Loverly:The Life and Times of My Fair Lady (Broadway Legacies)

by McHugh, Dominic

  89. Letter of July 6, 1955, Levin to Evans, HLP, 25/7.

  90. Letter of July 6, 1955, Levin to Beaton, HLP, 24/7.

  91. Telegrams of July 12 and 13, 1955, between Levin and Evans, and letter of July 15, Levin to Evans, HLP, 25/7.

  92. Letter of July 15, Levin to Beaumont, HLP, 25/7. Evans’s secretary wrote a further letter to Levin that day to inform him of an error in the letter regarding the date of Nina’s opening: she had written August 27 instead of August 7, but it had now been changed to July 27. Letters of July 15, 1955, Evans and Eileen Rutherford to Levin, HLP 27/5.

  93. Letter of July 15, Levin to Evans, HLP, 25/7.

  94. Letter of July 18, Levin to Evans, HLP, 25/7.

  95. Letter of July 18, 1955, Levin to Aza, HLP, 25/9.

  96. Letter of July 29, 1955, Levin to Evans; telegram, Levin to Evans of July 28, HLP, 25/7.

  97. Letter of July 19, 1955, Beaumont to Levin. In another letter, of July 26, he restated the complexity of his position, HLP, 25/7.

  98. Telegram of July 20, 1955, Evans to Levin, and telegram of July 20, Levin to Evans, HLP, 25/7. Levin wrote snappily to Evans: “IMPOSSIBLE WAIT AUGUST 21 SITUATION HERE INTOLERABLE. LERNER AND LOEWE ARRIVE LONDON JULY 31. I ARRIVE AUGUST 3. PLEASE ARRANGE HOTEL.”

  99. Telegram of July 28, 1955, Levin to Evans, HLP, 25/7.

  100. Letter of July 28, 1955, Gielgud to Hugh Wheeler. Richard Mangan, ed., Gielgud’s Letters (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2004), 183.

  101. Telegram of August 1, 1955, Levin to Evans, HLP,, 25/7.

  102. Telegram of August 12, 1955, Evans to Levin, HLP, 25/7.

  103. Memorandum of telephone conversation 5:15 p.m., August 17, 1955, between Levin and Moskowitz, HLP, 25/7.

  104. Memorandum of telephone conversation between Levin and Evans at 3:10 p.m. on August 18, 1955, HLP, 25/7.

  105. Telegram of August 26, 1955, Evans to Levin, HLP, 25/7.

  106. Untitled memorandum of August 30, 1955, HLP, 25/7. A couple of annotations in Levin’s handwriting indicate the memo is probably his.

  107. Letter of September 1, 1955, Beaumont to Levin (with a draft version attached), HLP, 25/7.

  108. Contract between Levin and Harrison, September 2, 1955, HLP, 23/10.

  109. Contract between Levin and Andrews, September 8, 1955, HLP, 23/10

  110. Contract between Levin and Holloway, September 13, 1955, HLP, 23/10

  111. Contract between Levin and Michael King, September 23, 1955, HLP, 26/8.

  112. Memorandum Re: Robert Coote, September 27, 1955, HLP, 23/9. On March 26, 1956, Tom Helmore was hired as Rex Harrison’s understudy.

  113. Rider dated June 15, 1955, between Levin and the Trebuhs Realty Company, HLP, 24/3. Telegram of September 2, Levin in London to Lerner in New York, HLP, 25/7. Contract between Levin and Farrell of 9 September, HLP, 25/7. The choice of the Mark Hellinger was considered a bad omen, since that venue had not enjoyed success before, but after the triumph of My Fair Lady Lerner went on to use it for On a Clear Day You Can See Forever and Coco.

  114. Contract of September 15, 1955, between Levin and the Shuberthaven Operating Company, HLP, 24/3.

  115. Contract of October 3, 1955, between Levin and 265 Tremont Street Inc. for the Shubert Theatre, Boston. Contract of November 2, 1955, between Levin and Goldlawr, Inc, for the Erlanger Theatre, HLP, 24/3.

