Bell Telephone Hour 1960-1965

Barbara Cook, one of the great Broadway voices of the 20th century, was fortuitously recorded for television's Bell Telephone Hour in 1960-65, just a few years after her Candide and The Music Man. The picture quality is fuzzy, and the production values have that cheesy look of 1960s variety shows, but it's still a thrill to see the young Cook sing Broadway songs she isn't normally associated with, such as "The Simple Joys of Maidenhood" and "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair." Of chief interest, of course, is the 1960 Music Man segment in which Cook appears with the original stage show's barbershop quartet, the Buffalo Bills. Again, the minimal staging isn't much to look at, but it's our only chance to see Cook in the role she created that was taken over by Shirley Jones in the movie version. Also appearing are the legendary Alfred Drake (singing "Maxim" and "Blue Eyes," and sharing a duet of "Vienna, City of My Dreams" with Cook, whom we don't normally associate with operetta) and a young Robert Goulet (singing "Lovely" and "The Sweetest Sounds," among others). Watching Barbara Cook on the Bell Telephone Hour is sort of like watching The Judy Garland Show, except with an artist in the spring of her career rather than the autumn.