Ray Flynt: A Fan’s Remembrances of Hello, Dolly!

Ray Flynt runs a non-profit Social service association inWashington DC. He has been in the workforce about forty-five years. He is, asof this writing, sixty six years young. He lives in suburban Washington, inMaryland. He has been a theater fan since he first saw Hello, Dolly! Although he was a fan of theater before then, Hello, Dolly was his first Broadwayexperience. He still remembers it as vividly as if it happenedyesterday. It was February 14^th, 1967. He was in college. He used tohang out in the theater department in college. He had friends that were theatermajors. Ray’s major was political science. This was in Western Pennsylvania,Pittsburgh, in a very small state college. One of his friends asked Ray if hewould like to go see Hello, Dolly.Ray asked “What’s that?” His friend told him it was a musical. Ray asked, “Youmean like an opera?”  Ray wasn’t a bigfan of opera. His friend told him no. “This is a musical comedy starring CarolChanning.” With some trepidation, Ray agreed to go with him. This was HeinzHall. They were in the second row from the very top of the balcony. These werethe only tickets they could afford back then. Ray knew about Carol Channingfrom having seen her on the Ed SullivanShow. This will tell you how naïve Ray was. If you remember, the weeklyheadliner on the Ed Sullivan Show rarely appeared until the last ten minutes.So, when Hello, Dolly was starringCarol Channing, and the show started, Ray thought it would be two hours beforehe saw Carol! The show began and there she was in the first number! His firstthought was, again because of his naiveté, was that they were getting her outof the way so that they could really showcase her at the end. He had no cluethat she was going to be on for the next two and a half hours. It was excitingto discover he was way off base. He was really captured during the Put on Your Sunday Clothes number whenthe train came across the stage. He was absolutely hooked from that momentforward.
Because this was Ray’s first experience at the theater, thiswas an appetizer. One month later, he was going with a bunch of students to aconference in New York City. There were six of them going. Prior to going, Ray askedif anyone was interested in seeing a Broadway show. There was a great one hecould recommend. By that point, Ray was aware that Dolly was still running on Broadway. They all said sure and Rayrounded up tickets for the six of them. They were in the rear mezzanine of theSt. James Theater. 

The marquee of the St. James Theater. A much different Broadway

The St. James has two balconies. The mezzanine and rearmezzanine are on one level and then there is a balcony one level above it. Theysaw the show, this time with Martha Raye. It was March 16^th, 1967. It was about a month after Ray saw Carol Channing. He was going to be in townfor a couple of days. The next night, he got a ticket for himself in the firstrow. He saw Martha Raye again. The reason he remembers the date is that thesecond day was St. Patrick’s Day on the Seventeenth. When she made her entrancein the opening number wearing the orange plaid outfit, she was also wearing agreen corsage.

Martha Raye

Ray was pleasantly surprised by Martha Raye. He had seen heron variety shows and specials as a really “cut-up” kind of comic. She neverseemed able to do anything seriously. When Ray was at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh,his view of Channing was from a hundred and twenty feet away. He couldn’t befurther away. With Raye, he had a much closer view. She had a voice Ray neverknew she had. He had only known her as a comic. 

Martha Raye (Courtesy: Danny Proctor)

She played the role pretty muchstraight except for a few portions in the eating scene in the Harmonia Gardens.She would cut up a little bit.Ray, at that time, was not aware of Raye’s politicalleanings so it did not affect the way he looked at the show. She had becomevery well known with the troops. She entertained in Vietnam. He WAS aware ofthat. The USO in New York at that time was giving away tickets to members ofthe military so they could see the show. There was that element of popularityshe brought to the show. She was in the show from February 27^th,1967 until June 10^th 1967, a little over three months. Then BettyGrable took over on June 12^th. Ray also saw Betty Grable. Ray liked her. One of the thingsthat the show taught him early on was that this was the first time he had seena show where he had the opportunity to see so many different people play thesame roles and bring their own stamp to it. It was the little subtle thingsmore than anything else. For example, during the Dolly number, Grable used to hikeup her skirt to reveal those million dollar legs. When she began with the show,they started her out with a red wig. They eventually changed to her morefamiliar blonde look. She WAS blonde when Ray saw her, the way he remembers herfrom movies and TV. After the show, he waited at the stage door. She waspractically past him before he realized this “gray haired lady” was BettyGrable. Before seeing his next Broadway Dolly, he saw a formerBroadway Dolly. He saw Ginger Rogers in Cleveland. He thought Ginger was a fineDolly. She didn’t necessarily knock his socks off. She had a movie star personaabout her. The next Dolly for Ray was Pearl Bailey. He loved her in therole. She brought a new dynamism to the show. There was a renewed energy withthe show that had been missing with subsequent Dollys since Carol. She broughther own personality to the show. She and Cab Calloway were famous for doingtheir “third act.” That would happen immediately after the curtain calls. Theywould banter a bit with the entire cast still standing there. For the show thatRay saw, he was in the front row. During the “third act”, a woman in theaudience started taking pictures. Ray seems to recall that it was a moviecamera. 