  116. Elliott Norton, “Fair Lady Twice Passes Up Hub, Waits ’til 59,” Boston Daily Record, November 11, 1957. Accessed from a photocopy in HLP, 33/5.

  117. Agreements of June 27 and September 12, 1955, between Levin and Allers, c/o Meyer Davis Music, HLP, 26/3.

  118. Letter of September 20, 1955, Albert Sirmay to Levin; contract of August 31, 1955, between Levin and Chappell’s, HLP, 26/3.

  119. Letter of September 12, 1955, in which Levin asks Irving Cohen to draw up new contracts with Beaton and Smith to provide for the possible television transmission that may take place under the agreement with CBS, HLP, 24/7. On September 19, David Grossberg of Reinheimer and Co. sent Smith’s contract to Levin, who then passed it on to Rudy Karnolt of United Scenic Artists the next day. At the same time, the producer submitted Abe Feder’s contract to do the lighting for the show. Letter of September 19, 1955, David Grossberg to Herman Levin, and letter of September 20, Levin to Rudy Karnolt. Smith’s contract is dated September 20, 1955, HLP, 26/6. Beaton’s contract is dated September 22, 1955, and was submitted to Arnold Weissberger that day by Levin. Weissberger returned them, signed, on September 28. Contract and letter from Levin to Weissberger, HLP, 24/7. Of the circumstances of Hanya Holm’s joining the show, very little documentary evidence exists. The Hanya Holm Collection in the New York Public Library contains no correspondence related to this period of the show’s genesis, and the Levin Papers contain only the contract of September 25, 1955, HLP, 25/10.

  120. Contract of September 7, 1955, between W. Spencer Harrison of CBS and Lerner, Loewe, and Levin. The television company’s investment was recouped by November 16, 1956, whereupon Levin wrote to Spencer Harrison in great satisfaction: “From now on, it’s all gravy,” Letter of November 16, 1956, Levin to W Spencer Harrison, HLP, 27/10.

  121. Letters of September 13 and 19, 1955, Levin to Evans; letter of September 15, Evans to Levin, HLP, 25/7.

  122. Letter of September 19, 1955, Levin to Evans, and letter of September 29, Evans to Levin, HLP, 25/7. Roy Lowe was Harrison’s vocal coach.

  123. Letters of September 27 and October 4, 1955, Levin to Evans, HLP, 25/7.

  124. Letter of October 12, 1955, Levin to Evans, HLP, 25/7. In his diary for November 1955, Beaton mentions completing the Pygmalion designs during the final days of his three-month visit. Diary 1954–5, vol. 98, Papers of Sir Cecil Beaton, St. John’s College Library, Cambridge.

  125. Contract of October 4, 1955, between Levin and Nesbitt; contract of October 10, 1955, between Levin and Hewett, specifying at that stage that he could be called upon to understudy Higgins, Pickering, or Doolittle, and resignation letter of mid-March 1956 (following a conversation with Lerner, Loewe, and Levin on March 13), attached, HLP, 23/9.

  126. On October 21, Levin wrote to the U. S. Passport Department to support Holm’s application for passport renewal. “The purpose of Miss Holm’s trip, so far as it concerns this organization, is to collect material and study various types of Cockney life and dancing in connection with My Lady Liza.” Letter of October 21 from Levin to U.S. Passport Dept. A list from the Helene Pons costume studio of New York, addressed to Beaton on October 31 indicates the costumes to be made in London for Harrison. In addition, wigs for Eliza, costumes and wigs for the footmen, costumes for the policemen, a hat for Doolittle, and an outfit for a Street Cleaner were to be bought in London. Letter of October 31, 1955, Helene Pons Studio to Beaton, HLP, 35/4.

