by Marion Meade
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Woody Allen (Harry Block), Judy Davis, Kirstie Alley, Billy Crystal, Hazelle Goodman, Demi Moore, Elizabeth Shue, Robin Williams, Mariel Hemingway, Richard Benjamin, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Eric Bogosian, Bob Balaban, Julie Kavner, Amy Irving, Stanley Tucci
Wild Man Blues (documentary) (Jean Doumanian/Sweetland/Fine Line Features, 1998)
Director: Barbara Kopple
Woody Allen, Soon-Yi Previn, Letty Aronson, Eddy Davis, and others as themselves
Antz (DreamWorks, 1998)
Directors: Eric Darnell and Tim Johnson
Screenplay: Todd Alcott, Chris Weitz, and Paul Weitz
Woody Allen (Z), Sharon Stone, Dan Aykroyd, Danny Glover, Jane Curtin, Ann Bancroft, Gene Hackman, Jennifer Lopez, Sylvester Stallone, Christopher Walken, John Mahoney
The Imposters (Fox Searchlight, 1998)
Writer-director: Stanley Tucci
Woody Allen (theater director, uncredited), Oliver Platt, Stanley Tucci, Lili Taylor
Celebrity (Sweetland/Miramax, 1998)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Kenneth Branagh, Judy Davis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Melanie Griffith, Joe Mantegna, Winona Ryder, Gretchen Mol, Charlize Theron, Bebe Neuwirth
Sweet and Lowdown (Sweetland/Sony Pictures Classics, 1999)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Sean Penn.UmaThurman
Picking Up the Pieces (1999)
Director: Alfonso Arau
Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Cheech Marin, Fran Drescher, David Schwimmer
Small Time Crooks (DreamWorks/Sweetland 2000)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Woody Allen, Jon Lovitz, Tracey Ullman, Hugh Grant
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (DreamWorks 2001)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Woody Allen, Helen Hunt, Dan Aykroyd, Charlize Theron
Hollywood Ending (DreamWorks 2002)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Woody Allen, George Hamilton, Tea Leoni
Anything Else (DreamWorks 2003)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Woody Allen, Danny DeVito, Stockard Channing, Jimmy Fallon
Melinda and Melinda (Fox Searchlight 2004)
Writer-Director: Woody Allen
Will Ferrell, Amanda Peet, Josh Brolin, Steve Carell
Match Point (DreamWorks 2005)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Emily Mortimer, Scarlett Johansson
Scoop (BBC Films/ Focus Features 2006)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Woody Allen, Scarlett Johansson, Hugh Jackman, Ian McShane
Cassandra’s Dream (Weinstein 2007)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Colin Farrell, Ewan McGregor
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Weinstein/Mediapro/MGM 2008)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Javier Bardem, Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz, Patricia Clarkson, Rebecca Hall
Whatever Works (Sony Pictures Classics 2009)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson, Ed Begley Jr.
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (Sony Pictures Classics 2010)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Lucy Punch, Naomi Watts, Gemma Jones
Midnight in Paris (Mediapro 2011)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Owen Wilson, Marion Cotillard, Rachel McAdams
Stage Plays
From A to Z (opened April 20, 1960, Plymouth Theater, New York)
Director: Christopher Hewett
Musical revue including two Woody Allen sketches, "Hit Parade" and "Psychological Warfare"
Cast: Hermione Gingold and other
Performances: 21
Don't Drink the Water (opened November 17, 1966, Morosco Theater, New York)
Director: Stanley Prager
Cast: Lou Jacobi, Key Medford, Anita Gillette, Tony Roberts
Performances: 598
Play It Again, Sam (opened February 12, 1969, Broadhurst Theater, New York)
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Jerry Lacy, Tony Roberts
Performances: 453
(opened September 11, 1969, Globe Theatre, London)
Director: Joseph Hardy
Cast: Dudley Moore, Patricia Brake, Bill Kerr
Performances: 355
The Floating Light Bulb (opened April 27, 1981, Vivian Beaumont Theater,
New York)
Director: Ulu Grosbard
Cast: Brian Backer, Beatrice Arthur, Danny Aiello, Jack Weston
Performances: 65
(opened May 17, 1990, Nuffield Theatre, Southampton, England)
Director: Patrick Sandford
Cast: Gian Sammarco, Paul Russell, Sylvia Syms, Sam Douglas, Lee Montagu
Performances: 25
Central Park West (opened March 6, 1995, Variety Arts Theater, New York)
Death Defying Acts was a trio of one-act plays: Hotline by Elaine May, An Interview by David Mamet, and Woody's Central Park West
Director: Michael Blakemore
Cast: Linda Lavin, Debra Monk, Gerry Becker,Paul Guilfoyle, and Tari T. Signor Performances: 343
Writer’s Block (opened May 15, 2003, Atlantic Theatre Co.) includes Riverside
Drive and Old Saybrook
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Paul Reiser, Kate Blumberg, Skip Sudduth
A Second Hand Memory (opened November 22, 2004, Atlantic Theatre Co.)
