All American: Broadway 1962

'You feel like a tiger,

Makin the other cats hop!

You've got physical fitness,

You're on Top!'

This post, was inspired by writer, Tony researcher and Theatre Aficionado Kevin Daly.  I enjoy following Kevin on Twitter, (HERE:) and earlier this month he posted an image from the 1962 Broadway musical All American.  I knew nothing about the show, and had not heard of it before.  But.. the image of a group of hotties in white briefs and jock-straps told me I had to learn more.

The show opened at the Winter Garden Theatre in March 1962 and ran from March through May 1962 with just 80 performances.  Based on a book by the then relatively unknown Mel Brooks, the musical featured actors Ray Bolger, Anita Gillette, Ron Husmann, Jed Allen, Fritz Weaver and Eileen Herlie. (All My Children).  

Following the success of Bye Bye Birdie two years earlier, music writers Lee Adams and Charles Strouse teamed with Brooks on the new musical.  Problems quickly arose with Brooks leaving the project before finishing the second act.  A series of mostly unfavorable reviews meant a quick end to the show.  Some positives did arise however including the song Once Upon A Time becoming a hit.  Brooks also used his experience on the show as the basis for his 1968 movie The Producers. 

The show begins with a group of immigrants arriving via plane in New York  Among them is Professor Stanislaus Fodorski, who has accepted a position as professor of engineering at a small college. He is greeted by the school's dean, Elizabeth Hawkes-Bullock. Surprised that the dean is a woman, he is even more surprised to learn he will be boarding in a room in her house

Fodorski's first engineering class does not go over well with any of the students except Ed, who has always been interested in bridges . The professor's fears about his teaching skills vanish when he watches his first football game, which he sees as an example of applied engineering.  He starts incorporating football strategy into his lessons, and soon all his students are engaged and learning.  

Sadly just the audio, could not find any video

A romance between the dean and the professor as well as Ed and a student named Susan.  Susan however, is confined to her room after Ed is caught trying to climb the ivy up to her dorm room. Fodorski visits the gym to give a pep talk to Ed and the rest of the football team.  It's then that the song 'Physical Fitness', appears in the show.  These images are from that song and although there is no actual nudity, there is plenty to see and enjoy!