Good-bye Lily Munster

She's died.

I always loved The Munsters (& The Adaams Family); they were so much closer to my own family than Father Knows Best or even The Brady Bunch. I also loved Yvonne De Carlo's name - it sounds so fucking classy. But mostly I remember her from Stephen Sondheim's Follies and her famous turn as the very first Carlotta Campion singing "I'm Still Here."

(Later, Shirley McLaine sang a version in Postcards from the Edge, you may remember.)

(And here's Shirley "Goldfinger" Bassey fucking up the lyrics and changing the words left and right in at least a very well-sung edited version of "I'm Still Here" - well-sung if only for the fact that or the fact that Shirley's older than the dirt under God's crib!)



And for Marion, here's Yvonne dancing to a hip flute solo. (Marion plays the flute! And GAH! Wasn't Yvonne sexy!?!?! Owch! Poor Burt Lancaster, lucky Tony Curtis!)




Because it's my blog, I am posting the brilliant lyrics to "I'm Still Here" here. If you haven't heard this 1971 song, I hope you do soon:

Good times and bum times,
I've seen them all and, my dear,
I'm still here.
Plush velvet sometimes,
Sometimes just pretzels and beer,
But I'm here.
I've stuffed the dailies
In my shoes.
Strummed ukuleles,
Sung the blues,
Seen all my dreams disappear,
But I'm here.

I've slept in shanties,
Guest of the W.P.A.,
But I'm here.
Danced in my scanties,
Three bucks a night was the pay,
But I'm here.
I've stood on bread lines
With the best,
Watched while the headlines
Did the rest.
In the Depression was I depressed?
Nowhere near.
I met a big financier
And I'm here.

I've been through Gandhi,
Windsor and Wally's affair,
And I'm here.
Amos 'n' Andy,
Mah-jongg and platinum hair,
And I'm here.
I got through Abie's Irish Rose,
Five Dionne babies, Major Bowes,
Had heebie-jeebies For Beebe's Bathysphere.
I lived through Brenda Frazier
And I'm here.

I've gotten through Herbert and J. Edgar Hoover,
Gee, that was fun and a half.
When you've been through Herbert and J. Edgar Hoover,
Anything else is a laugh.

I've been through Reno.
I've been through Beverly Hills,
And I'm here.
Reefers and vino,
Rest cures, religion and pills,
And I'm here
Been called a pinko Commie tool,
Got through it stinko
By my pool.
I should have gone to an acting school.
That seems clear,
Still, someone said, "She's sincere,"
So I'm here.

Black sable one day.
Next day it goes into hock,
But I'm here.
Top billing Monday,
Tuesday you're touring in stock,
But I'm here.
First you're another
Sloe-eyed vamp,
Then someone's mother,
Then you're camp.
Then you career from career To career.
I'm almost through my memoirs.
And I'm here.

I've gotten through "Hey, lady, aren't you whoozis?
Wow! What a looker you were."
Or, better yet, "Sorry, I thought you were whoozis.
Whatever happened to her?"

Good times and bum times,
I've seen 'em all and, my dear,
I'm still here.
Flush velvet sometimes,
Sometimes just pretzels and beer,
But I'm here.
I've run the gamut.
A to Z.
Three cheers and dammit,
C'est la vie.
I got through all of last year
And I'm here.
Lord knows, at least I was there,
And I'm here!
Look who's here!
I'm still here!