Varietal Spice

They say variety is the spice of life? Then I have a few spice girls to show you today. This post started out as a visual tribute to the sometimes elaborate hair of female guests on 1960s variety shows, but soon evolved into a general appreciation of the whole package: the carefully coiffed 'dos, the elegant gowns, the sparse yet glamorous sets, colorful lighting, etc... For the most part, variety shows (ala The Ed Sullivan Show, Hollywood Palace, etc...) are dead now, but in their hey-day one could spot a lovely lady coming out on stage all decked out and singing a song or dancing. Like many folks, I love scampering through youtube and coming upon things like this. Bless the people who take care to upload them. Sometimes it's amazing, sometimes less so, but they nearly always LOOK interesting! Ha ha!  I've attached links so that you can witness the performances yourselves should you wish to.

Today's cover girl for this post is Miss Barbara Eden, romping around to the strains of "Spinning Wheel!"

Many a teen-aged boy dreamed of Jeannie (and a few probably dreamed of BEING Jeannie! - ha ha!)

Here she is in an earlier appearance, singing "Big Beautiful Ball" and sporting some of that piled-high hair we love so much.

This is the one that actually started the whole idea off. One look at Miss Julie London's crown of tresses and false eyelashes and I was all in! She's singing "Nice Girls Don't Stay for Breakfast."

Miss Shirley Jones starts off this number in a sleek, but conventional '60s hairstyle and wedding dress, but soon morphs into a green gown and a higher stacked coiffure. (As an aside, I have always adored pale green and purple as a color combination.)

The song is "Love Walked In." Sadly, I was unable to get a look at this creation from the back.

Variety show staple Miss Leslie Uggams sports a fairly high hairpiece here.

She's belting out "I Got a Right to Sing the Blues." I just love the beaded detailing on her gown.

It's Christmas in July as Miss Florence Henderson (Mrs. Brady) performs a medley while bedecked in period wear and an elaborate hairdo.

Generally, I'd rather take a bullet than listen to children singing, especially in unison as happens for much of this... Thank God we can at least appreciate Flo's lengthy curls.

Miss Nancy Wilson (who sang the jaunty theme song for one of our guilt pleasures, Love Has Many Faces, 1965) is icy blue with Andy Williams here.

Here are some close-ups of her colorful eye makeup as she's performing "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever" with Williams.

Miss Diana Ross (I'm bound legally to refer to her that way! LOL) along with The Supremes joined up with The Temptations for a mash-up. They took turns singing songs made popular by the other group!

Gladys Knight and the Pips perform "Baby I Need Your Lovin'" which is obscured throughout by psychedelic effects.

Miss Knight generally wore her hair long with maybe some height at the top, thus this piled-up, curly do is something of a departure for her.

Miss Ann-Margret does one of her characteristically sultry performances in a slinky pink gown with a bejeweled neckline.

She does "The Look of You" and later "Put a Little Love in Your Heart." What sends this over the top for me is her hooty bedazzled microphone!

Now entering the Miss Bobbie Gentry wing of this exhibit. She croons "Let it Be Me" with Glen Campbell.

I love her eyelashes and hair, but get a load of the shoes!

Here, she performed an entire medley with Bobby Darin in profile! The two remain nose-to-nose throughout. (For some reason he is afforded a brief close-up from another angle, but she isn't...!)

This is the way most of us recall Gentry if we do at all. Looking as if she's just auditioned for either Valley of the Dolls (1967) or Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970), we adore her hair, her lashes, her ensemble and, well, just all of it! She's performing a song called "Touch 'Em With Love."

Arguably, her most famous numbers, though, were "Fancy," later remade with success by Reba McIntire and, as seen here, "Ode to Billie Joe." Her makeup here does Sharon Tate proud!

The talented songwriter-producer and vocalist abruptly retired in 1978 after having come up against behind-the-scenes sexism and a spate of lackluster sales of her work and is, thus, unjustly forgotten by many.

Heading old school for a moment, we catch up with Miss Ginger Rogers, hoofing her way through "That's How Young I Feel" and "Dancing," both from Jerry Herman shows she performed on stage (Mame and Hello Dolly!) No close-ups of Ginge in this instance.

With it's teal and kelly green colors and the gazebo, this set brings to mind the Promenade Room from my beloved The Towering Inferno (1974), but the attraction here is Miss Alice Faye singing a medley of songs.

This set is punctuated with some slick costume augmentations and a fair amount of choreography for the fifty-one year-old performer. Love the necklace!

Another frequent variety show performer was Miss Peggy Lee. Here, she is doing "Walking Happy," followed by "Little Girl Blue."

At this time, she was elegant and glitzy (and, of course, very blonde.) Lee perfected a style that was very stationary and quiet. Reportedly, she adopted this method while singing in a noisy, hectic supper club wherein she barely sang out in order to force people to silence themselves and listen in order to hear her!

If you look at later appearances, she really went off the rails with her hair, makeup and clothing, eventually appearing quite alien! But, here, she was still pretty lovely.

Here we find Miss Lee in one of those cascading Grecian hairstyles we live for! She and Dean Martin are engaged in a medley.

Rounding third and heading for home, I give you this. I nearly died when I saw it. Not only do I adore the instrumental of "Love is Blue," but I've recently become obsessed with Mitzi Gaynor in her many TV specials. How many things I'm insane about could this clip combine? The song (which she hilariously overdramatizes, but who gives a shit!?), the cool color scheme, the sheer drapes, a dazzling Bob Mackie gown with a mind-boggling neckline and the shapely, always "in it to win it" Gaynor...

Did I mention the neckline of this show-stopping dress?!

No, this is not Bride of Frankenstein (1935) as colorized by Ted Turner... It is my ALL-TIME favorite variety show appearance. I've featured it before many moons ago, but I never tire of it.

It's the jaw-dropping Miss Nancy Ames (another practically forgotten performer who was exceedingly popular in her day.) She sings a really unusual combination of "With a Little Help from My Friends" and "Games People Play." The first time I heard it was sort of shell-shocked. Soon after I began to love it and eventually to crave it! LOL

The powerful alto was charmingly introduced by Engelbert Humperdinck and they proceed to duet, making a gorgeous couple. (She even allows some room in her hairdo for him to rest his chin!) Look at her startlingly beautiful face in close-up...

Ames receded from view in the 1970s to focus on an event planning enterprise (which is still in operation) and it was the television and recording worlds' loss.

We love watching Ames on old episodes of Password (even if she could be a bit of a cheater with gestures!) and in her many variety appearances (the vast majority of which are NOT on youtube), but it is for this neck-bending confection that we place her in The Underworld's highest esteem!