Fosse

by Wasson, Sam

  [>] “It was like a cave”: Karen Hassett, interview with the author, September 5, 2010.

  [>] At their second meeting: Jack Perlman’s notes on Charnin suit, LOC, box 26C.

  [>] he called Neil Simon in Rome: Neil Simon, Rewrites: A Memoir (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996), 214–15.

  [>] “I love the new lines”: Ibid., 217.

  [>] “This number,” he said through: Ibid., 216.

  [>] “When you’re dancing in one of Bob’s”: Ann Reinking, interview with the author, November 15, 2010.

  [>] “Bob would say that he didn’t”: Kathy Witt, interview with the author, May 20, 2011.

  [>] “People have been toying with this”: “Is the Director-Choreographer Taking Over?” Roundtable discussion broadcast by radio station WEVD, New York, March 30, 1966.

  [>] “We went to a dance hall to observe”: Rex Reed, “‘I Never Wanted to Be Special,’” New York Times, February 6, 1966.

  [>] “They saw kids doing the Jerk”: Diana Laurenson, interview with the author, January 17, 2011.

  [>] Arthur, the most exciting new club: Sybil Christopher, interview with the author, January 23, 2012.

  [>] “[Arthur] was supposed to be”: Broadway Beat with Richard Ridge, Manhattan Neighborhood Network, June 22, 1999.

  [>] “That’s how Bob really developed”: Tony Stevens, interview with the author, February 8, 2011.

  [>] “When he and Gwen were working”: Ann Reinking, interview with the author, November 15, 2010.

  [>] She saw he was proud of her: Robert Alan Aurthur, “Hanging Out,” Esquire, December 1972.

  [>] They worked after work: Donna McKechnie, interview with the author, October 14, 2010.

  [>] “I don’t know if this is”: Ibid.

  [>] “It can be as pedestrian as”: Betty Spence, “Bob Fosse—He’ll Take the Risks,” Los Angeles Times, May 17, 1981.

  [>] “Bob never treated us like a chorus”: Kathryn Doby, interview with the author, November 27, 2010.

  [>] “He didn’t just want to put something”: Linda Posner (Leland Palmer), interview with the author, July 23, 2010.

  [>] “Ladies,” he said: Christine Colby, interview with the author, March 20, 2011.

  [>] “She wasn’t the star”: Lee Roy Reams, Theater Production Workshop Dialogue Series Features Sweet Charity, Marymount Manhattan College, March 15, 2011.

  [>] “Gwen would break the steps”: Christine Colby, interview with the author, March 20, 2011

  [>] He wanted to direct movies: Margaret Herrick Library, George Cukor Papers, Production files—unproduced, Bloomer Girl (20th Century Fox and G-D-C Enterprises); choreography 1965–66.

  [>] a good hook for Fosse: Ibid.

  [>] worried about the offer: Ibid.

  [>] Fosse confessed to Fox executive: Ibid.

  [>] “It was one of the hardest shows”: Broadway Beat with Richard Ridge.

  [>] “Gwen hated singing ‘Where Am I Going?’”: Reams, Marymount Manhattan College.

  [>] “I think the true reason was”: Robert Viagas, ed., The Alchemy of Theatre: The Divine Science (New York: Playbill Books, 2006), 32.

  [>] Privately, Fosse knew his show was hers: Reams, Marymount Manhattan College.

  [>] “Gwen was out from time to time”: Ruth Buzzi, interview with the author, January 3, 2011.

  [>] “I went on a hundred times for her”: Helen Gallagher, interviewed by Liza Gennaro, March 22, 2006, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

  [>] an ebullient Neil Simon set out: Simon, Rewrites, 228.

  [>] was a preemptive move, Fosse said: Ibid.

  [>] When he awoke Sunday morning: Martin Charnin, interview with the author, December 3, 2011.

  [>] “He told me I had to wait and see”: Ibid.

  [>] Fosse asked Stanley Donen to come up: Simon, Rewrites, 230.

  [>] “The ending,” Fosse said: Ibid.

  [>] Fosse had decided Irene Sharaff’s: Gottfried, All His Jazz, 182.

  [>] “They fought”: Reams, Marymount Manhattan College.

  [>] “It should be grittier, darker”: Simon, Rewrites, 230.

  [>] “People in the audience would”: John McMartin, interview with the author, November 8, 2010.

  [>] Look, Neil Simon said to Fosse: Simon, Rewrites, 231.

  [>] “I still think I’m right,” he said: Ibid.

  [>] the Palace Theater: Milton Esterow, “Old Palace Theater Prepares for a Musical: Interior Refurbished for ‘Sweet Charity’ by New Owners,” New York Times, January 14, 1966.

  [>] dressing room: Reed, “‘I Never Wanted to Be Special.’”

