I read that 20th was so disappointed with Barbra Streisand's performance that they wanted to replace her with Doris Day. I have also read that the picture was originally bought with Miss Day in mind. Ironic isn't it?
shareIt wouldn't have been the smae film!
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I find it pretty impossible to imagine Doris Day giving a performance anywhere near what Streisand did. It's been said she was too young for the part but she owned every scene she was in.
When I said I wanted to be a comedian, they all laughed at me. Well, they're not laughing now!
Yeah, as much as I like Doris Day's films and performances, I think casting her would've been a mistake. Streisand was right for the part.
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But it's not unheard of to replace actors during the shoot of a film. Otherwise, we'd have Judy Garland in Annie Get Your Gun.
So don't make it out to be something that never happens. It happens. And it happens more often than you think.
Other examples of actors replaced after shooting had begun:
Martin Sheen replaced Harvey Keitel in Apocalypse Now.
Michael J. Fox replaced Eric Stolz in Back To The Future.
Barbra Streisand replaced Lisa Eichhorn in All Night Long.
Harvey Lembeck replaced Cy Howard in Stalag 17.
In each of these cases the actors fired neither "balked" nor were "unprofessional" - however, the directors felt their characterizations weren't evolving in the way they wanted, so the actors were replaced.
But to the OP - unlike these examples, there is no concrete evidence that either Gene Kelly or any 20th Century-Fox executives ever wanted to replace Barbra Streisand in Hello, Dolly!
If memory serves, Fox signed Streisand for DOLLY before FUNNY GIRL was even in the can, because she apparently showed signs of becoming the biggest musical film star since Andrews - but their timing was off: big-screen musicals were dying, and Streisand wasn't really interested in being the Queen of Movie Musicals anyway. Her sights were set on other things.
"Somewhere along the line the world has lost all of its standards and all of its taste."
Babs was signed for all 3 films - "Funny Girl," "Hello Dolly," and "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever" - without any film ever being shot of her.
Talk about gambling.
At that point in her budding career, with her an unknown screen commodity, I find it very plausible that Fox wanted to dump her and put Day in her place. Someone mentioned contract violation, but that very issue might have been in her contract, since she was so new to the medium of movies. The studio negotiators might have anticipated such a scenario and included their own "out" clause.
What I find ironic is that David Merrick, producer of the stage version of "Funny Girl," didn't like to talk about his Fanny Brice hit because "it had an ugly girl as the star."
"Don't call me 'honey', mac."
"Don't call me 'mac'... HONEY!"
David Merrick was NOT the producer of FUNNY GIRL on Broadway. It was produced by Ray Stark, Fanny Brice's son-in-law.
shareI find it hard to believe anyone at 20th Century Fox seriously thought of replacing Streisand with Doris Day; they knew she wasn't available. At the time DOLLY was shooting, Day had her hands full preparing the first season of THE DORIS DAY SHOW.
I'd read that Fox executives initially thought THE SOUND OF MUSIC might make a suitable vehicle for Day, but I hadn't heard that was the case with DOLLY. Ernest Lehman (the film's producer) said that while the project was in development, it was generally assumed Carol Channing would repeat her stage role. But then Lehman and Fox brass saw her in THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE and decided to look for a new Mrs. Levi.
I once heard that Fox was thinking of giving the role to Betty Grable, who did it successfully on tour, but she wasn't a huge star anymore. What a shame! Streisand alright but she's too young for the role!
shareI'd be surprised if Mary Martin didn't audition for the part of Dolly. I think she auditioned for just about anything that was a musical. She did play Dolly during a atage run in London.
Grapes are fun.
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myle slag - When you're Mary Martin...one of the reigning queens of the American musical theatre...you don't need to be asked. You express interest and you get a meeting. It's not an audition. People of that wattage don't audition. They get meetings.
It's possible that she met with Gene Kelly about it. But Mary Martin didn't really do film. She was obviously interested in stage work.
Barbra was miscast, though.
Doris was prettier and was way more likeable than Barbra BUT she hadn't half the talent and "stardom" than Barbra had.
Barbra Streisand was the right choice for Dolly's role, no doubt about it. Musicals were Barbra's stuff. She really shines on them. Everything went perfect to her until she started to play "serious" roles in soapy and bland melodramas that ended in critical and/or box-office disasters.
