Clifton Davis on Hello, Dolly starring Pearl Bailey and Cab Calloway

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Clifton Duncan Davis is an actor, songwriter and minister.He has appeared on the television shows as A World Apart, That's My Mama andAmen. Clifton also wrote several hits for The Jackson 5, including "NeverCan Say Goodbye" and "Lookin' Through the Windows". As a young man, Clifton was fascinated with theater. Havingseen only one Broadway show, and determining from seeing that show, he knew hehad to pursue a career in this business. He was so entertained, so captivated,so compelled by this production of TheApple Tree starring Alan Alda that he decided to drop his career inelectronics and pursue an entertainment career. He resigned from being a videoengineer at ABC television and he became an apprentice in the theater at asummer stock theater, St. John Terrell's famous summer stock theatre, TheLambertville Music Circus in Lambertville, New Jersey right across from NewHope. He went there for the summer and performed in five plays, two children’stheater productions and three regular productions. Armed with this limited andseemingly small training, he started auditioning for Broadway shows. He heardof an open call for Hello, Dolly. Out of hundreds of people who auditioned, hewas picked for one of three male singers needed and he was hired for thechorus. They had already gotten three from the Equity call. That’s how CliftonDavis became part of the Hello, Dollyfamily.He went to Washington DC to play the National Theater andthen on to Broadway. All totaled, he was with the show for one year.
Hello, Dolly continues to entertain audiences. It has agreat book. It has a great score. It has a charming story, adventure, love,laughter, and dance. It is quintessential musical theater. It is escapist. Itis a period piece. In essence, it is timeless. Those are the reasons it lasts. It is so simple. It is so rich and what a great job Jerry Herman and MichaelStewart making it so seamless. 

Cab Calloway and Pearl Bailey

Being a songwriter and having a decent career asa songwriter, with Grammy nominations, etc, also a friend of Paul Williams,another great and under rated songwriter of great American music that is such apart of our consciousness, they all share the view that brevity is the key, sayingit with fewer words in the most poetic way. Clifton finds that the lyrics tothe songs and the book of Hello, Dollywere so simple but powerful.  If he had the chance to do it all over, there is nothing hewould have done differently. 
He is proud as a peacock of getting intoHello, Dolly, becoming a part of that timeless and memorable cast. In all of theexperiences he had while working with Pearl Bailey and Cab Calloway for thatyear was one of those seminal moments for Clifton. It was life changing and oneof the greatest years of growth in his life. He learned about acting, he learnedabout creating a character; he went to acting school while he was appearing onBroadway.
Rather than just being a chorus singer, he became an actor.Not only that, during that period of time, he became a professional songwriter.
All of those things happened while in Hello, Dolly!, each of those having an anecdote or two attached toit. Clifton brought a singing voice to Hello, Dolly and a passion for the theater. He also brought innocence.In terms of theater, he WAS green. He had to learn and grow every day in that production. Hebecame friends with people that he had never met. He learned lifestyles that hehad never seen before. He grew that year. It solidified his desire to makeacting and musical theater and performing arts his career and we’re all betterfor it.                  Clifton believes Hello,Dolly should always return to Broadway! Dolly has to obviously be someonewho sings and has charm. He has to give it some thought as to who that might be.

President Johnson and First Lady, Ladybird, visit Dolly at The National Theater

There are so many things to like about having been in thisshow, the celebrities that he met backstage who came to see Pearl Bailey. Manyof the chorus members got to meet the celebrities themselves. Clifton got tomeet Sammy Davis, Jr. while in the chorus. He came to see Pearl Bailey and hecame backstage and greeted the entire cast. Clifton said, “Mr. Davis, my nameis Davis, too.” He said to Clifton, “You know? One of these days, we Davis’ aregoing to take over the world.”  Cliftonsaid, Yes sir!” Years later, Clifton reminded him of that when they becamefriends. 

