 |
||||||||
| WWW.PSFOLLIES.COM | DECEMBER 2006 | |||||||
 Greetings, Darlin's!
 (from
left: Gunnery Sgt. Vino Ramdat, Follies Lovely Leila Burgess and Cpl.
Randy WalkerI
would like to thank our many patrons who attended the Follies these
past two months and contributed to our "Toys for Tots" campaign.
This was a record year for total number of toys collected, so please
know how much we, along with the U.S. Marine Corps,
appreciate your support. Oorah!
The Follies cast is now baking cookies, wrapping presents and enjoying a few well-deserved days off with their families. But they’ll have to leave the clean-up to the kids and grandkids. On December 27, the Long-Legged Lovelies and Dapper Dans return to our stage to perform nine shows through New Year’s Eve. (Please click here for details on our two very special New Year's Eve performances.)
I'm always flattered when someone asks for my opinion, so we would like to ask the same of you this month. Twice! On one survey below, we would like to know the decade which produced your favorite music and, on the other (by the City of Palm Springs), we would like to ask you a few questions on how to better serve YOU, our valued Palm Springs visitor. We appreciate you taking a few minutes to answer these two queries. This month's newsletter also contains a few mentions of several of the famous faces who've attended this season's Follies and a schedule of the two January travel shows where the Follies will have a booth display with showgirl in tow! We'd love to have you stop by to say hello. Finally, there are many miracles here at the Follies, not the least of which is how this cast can eat so much and still fit into their costumes, especially during the holidays. Eleven-season Follies dancer, Miss Glenda Guilfoyle, is a baker-par-excellence, a necessity when you are the mother of seven and grandmother of nine! This month, Miss Guilfoyle shares her simple recipe for nutmeg sherry cake on our members-only Follies Favorite webpage. (There is no cost to join, so we invite you to sign up!) A joyful holiday season, and a peaceful and prosperous New Year to all!
PS. If you haven't already registered for the "Fab Follies Forum," I encourage you to do so. There are already nearly 150 Follies folks who have registered and are posting messages for each other on a diverse variety of topics. Apparently, Follies Folk like to stay connected!
Just 2 shopping days left! And so many gifts still to buy! Just a reminder that Follies gift certificates make a perfect holiday gift for family, friends, co-workers, anyone you want to impress. They can be purchased in person at the Follies Box Office or by calling the Follies Reservations Office. And overnight delivery is still available!
We appreciate you taking a moment to answer the following two questions:
Recording Artist With Long List of Hits Also Known for Acting, Writing Described by the Los Angeles Times as "one of the purest musical
talents in mainstream pop today," Gloria
Loring, 60, has enjoyed
a career spanning three decades of recordings, concert tours, and appearances
on stage, television, and radio. Loring's first big break on The Merv Griffin Show led to hundreds of appearances on variety and talk shows such as The Tonight Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, and The Carol Burnett Show, as well as the Emmy and Academy Awards. She has shared the stage with such top performers as Bill Cosby, Frank Sinatra, Al Jarreau, the Pointer Sisters, and Mel Torme. In 1980, she won the role of Liz Chandler on NBC's Days of Our Lives and played the role for nearly seven years. In 1986, fans of the series helped send her recording of "Friends and Lovers," a duet with Carl Anderson, to the top of the pop charts. Since then, Loring has enjoyed a busy career of recordings and concert engagements throughout North America and Europe, and four sold-out concert tours of Australia. She has also found success in theater productions on the West Coast and a national tour as Reno Sweeny in Anything Goes. Also a writer, Loring co-wrote the now classic theme songs for the hit series, Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life. Inspired when her son was diagnosed with diabetes, she has written several books on living with the disease, including the recent Living with Type 2 Diabetes: Moving Past the Fear, and has been honored for her work for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. During her first engagement at the Follies, Loring stopped the show nightly with her thrilling medley of blues standards. That performance has been immortalized on the currently available Follies CD, Great Moments at the Follies, Vol. 1, and is reprised by her this season.  Follies ambassadors travel far and wide to meet fans - present and future - and to tell folks about all the latest Follies news. In the coming weeks, they'll be at the following consumer travel shows, so we hope you'll come by to say hello:
 Follies Season 16 is only nine weeks old but already a number famous folk have flocked to see our all-new show, Gotta Dance! We thought the celebrity watchers among you might like to know which famous names have joined you at the historic Plaza Theatre:
Former Follies choreographer, Carl Jablonski, is a legend for his work on stage and screen, including several Bob Hope specials, the Academy Awards, and shows with such stars as Cyd Charisse, Sammy Davis Jr. and Juliet Prowse.
