Poughkeepsie Journal from Poughkeepsie, New York • Page 35

Pouobhccpsit Journal Jo Sullivan leaves Mrs. Loesser at home By Jeffrey Borak Journal arU wrltar NI rEW YORK For years singer actress Jo Sullivan was known only as the wife of composer lyricist Frank Loesser. The woman who starred in the acclaimed Off Broadway production of "The Threepenny Opera" and in the original Broadway cast of Loesser's "The Most Happy Fella" gave up a promising career to raise two children and. after Loesser's death in 1969, to manage Frank Music, his highly successful music publishing firm. All of that changed about four years ago when The Ballroom, a trendy night soot in New York frequent ed by some of Broadway's top songwriters, asked Sullivan if she would come down and sing a couple of her late husband's songs.

"I hadn't sung for about or IS years. I did about a half hour. I sang only Frank's songs." she said as she settled back into a sofa in the cozy den on the third floor of the four story Upper East Side townhouse she and Loesser and their children shared. The room has the feeling of having been left almost exactly the way it was when Loesser was alive. There is a piano in one corner of the room with sheet music neatly arranged on it.

Behind the piano is one of the several floor to ceiling bookcases which line the room. There is a small desk in the opposite corner. A fireplace with Duraflame logs occupies a portion of one wall, the Oscar Loesser won for "Baby It's Cold Outside." which he wrote for the 1949 Esther Williams movie. "Neptune's Daughter." stands impassively at one end of the mantelpiece. A grouping of armchairs, sofa and coffee table occu Ipies the center of the room and there is a built in bar and a bathroom in another corner of the room.

It is quiet, cozy, removed, when it needs to be. from the I rest of the townhouse. Sullivan's stint at The Ballroom led to some appearances at small night clubs around New York; a I summer revival of "The Most Happy Fella;" a tour as Sarah Brown in "Guys and Dolls;" and the creation of "Perfectly Frank." a 1980 revue built around Loesser's film and Broadway songs. "Perfectly Frank" flopped on Broadway. "We Singer actress Jo Sullivan, wife of the late com run Tuesday at the Hyde Park Festival Theatre in with perfect frankness poser lyricist Frank Loesser.

opens a week long "Jo Sullivan sings Frank Loesser and Friends." Now. she has put together a new revue. "Jo Sulii Still the silent rowdy, Eastwood has proved that cool succeeds van Sings Frank Loesser and Friends." which opens a week long run Tuesday at the Hyde Park Festival Theatre. The revue is being directed by Tony Award winning director Donald Sadler. It already has been tried out at the John Drew Playhouse and the White Barn Theatre and there is talk of bringing it into an Off Broadway house in October.

The show begins and ends with Frank Loesser. The first half surveys Sullivan's own theatrical career and includes material by Loesser and other Broadway composers the second half Is devoted exclusively to the songs Loesser wrote for more than 60 films, among them, "Hans Christian Anderson." and Broadway songs he wrote for "Guys and Dolls." "Where's Charley?" "The Most Happy Fella," "Greenwillow," and the 1962 Pulitzer Prize winning. "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." Loesser was known more by his songs than his "We have a kind of running joke about that in the show. Periodically, one of the guys who sing and dance with me quip 'I didn't know he wrote that'." Sullivan said, her right arm dropping lazily to bar side. Just out of reach of her two clipped for the sum mer Yorkshire terriers.

Pip and Willie, who had scampered up onto the sofa and stretched out near her. Between the songs in her revue. Sullivan reminisces about her life, her career, and her late husband. "I talk about some things people didn't know about Frank, kind of cataloguing his career from Hollywood straight through to 'Happy Fella'," she said. He was a meticulous, thorough worker.

"Frank would go to bed at midnight. He'd get up at 4 in the morning and work until 8 a.m. Then he'd have a martini." she said with a laugh. "I used to say that in the show but people didn't understand it so I took it out." After breakfast with his wife, he'd work a bit more, take a nap and then break for lunch. He would write the lyrics first.

Sullivan said, usually to dummy music. When he was satisfied with the lyrics, then he would compose the real music. "He was a true craftsman." Sullivan said. "He was always searching to improve his art. He never re See 'THREE page 46 A a By Roger Ebert Syndicated columnlit CARMEL.

Calif. For a man who got his start by striking matches on a hunchback and shooting three men with one bullet, Clint Eastwood has inspired an amazing amount of serious analysis. I was looking at some of the literature the other day out on the patio behind the Hog's Breath Inn, the restaurant he owns here on a side street not far from the There was the Norman Mailer essay is living proof of the maxim that the best way to get through lire is and the New York Review of Books article most distinctive about Eastwood is how ef fectively he struggles against absorption into mere genre, mere and the Los Angeles Times piece the strong women in his movies Eastwood may be the most important and influential feminist filmmaker working in America Clint Eastwood, the Man With No Name. Dirty Harry, Joe Kidd a feminist filmmaker? I put the articles aside and studied the menu. It was going to be either the Eieer Sandwich or the Dirty Harry Burger.

and I'd almost made up my mind when Clint Eastwood materialized at the table and sprawled in a chair. He is I very low key. He sat in a corner with his back to the patio, to give himself some small measure of privacy, but before he could tell the waitress he would have an iced tea, two little girls had come up, smiling and giggling, for his autograph. "This early hour isn't so bad," he said. "I've been in here times when the autograph hounds got so thick I was driven out I'd have to tell people I'd meet them down the street." How does it make you feel, all the requests for autographs? "Like the Chinese water torture.

One autograpn is no big deal. But they keep coming all day long, day after Jp, day. and each one is a little tug at your patience, until Clbv. Eastwood plays a cop with some hangups in "Tightrope." which you feel like oDens in theaters today. A "Tightrope" review appears on page ix.

aee wmwu, page a "TBI KfeixJBfiSwxTBF The boys in the band were musicians with some songs and an image for a new band: Heavy metal music but not the usual heavy metal look of denim, leather and studs. Instead, Twisted Sister decided to go for a little femininity: Women's clothes and makeup. From left; A.J. Pero, Jay Jay French. Dee Snider, Mark Mendoxa.

Eddie OJeda. The Associated Press Twisted Sister does 4hid' rock in drag He all but scowled at his iced tea. Then he thought of (EDITOR'S NOTE: Twisted Sister will perform with Ronnie James Dio Thursday evening at the Mid Hudson Civic Center). NEW YORK They were musicians with a few songs and an image for a new band: Heavy metal music but not the usual heavy metal look of denim, leather jackeU and metal studs. Instead, the boys in the band uecided to go for a little femininity women's clothes and makeup.

But they didn't have a name. A friend had a little bit too much to drink one night and blurted out a name: "Twisted Sister." "It was brilliant." said Dee Snider, lead singer of the quintet known since that moment as Twisted Sister. "Only a drunk person could have thought of it. He didn't even See TWISTED, page 46 jg months to nm!.