Fosse

by Wasson, Sam

  [>] “Bob wanted no chorus in Pippin”: Pam Sousa, interview with the author, January 11, 2011.

  [>] The girls would have poker nights: Ibid.

  [>] “We called Kathryn Mother”: Cheryl Clark, interview with the author, April 19, 2011.

  [>] They would play tricks on: Candy Brown, interview with the author, January 7, 2011.

  [>] “We were a family on Pippin”: Ibid.

  [>] MGM days: Pam Sousa, interview with the author, January 11, 2011.

  [>] “People in plays and in movies”: Julian Barry, interview with the author, September 6, 2010.

  [>] “He was a star director”: Name withheld, interview with the author, September 10, 2010.

  [>] “Most of us got those calls”: Candy Brown, interview with the author, January 7, 2011.

  [>] “I get involved in the material and the people”: Johnston, “Fosse Discusses Creation of ‘Pippin.’”

  [>] “It made me nervous”: Candy Brown, interview with the author, January 7, 2011.

  [>] “I think it’s fair to say”: Pam Sousa, interview with the author, January 11, 2011.

  [>] “I was never attracted to him” and following: Jennifer Nairn-Smith, interview with the author, January 7, 2011.

  [>] “There was always one person”: Candy Brown, interview with the author, January 7, 2011.

  [>] “She would be in tears, sobbing”: John Rubinstein, interview with the author, September 30, 2010.

  [>] “He was a director”: Jennifer Nairn-Smith, interview with the author, January 7, 2011.

  [>] he threatened to kill him: Ibid.

  [>] “I was working in the theater and”: Maxine Glorsky, interview with the author, September 7, 2010.

  [>] “Bob protected me from”: Jennifer Nairn-Smith, interview with the author, January 7, 2011.

  [>] “Jennifer and Ann came in one day”: Candy Brown, interview with the author, January 7, 2011.

  [>] “There were lots of poppers backstage”: Name withheld, interview with the author, September 10, 2010.

  [>] “Someone dropped a lude”: Cheryl Clark, interview with the author, April 19, 2011.

  [>] “I talked so much on the phone” and following: Ann Reinking, interview with the author, November 15, 2010.

  [>] “I know enough about emotions”: Chase, “Fosse, from Tony to Oscar to Emmy.”

  [>] “When Bob finally told us”: Kathryn Doby, interview with the author, November 27, 2010.

  [>] “We didn’t realize that”: Gene Foote, In the Company of Friends: Dancers Talking to Dancers III, the Men of Fosse, videotaped at the New Dance Group, New York, on December 9, 2007.

  [>] “Bob would remind us”: Candy Brown, interview with the author, January 7, 2011.

  [>] “Some people came up”: Ken Urmston, interview with the author, May 12, 2011.

  [>] “The audience is expecting me”: John Rubinstein, interview with the author, September 30, 2010.

  [>] “I used to be more involved in patterns”: Johnston, “Fosse Discusses Creation of ‘Pippin.’”

  [>] “We did not work with each other”: Foote, In the Company of Friends.

  [>] “Jolson’s, Martha Graham’s”: Walter Kerr, “It’s a Lovely Way to Do a Show,” New York Times, October 29, 1972.

  [>] “I don’t hesitate to lift from”: Johnston, “Fosse Discusses Creation of ‘Pippin.’”

  [>] “The follow spots for Fosse”: Maxine Glorsky, interview with the author, September 7, 2010.

  [>] “I kept telling him he was a good person”: Ann Reinking, interview with the author, November 15, 2010.

  [>] “We now get to New York”: John Rubinstein, interview with the author, September 30, 2010.

  [>] “Candy, Candy, Candy”: Candy Brown, interview with the author, January 7, 2011.

  [>] John Rubinstein felt the audience recoil: John Rubinstein, interview with the author, September 30, 2010.

  [>] “Part of the problem”: Stephen Schwartz, interview with the author, January 29, 2011.

  [>] “The statement of [Pippin]”: Johnston, “Fosse Discusses Creation of ‘Pippin.’”

  [>] “He never seems to enjoy achieving”: Bernard Drew, “Life as a Long Rehearsal,” American Film, November 1979.

  [>] “There’s something deflating in that”: Kerr, “It’s a Lovely Way to Do a Show.”

  [>] flew to Vegas to see Liza: Wayne Warga, “Bob Fosse: Triple Threat Director,” Los Angeles Times, January 21, 1973.

  [>] “I never use my name to get tickets”: Robert Wahls, “Bob Who? Bob Fosse!,” New York Sunday News, November 26, 1972.

