Robert Morse performs. NY Times photo on May 27, from their review of Mad Men, Re-posted 2018. Originally 2014.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
This past Sunday, May 25, 2014 was the end of 6 1/2 seasons of the HBO series Mad Men, the wildly popular period piece about the advertising business in the 1960’s. It’s been a very serious show, and one of the stars has been 83 year old Robert Morse, who plays the beloved senior partner of the firm McCann-Erickson who dies during this episode.
However Matt Weiner, the show’s creator, never forgot that Robert Morse, as a young actor, performed as a Tony- winning song and dance man in the film/Broadway show How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
So it was a thrill when, at the conclusion of a superb final episode for 2014, a moment of TV magic occurred as Robert Morse got to do a musical/dance number as part of a fantasy sequence.
It was such a wonderful surprise, something like the Woody Allen movie when a bunch of hospital patients break out into song in Everyone Says I Love You.
I was mesmerized and enthralled by the scene, wishing that it could go on longer.
The song “The Best Things in Life are Free” cast a moment of musical wisdom and joy onto the ending (for now—7 more scenes in 2015) because it is a lyric with a message that is so special, especially in the context of the Mad Men story.
A commenter on the YouTube video, Molly, said, “This was so beautiful and had me smiling the entire time. When I noticed he wasn’t wearing any shoes I started to tear up; Mad Men is flawless.”
Here is the review from today’s NY Times:
You just had to post a Robert Morse clip! So I hunted down my early recording from one of my favorite B’way shows of all time, Take Me Along. A Jackie Gleason vehicle based on Ah, Wilderness, an O’Neill comedy of all things. I know you like B’way stuff. Since it’s O’Neill, alcohol figures in the plot of course, lol. Wonderful show with great music by Robert Merrill if you don’t know it. Great cast too! Walter Pidgeon, Eileen Herlie and Una Merkle! Here’s Morse, playing a 16 year old at age 28 from the cast recording in 1959!
Carl
Editor’s Note: We posted Carl’s song separately due to software issues –Paul