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Tuesday, March 31, 2015

The "Annie" Battle-Axes.

Since my last post, I had a major head-smacking moment.
I'd said that I thought I was done with "Battle-axes from Broadway".
I forgot about Miss Hannigan.
The Queen of the Battle-Axes.
"Annie" has probably provided us with more battle-axes per capita than any other show, considering all the productions and road companies there have been.
I know this because I asked my Siri "Who were all the actresses who played Miss Hannigan?
It directed me to a website called abouttheartists.com.
It had a section devoted totally to Miss Hannigan.
Every replacement, every road company, even every community theater production.
It's a fairly new website, so it's still incomplete.
But it's thorough.
Dorothy Loudon originated the role, and I never previously thought of her as a battle-axe.
But it turns out that she sort of WAS one in real life.
At least to the extent that she hated kids.
Hated being around them, hated sharing the stage with them.
So she has earned her wings.
Here are some of the better-known Miss Hannigan battle-axes that show up on the website:
Jane Lynch--who better?
Ruth Kobart---won a Tony for playing David Burns' hen-pecking wife in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum".
Born for the role.
Sally Struthers---really wasn't one on TV, but I've heard stories.
Wanda Sykes---Boy, I would have loved to see that.
Nell Carter---I once sat at the next table from her at a restaurant in Atlantic City.
She had one of the hugest meals I'd ever seen sitting in front of her.
And she must have been pushing four hundred pounds at that point.
She downed every bite.
I was afraid that she was going to reach over and grab some of MY food.
I started guarding it very closely.
She was impressive, but I thought "At this pace, maybe she's got about six months left".
To quote Colonel Hall about Private Doberman, "he's got to be about three hundred calories away from exploding".
Nell Carter died about eight months later.
I guess you could say she beat the spread.
JoAnne Worley---right on the money.
Kathleen Freeman---one of my all-time favorites. I'll bet she was great.
I worked with her once, and have a great story to share with you about her.
But that's for another time.
So, to sum up, "Annie" is the Broadway Battle-Axe Champeen.
Next time, filmdom's all-time Battle-Axe movie.


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My books ,"Show Runner" and it's sequel, "Show Runner Two", can be found at the Amazon Kindle Store.
Along with the newer ones, "The Man Is Dead", and "Report Cards".
They are all compilations of blog entries that have since been removed from the blog.
So this is the only way you can find them.
You can search by typing in my name, Cindy Williams, Laverne and Shirley, The Odd Couple, or Happy Days.
Check them out.
You don't need a Kindle machine to download them.
Just get the free app from Kindle, and they can be downloaded to an IPhone, IPad, or Blackberry.
The paperbacks, "Mark Rothman's Essays" and my new novel, "I'm Not Garbo" are not e-books.
I have many readings and signings lined up for those, and the thing about Kindle is that you can't sign one.
But they are available for people without Kindle.
If you'd like one of the paperbacks, personally autographed, contact me at macchus999@aol.com
And now, we've got my reading of my "Laverne and Shirley Movie" screenplay on YouTube.



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Hi. I am, according to my Wikipedia entry,(which I did not create) a noted television writer, playwright, screenwriter, and occasional actor. You can Google me or go to the IMDB to get my credits, and you can come here to get my opinions on things, which I'll try to express eloquently. Hopefully I'll succeed. You can also e-mail me at macchus999@aol.com. Perhaps my biggest claim to fame is being responsible, for about six months in 1975, while Head Writer for the "Happy Days" TV series, for Americans saying to each other "Sit on it."