  [>] “It opens up the eye”: Suzanne Charney, interview with the author, February 20, 2011.

  [>] In the first-row balcony, Martin Charnin: Martin Charnin, interview with the author, December 3, 2011.

  [>] “There was material on that stage”: Ibid.

  [>] “The last thing I wanted to do”: Ibid.

  [>] “Talented Bob Fosse”: Harold Clurman, “Theater,” Nation, February 28, 1966.

  [>] “The proscenium is all broken up”: Ann Reinking, interview with the author, November 15, 2010.

  [>] “Bob was there from the first day”: Dan Siretta, interview with the author, February 22, 2012.

  [>] “The only time he spoke directly”: Ibid.

  [>] “He did come up with the one idea”: Gwen Verdon interview, Dance in America, WNET archives, September 6, 1989.

  [>] “Bob would get so lonely”: Dan Siretta, interview with the author, February 22, 2012.

  [>] “Fosse would call me at night”: Ellen Graff, interview with the author, February 3, 2012.

  [>] “Bobby was so much a little boy”: Dan Siretta, interview with the author, February 22, 2012.

  [>] “You are the strangest actor”: Broadway Beat with Richard Ridge.

  [>] “Whose performance do you think”: Gottfried, All His Jazz, 186.

  [>] sense of injustice increased: Ibid.

  [>] “During much of their joint professional”: Gottfried, All His Jazz, 284.

  [>] “If Fosse did anything generous”: Marie Wallace, interview with the author, February 16, 2012.

  [>] “She loved being with us”: Ibid.

  [>] “Those were fabulous parties”: Laurent Giroux, interview with the author, December 13, 2010.

  [>] “I felt sorry for Gwen”: Ruth Buzzi, interview with the author, January 3, 2011.

  [>] would visit Gwen in her dressing room whenever they could: Ibid.

  [>] “We were in there most nights”: Ibid.

  [>] Gwen placed a frightened call to Robert Alan Aurthur: Gottfried, All His Jazz, 186.

  [>] Aurthur finally reached Fosse: Ibid.

  TWENTY YEARS

  [>] “Have you finished work yet, Daddy?”: Robert Wahls, “Bob Who? Bob Fosse!,” New York Sunday News, November 26, 1972.

  [>] personal resonance: Leslie Bennetts, “Bob Fosse—Dancing with Danger,” New York Times, April 6, 1986.

  [>] “This is the manic-depressive floor”: Wahls, “Bob Who?”

  [>] Fosse’s suite was nicely disheveled: Ibid.

  [>] 850 Seventh was a magical place: Lionel Larner, interview with the author, January 25, 2012.

  [>] “A man who is not touched by”: Herb Gardner, The Collected Plays (New York: Applause, 2001), 43.

  [>] “That was a marriage between”: David Picker, interview with the author, October 7, 2010.

  [>] he was called the “Corned Beef Confucius”: “Max Asnas, Long-Time Owner of the Stage Delicatessen, Dies,” New York Times, December 12, 1968.

  [>] “Paddy could tell Bob everything”: Ann Reinking, interview with the author, November 15, 2010.

  [>] “You’d see them at their table”: Karen Hassett, interview with the author, September 5, 2010.

  [>] It was just Fosse’s goyishe sandwich: Alan Heim, interview with the author, July 22, 2010.

  [>] had his sights set on Sweet Charity next:
For more on the Hollywood musical in the late 1960s, see Paul Monaco, History of the American Cinema, Vol. 8: The Sixties (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001); Ethan Mordden, Medium Cool (New York: Knopf, 1990); and “Darling Lili (1970)” in Sam Wasson, A Splurch in the Kisser: The Movies of Blake Edwards (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2009).

  [>] Charnin’s arbitration: Martin Charnin, interview with the author, December 3, 2011.

  [>] “Fryer and Carr had to admit to it”: Ibid.

  [>] “Okay, kid”: Shirley MacLaine, My Lucky Stars: A Hollywood Memoir (New York: Bantam, 1995), 175.

  [>] “I remember feeling tentative”: Charles Champlin, “Finest Hour for Bob Fosse and Feet in General,” Los Angeles Times, May 11, 1969.

  [>] “I hate show business and I love it”: Bernard Drew, “Life as a Long Rehearsal,” American Film, November 1979.

  [>] Surtees liked to joke that one day: Bob Fosse correspondence with Robert Surtees, LOC, box 47A.

  [>] “Bobby was fascinated with”: Sonja Haney, interview with the author, February 27, 2011.

  [>] “Anyone less charming than Bob”: Bruce Surtees, interview with the author, March 28, 2011.

  [>] Ross Hunter had soft-focus ideas in store: “Ross Hunter Withdraws from U’s ‘Charity’ after ‘Difference’ with Fosse,” Daily Variety, November 6, 1967.

