Les Poupées de Paris
Encyclopedia
Les Poupées de Paris was a musical puppet show created, produced and directed by Sid and Marty Krofft
, that toured the United States
throughout the 1960s.
and had a successful career on stages in America and Europe throughout the 1950s. One morning, Sid awoke with the idea to create a show with his marionettes for adults only , complete with music, comedy, horror, celebrities and topless puppets.
Nat Hart, a maître d' at the Flamingo Hotel, became a fan of the Krofft's work during repeated viewings of their shows at the hotel. Hart approached the Kroffts one day and announced that he was going to open a club, and he asked the Kroffts to put together a puppet show as an attraction for the new club.
The resulting show, which came to be known as Les Poupées de Paris, was modeled after the revues at Paris' Lido and Folies Bergere. The Kroffts opened the show at their newly built theater at "The Gilded Rafters" in the San Fernando Valley
, California
in October 1961., though the show was later relocated to "P.J's," a 200-seat dinner theatre in Los Angeles
.
In addition to original characters, many of the puppets were modeled after celebrities. The Kroffts had been the opening act for entertainers like Judy Garland
and Sammy Davis Jr. so they were able to get many celebrities to record voices for their puppets. Some of these puppets included Pearl Bailey
, Milton Berle
, Cyd Charisse
, Gene Kelly
, Liberace
, Jayne Mansfield
, Tony Martin
, Phil Silvers
, Loretta Young
and Mae West
, whose puppet appeared topless. A handful of puppets were unofficially modeled after celebrities (Pelvis Essley), and several weren't created specifically for the show -- their Frankenstein
, Dracula
and Madame Jenkins Foster
puppets all made brief appearances in the 1957 television pilot
Here's Irving
.
The show was a success, and became a key attraction at The Seattle World's Fair
in 1962, and the New York World's Fair in 1964-1965. The lavish production cost $200,000 to produce, the elaborate sets took three months to install and included a revolving theatre, elevators, an ice-skating rink and waterfall. The Reverend Billy Graham
caught the premiered World's Fair performance of the show and immediately denounced it, citing the "women don't wear bras". He failed to mention that the "women" were puppets. This anti-endorsement, coupled with a write-up in Time Magazine, resulted in the show taking in record crowds -- the Kroffts claimed that tickets were scalped and the performances were so packed that they couldn't let in personal friends. "Be sure to mention it's dirty, that will give them the picture," Marty explained.
The show traveled around the country for the remainder of the decade and was seen by an estimated nine and a half million people.
(December 8, 1964).
Les Poupées itself led to brief stint on The Dean Martin Show
. In 1964, producer of The Dean Martin Show
caught Les Poupées de Paris at the New York World's Fair, and recruited the Kroffts to create a puppet segment on Martin's variety show that captured the essence of Les Poupées. This was their first break into television, but it was to be short-lived; the Kroffts were fired after 8 episodes because Martin felt he was being upstaged by the puppets.
in 1965. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award
for "Best Engineered Recording - Special or Novel Effects," but it lost out to The Chipmunks Sing the Beatles Hits
.
Sid and Marty Krofft
Sid Krofft and Marty Krofft , are a sibling team of television producers who were influential in children's television and variety show programs in the USA, particularly throughout the 1970s and early 1980s....
, that toured the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
throughout the 1960s.
History
Puppeteers Sid and Marty KrofftSid and Marty Krofft
Sid Krofft and Marty Krofft , are a sibling team of television producers who were influential in children's television and variety show programs in the USA, particularly throughout the 1970s and early 1980s....
and had a successful career on stages in America and Europe throughout the 1950s. One morning, Sid awoke with the idea to create a show with his marionettes for adults only , complete with music, comedy, horror, celebrities and topless puppets.
Nat Hart, a maître d' at the Flamingo Hotel, became a fan of the Krofft's work during repeated viewings of their shows at the hotel. Hart approached the Kroffts one day and announced that he was going to open a club, and he asked the Kroffts to put together a puppet show as an attraction for the new club.
