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Bye Bye Birdie (1963 film)

Bye Bye Birdie is a 1963 American musical romantic comedy film directed by George Sidney from a screenplay by Irving Brecher, based on Michael Stewart's book of the 1960 musical of the same name. It also features songs by composer Charles Strouse and lyricist Lee Adams, and a score by Johnny Green. Produced by Fred Kohlmar, the film stars Janet Leigh, Dick Van Dyke, Ann-Margret, Maureen Stapleton, Bobby Rydell, Jesse Pearson, and Ed Sullivan. Van Dyke and featured player Paul Lynde reprised their roles from the original Broadway production.

Bye Bye Birdie

Charles Nelson

The Kohlmar-Sidney Company

  • April 4, 1963 (1963-04-04)
(Radio City Music Hall, New York City)[1][2]

112 minutes

United States

English

$5 million[3]

$13.1 million

The story was inspired by Elvis Presley being drafted into the United States Army in 1957. Jesse Pearson plays the role of teen idol Conrad Birdie, whose character name is a word play on country singer Conway Twitty, who was, at that time, a teen idol pop artist.[4]


The film was Van Dyke's feature film debut and helped make Ann-Margret a superstar during the mid-1960s. Her performance earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress and her next role was with Presley in Viva Las Vegas.


In 2006, the film was ranked number 38 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.[5]

Plot[edit]

In 1962, popular rock and roll superstar Conrad Birdie receives an Army draft notice, devastating his teenage fans nationwide. Despite his doctorate in biochemistry, unsuccessful songwriter Albert Peterson schemes with his secretary and long-suffering girlfriend Rosie DeLeon to have Conrad sing a song Albert will write. Rosie convinces Ed Sullivan to have Conrad perform Albert's song "One Last Kiss" on The Ed Sullivan Show and then kiss a randomly chosen high school girl goodbye before joining the Army. After this succeeds, Albert will feel free to marry Rosie, despite his widowed, meddlesome mother Mae's long history of interfering with her son's life.


Columbus, Ohio, is chosen as the location for Conrad's farewell performance. The random lucky girl chosen, Kim MacAfee, is thrilled, unlike her high school sweetheart, Hugo Peabody. The teenagers of nearby Sweet Apple, blissfully unaware of their town's impending fame, are spending the "Telephone Hour" discussing the latest gossip: Kim and Hugo have just gotten pinned (a tradition where a boy gives a girl his fraternity pin, indicating a serious commitment to each other)[6] and Kim feels grown up ("How Lovely to Be a Woman").


Upon Conrad's arrival, the teenage girls sing their anthem, "We Love You Conrad", while the boys express their dislike of him ("We Hate You Conrad!"). Sweet Apple becomes very popular, but some local adults are unhappy with the sudden celebrity, especially after Conrad's song "Honestly Sincere" and his hip-thrusting moves cause every woman, including the mayor's wife, to faint.


Pressured by the town's leading citizens, Kim's father Harry declines to allow her to kiss Conrad on television, until Albert placates him by promising that his "whole family" will be on Sullivan's TV show ("Hymn for a Sunday Evening"). Albert reveals to Harry that he is actually a biochemist who has developed a miracle supplement for domestic animals that will make a hen lay three eggs a day; they test it on the family's pet tortoise, which speeds out the door. Harry, a fertilizer salesman, sees a great future for himself marketing this pill with Albert.


Hugo feels threatened by Conrad, but Kim reassures him that he is the "One Boy" for her. Rosie, meanwhile, feels unappreciated by Albert, who persuades her to "Put on a Happy Face". Albert's mother Mae shows up, distressed to find the pair together; Harry is also agitated about Conrad's monopoly of his house and Kim's behavioral changes. Both lament the problems with "Kids" today.


During rehearsal for the broadcast, an impatient Conrad kisses Kim (who swoons). Hugo is hurt and Kim breaks up with him. Later that night, at the local malt shop, Conrad, Kim, Hugo, and many of their friends assert that they have "A Lot of Livin' to Do". Meanwhile, after being informed the Russian Ballet has switched to a different dance requiring extra time, therefore eliminating Conrad's song and farewell kiss to Kim, Albert unsuccessfully attempts to convince the Ballet's manager to shorten its performance. Afterwards, he dejectedly decides to drown his sorrows at Maude's Madcap Café, a local bar.


Surprisingly, he finds Mae there, playing canasta with the owner Mr. Maude, also a widower. Rosie, fed up with Albert and his mother, also goes to the café for "a night to remember". After ordering three drinks (but only gulping down one), Rosie goes into another room where the Shriners convention is taking place. She starts dancing and flirting with the men ("Sultans' Ballet"), but when the scene becomes too wild, Albert rescues her from the crazed Shriners.


The next day, Rosie formulates how to get back Conrad's spot on The Ed Sullivan Show that evening. She slips one of Albert's pills into the orchestra conductor's milk, which speeds up the ballet, amusing the audience, offending the Russians and placing Conrad back on the show to sing "One Last Kiss". However, just as Conrad is about to kiss Kim, Hugo runs onstage and punches Conrad, knocking him out on the live telecast, which shocks Albert and Rosie.


Kim and Hugo reunite. Albert is free to marry now ("Rosie") and his mother agrees, revealing her own marriage to Mr. Maude. All three couples live happily ever after. Kim, now wiser, bids Conrad a fond goodbye in "Bye Bye Birdie (Reprise)".

