Don't thumb your nose, but take a tip from mine

Another little piece of my childhood has gone, with the sad news that the eternal Rhoda, Miss Valerie Harper has died.

Despite having a diagnosis of terminal cancer back in 2013, she still managed to outlive her former co-star Mary Tyler-Moore by a couple of years.

Miss Harper epitomised for us a whole era of showbiz that straddled the slow demise of the "variety show" and the rise of the sitcom in the 1970s, and we will always fondly remember her smiling, cheery personality, whether as "Miss Morgenstern" or - more surprisingly, as a singer...

Lucille Ball, Dinah Shore and Valerie Harper - Hey Look Me Over

RIP, Valerie Kathryn Harper (22nd August 1939 – 30th August 2019).

More Miss Harper here and here.

Fred and Lucille help us move

This Tacky Music Monday is a rather special one - as today we move lock, stock and barrel to our new abode!

To help us along, how about some footage of our gang at Saturday's glittering Gay Pride event?

Cyd Charisse, Fred Astaire & Lucille Ball - Here's to the Girls (from Ziegfeld Follies)

OK, OK, so neither Fred nor Lucille (nor Cyd) were actually there, but...

Jubilee Gems and Jitterbuggery

It was a lovely weekend - my sister's (and "Houseboy Alex"'s) birthday being the excuse for our gang to go to Buckingham Palace for the magnificent Diamonds: A Jubilee Celebration exhibition. With her fiancé's mum in tow (who can't walk very well unaided) we were taken from the front gate in a buggy, through the ceremonial arch to enter through the front door of the Palace - which was a fabulous treat (it may not have been the State Coach, but we can dream!).

Shame that dream is over, and it's back to reality with a bump... Never mind. On this Tacky Music Monday, and on the 101st anniversary of her birth, here's that firebrand Miss Lucille Ball to cheer us all up with The Jitterbug Bite:

Lucille Ball - Jitterbug Bite

Have a good week, darlings!

The Lucy-Desi Centre for Comedy

They Love Lucy!

It's a centenary today - Miss Lucille Ball!

Apparently to mark this occasion, more than 900 red-lipsticked, red-headed women - and men - gathered in the grande dame of screwball comedy's home town of Jamestown, New York State and achieved a world record for most Lucy look-alikes!



There was, of course, only one Lucille Désirée Ball, and here she is, showing that young whipper-snapper Shirley MacLaine a thing or two about showbiz...

Lucille Ball & Shirley MacLaine - Gypsy in my Soul TV special

Lucille Ball official website

I figure whenever you're down and out, the only way is up

I have been humming this song (from the play Wildcat starring Lucille Ball) all weekend, and as we ebb to the end of a lovely Sunday (good friends around, roast lamb with all the trimmings, champers in the garden) I just felt the need to share!

This version is by the late and dearly missed Bea Arthur, who starred alongside the aforementioned Miss Ball in the film version of Mame...

Bea Arthur - Hey Look Me Over

Hey look me over, lend me an ear
Fresh out of clover, mortgage up to here
Don't pass the plate folks, don't pass the cup
I figure whenever you're down and out, the only way is up
And I'll be up like a rosebud high on the vine
Don't thumb your nose, but take a tip from mine
I'm a little bit short of the elbow room, so let me get me some
And look out world, here I come

Hey look me over, lend me an ear
Fresh out of clover, mortgage up to here
Don't pass the plate folks, don't pass the cup
I figure whenever you're down and out, the only way is up
And I'll be up like a rosebud high on the vine
Don't thumb your nose, but take a tip from mine
I'm a little bit short of the elbow room, so let me get me some
And look out world, here I come!

Nobody in the world was ever without a prayer
How can you win the world if nobody knows you're there?

Kid, when you need the crowd, the tickets are hard to sell
Still, you can lead the crowd if you can get up and yell

Hey look me over, lend me an ear
Fresh out of clover, mortgage up to here
I'm a little bit short of the elbow room, so let me get me some
And look out world, here me shout world
And look out world, here I come!

Now THAT's how it's done!

It's summer at last (with 30 degrees predicted this weekend!), we're off to the magnificence of Kew Gardens, we may have found a house to move to when the landlady sells this one, and it is just one week to Gay Xmas (Pride)!

What better way to celebrate than with a collaboration between two of the most vivacious all-round entertainers ever? Put your hands together for Miss Ball and Miss MacLaine!

Lucille Ball and Shirley MacLaine