The resulting show, which came to be known as Les Poupées de Paris, was modeled after the revues at Paris' Lido and Folies Bergere. The Kroffts opened the show at their newly built theater at "The Gilded Rafters" in the San Fernando Valley
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in October 1961., though the show was later relocated to "P.J's," a 200-seat dinner theatre in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
In addition to original characters, many of the puppets were modeled after celebrities. The Kroffts had been the opening act for entertainers like Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
and Sammy Davis Jr. so they were able to get many celebrities to record voices for their puppets. Some of these puppets included Pearl Bailey
Pearl Bailey
Pearl Mae Bailey was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968...
, Milton Berle
Milton Berle
Milton Berlinger , better known as Milton Berle, was an American comedian and actor. As the manic host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater , in 1948 he was the first major star of U.S. television and as such became known as Uncle Miltie and Mr...
, Cyd Charisse
Cyd Charisse
Cyd Charisse was an American actress and dancer.After recovering from polio as a child, and studying ballet, Charisse entered films in the 1940s...
, Gene Kelly
Gene Kelly
Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer...
, Liberace
Liberace
Wladziu Valentino Liberace , best known simply as Liberace, was a famous American pianist and vocalist.In a career that spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements, Liberace became world-renowned...
, Jayne Mansfield
Jayne Mansfield
Jayne Mansfield was an American actress working both in Hollywood and on the Broadway theatre...
, Tony Martin
Tony Martin
Anthony or Tony Martin may refer to:Education*Tony Martin , professor at Wellesley College known for racial controversies in the early 1990s.*Donald A...
, Phil Silvers
Phil Silvers
Phil Silvers was an American entertainer and comedy actor, known as "The King of Chutzpah." He is best known for starring in The Phil Silvers Show, a 1950s sitcom set on a U.S...
, Loretta Young
Loretta Young
Loretta Young was an American actress. Starting as a child actress, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953...
and Mae West
Mae West
Mae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades....
, whose puppet appeared topless. A handful of puppets were unofficially modeled after celebrities (Pelvis Essley), and several weren't created specifically for the show -- their Frankenstein
Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...
, Dracula
Dracula
Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...
and Madame Jenkins Foster
Florence Foster Jenkins
Florence Foster Jenkins was an American amateur operatic soprano who was known, and ridiculed, for her lack of rhythm, pitch, tone, and overall singing ability.-Early years:...
puppets all made brief appearances in the 1957 television pilot
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
Here's Irving
Here's Irving
Here's Irving is a 1957 color television pilot produced by Sid and Marty Krofft featuring a wide array of their marionettes. The pilot never aired on television, but it was released in 2003 as a special feature on the H.R...
.
The show was a success, and became a key attraction at The Seattle World's Fair
World's Fair
World's fair, World fair, Universal Exposition, and World Expo are various large public exhibitions held in different parts of the world. The first Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom, in 1851, under the title "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All...
in 1962, and the New York World's Fair in 1964-1965. The lavish production cost $200,000 to produce, the elaborate sets took three months to install and included a revolving theatre, elevators, an ice-skating rink and waterfall. The Reverend Billy Graham
Billy Graham
William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. is an American evangelical Christian evangelist. As of April 25, 2010, when he met with Barack Obama, Graham has spent personal time with twelve United States Presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman, and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for...
caught the premiered World's Fair performance of the show and immediately denounced it, citing the "women don't wear bras". He failed to mention that the "women" were puppets. This anti-endorsement, coupled with a write-up in Time Magazine, resulted in the show taking in record crowds -- the Kroffts claimed that tickets were scalped and the performances were so packed that they couldn't let in personal friends. "Be sure to mention it's dirty, that will give them the picture," Marty explained.
The show traveled around the country for the remainder of the decade and was seen by an estimated nine and a half million people.
Television
Although there was a common practice of filming live shows to be broadcast as American television specials, Les Poupées de Paris was a bit too risque to air on television. However, the Kroffts did hit several popular television shows to promote their live show, including The Jack Paar Show (November 1961) and The Bell Telephone HourThe Bell Telephone Hour
The Bell Telephone Hour is a long-run concert series which began April 29, 1940 on NBC Radio and was heard on NBC until June 30, 1958. Sponsored by Bell Telephone, it showcased the best in classical and Broadway music, reaching eight to nine million listeners each week. It continued on television...
(December 8, 1964).
Les Poupées itself led to brief stint on The Dean Martin Show
The Dean Martin Show
The Dean Martin Show is a TV variety-comedy series that ran from 1965 to 1974 for 264 episodes. It was broadcast by NBC and hosted by crooner Dean Martin...