  [>] “Don’t worry about it, pal”: Warga, “Bob Fosse: Triple Threat Director.”

  [>] Fosse brooded on the offer: Bob Fosse letter to Stanley Donen, March 29, 1972, LOC, box 47A.

  [>] “You can even wear a bowler”: Gottfried, All His Jazz, 267.

  [>] “Nicole was crazy about that book”: Gwen Verdon interview, Dance in America, WNET archives, September 6, 1989.

  [>] “One sting”: Janice Lynde, interview with the author, May 4, 2011.

  [>] Fosse bought his Snake costume: Bob Fosse to Stanley Donen, March 29, 1972, LOC, box 47A.

  [>] Dazzled, Herb Gardner thought: Herb Gardner, Bob Fosse Memorial, Palace Theater, October 30, 1987, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Theatre on Film and Tape Archive.

  [>] Meeting him was Ilse: Gottfried, All His Jazz, 269.

  [>] Strolling the Madeira coastline: Ibid.

  [>] he felt he owed her: Tony Stevens, interview with the author, February 8, 2011.

  [>] Abend had to hire a private detective: Louise Kiernan, “Murder She Wrote,” Chicago Tribune, July 16, 1997.

  [>] now writing Hallmark cards for a living: Andy Seiler, “Pssstttt! ‘Chicago’ Has a Secret Past,” USA Today, March 24, 2003.

  [>] Columbia concluded that grim material and following: Julian Barry, interview with the author, September 6, 2010.

  [>] “I want to go out and find where we’re shooting” and following: Patricia Ferrier Kiley, interview with the author, March 4, 2011.

  [>] “They told us to bring resort wear”: Janice Lynde, interview with the author, May 4, 2011.

  [>] On the morning of February 13: Bob Fosse, interview with Stephen Harvey, 1983, LOC, box 60F.

  [>] “We knew what that meant”: Emanuel Wolf, interview with the author, March 17, 2012.

  [>] “When we left Africa, we came back” and following: Janice Lynde, interview with the author, May 4, 2011.

  [>] “a harmless preoccupied guy”: “Wally Cox, TV Mr. Peepers, Dies at 48,” New York Times, February 16, 1973.

  [>] “They were roommates at one time” and following: Janice Lynde, interview with the author, May 4, 2011.

  [>] “When you sat in the room” and following: Julian Barry, interview with the author, September 6, 2010.

  [>] “They were diet pills”: David Freeman, interview with the author, April 12, 2013.

  [>] “He was not the sort of guy”: Drew Leder, interview with the author, November 18, 2012.

  [>] his secretary, Vicki Stein, did the lion’s share and following: Julian Barry, interview with the author, September 6, 2010.

  [>] “He was a master watcher”: Christine Colby, interview with the author, March 20, 2011.

  [>] “He had a way of—how shall I”: Richard Korthaze, interview with the author, March 24, 2011.

  [>] “You’d be talking to Bob”: Alan Heim, interview with the author, July 22, 2010.

  [>] “The way you’re bounding ahead”: Sherri Kandell, interview with the author, July 8, 2012.

  [>] “I was just blown away”: Ibid.

  [>] “Lenny Bruce would push people’s buttons”: “Bob Fosse: Steam Heat,” Great Performances: Dance in America.

  [>] “He could get so mean about it”: Jane Aurthur, interview with the author, September 9, 2010.

  [>] “He’d love to set up some kind”: Arlene Donovan, interview with the author, January 10, 2011.
/>
  [>] “What I really want to do is find”: Lionel Chetwynd, “Except for Bob Fosse,” Penthouse, January 1974.

  [>] “You know, Julian” and following: Julian Barry, interview with the author, September 6, 2010.

  [>] he knew the more good press he got: Tony Stevens, interview with the author, February 8, 2011.

  [>] “I confess I thought I had a shot”: Tony Awards, videotaped by the ABC Television Network at the Imperial, New York, March 25, 1973.

  [>] he flew to the Beverly Hills Hotel: Janice Lynde, interview with the author, May 4, 2011.

  [>] “He was really, really nervous then”: Ibid.

  [>] Shoring himself up with booze and tranquilizers: Chase, “Fosse, from Tony to Oscar to Emmy.”

  [>] In the limo to the ceremony, Fosse repeated: Janice Lynde, interview with the author, May 4, 2011.

  [>] Janice decided to say nothing: Ibid.

  [>] “He was very still”: Emanuel Wolf, interview with the author, March 17, 2012.

  [>] Janice was not with him: Janice Lynde, interview with the author, May 4, 2011.

  [>] “My legs were like cooked spaghetti”: Jan Hodenfield, “Bob Fosse Feet First,” New York Post, April 21, 1973.

