Trivia - Bye Bye Birdie
Opened 4/14/60 at the Martin Beck Theatre. 607 performances.
- Dick Van Dyke
and Paul Lynde,
both veterans of the 1960 Broadway hit, were displeased with the
film version. Van Dyke especially felt it had become too much of a
vehicle for Ann-Margret.
- The title tune which opens and closes the film was written for the
screen version, and was not from the Tony-winning Broadway musical.
- Ann-Margret's
skirt-flipping/hair-tossing rendition of the song was filmed six
months after principal photography was completed, at a cost of
$60,000.
- The sheet music of Birdie's next hit song, "Mumbo Jumbo Gooey
Gumbo", which Albert picks up from the piano in his first
scene, is the same music as the title tune, "Bye Bye
Birdie."
- The song that made Van Dyke's career, "Put on a Happy
Face" was unsuccessful in early showings of the musical and
almost cut from the production.
- Albert's music company is called "ALMAELOU." This is an
amalgam of his name, his mother's name, and his late father's name.
- Hanna-Barbera cartoon merchandise is prominently displayed
throughout the film: 1) - In "The Telephone Hour" musical
number, the character "Alice" has a Yogi Bear record
prominently displayed among her records. 2) - In Kim's bedroom, she
has dolls of Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble on top of her radio,
on a chair is a plush toy of Huckleberry Hound, and on yet another
chair is a plush toy of Yogi Bear. 3) - Randolph is wearing
Huckleberry Hound pajamas during the "Kids" musical
number.
- In the movie "Lou" is Albert's deceased father, in the
stage version, "Lou" was Albert's deceased dog. The dog
got hit by a beer truck.
- In the movie, Van Dyke's character wants to be a chemist. In the
stage play he wants to be a simple English teacher. None of the
Russian Ballet shows up in either the stage version or the 1995
movie.
- The sequence of events in the 1963 version and the stage/1995
version are completely different. Songs are added or removed. The
characters singing the songs are changed... the 1995 Jason
Alexander vehicle is much more true to the original play.
- Paul Lynde got to perform the song about Ed Sullivan on "Toast
of the Town" (1948).
Source: Internet
Movie DataBase