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Kate Blumberg, Michael McKean
Record Albums
Woody Allen's stand-up routines were recorded on three albums:
Woody Allen (Colpix, 1964)
Woody Allen, Volume 2 (Colpix, 1965)
The Third Woody Allen Album (Capitol, 1968)
Previously recorded material later appeared on two compilation albums:
Woody Allen: The Night Club Years, 1964-1968 (United Artists, 1976)
Woody Allen Standup Comic, 1964-1968 (Casablanca Records, 1978)
At present, the routines are available on a CD:
Woody Allen, The Nightclub Years 1964-68 (EMI, 1990)
Published Plays and Screenplays
Don't Drink the Water (Random House, 1967)
Play It Again, Sam (Samuel French, 1969)
Woody Allen's Play It Again, Sam (Grosset & Dunlap, 1972)
Four Films of Woody Allen, including Annie Hall (cowritten with Marshall Brickman), Interiors, Manhattan (cowritten with Marshall Brickman), and Stardust Memories (Random House, 1982)
The Floating Light Bulb (Random House, 1982)
Hannah and Her Sisters (Random House, 1987)
Three Films of Woody Allen, including Zelig, Broadway Danny Rose, and The Purple Rose of Cairo (Vintage Books, 1987)
Three One-Act Plays, including Riverside Drive, Old Saybrook, Central Park West (Random House 2004)
Death Defying Acts, including Central Park West (Allen), An Interview (David Mamet),
and Hotline (Elaine May) (Samuel French, 2010)
Books
Getting Even (Random House, 1971; Vintage Books, 1978)
Without Feathers (Random House, 1975; Warner Books, 1976)
Side Effects (Random House, 1975; Ballantine Books, 1981)
The Illustrated Woody Allen Reader, Linda Sunshine, ed. (Knopf, 1993)
The Insanity Defense: The Complete Prose (Random House, 2007 )
NOTES
This book was written without the cooperation of Woody Allen. Scores of individuals who have known him throughout his life agreed to be interviewed. But such is the influence of the subject—and the controversy that has surrounded him—that other informed sources hesitated to talk candidly about his virtues and failings. Those people who preferred to speak off the record are designated as "confidential sources."
> In addition to my own interviews, both on and off the record, the book is also based on a voluminous collection of previous published interviews given by Woody Allen over a period of thirty-six years.
Court transcripts from the Allen v. Farrow custody hearing are sealed, as is customary when minor children are involved. Therefore, I have had to rely on contemporary reports that were previously published in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, New York Post, New York News-day, and New York Daily News, as well as Kristi Groteke's memoir, Mia and Woody: Love and Betrayal. Quotations from the trial testimony are identified in the notes as "Allen v. Farrow, court testimony."
Some figures have been adjusted for inflation. Calculations of current dollars are based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index 1913-1998.
PREFACE: Grapes of Wrath
"so I don't get depressed": Newsweek, 7/20/98.
"It took me": Mia Farrow, What Falls Away, Doubleday, 1997, p. 274.
"I found the pictures!": Ibid.
"Totally traumatized": 20/20, 2/7/97.
"She always looked": Confidential source.
"Woody's been fucking": Farrow, What Falls Away, p. 274.
"Twenty minutes after": Confidential source.