. In 1964, producer of The Dean Martin Show
The Dean Martin Show
The Dean Martin Show is a TV variety-comedy series that ran from 1965 to 1974 for 264 episodes. It was broadcast by NBC and hosted by crooner Dean Martin...
caught Les Poupées de Paris at the New York World's Fair, and recruited the Kroffts to create a puppet segment on Martin's variety show that captured the essence of Les Poupées. This was their first break into television, but it was to be short-lived; the Kroffts were fired after 8 episodes because Martin felt he was being upstaged by the puppets.
Soundtrack
A soundtrack album was released by RCA RecordsRCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
in 1965. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for "Best Engineered Recording - Special or Novel Effects," but it lost out to The Chipmunks Sing the Beatles Hits
The Chipmunks Sing The Beatles Hits
The Chipmunks Sing the Beatles Hits is a tribute album of Alvin and the Chipmunks singing the hits of The Beatles. It was originally released in 1964 by Liberty Records on vinyl record, and consists of Chipmunk renditions of early Beatles hits. The reorganized Liberty Records reissued the album in...
.
Track listing
- Overture - Joe Reisman
- Bonsoir - Anne Farge and Janine Forman
- Les Poupees de Paris - Cyd CharisseCyd CharisseCyd Charisse was an American actress and dancer.After recovering from polio as a child, and studying ballet, Charisse entered films in the 1940s...
- The Bathtub Scene (Bing CrosbyBing CrosbyHarry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
, Frank SinatraFrank SinatraFrancis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
and Janine Forman - Don't Say Paris, Say Paree - Gene KellyGene KellyEugene Curran "Gene" Kelly was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer...
- You Can't Make It Anywhere - Pearl BaileyPearl BaileyPearl Mae Bailey was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968...
- Let's Be Frank, Mr. Frankenstein - Joey Forman (Bela Legosi) and Guy Marks (Boris KarloffBoris KarloffWilliam Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
) - The Lab - Loretta YoungLoretta YoungLoretta Young was an American actress. Starting as a child actress, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953...
- The Mad Doctor and the Creature - Paul FreesPaul FreesPaul Frees was an American voice actor and character actor.-Biography:He was born Solomon Hersh Frees in Chicago...
- I Can't Wait to Take You Home to Mother - Milton BerleMilton BerleMilton Berlinger , better known as Milton Berle, was an American comedian and actor. As the manic host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater , in 1948 he was the first major star of U.S. television and as such became known as Uncle Miltie and Mr...
& Jane Keane - The Kook Spooks (Instrumental) - Joe Reisman
- It's a Living - LiberaceLiberaceWladziu Valentino Liberace , best known simply as Liberace, was a famous American pianist and vocalist.In a career that spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements, Liberace became world-renowned...
, Jayne MansfieldJayne MansfieldJayne Mansfield was an American actress working both in Hollywood and on the Broadway theatre...
& Lance Legault (Pelvis Essley) - The Opera Singer - Edie AdamsEdie AdamsEdie Adams was an American singer, Broadway, television and film actress and comedienne. Adams, a Tony Award winner, "both embodied and winked at the stereotypes of fetching chanteuse and sexpot blonde." She was well-known for her impersonations of female stars on stage and television, most...
- The Ice Skater (On the Wings of Romance) - Chorus
- Love is a Bore - Pearl BaileyPearl BaileyPearl Mae Bailey was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968...
- Sadie Fats - Merry Williams
- Love Is a Bore (reprise) - Pearl BaileyPearl BaileyPearl Mae Bailey was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968...
- The Circus (Grand Finale) - Phil SilversPhil SilversPhil Silvers was an American entertainer and comedy actor, known as "The King of Chutzpah." He is best known for starring in The Phil Silvers Show, a 1950s sitcom set on a U.S...
& Tony MartinTony Martin (entertainer)Tony Martin is an American actor and singer.-Career:Tony Martin was born on Christmas Day, 1913 as Alvin Morris in San Francisco, California to Jewish immigrant parents. He received a saxophone as a gift from his grandmother at the age of ten. In his grammar school glee club, he became an...
External links
- Les Poupées de Paris Souvenir Program
- Joe Reisman Scores, 1945-1986 Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.