Sammy Davis Jr. and Clifton became good friends

He was invited many times to Mr. Davis’ private home in Beverly Hills.Sammy told Clifton he was beyond a triple threat: he sings, he dances, he acts,and he writes music. He told Clifton that he liked that about him. 
It remindedhim of him. When one stream dries up, he could drink from another.
Miss Bailey was rough on the understudies. She preferred ifnone of the cast members were ever sick or ever out. She desired that herregular cast be with her at all times. She felt they were wonderful and gaveher the support she needed. Whenever one of the principals was out sick, shewasn’t the happiest person. 
The poor understudy who had to go on with her hadto get her disdain. He doesn’t mean that she was mean, she was just unhappythat an understudy was on instead of her principal. Clifton was the understudyfor Cornelius Hackl. 

Pearl Bailey and Jack Crowder

Jack Crowder (as he was called at the time…he eventuallychanged his name to Thalmus Rasulala) who was playing Cornelius got sick.Clifton had to go on for a period of time. This was ten months into the run.Clifton had never been on in this role before. When he did, she looked at himthat first performance very strangely as he came on for their first scenetogether. Finally, he had to dance with her and play this part. When theyfinally came off stage well into the first act, she turned to him and said, “You’realright.You’ll be just fine.” Cliftoncan’t put into words how complimented he was. He was the first understudy toget a compliment from Miss Bailey. She became “the Mama”. He was one of thosechorus kids that called her Mama. From that point on, she was sweet as shecould be to him. Years later, they ran into each other on the street inWashington DC. She was a huge fan of his television show, That’s My Mama. She just bubbled, claiming him as one of herchildren who emerged from Hello, Dollyand had a stellar career.He went immediately from Hello,Dolly into a show called How to Stealan Election. He was now a lead character, one of the stars.  It was a very special time in his career.
This production of Hello,Dolly was directed by Lucia Victor. Gower was busy with I Do! I Do! Most of Lucia’s time wasspent working with the ensemble as opposed to the principals. Lucia worked withbroad strokes, she worked with a sense of feeling and a sense of what they werereally about in terms of adding to each musical number and scene, how they wereto stay alive and pay attention and listen and not to be distracting ordistracted while they were on stage. Their job was to give it their all. Goweractually came in for a couple of days of rehearsal. It was if the Lord had walkedin the room. 

Lena Horne

He gave notes to some of the dancers and actors. He was just ascharming and nice as he could be. He later hired Clifton to play Joey in hisproduction of Pal Joey with LenaHorne. 
It was wonderful working with him. Clifton was so green at the time thathe was frightened of Lucia and these important people of the theater. Whateverthey said, he took to heart. He volunteered for as many walk ons as he could, thinkinghe could say a line here or there. A lot of the experienced chorus members didnot understand. They advised him not to do that. If he did, he wouldn’t havetime to relax. He was constantly changing costumes throughout the show andrunning on to do his next bit while everyone else was playing pinochledownstairs.Being in this production of Dolly, he learned a love for thetheater that continues to this day. He learned that there was a life force onthat stage that was beyond the ranks of normality. There was something uniqueand special about the energy of a well constructed, well performedplay/musical.

Mama Pearl

It was one of the most unique experiences in the theater ofany. It was the first previously white show that had gone all black AND had somuch success. It was historic in that regard. To have Pearl Bailey, whoseperformance was phenomenal, nothing short of phenomenal! She was the funniestand most talented Dolly certainly ranking right up there with Carol Channing. Shewas phenomenal NIGHTLY and lived on that stage. She came alive on that stagemore than real life. There was something that was very special about thetheater and that responsibility and for that production and that role all convergingtogether.There was only one negative experience for Clifton with thisproduction. It was when he got ready to leave the company. He went to MissBailey and told her he got the lead in an off-Broadway show and that he wouldbe leaving. She wished him well and told him she knew he would be very successful.She was very gracious; she was being Mama. He went to Cab Calloway expectingthe same results. Instead, Mr. Calloway cussed him out! He told Clifton that hewas a fool to leave this show. 

