Emily Yancy (Irene Molloy: Pearl Bailey/Cab Calloway Production of Hello, Dolly! 1967)

Jack Crowder and Emily Yancy (Source: Life Magazine)

In 1966, Emily Yancy had just started in the business.Shewas brand new. She had been doing some club work. Prior to that, she worked inmedical research. She started out in the business by being the opening act forseveral big names, Woody Allen, for instance. Emily always loved the stage. Hermanager heard that they were looking for a standby for Leslie Uggams in Hallelujah, Baby! Emily got the job. Sheheld that position for five months, around the same time that plans wereunderway for the Pearl Bailey company of Dollyto take over the St. James Theater. 
Emily was asked to audition for the role ofMrs. Molloy. The powers that be with Dolly had heard of Emily and also heardthat she was great as Leslie Uggams’ standby. David Merrick and Lucia Victorwere quite anxious to see Emily. She met with them twice. She was offered therole of Irene Molloy in Hello, Dolly andthat is how she fell into that wonderful life experience of doing that show. LuciaVictor and the Merrick office were very smart in their casting choices.Physically, it was a rainbow of colors, not only the costumes, but the hues ofthe skin of the actors and dancers and singers, from alabaster to ebony. Therewere all kinds of different looks of what African-Americans can look like andit was just breath-taking. 

Cab Calloway and Pearl Bailey

Emily sat out in the house and watched the scenesshe was not in during dress rehearsals. It was such a beautiful range. She haspeople come up to her still who tell her they saw her in this show. They tellher they were in heaven seeing this show and that they were so happy to seethis production. Many of them were children when they saw this. George C. Wolfesaid he saw this production when he was twelve and it is what prompted hisdesire to go into the theater.     
Once she found out that she was going to be appearing withPearl Bailey and Cab Calloway. She was anxious. She was raring to go. Working with Miss Bailey was very interesting. Emily learneda lot from her. One of the things Miss Bailey used to do, as I have writtenabout previously, was her “third act.”
The cast got to meet the most importantprominent people of the world at that time. When they came to see the show,Miss Bailey would bring them up on stage. Seeing her interact with these greatswas a wonderful learning experience for the cast. They all got to meet suchluminaries and stars, Louis Armstrong, Leontyne Price, Ava Gardner, TonyBennett, the President of the United States, Lyndon Johnson, and many others. MissBailey was an interesting person. She loved doing the show contrary topublished reports. She created quite an incredible Dolly. 
She was hysterical.
Emily also got to meet another president when she wasstarring in Man of La Mancha. 

