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The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
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solely those of the hosts and their guests and not
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those of w FOCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
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make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
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or products mentioned on air or on our web. No
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liability explicitor implies shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio
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or its employees or affiliates. Any questions or comments should
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be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
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W FOURCY Radio.
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Who is January Jones. She is not a young, beautiful,
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talented actress on Mad Mad. She is not an older,
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gorgeous exotic dancer from The Johnny Carson Show. She is
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an author and she wrote Thou Show Not Why, the
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Eleventh Commandment that rates number one at Amazon dot com.
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She is a reality TV golf personality with World High
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Stakes Golf televised on hd Net. She is a huge
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wrist and whyologist expert. She is your featured host today
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on January Jones sharing success stories. So sit back, relax,
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and get ready to laugh and listen to Ms Jones
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with her eclectic roster of guests. As you learn life's lessons.
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These stories plus sharing equal success. Welcome and remember beware
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because you are entering the no whining world of January Jones.
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Hello everyone, I hope you're having a glittery, glowing day
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just like me. Today we'd like to welcome you to
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our podcasts. You know, I'm announcing my new brand, glitter
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Granny Gifts to give or to get, and this is
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so exciting to share with everyone. I'll be sharing glittering canes, drinks, hats, jewelry, phones,
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everything you name it, You'll be able to find it
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there at glitter granny dot com. I become an associate
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affiliate at Amazon in my old age, and I'm helped
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by my golden doodle, ginger Ail. So get ready to
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glitter and glow with us. After this podcast, go to
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glittergranny dot com for sure. Now, for my listeners, let
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me ask.
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You a question.
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Do you remember seeing Hello, Dolly Name and Lakache? These
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were the shows on Broadway And you know I happen
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to have been on Broadway in New York in nineteen
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sixty three when I was flying and based there for
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Eastern Airlines. So tell me you know who Jerry Herman
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is He is the brilliant person responsible for these incredible
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Broadway shows that we all have loved through the years. Now,
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would you like to meet someone who can tell us
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the inside story about this amazing man. If you can
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answer yes or maybe to any of these questions, then
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you are in the right place, and I'd like to
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welcome you to January Jones sharing senior success. Now, let
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me tell you a little bit about my guest today,
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but I do that time to rest, relax, Go get
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some wine, get some crackers, get some cheese, and join
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us in the no wine zone. My guest today is
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Jerry Herman's goddaughter, who will be sharing behind the scenes
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celebrity production stories from his amazing life. Our guest, by
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Jerry's own admission, was the most important person in his
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life other than his mother, and she is the manager
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of the Jerry Herman LLC and Estate. She'll share rare
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personal insights into the mind of this legendary man today.
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It's my pleasure and welcome to the show today. Jane
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Dorian the goddaughter.
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Hello Jane, Hello January, and oh my goodness, you are
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essentilating as your jewelry. It's such a pleasure to be
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with you.
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Well, I've then looking forward to this because, as I
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said in the introduction, I was there in nineteen sixty three.
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That's when I was twenty one and Broadway, New York.
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It was the most exciting time, and those were some
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of the very first Broadway shows I was fortunate met
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to ever see. Let's start with your connection. How did
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you become his God?
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It's a great question. So my mother and Jerry met
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the first day of college at the University of Miami
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when they were seventeen years old, and they were the
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two skinniest kids that ever existed. They one another that
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day at the quad and never said a word. That night,
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there was a freshman party and Jerry was at the
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piano playing the American Songbook. My mother, who was a
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trained singer, sat down next to him started singing, and
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the two of them made music together until the day
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she passed away, unfortunately way too soon. But that is
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what they did together, and it was quite a relationship.
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They were the brothers and sisters that never were.
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Okay, okay, that was my next question. Was it a.
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Romantic thing or were they a brother's sister and they
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had a very platonic friendship.
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How many years were they friends?
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Oh, my goodness, seventeen to sixty two, I'd have to
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do the math, but bought forty at least forty years.
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I mean that was something. I mean, you were so
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close that they could walk down the street really not
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even talking to one another, and then out of the blue,
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they would start singing the same song and in the
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same key. How do you explain that?
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Yeah, that's just that's karma.
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That's karma, and that's also charisma when two talents like
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that can get together. So your mother was very talented,
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and we all know Jerry was extremely talented. Did she
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ever perform in any of his shows like Old Hello
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Dolly or you know?
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I think she was pregnant with my brother during that
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time period. However, she did all of his backers auditions,
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and she did perform in his Broadway show The Grand Tour.
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She did many concerts with him over the years. So
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she was just just an integral part of his career.
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Oh wonderful.
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Now, Okay, there's seventeen and what happened after they left college?
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And well, let's on what happened in college. So, I
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mean Jerry's parents had a camp in a called Stissing
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Lake in the Berkshires, and Jerry was the musical director.
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So he basically grew up directing and writing special songs
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for the camp and lighting them and writing them and everything.
