Erwin Trowbridge, a mild-mannered man working for a greeting card company, has an unusual talent: he can pick the winners of horse races with uncanny accuracy, as long as he does not place a bet himself. When a few professional gamblers discover his talent, they do their best to exploit it.
Sam Levene created the role of Patsy in the original Broadway production of Three Men on a Horse (1935) which was a mega-hit in 1935, running an extraordinary 835 performances; three decades later, Levene recreated the role of Patsy in the original Broadway musical Let It Ride. Levene also recreated the role of Patsy in the 1936 Warner Bros. film Three Men on a Horse and a ten-month 1944 USO tour of Three Men on a Horse which played 200 shows to 120,000 servicemen, the first legitimate theatrical production mounted overseas. Levene performed the title song from Let It Ride on a racetrack grandstand parade float accompanied with a bevy of showgirls in the 1961 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade presented on NBC, November 23, 1961.
Two songs from Let It Ride are included on the compilation album Lost Broadway 1961 from Stage Door Records; George Gobel as Erwin sings Hey, Jimmy, Joe, John, Jim, Jack and Sam Levene as Patsy leads the company singing the title song Let It Ride.
Songs
Act 1
Run, Run, Run - Singers and Dancers
The Nicest Thing - Audrey
Hey, Jimmy, Joe, John, Jim, Jack - Erwin
Broads Ain't People - Erwin, Harry, Frankie and Charlie
Jazz dance is a performance dance and style that arose in the United States in the mid 20th century. Jazz dance may allude to vernacular jazz about to Broadway or dramatic jazz. The two types expand on African American vernacular styles of dance that arose with jazz music. Vernacular jazz dance incorporates ragtime moves, Charleston, Lindy hop and mambo. Popular vernacular jazz dance performers include The Whitman Sisters, Florence Mills, Ethel Waters, Al Minns and Leon James, Frankie Manning, Norma Miller, Dawn Hampton, and Katherine Dunham. Dramatic jazz dance performed on the show stage was promoted by Jack Cole, Bob Fosse, Eugene Louis Faccuito, and Gus Giordano.
George Leslie Goebel was an American humorist, actor, and comedian. He was best known as the star of his own weekly comedy variety television series, The George Gobel Show, broadcasting from 1954 to 1959 on NBC, and on CBS from 1959 to 1960,. He was also a familiar panelist on the NBC game show Hollywood Squares.
Guys and Dolls is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" (1933) and "Blood Pressure", which are two short stories by Damon Runyon, and also borrows characters and plot elements from other Runyon stories, such as "Pick the Winner".
Michael Kidd was an American film and stage choreographer, dancer and actor, whose career spanned five decades, and staged some of the leading Broadway and film musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. Kidd, strongly influenced by Charlie Chaplin and Léonide Massine, was an innovator in what came to be known as the "integrated musical", in which dance movements are integral to the plot.
Thomas James Tune is an American actor, dancer, singer, theatre director, producer, and choreographer. Over the course of his career, he has won ten Tony Awards and the National Medal of Arts, and has his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Jerome Robbins was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and theater producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television.
Frank Manning was an American dancer, instructor and choreographer. Manning is considered one of the founders of Lindy Hop, an energetic form of the jazz dance style known as swing.
Onna White was a Canadian choreographer and dancer, nominated for eight Tony Awards.
Jerry Mitchell is an American theatre director and choreographer.
Allen Curtis Jenkins was an American character actor and singer who worked on stage, film, and television.
Sam Levene was a Russian Empire-born American Broadway, film, radio and television actor and director. In a career spanning over five decades, he originated some of the most legendary comedic roles in American theatrical history, including Nathan Detroit, the craps-shooter extraordinaire, in the 1950 original Broadway production of Guys and Dolls (1950), Max Kane, the hapless agent, in the original 1932 Broadway production of Dinner at Eight (1932); Patsy, a professional if not always successful gambler, in the longest running and original Broadway production of Three Men on a Horse (1935); Gordon Miller, the shoestring producer, in the original Broadway production of Room Service (1937); Sidney Black, a theatrical producer, in Moss Hart's original Broadway production of Light Up the Sky (1948), Horace Vandergelder, the crotchety merchant of Yonkers, in the premier UK production of Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker (1954), a play that became the basis for the musical Hello Dolly, Lou Winkler, a businessman in the original Broadway production of Fair Game (1957) a comedy by Sam Locke that Larry Gelbart attributed its 217-performance run mostly to the performance and drawing power of Sam Levene who starred in the comedy with Ellen McRae, a 25-year ingenue making her Broadway debut and who later changed her name to Ellen Burstyn; and Al Lewis, the retired vaudevillian, in the original Broadway production of The Sunshine Boys (1972), Neil Simon’s salute to vaudevillians opposite Jack Albertson as Willie Clark, a role Levene performed 466 times on Broadway, first with Jack Albertson until October 28, 1974 and later opposite Jack Gilford, October 30, 1974 until February 10, 1975. In 1984, Levene was posthumously inducted in the American Theatre Hall of Fame and in 1998, Sam Levene along with the original Broadway cast of the 1950 Guys and Dolls Decca cast album posthumously inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Andrew John Lachey is an American singer and actor. He is known as a member of 98 Degrees, the winner of the second season of Dancing with the Stars, and the younger brother of Nick Lachey.
Charles "Cholly" Atkins was an American dancer and vaudeville performer, who later became noted as the house choreographer for the various artists on the Motown label.
Vivian Blaine was an American actress and singer, best known for originating the role of Miss Adelaide in the musical theater production of Guys and Dolls, as well as appearing in the subsequent film version, in which she co-starred with Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons and Frank Sinatra.
Joey Dee and the Starliters is an American popular music group. The group is best known for their million-selling recording "Peppermint Twist" (1961). The group's most notable lineup is considered to be Joey Dee, David Brigati, Larry Vernieri (vocals), Carlton Lattimore (organ), Sam Taylor (guitar) and Willie Davis (drums). Jimi Hendrix and Joe Pesci played guitar with the group at different times in the 1960s.
Paula Stewart is an American stage, film and television actress mostly known for performing in bit parts and supporting roles.
Three Men on a Horse is a three-act farce co-authored by John Cecil Holm and George Abbott. The comedy focuses on a man who discovers he has a talent for choosing the winning horse in a race as long as he never places a bet himself. Originally titled Hobby Horse by John Cecil Holm, Three Men On A Horse was a property controlled and produced by Alex Yokel, who reached out to Warner Bros. for financial assistance; Warners agreed to provide financing on the condition Yokel find someone to doctor the script and direct the Broadway production. George Abbott, the director, who had since 1932 directed and produced each of his Broadway productions, immediately saw the potential and rewrote the script and agreed to direct if he received co-author credit and split the author's royalties with Holm. Abbott wrote a third act, resulting in a new three-act play titled Three Men on a Horse.
Three Men on a Horse is a 1936 comedy film directed and produced by Mervyn LeRoy, adapted from the Broadway play of the same name written by George Abbott and John Cecil Holm. A mild-mannered greeting card poet has the uncanny ability to pick winners in horse races.
Sam Locke was an American writer and director who worked in theatre, television, and film.
Tom Patricola was an American actor, comic and dancer who starred in vaudeville and motion pictures. Born in New Orleans, Patricola established his fame as a hoofer, becoming a leading interpreter of the Black Bottom dance.
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