ultranow

tomorrow before annie

[via annieorphans: "a film short from 1970 that observes "the more things change, the more they stay the same". charles strouse composed the score, which would later be re-used for the song tomorrow in the musical annie."]

Find more videos like this on Annieorphans.com

jaclyn hergott annie magic

with all the talk of multi-million hit youtube video phenoms (which what do you get when that happens...a degrading 2 minute guest spot on that whore maury povich's show?) here's two sub 1000 played videos which prove that sometimes amidst community theater low production values (and intermittently off key chorus members) are 8 year old annies named jaclyn hergott who've got the goods.  and the wig.

disturbingly extreme cuteness and pathos generating 1999 swedish annies maria hazell and frida von schewen

forever annie

killer post by brenner on not only but also which got me thinking about my obsession with annie. not annie hall. not annie potts. and not annie sprinkle. though all three of these annies are spectacular. i'm talking the annie, as in little orphan, as in freakishly talented little girl singers with big dreams. i remember being glued to the tv special on the search for the girl to play annie in the movie. there were two key moments.

first was the boy who auditioned for annie with no irony or self-awareness. he was full on boy and wanted to be annie and his parents drove him there so he could try and be annie and the casting director picked him out to sing tomorrow but he wasn't good enough.

the other key moment was that the final three up for annie were aileen quinn, who landed it, robin ignico, who got cast as duffy, and then this other girl who unfortunately looked too much like aileen so ended up getting cast only as an orphan extra. that's her looking coked up during hard knock life. her going from almost lead of a huge forever famous movie musical to pretending to sleep while standing up still breaks my heart. i hope she went on to do something show businessy and more befitting her talents. though i find her completely convincing as an orphan who was woken up in the middle of the night and forced to clean by carol burnett's miss hannigan.

how many freakishly talented little girls never even get to pretend to sleep while standing up? and how many little boys who dream of being annie never even audition?

and they keep coming. i saw this recording studio and photoshoot ready girl tori kelly on america's most talented kids and she blew me away.  watch her winning number. it may be too late for me to be a freakishly talented little girl or boy, but it's not too late for me to root them on. and maybe someday, i'll get cast for a pivotal role in a huge forever famous movie musical involving pretending to sleep while standing up. i think i saw jeff stryker do that once.

update:  tori kelly has been signed by geffen.  we'll see if an actual cd comes out, but she's good no matter what happens.

martika resurrected

shout out to the dead on this their day.  as brilliant and buxom mo'nique would say "heeeeeyyyyyyyyyy, dead!"  speaking of the dead, '80s teen queen-ette martika is in a goth duo now (though shouldn't goths always be solo?) called oppera.  sample tunes thisaway.

martika starred on one of my teenage guilty pleasures "kids, incorporated", a bouncy happy mickey mouse club type show on which she played gloria from 1984-86 and clearly outshone everyone else, including her co-star and future black eyed pea stacy ferguson.  i loved watching this syndicated junior edition of fame where all that mattered to the characters was being famous in their own heads.  martika had the biggest voice and the biggest attitude, of course.

i don't mind martika resurrecting her career, as long as she doesn't forget her bubblegum past (like a porno past, but more shameful).  if you want to go farther back than "kids, inc.", there's martika in the movie of "annie" to the left of the girl singing "rover, why not think it over" during dumb dog.  she "accidentally" looks in the camera for a second, as if to say "i'm coming for you all and 23 years from now, i'll be more famous than any of these bitches".  aileen quinn, who played annie, still does broadway and one of the other girls was on that "becker" show with ted danson, but basically martika was right, bless her big goth heart.

martika then

martika now

martika then

martika (and her bandmate and future foot fetish model) now