Cab Calloway and Pearl Bailey

She was sitting directly behind him. Miss Bailey stopped and asked thewoman if she was filming. She acknowledged the cast and said that if they hadknown there was a camera in the audience, they never would have done the show.She told the woman that she might as well give the camera to her because it wasgoing to be taken as she exited the theater anyway. The woman never did handover the camera. Ray never did see anyone come to take it. Although, at the veryend of Miss Bailey’s banter with the audience, she said to the woman, “You cankeep it. Just don’t show it to anybody.” Halfway through “act three”, thecurtain did come down so the cast could leave the stage. She and Cab Callawaywould stand in front of the curtain and do a number or two. Prior to Baileydoing the show, the second costume for Dolly is a lilac blouse and an emeraldgreen skirt. When Bailey did the show, they changed that. They changed it to ayellow color. When Merman did it, that same costume was pink.  

Phyllis Diller Company

Phyllis Diller is the only Broadway Dolly that Ray did notsee. Ethel Merman was “ok” as far as Ray was concerned. Dolly was the only showhe ever saw Merman do. He did see her do Dolly three times. The first time hesaw her come out for her opening number that powerful voice blew him away. Shedidn’t need a microphone although at that time she was miked. As everyonereading this knows by now, they reinstated the two numbers that had originallybeen written for her.
They were cut when Channing was cast. It was exciting tohear two new numbers the first time. However, the second time he saw the show,he thought both numbers slowed the pace.  When Ray heard that the show was closing inthe winter of 1970, with Merman in the show, he was in Western Pennsylvania atthe time. He had to get back to see the show one last time. He was hoping thatMerman’s standby, Bibi Osterwald, would be going on! He was really hoping tosee Osterwald. Anyway, he went to the theater and got his ticket. He wasstanding outside of the theater. The doorman for the stage door was standingoutside the theater. 

Merman Company

This was in the morning. Ray had a ticket for the matinee.Ray got to talking with the doorman. Ray was telling him his stories abouthaving seen the show so many times. Now when he sees the chat boards where somepeople have seen Wicked three hundredand eighty-six times, he can’t compare! He thought seeing Dolly seven times wasa record! Anyway, he’s talking to the doorman. On the same street at the time,the marquee was up for Four On A Gardenwhich was opening at The Broadhurst on January 30^th, 1971 starringCarol Channing and Sid Caesar. Ray had seen that show in Pittsburgh at TheNixon Theater. It was Pittsburgh’s first pre- Broadway tryout since 1959. Heknew as he was watching it, that it was not a very good show. Channing andCaesar gave it the good old college try but it didn’t work. Ray mentioned tothe doorman that he had seen Channing as well as other Dollys in the show. Healso mentioned to the doorman that the only Broadway Dolly he had not seen wasPhyllis Diller. The doorman told Ray that he didn’t miss anything. The doormanshared a story with Ray involving Betty Grable’s run with Max Showalter. Duringthe eating scene, she had reached a point where she was throwing food atShowalter with her fork. Max got upset with her about that, according to thedoorman. Out of all of the Dollys that Ray has seen, he feels thatChanning was the best. Having gotten to see her four times in the 1995 revivaland tour, she was the tops.     The movie is fine as far as Ray is concerned. He doesn’tfeel, however, that Streisand was right for the part. He understands why “Hollywood”did what they did. She was very popular at the time and was going to be a bigdraw. It is nice to have Dollycaptured on film. The sets are great especially that huge New York Street builton the back lots of 20^th Century Fox. For Ray, he just loves theBroadway show so much more. Ray got to see the Carol Channing 1995 revival. He thoughtthe show was good and that Channing was excellent. She was seventy five yearsyoung at the time! She was so full of energy. Ray remembers thinking, “ I hopeI’m still breathing at seventy-five.”  Hefirst saw it at Wolftrap, outside of DC,  as part of its pre-Broadway tour.  He also saw it at the Benedum Center inPittsburgh. Ray took his mother and her husband. Then he saw it twice after itarrived on Broadway. He remembers comments from people who had seen previousincarnations. They said, “It was like visiting an old friend.”

