnett made her debut in show business by appearing in the lead of a show written by Mary Rodgers (daughter of Richard Rodgers) and Marshall Baher (who also wrote "The Mighty Mouse Theme". It went went on to do 540 performances which in the late 50's wasn't too bad. Jack Gilford played the minstrel and Edward Everett Horton played the mute old king. It literally launched Carol Burnett's career. It was directed by the legendary George Abbott. My favorite songs in the show are "Shy" and "I'm In Love With A Girl Named Fred". It's a fun show and based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale "The Princess and The Pea" To date it represents the only Broadway musical to be based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. My writing partner, Tim Doran and I have a great show called "The Traveling Companion" based on one of the great storyteller's earliest works. We have great hopes for it and will enter the piece in the ASCAP showcase contest later this month. Well, "Black Friday came and went and the store did a little over $7,000. That was about three grand less than last year, but the rest of the month should not be so hard to beat. Today is Saturday and the store's big sale continues. We are giving away $80 fleece jackets with certain cameras. Let's just hope we have in stock what the people want today. John and I got an early Christmas present yesterday. My cousin Sue sent us a beautiful electric blanket for our bed-- wow-- is it comfortable! It was so funny though. It arrived and John opened it up and laid it out on a big chair and almost immediately our Maine Coon cat, Simon jumped up and curled up almost all day in it. Who says cats aren't smart. He was so damn cute-- that look on his face was like "Ah, I'm in paradise now!" Well on to work. This time I work 11am to 7:30 pm and we shall see what the day brings!

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