The name of the character Rosie Alvarez was changed to Rosie DeLeon, and the song "Spanish Rose" was dropped for this film.

In the film, Albert is neither Birdie's agent nor an aspiring English teacher but a talented research chemist. He contributed to Birdie's initial success, and therefore Birdie "owes" him a favor. Albert has not written "One Last Kiss" when Rosie pitches the idea to Sullivan.

In the film, Lou, of "Almaelou", is Mae's deceased husband. In the musical, he was Al and Mae's dog.

The film version of "A Lot of Livin' to Do" features Pearson, Ann-Margret and Rydell in a colorful song-and-dance number staged to show Kim and Hugo trying to make each other jealous.

The songs "An English Teacher", "Baby, Talk to Me", "What Did I Ever See in Him", and "Normal American Boy" were omitted from the film, as was the "100 Ways to Kill a Man" ballet.

The plot structure is altered so The Ed Sullivan Show broadcast is at the end of the movie; in the stage musical, it is at the closing of the first act.

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Several significant changes were made in the plot and character relationships in the film from the stage version. The film was rewritten to showcase the talents of rising star Ann-Margret, adding the title song for her and dropping songs by certain other characters.

Production[edit]

According to Ann-Margret, she was cast when director George Sidney saw her dancing while on a date at the Sands Casino on New Year's Eve 1961.[7]


Sidney was so smitten with the rising new star that Janet Leigh was "very upset that all the close-ups were going to Ann-Margret", as Leigh herself was the lead star of the film.[8]


Sidney says originally he was only going to produce and Gower Champion would direct, but Champion told Sidney he could not see it as a film, so Sidney stepped in. "That was a great deal of fun," said Sidney. "It was a young people's picture, with a lot of bright, gay noisy cast members yelling and screaming."[9]


Ann-Margret was paid $3,500 a week and earned $85,000 in all.[10]

In 1964, made a novelty record with a song called "We Love You Beatles" based on the song "We Love You Conrad" from Bye Bye Birdie. Released on the London International label #10614, the song peaked at No. 39 on the Billboard Hot 100. At the base of the Plaza Hotel in New York City, where the Beatles were staying for their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, scores of Beatles fans sang the song out so their voices would reach the band in their rooms up above.

The Carefrees

In an episode of the television series (Season 3, Episode 2), the opening sequence of Bye Bye Birdie is shown (twice), and later Peggy Olson sings the tune to herself in front of a mirror in an attempt to emulate Ann-Margret's appeal as somebody who can "be 25 and act 14", although Ann-Margret was, in fact, 21 at the time of filming, playing 16. Later, in Episode 4, Salvatore Romano directs a knock-off parody of the sequence for a commercial for Pepsi's new diet drink, Patio.[33]

Mad Men

"One Last Kiss" was featured on an actual episode of The Ed Sullivan Show from January 1967, featuring . It was one of Lewis' last performances before going into the U.S. Army, so Sullivan chose a girl from the audience to come up to the stage. Lewis sang "One Last Kiss" to her and received that "one last kiss".

Gary Lewis & the Playboys

In Bye Bye Boyfriend, a , the White Oak Academy puts on a school play based on Bye Bye Birdie. Ed Sullivan is mentioned many times, and Mary-Kate wins the part of Kim, even though she auditioned for Rosie. In the book, the characters and the soundtrack of the movie, as well as some of its songs, are mentioned.

Two of a Kind book

In "", an episode of the TV series The Simpsons, the kids, adults and seniors of Springfield perform a musical parody of the song "Kids" from Bye Bye Birdie.[34]

Wild Barts Can't Be Broken

In the popular television series (Season 1, Episode 18), during a charade-like game Monica draws a pictorial representation of the film Bye Bye Birdie for the remainder of the group to identify; however, nobody can.

Friends

The 1995 album (What's the Story) Morning Glory? derives its title from a line in the song "The Telephone Hour", with the album's title being referenced in the band's single "Morning Glory".

Oasis

The animated show references this play (along with Grease) in the episode "Bye Bye Greasy" in which the characters put on a play with similar themes.

Home Movies

references two of the show's signature songs: "The Telephone Hour" (in reference to Peter being diagnosed as mentally disabled in the Season 4 episode "Petarded") and "Honestly Sincere" (performed by Seth MacFarlane, voicing President Barack Obama in the Season 9 episode "New Kidney in Town").

Family Guy

, a television series, parodied the song "The Telephone Hour" in the Season 2 episode "Mister Eggman". The parody song consisted of the villagers (including Sonic the Hedgehog and friends) spreading the word that Doctor Eggman never truly earned his doctorate. The song also made reference to the fact that it itself was a parody, breaking the fourth wall.

Sonic Boom

"Kids" was the musical number at the end of "The Punch and Judy Affair" (Season 7, episode 8 of ).

Are You Being Served?

"Alot of Livin' To Do" is sung in the film .

Year of the Comet

List of American films of 1963

Bye Bye Birdie (1995 film)

Monder, Eric (1994). George Sidney: a Bio-Bibliography. Greenwood Press.  9780313284571.

ISBN

at IMDb

Bye Bye Birdie

at AllMovie

Bye Bye Birdie

at the TCM Movie Database

Bye Bye Birdie

at the American Film Institute Catalog

Bye Bye Birdie

Description of the film