  127. Memo to Oliver Smith from Levin, October 27, 1955, HLP, 26/6.

  128. Letter of November 1, 1955, Levin to Evans, HLP, 25/7.

  129. Letter of November 7, 1955, Evans to Levin. On November 17, Evans requested that Alan Jay Lerner pay Roy Lowe’s account for Harrison’s “tuition and coaching” between October 27 and November 10; Levin sent him a check for $77.30 six days later. Then on December 29, Evans requested an additional payment for Lowe’s account from November 12 to December 2, giving a clear indication of when Harrison’s vocal lessons took place. Letter of November 17, Evans to Alan Jay Lerner, and Levin’s reply of November 23; letter of December 29, Evans to Levin, HLP, 25/7.

  130. Letter of November 1, 1955, Aza to Levin; letters of October 26 and November 4, Levin to Aza. Prior to this, Aza had informed Levin that “Julie Andrews had excellent publicity when she arrived in this country [i.e., returned to England after finishing The Boy Friend on Broadway]. Strangely enough her birthday is on the same day as Stanley, so they should get on well together,” letter of October 5, Aza to Levin, HLP, 25/9.

  131. Letters of November 9 and December 13, Aza to Levin, HLP, 25/9.

  132. Andrews, Home, 184–87.
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  133. Letter of November 18, 1955,, Levin to Charles Tucker, HLP, 25/5.

  134. Letter of November 23, 1955,, Tucker to Levin, HLP, 22/5.

  135. Letter of December 5, 1955, Lerner to Julie Andrews, HLP, 25/5.

  136. Contracts of November 15 between Levin and Bevans, December 12, between Levin and Coote and December 12 between Roache and Levin, HLP, 23/9; contracts between Rod McLennan and Levin of December 5 and Olive Reeves-Smith of December 9, HLP, 23/10.

  137. Press releases and clippings, HLP, 23/6.

  138. Contract of November 26, 1955, between Levin and Maney; agreements of November 30, 1955, between Levin and Rittman; agreement of December 2, 1955, between Levin and Ernest Adler, HLP, 24/2.

  139. For an introduction to Rittman and her work, see Steven Suskin, The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 155 and 196.

  140. Letter of November 26, 1955, Eileen J Hose on behalf of Cecil Beaton to Levin, HLP, 24/7.

  141. Letter of November 28, 1955, Levin to Hose, HLP, 24/7.

  142. Letter of December 6, 1955, Levin to Harrison. The reference to $450 is made in a letter of January 4, 1956, Jerry Leider of MCA Artists to Philip Adler, c/o Levin, HLP, 25/7.

  143. Letter of December 6, 1955, Levin to Beaton, HLP, 24/7.

  144. Estimates from Imperial Scenic Studios of December 13, 1955; TB McDonald Construction Co, Inc, of December 19; and the Nolan Brothers of December 14. On December 16, the Nolan Brothers submitted a new estimate, and on the same day Levin drew up a contract to hire them to make the sets, HLP, 35/8.

  145. Letter of December 28, 1955, Levin to Coote, HLP, 26/8.

  146. Lerner, Street, 75–76.

  147. Ibid, 91.

  148. Letter of November 29, 1955, Lerner to Harrison, HLP, 25/7.

  149. December 16 is the latest date on which Levin refers to My Lady Liza (in the contract with the Nolan Brothers); the letter to Coote of December 28 is the earliest mention of My Fair Lady.

  150. Letter of December 30, 1955, Levin to Lieberson, and attached billing sheet, HLP, 24/11.

  151. Letter of January 4, 1955, Levin to Evans, HLP, 25/7.

  152. Letter of December 29, 1955, Levin to Julie Andrews, HLP, 25/5.

  153. Lerner, Street, 87.

  154. Ibid.

  155. Andrews, Home, 193.

  156. Lerner, Street, 88.

  157. Ibid., 89.

  158. Ibid., 90.

  159. Andrews, Home, 194–95.

  160. Lerner, Street, 90.

  161. Ibid.

  162. Contract of January 5, 1955, between Levin and Tutrinoli; contract of January 8, between Levin and Russell Bennett, HLP, 23/6.

