Elaine Stritch (1925-2014), part 1

by Ken

In one of the tributes to Elaine Stritch I glanced through, Colleen Donaghy, the character she and the 30 Rock team created, was described as "cantankerous." Um, yes, I suppose. But this is sort of like describing Genghis Khan as "outgoing." The Entertainment Weekly people who put up the above too-shredded collage of Colleen moments, got it better: "On the show, Stritch turned Jack Donaghy's (Alec Baldwin's) mother into a force of nature, emphasizing her irascible nature and ability to induce a heady amount of Irish-Catholic guilt."

Here's the start of the NYT obit by Bruce Weber and Robert Berkvist:

Elaine Stritch, the brassy, tart-tongued Broadway actress and singer who became a living emblem of show business durability and perhaps the leading interpreter of Stephen Sondheim’s wryly acrid musings on aging, died on Thursday at her home in Birmingham, Mich. She was 89.

Her death was confirmed by a friend, Julie Keyes. Before Ms. Stritch moved to Birmingham last year to be near her family, she lived for many years at the Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan.

Ms. Stritch’s career began in the 1940s and spanned almost 70 years. She made her fair share of appearances in movies, including Woody Allen’s “September” (1987) and “Small Time Crooks” (2000), and on television; well into her 80s, she had a recurring role on the NBC comedy “30 Rock” as the domineering mother of the television executive played by Alec Baldwin.

But the stage was her true professional home. Whether in musicals, nonmusical dramas or solo cabaret shows, she drew audiences to her with her whiskey voice, her seen-it-all manner and the blunt charisma of a star.

Elaine has been a frequent presence in this space, including a December 2010 post called "The 30 Rock gang shows us the true spirit of Christmas -- from which 'as hard as you try, no one can escape'." That post was inspired by the 2010 Christmas episode of 30 Rock, in which, as I wrote:

Jack (Alec Baldwin) explains, "We Donaghys believe that when there is something at all delicate to talk about, it is best to suppress it -- until it erupts into a fistfight in a church barbecue," and his seven-months-pregnant lady friend Avery (Elizabeth Banks) chimes in, "The symbol on the Jessup family crest is a knight refusing to talk about his feelings."

And Liz Lemon summed it all up: "You know what I learned tonight? As hard as you try, no one can escape the horror of Christmas."

It was quite a career, Elaine Stritch's, and I plan to gather some of the musical reminiscences we've shared here, probably in the next DWT post slot, 9pm PT/12m ET -- that is, barring unforeseen developments (and you know how they are -- who could have foreseen?). Meanwhile, you have to feel relief that she made it to 89, dying at home after working so productively pretty near to the end. Still, one thing you can say about the career is that, given the epic scale of her abilities, it's a shame more producers, directors, and writers didn't find (well, create) more vehicles that took full advantage of what this "force of nature" could do.

Which may be why I'm thinking so much today of her incandescent late-career run on 30 Rock, whose creative team made such stunning use of her talents.

Colleen speaks her mind

Here's what Hollywood Reporter calls "Stritch's 10 best (and most acid-tongued) one-liners from 30 Rock." Well, some of them certainly are. Naturally some of these pop up in the Entertainment Weekly collage up top.

from "Haitus" (Season 1, Episode 21)
• "Tell him his mother's here, and she loves him, but not in a queer way.”
from “Ludachristmas” (Season 2, Episode 9)
• "Nice? I'll show you nice. Let's all meet down at the soda shop while this country turns into Mexico. "
• "You give me ten minutes with the Lemon family, and I'll have them tearing at each other like drag queens at a wig sale."
from “The Moms” (Season 4, Episode 20)
• "Oh, for crying out loud, Liz. You see, that's what feminism does. It makes smart girls with nice birthing shapes believe in fairy tales. Stop waiting for your prince, Liz. "
• "Two women, Jack! At the same time. What are you, Italian?"
from “Christmas Attack Zone” (Season 5, Episode 10)
• "I see you brought the bag that my bastard grandchild will come in."
• "Is she drunk, Jack? Because you know when you're pregnant, one bottle of wine a day, and that's it!"
from “My Life is Thunder” (Season 7, Episode 8)
• "I have a few things I want to say to you before I meet the Grim Reaper, who is black, I assume, what with the hoodies he wears."
• "I was watching TV, and they started interviewing an Asian Santa Claus, and my arm went numb. "
• "Don't talk to me like that, Jack. I breast-fed you for nine years!"

For myself, since I do have all the 30 Rock DVDs, what I'm planning on doing this weekend is going through what I think of as "The 30 Rock Nine."

Colleen Donaghy lives!
Here are "The 30 Rock Nine"

Liz Lemon (Tina Fey), Colleen Donaghy (Elaine), and
Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) smile for the camera --


Thanks to IMDb, it's a snap to determine that Elaine did nine 30 Rock episodes, and here they are (with IMDb links):

"Hiatus"
Season 1, Episode 21, first aired Apr. 6, 2007
"Ludachristmas"
Season 2, Episode 9, first aired Dec. 13, 2007
"Christmas Special"
Season 3, Episode 6, first aired Dec. 11, 2008
"Señor Macho Solo"
Season 3, Episode 7, first aired Jan. 8, 2009
"The Natural Order"
Season 3, Episode 20, first aired Apr. 30, 2009
"The Moms"
Season 4, Episode 20, first aired May 6, 2010
"Christmas Attack Zone"
Season 5, Episode 10, first aired Dec. 9, 2010
"Meet the Woggels!"
Season 6, Episode 17, first aired Apr. 12, 2012
"My Whole Life Is Thunder"
Season 7, Episode 8, first aired Dec. 6, 2012

Now here they are in action --

AS NOTED ABOVE, MORE AT 9pm PT/12m ET

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