Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Mary Martin as Peter Pan

Mary Martin was born on this date in 1913. I'm sure you know that she went on to become a HUGE Broadway star. Many people remember her best for her portrayal of Peter Pan, which was also staged for telecast on NBC. The color production of the play was first shown in 1960.
In addition to the VHS, shown above, I also have this music book from the original Broadway production of the musical play:

These are pictures from inside the book:


I am unsure how old I was when I first saw the NBC production, but I do know we all watched it and loved it. We were also familiar with Mary Martin because Mother had the Original Broadway Cast Recording album from Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound Of Music. We loved listening to that, too. You know, there are a couple of songs that weren't in the feature film with Julie Andrews, ones that I always really liked, such as "No Way to Stop It", and "How Can Love Survive". So, when I need a Sound Of Music fix, I enjoy listening to both albums.
Mary was also lauded for her performance as Nellie Forbush in South Pacific. She won the Tony Award for all three of these roles, and another for "I Do!, I Do!" She also won an Emmy Award for the TV production of Peter Pan.
Here she is ,below, in caricatures done by the late, great Al Hirschfeld (I feel another favorite artist post coming up!), on the cover of my "This Is Broadway's Best" LP :

She was one fabulous entertainer, of that there can be no doubt.

3 comments:

Tina Dawn said...

I loved Mary Martin, she was so talented and pretty. I think we probably watched Peter Pan the very first time it was on TV, I remember being pretty young, I would have been 8 years old. So you wouldn't remember it too well, being pretty small. Remember when we saw it at the Music Circus? Great play! Super super post, loved it. I want to go dig out some music and listen to it, but I think our old albums are mostly packed away. I enjoyed seeing the Hirschfeld caricatures, wasn't he talented? Love T

jungle dream pagoda said...

Happy B-day Mary!!!
Naturally, I had all these recordings (snapped up at garage sales!!)love her Nellie Forbush...UN-EQUALED!!

yosemite faith said...

i love peter pan. john worked with a girl in stockton that went to disneyland and told them to have a peter pan character - her! she was petite, short hair & freckles and they said yes. she was the first one to do that at disneyland. mary martin is fantastic. i think the best peter pan ever!