  [>] “Hi, Dad”: Chase, “Fosse, from Tony to Oscar to Emmy.”

  [>] They convened in Fosse’s suite and opened: Janice Lynde, interview with the author, May 4, 2011.

  [>] “I’ll walk you one more block,” he had said: Herb Gardner, Bob Fosse Memorial, Palace Theater, October 30, 1987, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Theatre on Film and Tape Archive.

  [>] “Would you do anything to win one?”: Janice Lynde, interview with the author, May 4, 2011.

  [>] “His pain was extreme”: Ibid.

  [>] “He was afraid he would not be able”: Ibid.

  [>] “There’s this Looney Tunes cartoon”: Ann Reinking, interview with the author, November 15, 2010.

  FOURTEEN YEARS

  [>] He was no longer interested in therapy: Ann Reinking, interview with the author, November 15, 2010.

  [>] Since getting off Seconal: Bob Fosse, interview with Dick Stelzer, Star Treatment, LOC, box 47C, folder 1.

  [>] Someone, Fosse used to say, must have scared: Bernard Drew, “Life as a Long Rehearsal,” American Film, November 1979.

  [>] That boy, Dr. Sager told him, was: All That Jazz, Clifford Sager interview transcripts, LOC, box 1A.

  [>] Fosse thought both: “Odd Ideas” notebook, LOC, box 53B.

  [>] He lasted only a few days: Ann Reinking, interview with the author, November 15, 2010.

  [>] Fosse hated the lithium: Ibid.

  [>] “I knew it was time to check out”: Ibid.

  [>] was concerned their hero was losing: Bob Fosse/Marvin Worth correspondence, May 8, 1973, LOC, box 20B.

  [>] a scene Fosse and Barry had completely invented: Ibid.

  [>] Worth said all the chronological: Ibid.

  [>] “We’d be talking about the form”: John Kander, interview with the author, November 10, 2010.

  [>] “I was malleable”: John Kander and Fred Ebb as told to Greg Lawrence, Colored Lights: Forty Years of Words and Music, Show Biz, Collaboration, and All That Jazz (New York: Faber and Faber, 2003), 126.

  [>] “He would say, ‘Oh, this is’”: Ibid.

  [>] “He’s an arrogant son of a bitch”: Ibid., 127.

  [>] Experts believed TV audiences were uninterested in: http://www.playbill.com/news/article/153521-Jeffrey-Ash-Broadway-Ad-Man-and-Producer-Dies-at-65-Stuart Ostrow.

  [>] “This cameraman was just shooting us”: Pam Sousa, interview with the author, January 11, 2011.

  [>] Therein lay the beauty of United Artists: A witty, concise rendering of the history of United Artists can be found in Steven Bach, Final Cut: Dreams and Disaster in the Making of Heaven’s Gate (New York: Morrow, 1985).

  [>] “to protect the great motion picture public”: Ibid., 36.

  [>] “The thing about UA was we didn’t”: David Picker, interview with the author, October 7, 2010.

  [>] “I’d do anything to make it possible”: Ibid.

  [>] “I want you to play Lenny”: Dustin Hoffman, interview with the author, September 13, 2012.

  [>] “It was not the right way to”: Ibid.

  [>] He tried Raquel Welch: Raquel Welch, interview with the author, May 9, 2012.

  [>] He considered his sometime girlfriend Joey Heatherton: Robert Greenhut, interview with the author, August 31, 2010.

  [>] Her mother had been a showgirl: Judy Klemesrud, “Valerie Perrine, or, The Return of the Hollywood Sex Kitten,” New York Times, December 1, 1974.

  [>] “That was”: Valerie Perrine, interview with the author, February 26, 2011.

  [>] “We read two hundred and fifty actresses”: David Picker, interview with the author, October 7, 2010.

  [>] “I’m Leonard Albert Schneider” and following: Valerie Perrine, interview with the author, February 26, 2011.

  [>] Fosse respectfully rented his own: Martin Gottfried, All His Jazz (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 1998; first published by Bantam in 1990), 300. Citations refer to the Da Capo edition.

  [>] “I remember how Gwen suffered”: John Rubinstein, interview with the author, September 30, 2010.

  [>] “He suddenly allowed a lot of”: Gottfried, All His Jazz, 284.

  [>] a short distance from the sand was a white cypress: Jay Sears, interview with the author, February 16, 2012.

  [>] lobster especially, and Chinese spare ribs: Ann Reinking, interview with the author, November 15, 2010.

  [>] “I would have made a terrific waiter”: Linda Winer, “Shade of Bob Fosse Raised by ‘Chicago,’” Newsday, November 22, 1996.

