{"id":37135,"date":"2022-05-06T18:57:28","date_gmt":"2022-05-06T22:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=37135"},"modified":"2022-05-06T18:57:28","modified_gmt":"2022-05-06T22:57:28","slug":"the-bootleg-files-julie-carol-at-carnegie-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2022\/05\/06\/the-bootleg-files-julie-carol-at-carnegie-hall\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: Julie & Carol at Carnegie Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 801: <\/strong>\u201cJulie & Carol at Carnegie Hall\u201d (1962 TV special starring Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett). <\/p>\n

LAST SEEN: <\/strong>On YouTube.
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\nAMERICAN HOME VIDEO:<\/strong> None.<\/p>\n

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS:<\/strong> Mostly likely due to music rights issues.<\/p>\n

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:<\/strong> Probably not.<\/p>\n

In 1962, Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett were on the cusp of superstardom. Andrews had back-to-back Broadway triumphs with \u201cMy Fair Lady\u201d and \u201cCamelot\u201d while Burnett had gained fame from her standout comedy performances in the Broadway musical \u201cOnce Upon a Mattress\u201d and on Garry Moore\u2019s television variety show. Surprisingly, there was initial reluctance from CBS to move forward with a proposed TV special starring the two women \u2013 the network felt that Andrews was not that well known to the wider American public while simultaneously arguing that Burnett was too familiar from Moore\u2019s weekly show.
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Long story short, the network agreed to move forward with a one-shot TV special and arranged to have it staged at New York City\u2019s Carnegie Hall in order to give the production a prestigious framing \u2013 after all, if Andrews and Burnett were good enough to play at Carnegie Hall, they were good enough to arrive in the living rooms of America via CBS.<\/p>\n

\u201cJulie & Carol at Carnegie Hall\u201d was broadcast on June 11, 1962, and won Emmy Awards for Burnett and the production (in the now-defunct category of Outstanding Program Achievement in the Field of Music). In retrospect, the special seemed like a stepping stone for the two stars \u2013 Andrews would star in \u201cMary Poppins\u201d two years later while Burnett gained further visibility via additional television appearances before the 1967 launch of classic variety series.<\/p>\n

But viewed today, \u201cJulie & Carol at Carnegie Hall\u201d is not a particularly memorable experience. The production\u2019s emphasis on broad comedy played better to Burnett\u2019s talents \u2013 no surprise, as her husband Joe Hamilton was the director. Mike Nichols co-wrote the show, but there is little of his wit and style evident on display. The result feels like a primitive version of \u201cThe Carol Burnett Show,\u201d with Andrews gamely trying to maintain her star status in a vehicle not worthy of her talents.<\/p>\n

Initially, the show starts in a clever manner that suggests something original is coming \u2013 a montage of still photographs from an alleged rehearsal with a soundtrack of the stars vocalizing, with Andrews reacting in varying degrees of anxiety at Burnett\u2019s less-than-stellar musical skills.<\/p>\n

When the stars come out before the audience, Burnett steamrolls through a faux-torch song while Andrews feigns embarrassment. The duo then performs a new song called \u201cYou\u2019re So London\u201d where each compliments the other\u2019s geographically-rooted personalities (in this case, Andrews\u2019 prim and proper English upbringing and Burnett\u2019s down-home Texas foundation). Andrews is funnier trying to be a good-ol\u2019-American than Burnett is trying to be a posh Brit.<\/p>\n

But from that point, things start to go awry. Andrews performs a fussy updated version of the old English ballad \u201cOh Dear, What Can the Matter Be?\u201d \u2013 why that, of all possible songs? She joins Burnett and a battalion of male dancers in a spoof of Russia\u2019s celebrated Moiseyev Ballet (called the \u201cNausiev Ballet\u201d here). The dancing is good but not particularly funny, although both women are able to keep up with the professional dancers supporting them.<\/p>\n

This is followed by Burnett attempting a serious torch song called \u201cMeantime,\u201d but she is unable to shed her comic vibes \u2013 she is such a larger-than-life clown that her attempt to detour into Billie Holiday territory is a misguided bore. The male dancers come back for an extended spoof of \u201cThe Sound of Music,\u201d which is funny only when Andrews remarks about her earlier life as a Swiss nun \u2013 back in 1962, no one would have imagined Andrews taking on Mary Martin\u2019s Broadway triumph.<\/p>\n

The two stars shed the dance shtick to sit on stools and perform a melody of popular tunes in a segment framed as a history of American musical comedy. But unfortunately, they veer back into shtick, with Andrews doing a dismal spoof of torch singing on \u201cWhy Was I Born?\u201d and Burnett cutting the ham too thick with \u201cStick With Your Own Kind\u201d from \u201cWest Side Story.\u201d The show ends with the male dancers (again?) in cowboy gear while the women wear oversized cowboy hats and chaps in a number wrapped around Frank Loesser\u2019s \u201cBig D\u201d tune.<\/p>\n

Andrews and Burnett would reteam later for the TV specials \u201cJulie and Carol at Lincoln Center\u201d in 1971 and \u201cJulie & Carol: Together Again\u201d in 1989. While they clearly enjoyed each other\u2019s company, their pairings came across in what the English would refer to a chalk-and-cheese union \u2013 two items that are wonderful as separate entities but just don\u2019t belong together. Perhaps the women realized they were not a satisfactory pair \u2013 Andrews was never a guest on Burnett\u2019s variety show while Burnett was absent when Andrews had her own variety show in the early 1970s.<\/p>\n

\u201cJulie & Carol at Carnegie Hall\u201d was never released in any home entertainment video format \u2013 clearing the music rights to the songs in the special would be expensive, and the commercial value of bringing this one-shot effort to DVD and Blu-ray might not seem viable. A so-so video copy can be found on YouTube, for those curious to see that this production was all about.<\/p>\n