Little Me

Little Me was the parody "confessional" self-indulgent autobiography of "Belle Poitrine" ("Pretty Bosom"), subtitled The Intimate Memoirs of the Great Star of Stage, Screen and Television, by Patrick Dennis, who had achieved a great success with Auntie Mame. A bestseller when introduced in book form, the work was also later staged on Braodway as a musical.

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The heavily illustrated work also featured numerous illustrations by photographer Cris Alexander, who used original photographs taken for the project which were then added to stock photographs to create Belle Poitrine's life. Published in 1961 it was considered pretty risqué at the time. The book also featured friends of Dennis and Alexander, including ballet dancer Shaun O'Brien, actress Dodie Goodman and comedienne Alice Pearce. Actress Jeri Archer portrayed the often over exposed, self centered and clueless Poitrine. Little Me was reissued in 2002 with a new Preface by Charles Busch and Foreword by Alexander.

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The plot of Little Me tells the rags-to riches-to rags-to riches,etc. story of Maybelle Schlumfert, an overdeveloped and clueless girl who rises to become Belle Poitrine. Throughout the book, Poitrine's charecter exhaults her successes (which are few) while glossing over her failures (which are many). The book was a stinging paraody of the cult of celebrity and self importance stemming from the numerous "personality overcomming obsticles" biographies of the late 1940s and early 1950s.

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It was made into a musical with book by Neil Simon, music by Cy Coleman, and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, which was made memorable by Sid Caesar in multiple roles with multiple stage accents, as all of Belle's husbands, each of whom comes to a propitious untimely end. Virginia Martin as Belle, won a Tony Award for "Best Supporting Actress."

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The Broadway production opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on November 17, 1962 and ran for 257 performances. The London production opened at the Cambridge Theatre on November 18, 1964 and ran for 334 performances.

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It is a rags-to-riches comedy, the best known song in the score being "Real Live Girl". In his memoir, Rewrites Simon mentions that aside from tailoring it to Sid Caesar, the second attraction was a chance to work with the choreographer Bob Fosse.

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Little Me was revived on Broadway in 1998 as a vehicle for Martin Short.

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Patrick Dennis: Patrick Dennis (1921 – 1976) was an American author....

Auntie Mame: Auntie Mame is a 1955 novel by Patrick Dennis that chronicles his madcap adventures growing up as the ward of his deceased father's eccentric sister. Although he referred to it as autobiographical, in reality the author was raised by both his parents....

Cris Alexander: Cris Alexander (born c. 1920) is an actor who appeared in the original Broadway casts of On The Town, Wonderful Town, and Auntie Mame. Alexander also appearred in the film version of Auntie Mame as the department store supervisor of actress Rosiland Russell....

Little Me related Images and Photos (experimental)

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