Friday night, Andrea and I watched Bye Bye Birdie, a film from 1963 based on the Tony award winning play. I DVR'd the film from TCM because I remembered Andrea telling me she was in a production of Bye Bye Birdie when she was in high school.
The story centers around a teen music sensation named Conrad Birdie who has been drafted into the army which has the entire population of teenage girls in America and around the world even in a major tizzy.
To capitalize on this pop culture frenzy, a stunt is devised where Conrad Birdie will appear on The Ed Sullivan show to sing a new song and give one lucky teenage fan girl one last kiss before he goes off to the army.
The film follows the frenzy of activity and media attention leading up to the TV appearance its affect on all the people involved.
Dick Van Dyke reprises his Broadway role as Albert Peterson while making his feature film debut.
Also coming over from the Broadway production is Paul Lynde as Harry MacAfee, a married father of two children. Accepting Paul Lynde as a heterosexual is perhaps the film's biggest challenge.
Ann-Margret as Kim MacAfee, the lucky girl chosen for Conrad's last kiss makes her movie debut. I know this makes me sound like a total perve since Ann-Margret's character is a teenage high schooler and I'm at least 40 years removed from being in high school, but damn, Ann-Margret is alluring as hell in this movie. Would it help to know that Ann-Margret was actually 22 years old when she made this movie? No, it probably wouldn't. That's still way younger than me.
The story of Conrad Birdie going off to the army was inspired by the true story of singer Elvis Presley being drafted into the United States Army in 1957. Jesse Pearson plays the role of teen idol Conrad Birdie but I wondered what if Elvis Presley himself had played the part, poking fun at his own teen idol image.
Well, it turns out the producers of the film did want Elvis to play Conrad. I don't know if Elvis himself would've thought playing Conrad would be a hoot but manager Colonel Tom Parker rejected the idea as he did not want Presley in any roles that were parodies of himself or his career.
Ann-Margret would get to co-star with Elvin in 1964's Viva Las Vegas.
While the film is definitely a part of late 1950s and early 1960s culture, it's themes of fame and success and what we're prepared to do or not do to achieve or hold on to that fame and success are still relevant.
Bye Bye Birdie was a light, fun diversion and I found the movie quite enjoyable.
In my next post, Andrea and I watch another classic movie as we go back to 1935.
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