I think that the way Barbra Streisand acted in Hello Dolly! was brilliant...Although she was too young for the part, I honestly can see Hello Dolly without her...
share'Doris was prettier and was way more likeable than Barbra BUT she hadn't half the talent and "stardom" than Barbra had.'
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Thats not true.
Agreed.
Are people really kidding? Never mind Doris was closer to the proper age - AND despite that age, prettier.
Have they forgotten musicals "WERE Doris' stuff"? Geesh. Have these people ever seen half of Doris' musicals?
She had PLENTY talent, and PLENTY "feistiness" and spunk in these musicals. Even though she was on the decline, she had PLENTY more "stardom" than Barbra at that point. She'd been a hot commodity and legend for years - singer starting in the '40s, big movie star in the '50s WITH singing. Barbra had only been a recording "star" for a couple. Who had the stardom?
Personally I think the Doris Day idea is great, on the face of it.
Barbra is OK but I'm open to that Day idea.
Now, if only we could get a better, prettier Vandergelder. The Gene Kelly idea is pretty good, too - but he'll have to be more stodgy.
You're corresponding with people here who don't know anything other than "trendy" Streisand, or that Day was on the top 10 top box-office draw in her time.
shareIt's wierd to find out that the Studio wanted someone else for a role that so many hold dear to their hearts.
Hands down.. no one could've done a better job than Babs, & I'm so over people talking about her curves:Op
Since no one has been able to produce a shred of evidence that Richard Zanuck (who was running 20th Century-Fox at the time) EVER considered replacing Streisand, we should simply dismiss this claim as unsubstantiated nonsense.
Such claims pop up on IMDb message boards frequently, and unless they can be backed up with hard evidence they should be ignored and forgotten.
thats great!
shareYes...but the one thing that makes logical and ironic sense would be that "Hello, Dolly" might well have been purchased as a Doris Day vehicle...because "Hello, Dolly" hit Broadway in 1964, when Doris Day was a very big movie star and Barbra Streisand was still a meteoric stage and TV talent, but NOT a movie star.
The story goes( that Fox was trapped by a clause in the purchase contract for "Hello Dolly" that prevented them from releasing the movie until the Broadway run ended. But the Broadway run kept going and going and going...through the years(66, 67, 68) that Doris Day almost instantaneously lost her box office clout, through the years leading up to "Funny Girl" and instant stardom for Streisand...and on past the completion of the movie. Fox finally paid big bucks to be allowed to release its movie(which needed to make its money back pronto) to theaters while the play still played.
Fox finally paid big bucks to be allowed to release its movie(which needed to make its money back pronto) to theaters while the play still played.
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As I recall, Fox actually considered the possibility of releasing the film without playing it in New York, the contractual provision being that the film could not be shown within a certain radius of the Broadway run.
Prior to Dolly, it was strictly verboten for a film to be released while a show still played on Broadway (or even for the film to go into production), the concern being that this would result in a huge box office decline. However, the casting of Ethel Merman as Dolly in 1970 actually gave the show new life; at the performance I attended, many had seen the film but this did not diminish the pleasure of seeing the show live at all. Since then, many films have opened during a long Broadway run.
As I recall, Fox actually considered the possibility of releasing the film without playing it in New York, the contractual provision being that the film could not be shown within a certain radius of the Broadway run.
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Interesting. While at first I would not see that as too much of a hardship, I recall now: in those years, a big movie practically HAD to open in New York City to "declare its bona fides in the greatest city of America." A Los Angeles opening was less prestigious.
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Prior to Dolly, it was strictly verboten for a film to be released while a show still played on Broadway (or even for the film to go into production), the concern being that this would result in a huge box office decline. However, the casting of Ethel Merman as Dolly in 1970 actually gave the show new life; at the performance I attended, many had seen the film but this did not diminish the pleasure of seeing the show live at all. Since then, many films have opened during a long Broadway run.
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I would doubt that these clauses are even used nowadays...Broadway musicals are not the epic events they used to be. Nor are Broadway plays.
As I recall one movie(THE one movie?) that really suffered under the "Broadway" clause was Frank Capra's "Arsenic and Old Lace," which was in the can years before it could be released pending the end of the Broadway run.
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