What's new pussy cat?

[Jsdub]

Hi folks,I was wondering if anyone had seen a handwritten letters from Angie Dickinson on eBay? They are pretty in-depth and detailed handwritten letters about first life back in the day with Angie about their girl Nikki about hal David, Marlene Dietrich, Frank Sinatra. A huge amount of content with respect to Burt Bacharach you guys might want to check it out I believe it's only up for two or three more days on eBay so look for it on eBay Angie Dickinson hand written letters

[BachtoBacharach]

Interesting letters. In reading a couple, one was from the time when Burt was in London writing the score for "What's New Pussycat" in 1965 shortly before he and Angie married on May 15, 1965 and in it she is discussing with her friend Laura Hart, a voice teacher Angie took elocution lessons under, the fact that Burt is trying to get another hit with Dionne to follow up "Reach Out For Me." He recorded Dionne in London toward the end of 1964 and early 1965 for the album "The Sensitive Sound of Dionne Warwick" which was her current release at the time Angie's letter was written and there were no hits from the album. Angie's apparent animus toward Dionne and her talent is pretty evident in the letter. In the letter she writes "He'll have to do an album with Dionne and one with Jackie (DeShannon) ---plus a hit for Dionne if it kills him! He just can't get a hit for her. I would tell him that it is she (as you could) and not him, but I guess he knows that down deep. So he'll have to write a song for only what she can handle." I find that to be a most fascinating reference to her relationship with Dionne and assessment of Dionne's musical abilities. I have known for a very long time that Angie and Dionne were not close and their relationship towards each other was cool but cordial. In Burt's book, he alluded that Dionne had the problem with Angie, but Angie's letter seems to indicate otherwise. In addition, Angie's rather snarky insinuation that Burt would have to "dumb down" a tune for Dionne so she could handle it and have another hit is interesting, if not misinformed. That's certainly not what Burt felt about Dionne's musical abilities. Angie was not musical at all; and her judgment of Dionne's musical skills in this letter speaks more perhaps of Angie's jealousy that Burt is continuing to choose to devote so much time to Dionne's career than it does of Dionne's talent...fortunately, if Angie ever voiced her opinion of Dionne to Burt, he didn't listen. And despite the dry spell Dionne had in 1965, she had a great year in 1966 and it was straight up from there. History speaks for itself in this matter. Angie has always had a reputation as a gracious person and I am sure she would be appalled that these letters are seeing the light of day, but the letters are very telling in the clues they provide, this letter in particular. Interestingly, after this letter was written, Burt and Dionne recorded the tunes that would be collected under the album "Here I Am" and those are among the most complex, gorgeous tunes he ever wrote and that Dionne ever recorded. Burt knew what he had in Dionne despite Angie's opinion of her.

[Blair N. Cummings]

Because my eyelids tend to gain weight when confronted with the soap-operatic components of the principals` lives, I`m still unclear on the nature of Angie`s animosity toward Dionne. Was it simply a personality conflict? I think that it`s been established that there was no sexual relationship between Burt and Dionne. Did Angie resent the time Burt spent with Jackie? Or Cilla? What was the problem with Dionne?
(Forgive me if I`ve missed or just forgotten this).

[BachtoBacharach]