Cab and Pearl

As an older man and with more experience underhis belt, Clifton now understands what Mr. Calloway’s perspective was. Mr.Calloway told him that this was a once in a lifetime experience. He was toldthese types of shows don’t come along. Mr. Calloway told him this show would gofor at least another year, and it did. He was told that in this business hedoes not know when another show would come along that could last as long. Hewas told that if he walked away, he was a fool. Somebody else was going to getthe parts, and he would be gone. Clifton was heartbroken because he expected a morepaternal encouraging response. As it turns out, Clifton had tremendous success.His career was launched by Hello, Dolly. After leaving Dolly, Clifton never sawMr. Calloway again.

Harvey Evans and Bibi Osterwald

Other than Pearl Bailey, the only other Broadway Dolly thatClifton saw was Bibi Osterwald. She was classic Broadway musical theater. Shewas very much a musical comedy actress and did a fine job.
Beyond that, the only other Dolly Clifton has seen isStreisand in the film. He thought it was very good especially the added song, Love is Only Love. He thinks it was justwonderful. He also feels that it showed Streisand as a great actress playingthis much older woman than she was at the time and so thoroughly making herjust the right amount of “Jewish mother.” She was just the right amount ofmatchmaker. 
How little did he know while doing Dolly, because of his being sogreen, that there was such a thing as TheMatchmaker! He thought she did a phenomenal job, as well.
During Clifton’s run in Hello,Dolly, President Lyndon Johnson came to see the show. Pearl Bailey was a Republican.It was a powerful performance the night he was in the audience. He dated one or two of the chorus girls but no real romancesfor him. He had a crush on Emily Yancy. He says she didn’t have a crush on him. 

Jack Crowder and Emily Yancy

“I was a poor little chorus boy!” He had such a wonderful time when he got theopportunity to play Cornelius Hackl opposite Emily Yancy. “Wow! I loved dancingwith her and singing to her!” Singing ItOnly Takes a Moment to Emily Yancy is the significant moment that standsabove all others.    Pear Bailey’s “third act” is something that Clifton is ambivalentabout. It WAS thrilling to see her work the audiences the way she did eachperformance especially in this segment, just doing a monologue or just talkingto the audience. The audience sat there eating out of her hands. She had themhowling with laughter. She regaled them with stories for up to twenty minutesafter the show. The entire company was standing behind her under hot lights andheavy costumes desiring to get out of those costumes and out of the theater.She made them all stand there while she did her act.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Also, during the run, there was the assassination of Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr. There was a feeling, socially, outside of the theaterthat riots could possibly break out. In fact they did in several cities, butnot in New York City. 
The Company thought originally that Miss Bailey wouldcancel the show that night. No, Miss Bailey desired the show to continue thatnight. It was never mentioned. The show went on as usual. The “stand-up” afterthe show did not go on that night. There was a pall that came over the entirecompany. Although the audience didn’t experience it, there was less of a showthat night. The company for the most part were finding out about theassassination as they were arriving at the theater.  He was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel inMemphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968, at the age of 39. King was rushed to St.Joseph's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:05PM that evening. Thatnews traveled like wildfire.
Closing night for Clifton was a sort of graduation for him.The company and the cast were very warm to him giving him a going away cake. Heleft Dolly on a Sunday night and two days later he was in rehearsals for How to Steal an Election. It has been forty-five years, as of this writing, sinceClifton took his final bow in Hello,Dolly! He has done so much since then. They got to perform on the EdSullivan Show AND The Tony Awards when Pearl Bailey was given her special Tony.This was so special to him. All of these things that happened around this showone of the most unique experiences of his entire career. What a way to kick offa career!  

Thank you Clifton Davis 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!



If you have anything to add or share, please contact me at Richard@RichardSkipper.com.


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