Free To Be You And Me - 1974 Classic Marlo Thomas

AVI File Details
========================================
Name.........: Free To Be You And Me - 1974 Classic Marlo Thomas.avi
Filesize.....: 349 MB (or 357,482 KB or 366,061,568 bytes)
Runtime......: 00:43:43 (78,598 fr)
Video Codec..: XviD
Video Bitrate: 1006 kb/s
Audio Codec..: 0x0055(MP3) ID'd as MPEG-1 Layer 3
Audio Bitrate: 101 kb/s (50/ch, stereo) VBR LAME3.97
Frame Size...: 480x368 (1.30:1) [=30:23]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0194897/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_to_Be%E2%80%A6_You_and_Me


Free to Be… You and Me is a record album and illustrated songbook for children, first released in November 1972, and later in 1974 as a television special, featuring songs and stories from celebrities (credited as "Marlo Thomas and Friends"). Using poetry, songs, and sketches, the basic concept was to salute values such as individuality, tolerance, and happiness with one's identity; a major thematic message is that anyone, whether a boy or a girl, can achieve anything one wants.

The album has become a cult classic across the United States amongst many who were children in the 1970s.

Overview

The original idea to create the album came from Thomas; she wanted to teach her then-young niece Dionne about life, in particular that it was OK to go against the gender stereotypes that were blatantly evident in the children's books of that time (ie, Daddy's a construction worker or a doctor while Mommy is a teacher or a nurse--if Mommy even works at all; boys don't play with dolls or cry; girls can't be athletes or go through life unmarried). The album was produced by Carole Hart, with music produced by Stephen J. Lawrence and Bruce Hart, with stories and poems directed by Alan Alda. Proceeds went to the Ms. Foundation for Women. The album has been published by Arista Records since 1983 (it was first published by Bell Records), and is still in print today. As of 2006 it has sold more than 500,000 copies. (A well-received sequel, Free to Be... A Family, was produced in 1988.)

Well-known songs include "It's All Right to Cry," sung by football hero Rosey Grier; the title track by the New Seekers; "Help" by Tom Smothers; "Sisters and Brothers" by The Voices of East Harlem; and "When We Grow Up" performed by Diana Ross on the album, and performed by Roberta Flack and Michael Jackson on the special.

Other sketches, some of them animated in the television special, include "Atalanta," narrated by Alan Alda, a retelling of the ancient Greek legend of Atalanta; "Boy Meets Girl" with Marlo Thomas and Mel Brooks providing the voices for puppets resembling human babies, who use cultural gender stereotypes to try to discover which is a boy and which a girl; and "Dudley Pippin" with Billy De Wolfe.

The children pictured on the original LP jacket were school-mates of Abigail, Robin and David Pogrebin, the children of Letty Cottin-Pogrebin, then the editor of Ms. Magazine. Most of the children attended Corlears School.


Television special

The television special first aired March 11, 1974, on ABC, earning an 18.6 rating/27 share and went on to win an Emmy. 16 mm prints of the special were also struck, and some schoolchildren from the 1970s remember seeing the television special projected in schools in that period.

The special appeared occasionally on HBO in the 1980s, and more recently, on the cable channel TV Land. It is currently available on home video.


TV cast
Alan Alda
Harry Belafonte
Mel Brooks
Rita Coolidge
Billy De Wolfe
Roberta Flack
Rosey Grier
Michael Jackson
Kris Kristofferson
Shel Silverstein
Tom Smothers
Marlo Thomas
Dionne Warwick
Cicely Tyson
Carol Channing
The New Seekers
The Voices of East Harlem