Red Hat groups of 10 or more may call Follies Group Sales Manager, Shari Lipman at (760) 778-7657 for more information. For individual tickets at the discounted rate, Red Hat members may call the Reservations Department directly at (760) 327-0225 (mention special offer code RHSB07 and the name of your Red Hat chapter). So take up the Red and Purple and meet at the Follies on February 4, where you'll find nary a beer hat or foam finger, and where the Follies Man will happily NOT announce the football score from the stage.
 The Follies box office is open seven days a week and can be reached by calling 760-327-0225 or you can purchase tickets online 24 hours a day at www.psfollies.com and see your exact seat location at the time of booking. The Follies box office, located at the entrance to The Historic Plaza Theatre, is also open seven days a week. Note: Holiday Schedule: The Follies box office and reservations office will be closed Christmas Day and New Year's Day in observance of the holidays. Online ticket sales, however, will remain active on those two days. |
||||||||
Holiday
greetings from the Follies! ("Holiday" may include
Christmas, Chanukah and Kwanzaa.
And Winter
Solstice for any Pagans
who might otherwise forget to light their Yule logs.)
Last
week, Palm Springs honored three outstanding ladies with the prestigious
Athena Award, a recognition of women for their professional
excellence, community service, and active assistance of other women.
The honorees were Gannett newspaper publisher, Michelle Krans;
noted philanthropist and television station owner, Jackie
Lee Houston; and Follies Co-Founder
and Director of Marketing, Mary Jardin. I was most
honored to share the dais with these three remarkable women for a
few minutes while presenting the Entrepreneurial Award to my partner,
Miss Jardin. She makes us all proud!
And
that will be the final week to see the phenomenal Gogi
Grant perform
her many hit songs here at the Plaza Theatre. Then, on January 10
and playing through March 18, the equally exceptional Gloria
Loring will once again grace our stage; I've included a few words about
her and her amazing career below.
She first guest-starred at the Fabulous
Palm Springs Follies during Season 12. "The phrase 'Back by popular
demand!' is sometimes carelessly used," notes Follies Impresario
Riff Markowitz, "but in this case it's true. Rarely has the return
of a Follies guest star created such anticipation among our patrons."
Academy Award-nominated filmmaker, Arthur
Hiller, directed many critically
and commercially successful movies, including Love
Story, The Out-of-Towners,
The Americanization of Emily and Outrageous
Fortune.
Voted "Most
Popular Female Vocalist of 1938" by Billboard, Bea
Wain began her career as a child prodigy, playing piano on the
early NBC radio show, Children's Hour. As an adult, Wain was considered
one of the best of the Big Band singers; her hits included "Heart
and Soul" and "My
Reverie."
Sam Lovullo, produced Hee
Haw, the longest running syndicated show in
television history. He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and
author of the book, Life in the Kornfield: My 25 Years
at Hee Haw.
Comedian Norm Crosby, that master of the
malapropism, is a frequent guest at the Follies. Crosby is a veteran
of countless appearances on The Ed
Sullivan Show ,
Hollywood Palace and the Tonight Show. More recently, he guest-starred
on The Larry Sanders Show and Last Comic
Standing.
Longtime
Follies-goers will remember Bud
Mercer (pictured right in photo), one half
of the vaudeville team, The Mercer Brothers, who graced the Follies'
stage for 11 years. Mercer is in the process of completing his
memoirs, which are sure to be fascinating since he and his brother
were witnesses to more show business than almost anyone alive today!
We will send you more information on this book when the publication
date approaches.
This
coming February 4, 2007, is Super
Bowl Sunday and an official Day
of Mourning for football widows everywhere. But Red
Hat Ladies don't get
depressed, they get dressed! They don't get down,
they get dolled up! In recognition
of that special joie
de vivre (or joie du chapeau rouge, if you will), the
Follies is happy to announce a Super Bowl Sunday matinee performance
with special
discounts for Red
Hat members.
As an incentive for completing this survey, you have an opportunity
to enter a drawing for a free airline ticket at the end of
this survey. If you choose not to participate in the drawing,
your contact information is not required.