Burt spent a great deal of time with Dionne unlike the others you mentioned. Dionne was employed by Burt's production company and Burt had a vested interest and had made a huge investment in Dionne. Perhaps Angie resented that; all conjecture on my part but Angie's apparent resentment was motivated by something; perhaps although it's been established as fact in recent years that there was no sexual relationship between Burt and Dionne, that fact was not established in 1965 and it was at the height of those rumors that Burt and Angie married. Perhaps it was also motivated by Angie's assessment that Burt was wasting his time continuing to work with her; her last hit had been in December 1964 (Reach Out For Me) and "Here I Am" had fallen off the music charts in early August 1965 after re-charting as high as #56 and she felt it was time for Burt to jettison Dionne and work with Jackie DeShannon who had hit # 10 in May with "What the World Needs Now". I find it hard to believe that Dionne and Angie spent enough time together by August of 1965, when this letter was written, to develop a personal animus toward each other; in my mind the most logical assumption is that Angie felt Burt was wasting his time with Dionne because she didn't feel Dionne was up to Burt's musical standard...in other words, it's possible that Angie was making sure Burt was going somewhere (she introduced Burt to Charles Feldman who hired Burt to write the score for "What's New Pussycat") and perhaps she felt that Burt's continuing investment in Dionne's career was holding him back. We'll never know but this is relevant to Burt's career as he apparently didn't decide to throw Dionne over despite Angie's opinion of her. Soap opera? Perhaps but fascinating nonetheless...whatever made Bacharach tick and make the decisions he made regarding his music makes it all the more interesting to see what was happening at the time he composed a gorgeous tune like "Here I Am" which was the best tune in that project although it didn't hit like Burt hoped it would and Angie was frustrated about it. Burt has acknowledged that his career skyrocketed in the USA when Dionne hit with "Alfie" followed up shortly by "I Say a Little Prayer". At that time, Burt became as big in the USA as he had previously in Britain in 1965.

[BachtoBacharach]

Burt wrote in his autobiography "Even though my relationship with Dionne was always strictly professional, she also wasn’t crazy about me being with Angie. While we were in London, the two of us went to see Dionne at the Savoy and she walked out onstage wearing a blonde wig and I thought, ‘What the f***?’ I was speechless."

Dionne wore a blond wig in performance at her 1968 run at the Copa during an impersonation medley of Diana Ross, Pearl Bailey and Marlene Dietrich and that was the only time she performed that impersonation medley in the US. It is conceivable that she performed that medley at the Savoy afterward. By 1968, Dionne was so hot on the charts, that I doubt she and Angie even spent any time together at all. Burt was in preparation for Promises, Promises and recording Dionne and recording himself also. I remember a couple of occasions afterward where Dionne attended the premiere of Butch Cassidy with Burt and Angie and she attended a Bacharach concert at the Hollywood Bowl with Angie and some of Burt's entourage but they just didn't cross paths that much. Dionne lived in New York until April 1969, when she moved to Beverly Hills to give her husband Bill Elliott a better shot at a movie career, and Burt and Angie were already living in California by that time and had been for several years. Burt kept a New York apartment until 1971 and this is where he, Dionne and Hal would rehearse most of the time, but they did rehearse a few times at Dionne's home in Maplewood, New Jersey. Even after Dionne moved to California, she and Burt continued to record in New York until 1971, although Dionne did a scant few sessions with Burt at United Recording Studios in LA during the early seventies before she left Scepter. Angie had essentially retired from movies at the time and was hardly ever in New York.

It was during Dionne's impersonation of Marlene that she donned a blond wig. Bacharach's memory here is faulty; he and Angie did attend Dionne's shows at the Copa in NYC and perhaps a show at the Savoy where she did the impersonation medley, but I really doubt she performed it there. The wig had nothing to do with Angie. Even Angie commented that she did not remember that incident at all. It is typical of Burt to think that the blond wig was about him or his relationship with Angie. Interesting that even if Burt's recollection is that Dionne didn't care about Burt being with Angie, apparently Angie didn't care about Burt being with Dionne professionally either. Angie's comments about Marlene Dietrich in the letter are charitable to say the least but also differ somewhat from Burt's assessment of Angie's feelings toward Marlene. Marlene did have a deep animosity toward Angie and I really don't think that Dionne's animosity, if it even existed, toward Angie was substantial at all. It is conceivable that Dionne also had a crush on Burt...many women did! Burt was a womanizer and very sexist and unfaithful in at least the first three of his marriages, so perhaps it's easy to shift a focus to these women being jealous of each other...deflecting somewhat.