Betsy Palmer

He has also seen other Dollys, Betsy Palmer for one. Hethought she was very good. He felt that she was somewhat in the mold of CarolChanning. It was at The Music Carnival outside of Cleveland. The MusicCarnivalwas in the round in a tent. It was a summer stock theater. It was the only timehe ever saw Dolly in the round. Theyused the original costumes and a few of the original set pieces. He doesn’trecall how they handled the staircase or if there even was one. Overall, it wasa very enjoyable production. Andrea Bell, who I have written about, was MinnieFay in that production. The other Dolly Ray saw, unfortunately, was his worstexperience with the show. It was a bus and truck company in the early nineties andit was Mimi Hines and Phil Ford. Neither one was good. They were constantlygoing up on their lines. It was unbelievable to Ray that two professionals wereso ill prepared. He has seen shows on Broadway where an actor has gone up ontheir lines. It happens. Phil Ford, on the other hand, did not know his part.It was very clumsy and there were holes in some of their forgetfulness that youcould have driven a truck through. She was better at “covering” then he was.Ray knew the show so well that he knew their mistakes.  He wanted to yell theirlines to them at times, particularly to Phil Ford. Ray’s wife knew of his lovefor

Mimi Hines as Dolly Levi (Gateway Playhouse Production)

Dolly. Her regret is that shenever got to see the original Broadway production. Of course, the CarolChanning revival was very similar to the original. When they saw the MimiHines/Phil Ford bus and truck company in York, Pennsylvania at The Strand CapitolPerforming Arts Center, Ray was so excited that his wife was finally going toget to see the show.  They used the original sets and costumes. The look of theproduction was there. However, the production was very disappointing. Aroundthe same time that Ray saw Martha Raye in Dolly,he saw Mimi Hines in Funny Girl. Shehad replaced Barbra Streisand. She was excellent, Ray thought. When he heardthat she was doing a production of Dolly,he thought this was going to be great.

Mimi Hines Company (Gateway Playhouse)

He was once again in the front row. Atthe end of the show, everyone but Ray and his wife gave the show a standingovation. Giving a standing ovation is the nature of most audiences nowadays.
Ray’s wife shares the same enthusiasm for the theater thatRay does. They actually met in community theater, as of this writing,thirty-eight years ago. Ray still does Community Theater ever so often.
Of today’s actresses, Ray thinks Christine Ebersole wouldmake a great Dolly. He also thinks Queen Latifa would be a great Dolly, in themold of Pearl Bailey. Between Broadway, and the Cleveland and Pittsburgh tours,Ray has seen Dolly around nine times between 1965 and 1970 when the Broadwayproduction closed. Of course, Ray wasn’t just going to New York just to see Dolly. He would see Dolly as well as other shows. He was able to see other greatmusicals and compare. Add into that mix, shows he was doing in CommunityTheater at the time. Dolly launchedhis love of musical theater. He has such a soft spot for this musical. He wouldlove to see a revival of it. Although he has to say, and he read this about JerryHerman, that Jerry thinks the original is perfect in every way and that hewould not to see a re-imagining of the show. Ray agrees with that. It was anearly perfect show. Ray loves Jerry Herman. On Broadway, Ray has seen a coupleof revivals of La Cage and hasenjoyed those. He loves the score to DearWorld. Although the show was short lived, Ray got to see Angela Lansbury inher Tony Award winning performance.Ray has a couple of theories as to why the Dolly numberalways stops the show. The first is the build up to it. The second is thechoreography. It doesn’t get much better than that. The show is a star vehicle.The audience hungers for the star to be there. Unlike his first impressions,when he first saw Carol Channing, and thought she was going to get back to herhotel early. There she is all through the show. Between the time when thecurtain comes down at the end of Before theParade Passes By and her next appearance at the top of the stairs, at leastthirty minutes, if not longer has elapsed. The build-up to the reappearance ofthe star in the star vehicle is a major factor to the impact of the Dolly number along with the staging.David Burns was still doing Horace Vandergelder when MarthaRaye was in the show. Ray thought he was quite good. That was the first andonly time that Ray saw Burns on the stage. Ray also saw Max Showalter, BettyGrable’s Horace. He was also fine in the role.  Life Magazine did two cover issues devoted to Hello, Dolly, one with Carol Channing onthe cover and the other with Pearl Bailey on the cover. Ray Flynt feels that Hello,Dolly is a great hit of American Musical Theater. It’s optimistic. It’supbeat. It’s entertaining. It’s everything a great show should be.      
    
Thank you Ray Flynt for the gifts you have given to the world and will continue to give! The theater needs more people like you!

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


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