  [>] “There was quite a fight”: Champlin, “Finest Hour for Bob Fosse.”

  [>] “He wanted to be an artist”: Bruce Surtees, interview with the author, March 28, 2011.

  [>] Fosse talked to Surtees about McCracken, about ideas she had: Ibid.

  [>] “If there were people,” McCracken had written: Joan McCracken, “Thoughts While Dancing,” Dance Magazine, April 1946.

  [>] They discussed John Huston’s: Bruce Surtees, interview with the author, March 28, 2011.

  [>] “Moulin Rouge was the first time”: Moira Hodgson, “When Bob Fosse’s Art Imitates Life, It’s Just ‘All That Jazz,’” New York Times, December 30, 1979.

  [>] Fosse began wearing a viewfinder: Bruce Surtees, interview with the author, March 28, 2011.

  [>] “How do you feel about it?”: Chris Chase, “Fosse, from Tony to Oscar to Emmy,” New York Times, April 29, 1973.

  [>] “I loved rehearsing with Shirley”: Sonja Haney, interview with the author, February 27, 2011.

  [>] “It had to be one of the worst things”: John McMartin, interview with the author, November 8, 2010.

  [>] “The fact that she was there at all”: Chita Rivera, interview with the author, February 3, 2011.

  [>] One would glimpse her whispering: Ibid.

  [>] “They literally finished each other’s”: Suzanne Charney, interview with the author, February 20, 2011.

  [>] Gwen turned down the title role in: Lewis Funke, “Will Rogers Recalled,” New York Times, October 13, 1968.

  [>] “If I’d known how he worked”: “Won’t Sit Down on the Job,” Chicago Daily Defender, April 4, 1968.

  [>] “One of the reasons you wanted to work”: Lee Roy Reams, Theater Production Workshop Dialogue Series Features Sweet Charity, Marymount Manhattan College, March 15, 2011.

  [>] “His anxieties and indecisions”: Marilyn Beck, “There’s Been Trouble on ‘Sweet Charity’ Set,” Hartford Courant, February 27, 1968.

  [>] “I knew that he felt he was under”: Sonja Haney, interview with the author, February 27, 2011.

  [>] “He missed nothing”: MacLaine, My Lucky Stars, 179.

  [>] “Everything about films”: Bob Boyle, “Bob Fosse Began Early on Successful Career,” Nevada Daily Mail, February 4, 1969.

  [>] sent out for Preparation H: Sonja Haney, interview with the author, February 27, 2011.

  [>] “If only all the fuses would blow”: John Hallowell, “Rebellion on Broadway as Stars Balk at Lengthy Runs,” Life, July 21, 1967.

  [>] “Both Gwen and I were watching”: Sonja Haney, interview with the author, February 27, 2011.

  [>] “Bob wasn’t really into the dancing”: Larry Billman, interview with the author, February 21, 2011.

  [>] “He was so involved”: Sonja Haney, interview with the author, February 27, 2011.

  [>] Fosse sat down at the lighting console: Ibid.

  [>] “Bob was so focused on technique”: Lonnie Burr, interview with the author, February 21, 2011.

  [>] “Hey, Bob!” Sammy yelled: Ibid.

  [>] “That’s when Bob and I really”: Sonja Haney, interview with the author, February 27, 2011.

  [>] “Big Spender” Fosse shot twice: Ibid.

  [>] would have kept shooting: Ibid.

  [>] “Seeing how upset I was”: MacLaine, My Lucky Stars, 179.

  [>] The dailies were a sensation: Sonja Haney, interview with the author, February 27, 2011.

  [>] Meanwhile, Fosse fought Universal over: Martin Gottfried, All His Jazz (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 1998; first published by Bantam in 1990), 198. Citations refer to the Da Capo edition.

  [>] “That last minute in”: Terry Clifford, “Home Town Boy Bob Fosse Makes Good,” Chicago Tribune, April 20, 1969.

  [>] vacillated up to the very last minute: Sonja Haney, interview with the author, February 27, 2011.

  [>] Both endings tested to mixed results: Ibid.

  [>] “When I saw the movie”: Ibid.

  [>] “If a director overuses it”: Boyle, “Bob Fosse Began Early.”

  “If it’s a flop”: Sonja Haney, interview with the author, February 27, 2011.

  [>] “Every moment of creating this dance”: Reams, Marymount Manhattan College.

  [>] “Didn’t do anything except feel sorry”: Bob Fosse, 1969 daily diary, LOC, box 55G.

  [>] “That was my fault”: Lionel Chetwynd, “Except for Bob Fosse,” Penthouse, January 1974.

  [>] Screenwriter Peter Stone would indict: Gottfried, All His Jazz, 197.