  163. Letter of February 11, 1956, Robert Russell Bennett to Levin, HLP, 24/2.

  164. Letter of January 9, 1956, Doris Prober of Decorative Plant Corp to Levin, HLP, 25/1. Letter of January 10, 1956, Philip Alder to Miss Brown of Coro Jewelry, HLP, 24/13. Letter of January 10, 1956, Beaton to Levin and Sales Contract between Levin and the Helene Pons Studio, January 18, 1956, HLP, 35/4.

  165. Contract of December 30, 1955, between The Liza Company and the New Haven Jewish Community Center, HLP, 24/3.

  166. Lerner, Street, 94.

  167. Ibid., 96.

  168. Ibid., 97.

  169. Ibid, 98.

  170. Bone, “Shows Out of Town: My Fair Lady,” Variety, February 8, 1956, 56.

  171. Letter of February 15, 1956, Hyman to Adler, HLP, 25/8.

  172. Letter of February 23, Weissberger to Levin, HLP, 24/7.

  173. Letter of June 8, 1956, Langner to Lerner, TGC, 83.

  CHAPTER 3

  1. Basic factual details about Shaw’s biography and the history of Pygmalion come from L. W. Conolly’s magnificent introduction to his scholarly edition of the play published in the New Mermaids series (London: Methuen, 2008) and Michael Holroyd’s seminal Bernard Shaw (one-volume ed., London: Chatto and Windus, 1997), unless otherwise stated.

  2. Conolly, “Introduction: The Author,” in Pygmalion, xiv–xv.

  3. Michael Holroyd reports on Shaw’s activities: “As early as September 1897 everything ‘has been driven clean out of my head by a play I want to write … in which [Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson] shall be a west end gentleman and she an east end dona in an apron and three orange and red ostrich feathers.’” Holroyd, Bernard Shaw, 415–16.

  4. Conolly, Pygmalion, xvii.

  5. Tree “loved to disguise himself with beards, uniforms, vine leaves, eartrumpets. In this respect, Professor Higgins was a disappointment.” Holroyd, Bernard Shaw, 441.

  6. Conolly, Pygmalion, 74. Eliza’s line comes in response to Freddy’s question, “Are you walking across the park, Miss Doolittle?”

  7. Conolly, Pygmalion, xxiv.

  8. Ibid. 146.

  9. Shaw, Complete Letters, vol. 3, 227–28.

  10. Conolly, Pygmalion, xxvi.

  11. “Sequel,” ibid., 129.

  12. Pygmalion, 139–40.

  13. Ibid., 132.

  14. Ibid., 129–30.

  15. Ibid., xxvii.

  16. Ibid., 149.

  17. Ibid., 150–51.

  18. Ibid., 147.

  19. Ibid., 154.

  20. Ibid., 20.

  21. The correspondence of Shaw and Pascal has been collected into a convenient volume edited by Bernard F. Dukore, with extensive reference to Pygmalion. Bernard F. Dukore, ed., Bernard Shaw and Gabriel Pascal: Selected Correspondence (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996). Dukore is also the editor of a beautiful volume of Shaw’s screenplays that discusses various versions of Pygmalion, including the foreign-language films. Bernard F. Dukore, ed., The Collected Screenplays of Bernard Shaw (London: George Prior Publishers, 1980).

  22. Pygmalion, xxviii.

  23. Paul Bauschatz, “The Uneasy Evolution of My Fair Lady from Pygmalion ” in Fred D. Crawford, ed., The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies, xviii (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 1998), 192 and 195. Curiously, Bauschatz also claims early on that “virtually all of My Fair Lady ’s dialogue can be found in Pygmalion,” but then goes on to relate various departures from Shaw’s text. Bauschatz, “Uneasy Evolution,” 181.

