Artist:Florence Henderson
Song:I Have To Tell You
Album:Fanny: Original Cast Recording
Of course Florence Henderson was best known for starring as Carol Brady on the popular ABC sitcom The Brady Bunch. But she had a significant history on Broadway before that. The 1954 musical Fanny was her first starring role. And I have a vintage video clip of Florence performing a song from that show. She was born Feb. 14, 1934 in Dale, IN. which has a population of 1,000. Her father was a sharecropper. Florence was the youngest of ten children. Her mom taught her to sing. And by age 12, she was singing at local grocery stores. After graduating from high school, Florence moved to New York City and studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She started out in a touring production of Oklahoma! and South Pacific at Lincoln Center. She made her Broadway debut in the 1952 musical Wish You Were Here. The guys behind that show were Joshua Logan and Harold Rome. And they were also behind the 1954 musical Fanny. Fanny is a musical based on Marcel Pagnol's trilogy of Marius (1929), Fanny (1931) and Cesar (1936). Logan wrote the book with S.N. Behrman and also directed. Rome wrote the songs. Florence played the title role of Fanny. But she wasn't top billed. You'll notice her name isn't on the album cover. The stars were opera singer Ezio Pinza (South Pacific) and German actor Walter Slezak who was a Hollywood star. The show ran for two years so it was a success. The original cast album is available on CD. Florence appeared in the 1954 TV special General Foods 25th Anniversary Show: A Tribute to Rodgers and Hammerstein and a 1958 CBS musical production of Little Women. Florence made sporadic appearances on TV and on Broadway. But she wasn't a household name until she played Carol Brady on the ABC sitcom The Brady Bunch from 1969-74. After that Florence appeared on TV game shows because she enjoyed doing them. She was the spokeswoman for Wesson cooking oil from 1974-96 and she hosted the TNN cooking show Country Kitchen. As she got older, she hosted talk shows on Retirement Living TV. And that's what she did until her death on Nov. 24, 2016 at age 82. So though Florence Henderson was never a big star, she was beloved because of The Brady Bunch mostly as a nostalgia figure. Here's Florence Henderson performing I Have to Tell You on a 1954 episode of the show Coke Time hosted by Eddie Fisher.
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