  [>] midway into Fosse’s Little Me deal: Extensive legal documents and correspondence pertaining to MCA Artists v. Robert Fosse, LOC, box 51A.

  [>] getting a little foothold on the deal: For more on the background of Creative Management Associates, see David McClintick, Indecent Exposure (New York: William Morrow, 1982).

  [>] Fosse signed with CMA: Fosse’s 1969 CMA contract, LOC, box 51A.

  [>] Back in New York, he kept: From “A Concerned Friend,” LOC, box 53B.

  [>] for her, he vowed to control his death wish: Ibid.

  [>] Herb Schlein, permanently concerned: Rosemary Edelman, “The Pastrami Philosopher,” New York, July 23, 1979.

  [>] “He knows every cockamamie show”: Ibid.

  [>] “You would look over”: Dan Siretta, interview with the author, February 22, 2012.

  [>] “[Paddy’s] a very compassionate”: Sondra Lowell, “Fosse: Still Explaining His Movie,” Los Angeles Times, February 3, 1980.

  [>] So when Paddy told Fosse: Bob Fosse/Paddy Chayefsky, Big Deal correspondence, LOC, box 66A.

  [>] “marred only by Fosse’s depression”: Robert Alan Aurthur, “Hanging Out,” Esquire, August 1973.

  [>] for an amazing $800,000: Gottfried, All His Jazz, 202.

  [>] “It’s a strange relationship, friendship”: Steve Tesich, Bob Fosse Memorial, Palace Theater, October 30, 1987, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Theatre on Film and Tape Archive.

  [>] “It’s like having a tiny apartment”: Ibid.

  [>]Prematurely, Fosse sent Big Deal: Bob Fosse/David Picker Big Deal correspondence, November 11, 1969, LOC, box 66A.

  [>] Fosse was so desperate to work he even: Bob Fosse/Ray Stark Big Deal correspondence, December 29, 1969, LOC, box 66A.

  [>] One night, Hal and Judy Prince invited: Gottfried, All His Jazz, 203.

  [>] “There were two musicals onstage”: Harold Prince, interview with the author, October 6, 2010.

  [>] “The first day of rehearsal”: John Kander, interview with the author, November 10, 2010.

  [>] Fosse started calling: Cy Feuer with Ken Gross, I Got the Show Right
Here (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003), 242–43.

  [>] Feuer had pasta: Ibid.

  [>] He got a call from Sue Mengers: Larry Turman, interview with the author, July 26, 2010.

  [>] Fosse took a trip up the California coast: Bob Fosse/Larry Turman, Burnt Offerings correspondence, LOC, box 13C.

  [>] he expected to meet with Marasco: Ibid.

  [>] “I knew the best time to get”: Emanuel Wolf, interview with the author, March 17, 2012.

  [>] “The worst tragedy can befall me”: Drew, “Life as a Long Rehearsal.”

  [>] “I was living like a wife and a mother”: Suzanne Daley, “Stepping into Her New Shoes,” New York Times, June 21, 1981.

  [>] “They all thought I could be controlled”: Aurthur, “Hanging Out.”

  [>] Sitting across from: Marty Baum interview, Cabaret, special ed. (Warner Home Video, 1998), DVD.

  [>] A meeting of the Cabaret production team was set for January 20: Bob Fosse, 1970 daily diary, LOC, box 55G.

  [>] “I didn’t find him the happiest”: Patrick McGilligan, ed., Backstory 3: Interviews with the Screenwriters of the ’60s (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), 127.

  [>] “I lied”: Feuer and Gross, I Got the Show Right Here, 245.

  [>] too loud, the New York Times thought: John S. Wilson, “Liza Minnelli Charming Empire Room Audiences,” New York Times, February 10, 1970.

  [>] “It’s a long, hard battle”: Ibid.

  [>] Fosse met Minnelli in the Waldorf: “Liza Minnelli,” The Rosie Show, OWN-TV, aired March 12, 2012.

  [>] dove deeper into research: Fosse correspondence, LOC, box 55G.

  [>] George Grosz: Kathryn Doby, interview with the author, November 27, 2010.

  [>] the Surtees issue had stalled: Feuer and Gross, I Got the Show Right Here, 246.

  [>] “No,” Fosse heard around midnight: Bob Fosse/Ernie Martin correspondence, LOC, box 16B.

  [>] he should do whatever he wanted: Gottfried, All His Jazz, 209.

  [>] “If you quit”: Shaun Considine, Mad as Hell: The Life and Work of Paddy Chayefsky (New York: Random House, 1995), 294.

  [>] “You no-good son of a bitch”: Feuer and Gross, I Got the Show Right Here, 247.

  [>] He could see Fosse hadn’t slept: Ibid.