"lay back": Allen v. Farrow, court testimony.
"graphic, erotic pictures": Newsweek, 8/31/ 92.
"a tepid litde affair": Farrow, What Falls Away, p. 275.
"a meltdown of my very core": Ibid., p. 285.
"beside herself': Allen v. Farrow, court testimony.
"chatting with": Ibid.
"I must think": Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask), unpublished screenplay.
"A thousand grilled cheese": Bananas, unpublished screenplay.
"we're just good friends": New York Times, 6/20/75.
"Woody Allen, c'est mot":New York Times, 1/7/73.
"where he's coming": Richard Schickel, Schickel on Film, William Morrow, 1989, p. 271.
"To you I'm an atheist": Woody Allen, Four Films of Woody Allen (Annie Hall, Interiors, Manhattan and Stardust Memories), Random House, 1982, p. 334.
"What is that your business?!" Ibid., p. 5.
"one of the good guys": Walter Bernstein interview with MM.
"the most original": New York magazine, 4/25/88.
CHAPTER 1: God and Carpeting
"Chapter One": Allen, Four Films of Woody Allen, p. 181.
"something wonderful": Gentleman's Quarterly, 2/86.
"She gets up": The Realist, 4/65.
"high-stepper": Eric Lax, Woody Allen: A Biography, Knopf, 1991, p. 13.
"they came from": Jack Victor interview with MM.
"My mother": Playboy, 5/67.
"The depressing thing": "Mechanical Objects," Monologue (Capitol, 1968).
"there all the time": The New Yorker, 12/9/96.
"His one regret": Woody Allen, Getting Even, Random House, 1971, jacket.
"His mother": Jack Freed interview with MM.
"Did you hit": Lax, Woody Allen, p. 18.
"Mia's mother": Chicago Tribune, 1/26/86.
"I remember": Lax, Woody Allen, p. 18.
CHAPTER 2: The Purple Rose of Midwood
"My God": Woody Allen, Three Films of Woody Allen, Vintage Books, 1987, p. 351.
"a total, total joy": Stig Bjorkman, Woody Allen on Woody Allen, Grove Press, 1993, p.149.
"into the ugly light": Lax, Woody Allen, p. 27.
"cousins and uncles": New York Post, 12/22/63.
The house still stands. The current owners of 1144 East Fifteenth Street, Esther and Levi Kramer, purchased the house in 1993 and are aware of living in Woody Allen's boyhood home. During Woody's last year of high school, the Konigsbergs moved to the corner of Fifteenth and K, into the Ethan Allen apartments with Nettie's parents, and Woody slept on an army cot. According to a resident on Woody's old block, the Ethan Allen has become "the scourge of the neighborhood," a run-down building known for its drug users and welfare families.
"One day": Jack Freed interview.
"He was a wild kid": Doris Freed Shaffer interview with MM.
"But lots of kids": Jack Freed interview.
"real prose": Newsweek, 4/28/78.
"nothing of value": New York World Journal Tribune, 3/18/66.
"My parents didn't get divorced": Woody Allen, Play It Again, Sam, Samuel French, 1969, p. 35.
"They were the oddest": Jack Victor interview.
“When we came home": Jack Freed interview.
"Marty was": Elliott Mills interview with MM.
"I wish you were": Jack Victor interview.
"was always doing": New York Sunday News, 6/11/67.
"He's never let": Chicago Tribune, 1/26/86.
"I'm going to cut": Jack Victor interview.
"Don't waste time!": Chicago Sun-Times, 12/19/90.
"Prussian discipline": Ralph Rosenblum and Robert Karen, When the Shooting Stops...the Cutting Begins, DaCapo, 1979, p. 241.
"His mother was extremely naggy": Jack Victor interview.
"He was small": Elliott Mills interview.
"to meander": New York Times Book Review, 12/2/84.
"I'd eat in the cellar": Newsweek, 4/24/78.
"pessimistic, depressed": University Review, 11/72.
"I have memories": New York Times, 1/19/86.
"there wasn't an enemy": Cosmopolitan, 9/74.
"not a day": Chicago Sun-Times, 2/2/86.
