Gilbert & Sullivan: Greatest Hits - Rare TV Performances (DVD)

GILBERT & SULLIVAN: GREATEST HITS Rare performances from the Golden Age of Television (1957-1963)
A compilation of Gilbert & Sullivan gems, including never-before-issued performances by Martyn Green, Cyril Ritchard, and Tennessee Ernie Ford, as well as scenes from Yeomen of the Guard (Alfred Drake and Barbara Cook) and The Mikado (Helen Traubel, Robert Rounseville, Barbara Meister).
Color / B&W, 93 minutes, 4:3, All regions

Tennessee Ernie Ford in Scenes from THE MIKADO
(The Ford Show, telecast of April 16, 1959)
Part I
If you want to know who we are (Chorus)
Introduction (Ernie Ford)
A wand’ring minstrel I (Nanki-Poo, Chorus)
Three little maids from school are we (Yum-Yum, Pitti-Sing, Peep-Bo)
Behold the Lord High Executioner... As some day it may happen (I’ve got a little list) (Ko-Ko, Chorus)
Were you not to Ko-Ko plighted (Yum-Yum, Nanki-Poo)
Your revels cease!... Ye torrents roar (Katisha, Chorus, Nanki-Poo)
Part II
The sun, whose rays are all ablaze (Yum-Yum)
Here’s a how-de-do! (Yum-Yum, Nanki-Poo, Ko-Ko)
Mi-ya sa-ma... A more humane Mikado (Chorus, The Mikado)
Finale: For he’s gone and married Yum-Yum (Entire Ensemble)

Cast: Tennessee Ernie Ford (Ko-Ko/Narrator); Deltra Kamsler (Yum-Yum); Ken Remo (Nanki-Poo); Ted Wills (The Mikado); Joanne Burgin (Pitti-Sing); Donna Cooke (Peep-Bo); Karen Wessler (Katisha); and The Top Twenty

• • • • • • •

Martyn Green in Scenes from H.M.S. PINAFORE
(The Bell Telephone Hour, telecast of November 19, 1963)
Dialogue (Capt. Corcoran, Josephine)
Now give three cheers... I am the monarch of the sea (Capt. Corcoran, Chorus, Sir Joseph)
Dialogue (Sir Joseph, Capt. Corcoran)
The hours creep on apace (Josephine)
Never mind the why and wherefore (Capt. Corcoran, Sir Joseph, Josephine, Chorus)

Cast: Martyn Green (Sir Joseph Porter); Margot Moser (Josephine); Mac Morgan (Capt. Corcoran)

• • • • • • •

Martyn Green and Cyril Ritchard: GILBERT & SULLIVAN MEDLEY
(The Bell Telephone Hour, telecast of October 22, 1962)
When I go out of door from PATIENCE (Green and Ritchard, with chorus)
When a felon’s not engaged in his employment from THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE (Ritchard, with chorus)
I am the very model of a modern Major-General from THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE (Green, with chorus)
Behold the Lord High Executioner... As some day it may happen (I’ve got a little list) from THE MIKADO (Green and Ritchard, with Chorus)
Willow, tit-willow from THE MIKADO (Green)
For the merriest fellows are we from THE GONDOLIERS (Green and Ritchard, with chorus)

• • • • • • •

Selections from THE YEOMEN OF THE GUARD
(Hallmark Hall of Fame, live telecast of April 10, 1957)
I have a song to sing, O! (or, “The Merryman and his Maid”) (Point, Elsie, Chorus)
’Tis done! I am a bride (Elsie)
Dialogue; Hereupon we’re both agreed (Point, Wilfred)

Cast: Alfred Drake (Jack Point); Barbara Cook (Elsie Maynard), Henry Calvin (Wilfred Shadbolt)

• • • • • • •

Selections from THE MIKADO
(The Bell Telephone Hour, telecast of April 29, 1960)
A wand’ring minstrel I (Nanki-Poo, chorus)
The sun, whose rays are all ablaze (Yum-Yum)
Hearts do not break (Katisha)

Cast: Robert Rounseville (Nanki-Poo); Barbara Meister (Yum-Yum); Helen Traubel (Katisha)

• • • • • • •

Tennessee Ernie Ford in Scenes from H.M.S. PINAFORE
(The Ford Show, telecast of January 14, 1960)
Part I
We sail the ocean blue (Chorus)
Introduction (Ernie Ford)
I’m called Little Buttercup (Buttercup)
I am the Captain of the Pinafore (Capt. Corcoran, chorus)
Sorry her lot (Josephine)
Now give three cheers... I am the monarch of the sea (Sir Joseph, Chorus)
Forbear!... Let’s give three cheers for the sailor’s bride (Dick Deadeye, Chorus)
Part II
Introduction (Ernie Ford)
Never mind the why and wherefore (Capt. Corcoran, Sir Joseph, Josephine)
Carefully on tiptoe stealing... He is an English man (Ensemble)
Finale: I shall marry with a wife in my humble rank of life (Ensemble)
Closing

Cast: Tennessee Ernie Ford (Sir Joseph Porter); Donna Cooke (Josephine); Joanne Burgin (Hebe); Susan Lovell (Little Buttercup); Ken Harp (Dick Deadeye); Chet Fisher (Ralph Rackstraw); Dick Wessler (Captain Corcoran); Howard Chitjean (Bill Bobstay); Don Kent (Bob Beckett); Katherine Steele (Sir Joseph’s Sister); and The Top Twenty

• • • • • • •

All selections: Music by Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900); Texts by W.S. Gilbert (1836-1911)

Segments from The Ford Show starring Tennessee Ernie Ford under exclusive license with Betford Corporation/Tennessee Ernie Ford Enterprises, LP; © Tennessee Ernie Ford Enterprises, LP (All Rights Reserved)

Segments from The Bell Telephone Hour originally produced for The Bell Telephone Hour television series. A Production of Henry Jaffe Enterprises, Inc.; © 2012 Jaffe Partners Limited Partnership (All Rights Reserved)

Selections from The Yeomen of the Guard (1957) and The Mikado (1960) © 2012 Video Artists International, Inc. (Film source for Yeomen: UCLA Film & Television Archive.) (All Rights Reserved)

DVD Creative Content © 2012 Video Artists International, Inc. (All Rights Reserved)