Black Water-Based on Oates’s novella about a Senator driving a young magazine writer to his hotel for sex but has an accident on the way, putting the car into a marsh.
Burns & Allen-The longtime husband-and-wife comic duo had a Vassar joke on their radio program “Rehearsing Next Week’s Show” from Nov. 11, 1940.
Classical Rap-Composer and classical-music parodist Peter Schickele put out this parody of a boastful rap song as performed by an Upper West Side yuppie, written in the style of the late eighteenth century.
Computing Venus-Composer Timothy Takach and librettist Caitlin Vincent wrote an opera on the life of Vassar astronomer Maria Mitchell and the backlash against having female science professors.
Fibber McGee & Molly-This extremely popular ’30s and ’40s radio show frequently featured the hoity-toity Mrs. Uppington looking down her nose at the McGees.
Girl Happy-The King himself sings about Vassar in a tune by Lenore Rosenblatt and Victor Millrose.
Lady in the Dark (1954)-This was a live presentation from the very early days of television of the same Weill/Gershwin musical we have elsewhere in the collection (from 1944, starring Ginger Rogers and in the movie Star! with Julie Andrews).
The Last Savage-An undeserved flop, this hardly ever performed opera from the 1960s features Kitty, who is an ambitious young anthropologist on the hunt in India for the world’s “last savage.”
My Friend Irma-In one episode of this long-running radio show, “Wall Street Magazine” runs a contest for Wall Street secretaries to offer an essay about their most exciting experience.
Shanewis-An early 20th-century American opera with Indian subject matter that was performed multiple times at the Met and elsewhere before falling into obscurity.
Some Other Me-Written by Brian Yorkey, from the musical if/then.
Star!-This is a fairly bloated screen musical about Gertrude Lawrence, starring Julie Andrews at the height of her career.
Take Me Out to the Ball Game-Delightful musical with Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, and we have a new Vassar song by Roger Edens, who contributed many songs to the great MGM musicals, with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green.
Viva Las Vegas-Another musical clip, from one of the collection’s two Elvis films.