  [>] Brahms, Chopin, or: Richard Natale, “Dining with Bob Fosse,” Viva, 1973.

  [>] Too much scotch could take Fosse down: Ann Reinking, interview with the author, November 15, 2010.

  [>] “I love big parties”: Natale, “Dining with Bob Fosse.”

  [>] “Most nondancers don’t understand”: Fred Mann III, interview with the author, February 22, 2011.

  [>] began after Ann’s last matinee and following: Ann Reinking, interview with the author, November 15, 2010.

  [>] “We were just reading scenes” and following: Julian Barry, interview with the author, September 6, 2010.

  [>] the more he came to believe that Lenny’s layers and following: Dustin Hoffman, interview with the author, September 13, 2012.

  [>] “Bob insisted that no extra could”: David Picker, interview with the author, October 7, 2010.

  [>] as Fosse had promised Hoffman they would: Dustin Hoffman, interview with the author, September 13, 2012.

  [>] “We got a problem” and following: David Picker, interview with the author, October 7, 2010.

  [>] “what’s your shlong doing on that ashtray?”: Dustin Hoffman, interview with the author, September 13, 2012.

  [>] “You’re ugly! What are you doing here?”: Ibid.

  [>] “It was vicious”: Ibid.

  [>] “Bob, it’s not working”: Ibid.

  [>] “Dustin felt I was restricting him”: Kenneth L. Geist, “Fosse Reflects on Fosse,” After Dark, February 1980.

  [>] “Nobody talks like this, Bob”: Dustin Hoffman, interview with the author, September 13, 2012.

  [>] he liked what the speed and exhaustion: Bruce Surtees, interview with the author, March 28, 2011.

  [>] “All Dustin wants to do is talk!”: Ibid.

  [>] “Someone tell Fosse I’m not a machine!”: Dustin Hoffman, interview with the author, September 13, 2012.

  [>] “[Fosse] wanted to be Lenny”: Ibid.

  [>] “There are not a lot of movie directors”: David Picker, interview with the author, October 7, 2010.

  [>] “We can know what this means”: Robert Greenhut, interview with the author, August 31, 2010.

  [>] “It was ballsy”: Bruce Surtees, interview with the author, March 28, 2011.

  [>] “I want this to be
like”: Ibid.

  [>] “We would just run the whole magazine”: Robert Greenhut, interview with the author, August 31, 2010.

  [>] They shot the final monologue twice: David Picker, interview with the author, October 7, 2010.

  [>] “You’re worse than your father” and following: Robert Greenhut, interview with the author, August 31, 2010.

  [>] “Why are you doing this?”: Neil Machlis, interview with the author, September 1, 2010.

  [>] “Who would ever dream of”: Ibid.

  [>] Greenhut’s phone rang. “Hello?”: Robert Greenhut, interview with the author, August 31, 2010.

  [>] “I had complete trust in Bobby”: Valerie Perrine, interview with the author, February 26, 2011.

  [>] An acting robot: Ibid.

  [>] “He spent more time rehearsing”: Larry Mark, interview with the author, September 17, 2010.

  [>] “Hi, Bobby” and following: Valerie Perrine, interview with the author, February 26, 2011.

  [>] “It wasn’t sexual”: Dustin Hoffman, interview with the author, September 13, 2012.

  [>] “Bobby, I can’t do it”: Valerie Perrine, interview with the author, February 26, 2011.

  [>] “That’s why he got to know you”: Ibid.

  [>] “I’m embarrassed by that story”: Bob Fosse interview, Midday, CBC-TV Canada, July 7, 1987.

  [>] told Perrine to think of her Great Dane: Valerie Perrine, interview with the author, February 26, 2011.

  [>] “In the beginning, we were going”: Neil Machlis, interview with the author, September 1, 2010.

  [>] “We were burning film”: Robert Greenhut, interview with the author, August 31, 2010.

  [>] “The guy is overrated and he knows it”: Tim Cahill, “Dirty Lenny on the Silver Screen,” Rolling Stone, December 5, 1974.

  [>] “There came a point late in the shoot”: Bruce Surtees, interview with the author, March 28, 2011.

  [>] The cinematographer gave Larry Mark a coconut: Larry Mark, interview with the author, September 17, 2010.

  [>] “It was like [Fosse] was trying to get even”: Dustin Hoffman, interview with the author, September 13, 2012.

  [>] “Fosse showed no remorse”: Bruce Surtees, interview with the author, March 28, 2011.

  [>] “Because there was no money”: Albert Wolsky, interview with the author, August 11, 2010.