  24. Joseph P. Swain, The Broadway Musical: A Critical and Musical Survey (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), 185.

  25. Lerner, Street, 36.

  26. “After a private showing of Pygmalion, [Lerner and Loewe] became enthusiastic.” V. Pascal, Disciple, 219.

  27. Telegram of March 22, 1952, Langner to Pascal, TGC, box 137.

  28. Letter of May 10, 1952, Lerner to Pascal, TGC, box 137.

  29. Holroyd, 436. Holroyd also describes Doolittle as being “of Dickensian vitality.”

  30. Richard Traubner, Operetta: A Theatrical History (New York: Doubleday, 1983), 409.

  31. Dukore, Complete Screenplays of Bernard Shaw, 46.

  32. “Lady Liza—Brief Outline,” HLP, 34/2.

  33. One possibility is that Higgins was there doing “research,” and that Pickering simply arrived from India there, but if this was Lerner’s thinking, he does not say so here.

  34. Pygmalion, 69.

  35. My Fair Lady script, 91.

  36. Lerner, Street, 99.

  37. Outline 2 survives because it was included in an appendix to an early dissertation on the musical by Gerald Harold Weissman, who seems to have been given access to it by Lerner during the musical’s original Broadway run. Gerald Harold Weissman, “The musicalization of Pygmalion into My Fair Lady ” (master’s thesis, Stanford University, 1957).

  38. Lerner, Street, 44.

  39. My Fair Lady, “Mimeographed Rehearsal Script,” HLP, 34/7.

  40. Kitty Carlisle Hart, Kitty: An Autobiography (New York: Doubleday, 1988), 177; Bach, Dazzler, 341.

  41. Page numbers in brackets in this chapter refer to the first British edition of the script of My Fair Lady (London, 1958). I use this edition because it contains a few corrections o
f typographical errors in the American first edition. References to “the published script” are to this British text.

  42. Pygmalion, 11.

  43. Ibid., 36.

  44. Ibid., 73.

  45. Though even after reinstating these lines, Lerner still did not merely lift the Pygmalion text. For instance, Shaw’s Higgins tells Mrs. Pearce to pay Eliza out of the housekeeping money, as well as reflecting tangentially about the difficulty of getting Eliza “to talk grammar.” Pygmalion, 37.

  46. Ibid., 45.

  47. Ibid., 78.

  48. Pace Swain, who opines that “the lyrics no longer convey fantasy: Eliza now has the power to do what she says.” In fact, the opposite is the case, since Eliza has to run away in order to elude Higgins’s power, rather than enacting the violence described in the song. Swain, Broadway Musical, 190.

  49. Ethan Mordden has noticed this aspect of the show, too: “[M]idway through Act One, there’s a sequence made of alternating song and dialogue that is generally conceded to be the point at which critics and public realized that My Fair Lady was not just very enjoyable but very special.” Ethan Mordden, Coming Up Roses: The Broadway Musical in the 1950s (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 155.

  50. Pygmalion, 7.

  CHAPTER 4

  1. See the outlines in chap. 3 for corroboration the position of these two songs. Location of the manuscripts in FLC: “What Is a Woman,” 5/25; “Who Is the Lady?,” 8/45; “Dear Little Fool,” 5/4; “Over Your Head,” 8/27, “Limehouse,” 8/20; and “The Undeserving Poor,” 8/40.

  2. “What’s to Become of Me?,” FLC, 8/44. Eliza’s speech quoted from My Fair Lady script, 110.

  3. FLC, 8/37.

  4. “Who Is the Lady?” is not substantially different from this extract. In bars 3, 7, 35, and 39, D and E are written instead of E and F-sharp, and the melody ends with bar 46.

  5. Lerner, Street, 57.

  6. FLC, 5/18.

  7. My Fair Lady script, 55–56.

  8. “Please Don’t Marry Me” in folder marked “Lyrics and Songs Not Used,” HLP, 34/8.

  9. FLC, 5/24.