Monday, July 20, 2009

Harve Presnell and Molly Brown

I was saddened to hear that Harve Presnell died on June 30th. I had no idea that he had grown up in the Modesto area, and they ran such a lovely article about him in the Modesto Bee. I have always loved the movie "The Unsinkable Molly Brown".
We (my sisters, our mother, and me) even had the distinct pleasure of going to see Debbie Reynolds and Mr. Presnell perform live in the musical in Sacramento back in 1989. We may have had "nosebleed" seats - but we were all so happy to see them in person!
I have had the songbook above for quite awhile. And I also had a watchable copy of the movie, only because I had recorded it years ago when it was on television. But I recently found a VHS at a thrift store! I was very happy.
And I didn't have a copy of the soundtrack, either - until I found this one at a thrift store, as well. I love the music, and it was written by Meredith Willson- whom you may be familiar with because he also wrote "The Music Man" - another favorite!

If you haven't ever seen The Unsinkable Molly Brown, then perhaps you might remember Harve Presnell from "Paint Your Wagon" - he played Rotten Luck Willie in that film, and he sang the most hauntingly beautiful version of They Call The Wind Maria. He had a gorgeous voice.
Mr. Presnell, you will be missed.

2 comments:

yosemite faith said...

maybe he isn't musical but walter cronkite passed away and like so many others who have left us you realize it really is a passing of an era and sometimes you just feel old! i am so glad you were able to find - once again - some of your favorites!

jungle dream pagoda said...

thnx 4 this,i was afan of his voice and of his looks as a little girl watching him on tv. u just made me have to google him!