59 replies to this topic

[rg]

newly acquired publicity photo, sent to a newspaper in advance of the premiere of PAMTGG.
shows Balanchine w/ Irene Sharaff fitting a costume on Donna Sackett.
dated: Aug. 1, 1971

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•  PAMTGGwm.jpg   186.8K   112 downloads

[Farrell Fan]

Fabulous, rg! Thanks.

[dirac]

Yes, thanks so much, rg. Great picture.

[bart]

rg, on May 6 2010, 11:39 PM, said:

newly acquired publicity photo, sent to a newspaper in advance of the premiere of PAMTGG.
shows Balanchine w/ Irene Sharaff fitting a costume on Donna Sackett.

Apparently, he's testing to see whether the spikes on the headpiece might put out her partner's eyes.  Sharaff looks concerned.  Did the headpiece make it to the final production, I wonder?

[rg]

here's the answer to the 'did the headpiece make it into the production?' - tho' these may have been taken at a rehearsal before the premiere, etc. i suspect they are performance shots.
the photos are stamped as dated Aug 71 and marked only as New York City Ballet, but since the premiere was in June and these are from a newspaper archive, i assume they are performance shots - rather odd and not esp. artful ones with the black band at the bottom and the catch-as-catch-can angles, etc. but they are curiosities connected to a very lost ballet.
i suspect that's Tracy Bennett at the center of the photo of mostly men, Francis or Paul Sackett seems to be behind him; von aroldingen is seen with fringes flying behind the central male dancer, probably Bonnefous, whose back is to the camera, one of the Sacketts is also at the left of this photo's frame, with perhaps Steven Caras on the right; the one with jumping women shows no dancers i can name specifically. digging out my old programs might help with some educated guesses, eventually.
f.y.i.

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•  pamtgg1WM.jpg   84.32K   103 downloads
•  pamtgg2WM.jpg   80.4K   118 downloads
•  pamtggxWM.jpg   88.26K   95 downloads

[rg]

it now strikes me that the dancer in costume fitting photo might be Lynn Stetson.

[sandik]

Everyone seems to be wearing dangerous hats -- can you imagine what a claim to Labor and Industries for an on-the-job injury might have read like?

Many thanks for tracking these down!  I'm fascinated and bemused all at once.

[ViolinConcerto]

I have the feeling that the dancers in those photos might prefer to NOT be identified!  But it is interesting to get a glimpse of what I have heard so many people discuss...

[ViolinConcerto]

I gather that Donna was Paul and Francis' sister.  She was no longer dancing by the time I started going to NYCB performances.  Do you think that this was the only where there were THREE siblings from one family dancing at the same time?

[Mel Johnson]

The Sacketts were nice kids, I liked them all a lot!  Of the Ottos, there were a bunch at the School of
American Ballet simultaneously, but only David was in the company, if I recall correctly.

Oops - William made it too.  But there had to be at least one Nutcracker that had the whole tribe onstage.  Even NYCB isn't immune from "cute" casting.

[Helene]

Mel Johnson, on 20 October 2010 - 02:22 AM, said:

Oops - William made it too.  But there had to be at least one Nutcracker that had the whole tribe onstage.  Even NYCB isn't immune from "cute" casting.

It's possible that Phillip Otto, who I believe was Prince as an SAB student, was onstage in a "Nutcracker" with his two older brothers either in as corps members or advanced students, but with the hoards in "Nutcracker", it's impossible to avoid casting siblings together, especially towards the end of the run where the non-wounded are at a premium.  He also had at least one sister in the same general age range.  The two youngest were much younger than their siblings,

[rg]

another photo - uncaptioned except for a 1971 date - and a newspaper caption - found on the back of the photo reproduced in REPERTORY AND REVIEW.
f.y.i.

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•  pamtgg4WM.jpg   143.55K   65 downloads
•  PAMTGGcaptionWM.jpg   81.73K   59 downloads

[rg]

here now, further glimpses of PAMTGG by way of news photos from the Chicago Tribune, '71, including an attached caption from the day, which reads: "Karin von Aroldingen leads a campy troupe of airport watchers in George Balanchine's jingle ballet, 'PAMTGG.' This newest addition to the New York City Ballet's repertory shares the company's final Ravinia bill with 'Who Cares?' and 'Symphony in C' at 2 o'clock this afternoon." the photo is stamped "1971 August 11" as well as "Aug 10 1971" which may refer to the receipt of the photo and the subsequent publication in the paper.
the photo itself is related to others known from this time.
the additional photo, w/ very little by way of identification except for dates: AUG 10 1971 and AUG 16 1971 includes a feature i hadn't noted before, that is, the acronym of the jingle written out as part Sharaff's costume designs.
of the dancers captured in this photo, likely taken from wings, of mostly male members of the cast, these men seem to be, left to right: Bryan Pitts, Hermes Conde, Tracy Bennett? and Nolan Tsani?

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•  PAMTGG5captionWM.jpg   100.21K   39 downloads
•  PAMTGG5WM.jpg   144.84K   55 downloads
•  PAMTGG6wm.jpg   213.23K   47 downloads

[rg]

a friend who follows tv far more than i do, and who hadn't heard of PAMTGG, emailed the following comment regarding the current? season of tv's MAD MEN:

<<one of the campaigns they were working on was ads for an airline that was almost exactly like "Pan Am Makes The Goin' Great".  Strange to think that back in the sixties air travel was synonymous with business travel.  They were looking for a campaign to encourage families to fly.>>

[Quiggin]

I don't know if this Chrysler Corporation futurist-consumer commerical should have a thread of its own, or be considered as context for PAMTGG. The last 40 seconds might have been directed by Stanley Kubrick based on William Gaddis stage directions.



This is its companion piece about "the driving control from the future." As a fetishistic object, it could be a prototype of an iPod or iPhone: