During “The Summer of George,” Raquel Welch plays herself, entangled in a fight with the producers of her Tony-nominated play, “Scarsdale Surprise.” The show’s producers would do anything to get rid of her, and when Kramer (Michael Richards), attending the ceremony as a seat filler, stumbles onstage and inadvertently finds himself accepting an award on their behalf, they find their opening. Kramer is blackmailed into figuring out a way to fire Welch from “Scarsdale Surprise,” otherwise he has to surrender his Tony to the show’s producers. Their reason? She doesn’t swing her arms as she dances.
Kramer does his best to do as the producers wish, confronting the actress backstage and informing her of her firing. As the producers knew she might, Welch goes ballistic on Kramer and destroys his Tony in the process. A chance encounter with Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) on a random New York street corner results in a catfight, as Welch presumes that Benes is mocking her when she is in fact trying to describe a man to the police who has a similar way of moving his body. Elaine’s disheveled appearance later draws this immortal line from Kramer: “the woman is a menace!”
In real life, Welch was also no stranger to the Broadway stage, having taken over the lead in a 1981 production of “Woman of the Year” from Lauren Bacall. Her sense of humor, playful self-awareness, and fearless onscreen presence will be sorely missed.
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