"seductive": Chicago Sun-Times, 12/19/90.
"everything dissatisfied me": New York Times, 11/3/63.
"very depressed": Jack Victor interview.
"he was full": Elliott Mills interview.
"It was just something": New York Times, 1/19/86.
"It was a golden age": Elliott Mills interview.
"exchange of intimate": Jack Victor interview.
"I'd come home": Jazz Times, 9/96.
"Sidney Bechet live": Ibid.
"born with the real": Ibid.
"nor did I care": New York Times Book Review, 9/18/88.
"drove me crazy": Jack Victor interview.
"Roses are red": New York Times, 11/29/98.
"was the kind of school": Alan Lapidus interview with MM.
"He was bright": Gladys Bernstein interview with MM.
"emotionally disturbed": New York Sunday News, 2/2/64.
"getting up": New York magazine, 10/17/94.
"He appeared": Jack Victor interview.
"This typewriter": Chicago Sun-Times, 10/8/89.
"It was an ongoing": Elliott Mills interview.
"Enclosed are": Lax, Woody Allen, p. 68.
"Woody Allen figured": New York Post, 11 /25/52.
"Knowing a sucker": New York Post, 8/12/72.
"It's the fallen women": Reprinted Ibid.
"in a column": Newsweek, 4/24/78.
"carrot-topped senior": Midwood Argus, 2/27/53, quoted in Gerald McKnight, Woody Allen: Joking Aside, London: W H. Allen, 1983, p. 41.
"When Bryna Goldstein": Alan Lapidus interview.
"There were dozens": Eddie Jaffe interview with MM.
"my life began": Rolling Stone, 4/9/87.
"I would get on": Paris Review, Fall 1995.
"a terrible, terrible": "Final Cut" on CBS Eye on People, 12/97.
"Don't get off": Rolling Stone, 4/9/87.
"couldn't care less": Ibid.
"all strange": Eric Lax, On Being Funny, Woody Allen and Comedy, Charterhouse, 1975, p. 41.
"I was given": Playboy, 6/67.
"like getting paid": "Final Cut" on CBS Eye on People, 12/97.
"I don't know what": Time Out New York, 12/4-12/11, 1997.
CHAPTER 3: Stand-Up
"as romantic": Jack Victor interview.
"In those days": Jimmy Moore interview with MM.
"a continual awareness": New York Times, 9/22/67.
"He was a very timid": Buddy Hackett interview with MM.
"we'd be standing": Pat Boone interv
iew with MM.
"a playpen": Larry Gelbert quoted in transcript of Museum of Broadcasting seminar, 10/2/84.
"that rotten little kid": Abe Burrows, Honest Abe, Little Brown, 1980, p. 347.
"never communicated anything": Mel Brooks interview with MM.
"People joked": Mary Rodgers interview with MM.
"confident of what": Jane and Gordon Connell interview with MM.
"George S. Kaufmanesque": Martha LoMonaco interview with MM.
"always had a cold": Mary Rodgers interview.
"Hansel and Gretel": Jane Connell interview.
"All you do": Phil Berger, The Last Laugh, Ballantine Books, 1975, p. 110.
"didn't show her feelings": McKnight, Woody Allen, p. 66.
"a blind alley": Larry Wilde, The Great Comedians Talk About Comedy, Citadel Press, 1968, p. 17.
"to earn a living": Ibid.
"making me sick": Tim Carroll, Woody and His Women, Little Brown, 1993, p. 88.
"There have been very few": Media and Methods, 12/77.
"a child doing show-and tell": The New Yorker, 12/9/96.
"It was unspeakably": Seventeen, 5/66.
"We smelled": Cosmopolitan, 9/74.
"zero": Berger, The Last Laugh, p. 109.
"a Godforsaken": New York Times Magazine, 11/3/63.
"he was going to choke": Berger, The Last Laugh, p. 109.
"stoically go through": Ibid.
"dogs with high-pitched ears": Time, 7/3/72.
"He got sick": Elliott Mills interview.
"known something": Carroll, Woody and His Women, p. 104.
"that was the nice thing": Ibid., p. 105.
"Whenever I got off": Newsweek, 5/3/76.