President Jimmy Carter

JimmyCarter used her dressing room.    
Someone had said to Emily, “You don’t want to leave Hallelujah, Baby as a standby. This is asure thing. An ‘all black company of Hello,Dolly’, as it was referred to at that time, is not going to run. ” Hallelujah,Baby! was the first and only time that Emily stood by for anyone.
She knewthat it was her forte into the Broadway community.As it was the “all black company of Hello, Dolly” made history. It opened on November 12^th,1967 and played through December 24^th, 1969.
During the rehearsal process, they were working so hard thatshe didn’t have time to think of whether or not this would be a success. Shedidn’t even consider whether or not there would be an official opening nightparty. The show previewed in Washington DC at The National Theaterprior to going to Broadway October 11 through November 8, 1967. On November4th, President and Mrs. Johnson surprised the full house at performance of nativeWashingtonian Pearl Bailey. The Johnsons arrived in time for the second act.The Johnsons joined Bailey and Calloway on the stage for one of the manycurtain calls. People were fighting for tickets in DC. It kind of dawned onEmily after the show opened, “Wow! This is great!” It was such a great show andeveryone was at the top of their game. Emily suddenly realized they werecreating quite a flurry of excitement.
When it arrived on Broadway, that excitementcontinued.  She NOW knew this was goingto be BIG! Everyone came down and the press went bonkers. She never realized it was going to be as big as it was. Havingnever done a Broadway show before, she had nothing to compare it to. MorganFreeman was also in the cast as Rudolph! Of course, this show put Emily “out there”. It helped herquite a bit. Suddenly, people knew who she was.
Emily left before the end of the run to play Aldonza, Dulcinea del Toboso, on  Man of La Mancha on Broadway. Towardsthe end, she was rehearsing La Manchaduring the day and doing Dolly in theevenings. When Emily first went into LaMancha, she was offered matinees. They liked what she was doing so muchthat she took over the role completely. Ernestine Jackson, who understudied Emily,replaced her. Emily liked what she did with Mrs. Molloy. She also loved working with Cab Calloway, “Mr. C.” He wasquite a “little rascal.” Once he was taking bets from the company on a Triple Crownwinner, Forward Pass, in 1968. Forward Pass was an American ThoroughbredChampion racehorse who is the only horse in the history of the Kentucky Derbyto have been declared the winner as the result of a disqualification. Everyonein the company loved Cab Calloway. He was a learning experience for the companyas well. Imagine having two dynamos like Cab Calloway and Pearl Bailey to workwith night after night! Cab’s daughter, Chris, played Minnie Fay in thisproduction. (Chris passed away in 2008). It was a loving company. 
Everyone in that cast had awonderful friendship. Emily is still friendly with many from that company. Theywere the darlings of Broadway during that time. It was quite a wonderful time.She looks back fondly on it, needless to say. They had a feature in LifeMagazine with Pearl Bailey on the cover on December 8^th, 1967. 
AfterLife Magazine, Emily thought, “I like Broadway!”  The one thing that Emily learned from this production thatshe has carried forward throughout the rest of her career is the element ofhard work. She learned not to cut corners. You give it your all. She was alwayslike that. She observed firsthand how hard Pearl Bailey and Cab Callowayworked.  Of today’s stars, Emily would love to see Whoopi Goldbergtake on Dolly. Emily even feels Margaret Cho would make a fun Dolly. Emily has done a lot of stage work during her career. Sheconsiders Dolly her birthplace becauseshe got a lot of attention out of it.
As mentioned earlier, she had beensinging in nightclubs interspersed with a few television appearances includingThe Tonight Show. It happened all so quickly. All of her heart’s dreams werecoming true.
Because it was such a learning experience, it affected herpersonal life as well as her professional life. It opened the world for her. Emily brought her beautiful voice to this production whichwas perfect for Mrs. Molloy. She also, obviously, brought a new look to Mrs.Molloy. She also brought a great sense of comic timing. She contributed immenselyto this production. She never “settled” into the character of Mrs. Molloy. Sheknew, even though she was essentially starting out, that you don’t go on “remote”.
She kept trying to keep it fresh for herself.  At that time, she was trying tojust keep giving the character life. The freedom was in the fact that this wasall kind of new to her. She had no boundaries. After a while, she got torealize that you just have to keep it moving, you have to keep HER alive.Sometimes you’re as tired as a “son of a gun.” You still have to keep theenergy up.           Herworst experience with the show was shin splints. She used to have to run onstage and make a sudden stop.
After awhile, it took a toll on her tiny body. Herlegs would hurt every now and then.“Shin splints” is a terribly sounding nameand it hurts as terribly as it sounds.
Emily loved working with Lucia Victor.
“She was a delightfulwoman.” She was very kind. Emily remembers her as being very easy going. Luciawas very happy with this company.   JerryHerman was a sweetheart, “cute as a button.” She thanks him for the beautifulmusic they had to sing.  
She was familiarwith the title song and Before the ParadePasses By. However, Ribbons down MyBack was one she was not familiar with prior to getting cast. When shefirst heard it, she thought it was pretty. Of course, that song was not aspopular as the other ones. She fell in love with it. It’s a beautiful song andfits perfectly into the story line. Dolly and Mrs. Molloy are almost parallelto each other in their quests to rejoin the human race. They are both trying tostay ALIVE and in touch with themselves. It is a “proud” song about survivingafter a husband has died. Why does the title song stop the show EVERY TIME? “That redgown doesn’t hurt!” Add to that those fellas AND the music and the productionwith the “waiters” jumping over the orchestra pit. Pearl Bailey brought thehouse down every time!
David Merrick was a true Broadway mogul. There was one timewhen Emily and Mr. Merrick had a little “challenge”. It was during the laterpart of Dolly. As mentioned earlier,she was rehearsing La Mancha andperforming Dolly simultaneously. There would be no rest period between leaving Dolly and going into LaMancha. She got really sick at one point. She missed one show of Dolly, and Mr. Merrick wanted to dockher!
She had missed no performances prior to that. She did what she was hiredto do, so when he docked her for being sick, it was an insult. She had workedreally hard on that show. She challenged him, and she won. On Emily’s closing night, Pearl Bailey did make anannouncement.
She also gave her a watch.  Hello, Dolly was a birth for Emily Yancy as far as her heart’swishes. She had always loved the Broadway stage. She used to dance around herhouse to South Pacific and The King and I which she eventually diddo. Dolly was a dream come true. As an African-American, especially at thattime, still is, the opportunities for an actor or actress were incrediblylimited. To get a chance to play a role such as this on Broadway was quite anopportunity. The fact that it was so successful and helped get Emilyestablished  was icing on the cake!
Thank you Emily Yancy for the gifts you have given to the world and will continue to give!


With grateful XOXOXs ,


Check out my site celebrating my forthcoming book on Hello, Dolly!
I want this to be a definitive account of Hello, Dolly!  If any of you reading this have appeared in any production of Dolly, I'm interested in speaking with you!

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