Posted 10:10 AM by Gene

Another bit of very sad cultural news for the hacks to ignore: Betty Comden, who with the late Adolph Green wrote the books and lyrics to charming trifles like Bells are Ringing, and more memorably such screenplays as that masterpiece Singin' in the Rain among other hits, has died. Let us recall she was part of an act in the thirties call The Revuers that introduced Judy Tuvim (that is, Judy Holliday) to the world, much too briefly (not to forget Comden and Green were a pretty fair Broadway act themselves); and more importantly, they got their big break collaborating with Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins on On the Town, which put them on the Main Stem map. (Bernstein's father called Green a "nut", recommendation enough to us.) Oh to have been a fly on the wall during their sessions! Such laughter! Such pizazz! Anyone who could write a song like "Moses" must be -- different. Those two gave incalculable merriment to the world. Now they and their whole jolly circle are gone, and we are left with Branson East, and jukebox revues, and Dreamgirls.

(Via ArtsJournal)