A Few Words About A few words about…™ Damn Yankees – in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[MartinP.]

^^^

So you heard "Great job" and not "That was terrific?"

 

[JohnMor]

I heard “Smooth work, Gwen.”

 

[haineshisway]

"and if he brought it up to her by saying that Tab says" See that word IF? You weren't there, I wasn't there, see Will Krupp's post, which mirrors mine. People hear what they want to hear. Logic would tell you that no one called him "Fosse" - everyone called him Bobby. Your "sources" are your sources. That doesn't make them correct. And who are YOU?

 

[Mike Frezon]

All right!

I can't forbid the posts about the one line in the film because it is on topic (having to do with this release of Damn Yankees).

But what I CAN stop is the bickering between members over the disagreement about what exactly is said in that one precious line.

The pointed attacks will stop. Now. Anyone who persists in such sniping will see their posts disappear and face potential banning from the thread.

 

[lark144]

Maybe a moderator could flip a coin, and decide whether it was Tommy or Bobby. Or was it Robbie? I forget. Or I suppose the parties involved could play poker. Winning hand gets to pick the name.

 

[Will Krupp]

Winning hand gets to pick the name.

If I win, I'm picking Edith Bunker!!

 

[lark144]

If I win, I'm picking Edith Bunker!!

Let's not forget the sanity clause, though we know there's no such thing.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

Yes, it was 'that was terrific'. I just wanted to hear 'great job'.

 

[Cineman]

My memory of the line after watching this movie at least a dozen times in theaters during its initial release, on television and on several home theater formats over the years was that Tab Hunter called him "Fosse". In my judgement, that double S is very apparent. The B at the beginning not so much. I just took it to be "Fosse", the man's real last name, in the midst of the other sounds in the shot. And I always thought, oh isn't that nice; the producers decided to give Bob Fosse (not a complete unknown to stage and screen audiences at the time) at least some additional recognition in the movie beyond merely as "uncredited boy dancer" by giving his character a name, and his real name to boot.

In fact, I always assumed they added the shot of him and Gwen Verdon rushing past Joe Hardy and a handful of other baseball players backstage for no other reason than for Tab Hunter to SAY his name for the above reason whether the exact line was an ad-lib or not.

But after reading about it here I played it back on my old DVD copy a few times with my ear right up to the soundbar and it sounded like "Bossy" to me every time. It could be "Fosse" as well since the first letter in the name is obscured a bit by applause and so on. But, to my ears, it is definitely not "Bobby."

IF what I am hearing on closer examination than I have ever given the shot, "Bossy", is what Tab Hunter is indeed saying, couldn't it be that Mr. Hunter simply flubbed the name in the line he ad-libbed, blurting out a mix of "Bobby" and "Fosse"? And that it was possibly something they thought they'd fix in post but never got around to it or, more likely, felt they did "fix" it by raising the sounds of applause, congratulations and so on to cover most of the flub?

 

[PMF]

Again, we can debate this till the cows come home [...]

Has anyone ever noticed that there’s never been a legitimate debate over the time and hour a cow actually does come back home?

Furthermore, when we speak of cows in the plural, then one has to wonder what their rush-hour must be like. It must be udder chaos.

 

[Will Krupp]

It must be udder chaos.

Yikes!

 

[Garysb]

I am not sure what the big deal is. It's not as though Bob Fosse was playing a character who had a name and Joe Hardy (Tab Hunter) used his real name or some variation of it and it wasn't caught. He played an unnamed dance partner of Lola. Would it have been better if Joe didn't mention a name?

Bob Fosse

...

Mambo Dancer (uncredited)

Personally I would rather enjoy this challenge dance between Bob Fosse and Tommy Rall from "My Sister Eileen".

 

[PMF]

Personally, I would rather enjoy this challenge dance between Bob Fosse and Tommy Rall from "My Sister Eileen".

Could’ve sworn I just heard Tommy Rall call him Gideon.

 

[haineshisway]

This reminds me of the hilarious "debate" about whether Simon Oakland in West Side Story, on his first appearance, in the midst of breaking up the fight, uttered a rather nasty curse word. Now, he didn't, but half the people in the debate swore he did and would die on that hill. The other half heard what he actually said and which is, I believe, in Ernest Lehman's script. But you could not dissuade those who heard what they heard. For me, it makes zero sense for anyone ever to have called Mr. Fosse "Fosse" especially then. He was Bobby to everyone. But carry on.

 

[PMF]

Bobby.
Bobby.
Bobby, baby.
Bobby bubi.
Robby...
- Stephen Sondheim

 

[AnthonyClarke]

Love the Bobby/Fosse debate. These things are so important after all.
and by the way, why I quoted 'Great Job' instead of 'That was terrific'.
Another poster had cited 'great job' and that had stuck in my mind.
Winter is coming on very fast here and I was out in the garden trying to clear pesty European wasps which have decided to build a huge colony in my wood-shed. Took a break and thought I'd contribute my thoughts on this huge controversy. But while I got the 'Bobby/Fosse' bit right in my head, those pesky wasps had scrambled the other bit.
That's what happens around here as winter descends and those wasps circle around my head ...... there is another life out there, but I prefer the forum to the wasps.....

 

[MartinP.]

For me, it makes zero sense for anyone ever to have called Mr. Fosse "Fosse" especially then. He was Bobby to everyone.

Makes sense in person off camera, but this is a movie scene and something like this would totally make sense:

[...] the producers decided to give Bob Fosse [...] some additional recognition in the movie beyond merely as "uncredited boy dancer" by giving his character a name, and his real name to boot. In fact, I always assumed they added the shot of him and Gwen Verdon rushing past Joe Hardy and a handful of other baseball players backstage for no other reason than for Tab Hunter to SAY his name for the above reason whether the exact line was an ad-lib or not.

Audiences may have heard his name before, but most would likely not know what he looked like.
So there's that. And also that "double s" sounds much different than "double b".

 

[Cineman]

...
Audiences may have heard his name before, but most would likely not know what he looked like.
So there's that. And also that "double s" sounds much different than "double b".

He was featured and credited in 3-4 movies before Damn Yankees, including My Sister Eileen and Kiss Me Kate. I think a lot of movie musical fans would have recognized him during that "mambo" dance number before his name was said. If anything, more physical recognition than name recognition, imo.

I don't hear "Bossy" in Hunter's line nearly as clearly in the YouTube clip on my phone or on my laptop. It sounds a bit muddled and obscured by other sounds. I might believe it if someone insisred it was Bobby, Fosse, Fobby or something else.

But, to my ears, "Bossy" is unavoidably there on the DVD through my Samsung 9.1.4 channel soundbar no matter how many times I play it back. I can only imagine it's even clearer on the blu-ray (which I am waiting to become available in Thailand with Thai subtitles. Legitimately, of course).

And I was honestly expecting to hear "Fosse", which is what I had assumed was said in all my previous viewings of the movie. On my home theater system at least that first letter B wins out over an F.

 

[Alan Tully]

Ah, my copy arrived today...& guess what bit I will NOT be checking.

 

[roxy1927]

But you must!