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So by the time he got to college, he was
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writing the reviews. He did shows in college. A lot
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of times, my mother, Carol Dorian, would be the musical
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director or the musical supervisor of those shows. So then
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by the time he graduates from college, he is playing
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the piano at piano bars and he lived on his
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tip money. And then all of a sudden, the off
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Broadway shows started to come So I Feel Wonderful and
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Madam Aphrodite, and then he was asked to do Milk
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and Honey, so I don't know. That was his first
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Broadway show. So that was about Israel, what it was
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like to go to Israel, the romance between an American
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and Israeli and through their eyes we get to see
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really the birth of a nation and all of the
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promise that Israel had to offer. And Jerry had never
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been to Israel, so he's flown over there and he
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is stunned. He said, you only really need one word
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and that's shalom, and that was the first song that
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he wrote for Milk and Money, so it was It's
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quite a beautiful, beautiful score. And as a matter of fact,
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I always say that that show demonstrated the promise of
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his musical ability. The music is o lush, and he
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really fulfills that promise throughout his entire career.
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That was a preview of coming to attractions exactly. Okay,
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So then he moved to New York, as did your
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mother also go to New York, and they both were
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formed from New York, right, Well.
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My mother was actually from North Carolina. Jerry was from
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Jersey City, and the second he graduated from college, he
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moved to New York, as did my mother, and my
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father was from New York. So they all just kind
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of as a unit moved together and that was their life.
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They saw every single show. I mean I heard stories
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of how they heard Judy Garland sing and they would
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serenade her under her window because they loved her so
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so much, you know, great great New York stories. I mean,
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can you imagine being young in the fifties and sixties
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in New York. It was the golden time for entertainment.
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I know, and that's why I was so real to
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have you come on the show and share some of
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these stories with us, because I was there.
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I was in that back road.
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That's about all I could afford, and a lot of
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those shows we would stand standing room only, and that
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was the cheapest way to get in and it was
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the best way to see the most incredible shows that
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have ever been on Broadway.
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Agreed. And I think when Hello Dolly came to be,
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it was a very significant show. It was the first
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happy musical after the Kennedy assassination and the country really
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needed to grieve. And the show is at its core
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about second chances, and I really feel that that song
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was the second chance for this country to heal, you know.
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And then you couple that with Louis Armstrong's recording of
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Hello Dolly that came out before the show opened, and
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it was a throwaway recording because that's when they did
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forty fives. You and I are old enough to remember
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the forty five records, and if you've got some young
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viewers who don't know about it, they were essentially singles
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where a very popular song was recorded on side A
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and side B was a throwaway and everyboy. Once in
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a while, you got lucky with a good song. Well,
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Louis Armstrong was in the studio recording his song A
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and then one of the musicians said, why didn't you
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just ky the song, this dolly song? He just literally
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improvised the whole thing. Wow, and it knocked the beatles
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off the charts.
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Oh my gosh.
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Put it in a Broadway show together, it's just an
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amazing undertaking. Could you kind of share a little with
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our listeners, what goes into it, how long it takes,
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and share a little bit about the difficulty and these
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type of shows.
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Let's start with your first question, and I think it's
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a great question. Putting together a Broadway show is the
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ultimate in collaboration, Okay, because Jerry would always rely on
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source material to write the songs, and his genius was
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understanding that the emotion was so pure that it became universal. However,
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without a great book, without a great libretto, where does
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he put a song? Why does a character even need
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to sing? So you had that very first collaboration, and
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then you have a director who can basically pull it
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all together, and the choreographer is so important, and the
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lighting and the sound and the musicians, and back in
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those days you had full orchestras. You had orchestras between
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twenty five and thirty piece orchestras, and the sound was glorious.
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So it really no man is an island, you know.
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When it comes to a Broadway show, Yes, the casting
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is hugely important, but many people may not know. Carol
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Channing was not the first choice for Hello Dolly. That
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may be to believe, because she was the most iconic.
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She was Hello Dolly, but initially Jerry had thought that
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ethel Merman would be Hello Dolly. And I can really
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see that, I mean that big voice. But she was exhausted,
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she had come off a show and she wanted to break,
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but she did. She was the last Dolly. And when
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she did perform Hello Dolly, he gave her a brand
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new song to sing.
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Oh really, so that was that was pretty wonderful.
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Nanette Fabrae was offered it and she define And then
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the third one was Mary Martin, and Mary Martin was
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committed to a show and that closed three days after
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it opened, and I'm sure she was very upset. She didn't,
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you know, take it.
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And then there was.
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Carol Chatting and thank goodness. I mean you mentioned karma.
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I heard the opening. Karma is huge. This one was
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just meant to be. Can you imagine anyone other than
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Carol being Dolly Gallagher Levi.
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Oh my gosh.
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That world was just made for her and she just
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was incredible in it. And I just love exactly what
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she said about the country needed it, because that was
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nineteen sixty three and after the assassination, it was just
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the country was in a depression. We will a tailspin
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and to get people to come out go to the
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theater and here's laugh yeah, laughter and smiles and cheerful
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that would be.
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That was like a.
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Tonic for the whole country. That's in amazing. What a wonderful,
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wonderful timing for that. And to find out that she
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was the fourth choice.
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Wow, and so so yeah, so she really she became
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a brand in an institution when when she performed Hello Dolly.
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And then in terms of casting, you know, it's huge.
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Who whoever is your leading lady or leading men really
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sets the tone for the show. Jerry very much wanted
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Angela Lansbury to play name and she had just come
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off of the Mentorian Candidate, which was a very dark,