He thought it was best to forget: RR interview by Tony Thomas.
“I get a very peculiar feeling”: Secrest, Somewhere for Me, p. 283.
In early 1957, Moss Hart: Ibid., p. 336.
“I began sleeping late”: Richard Rodgers, Musical Stages, p. 293.
“He had ground to an absolute halt”: Secrest, Somewhere for Me, p. 337.
“I voluntarily separated myself”: Richard Rodgers, Musical Stages, p. 294.
In the mid-1950s, Payne Whitney: New York Times, “Letting Go of Payne Whitney” (Letter to Editor of Times Magazine), December 4, 1994.
“After a self-imposed exile”: Richard Rodgers, Musical Stages, p. 294.
“You’ve piled mountaintop on mountaintop”: Edna Ferber to RR, August 11, 1957, RR NYPL.
Moss Hart, himself a survivor: Moss Hart to RR, August 23, 1957, RR NYPL.
The most astute analysis: Clifton Fadiman to RR, undated, RR NYPL.
Rodgers wrote back: RR to Fadiman, October 10, 1957, RR NYPL.
“did not sound good at all”: OHII to Logan, February 27, 1957, Box 4 of 9, OHII LOC.
Logan’s first choice: Joshua Logan, Movie Stars, Real People, and Me (New York: Delacorte Press, 1978), p. 118.
“Mary and Dick are cool to us”: OHII to RR, summer of 1957, undated, Box 3, OHII LOC.
Halliday was even colder: Mitzi Gaynor interview with author.
But from the beginning, Logan made a fatal mistake: Logan, Movie Stars, p. 124.
“This could be wonderful”: OHII to Logan, Box 24, JLL LOC.
“Because,” Darby explained: Ken Darby to RR, February 22, 1976, RR NYPL.
When the film opened: Green, Fact Book, pp. 576–77.
In later years, Rodgers would say: RR OH, Columbia, p. 304.
The film would make more money: Logan, Movie Stars, p. 129.
“I went over my personal income figures”: OHII to RR, summer of 1957, Box 3, OHII LOC.
Oscar read the novel and liked it: Fordin, Getting to Know Him, p. 337.
“We have some score finished”: RR to Arthur Hornblow, April 8, 1958, Hornblow papers, AMPAS.
“slight but adequate voice”: Richard Rodgers, Musical Stages, p. 295.
Years later, Kelly himself: Kelly OH, SMU.
In mid-September, Dick wrote: Secrest, Somewhere for Me, p. 342.
“Think of the fun we’re having”: Nolan, The Sound of Their Music, p. 242.
Rodgers’s progress reports to Dorothy: Secrest, Somewhere for Me, p. 343.
“Dick was always fast”: Nolan, The Sound of Their Music, p. 242.
“Ta Doesn’t Quite Make Up His Mind”: Dan Dietz. The Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014), p. 331.
Critical reception was decidedly mixed: Green, Fact Book, p. 623.
But Kenneth Tynan: Ibid., p. 625.
“My only thought was to keep on”: Richard Rodgers, Musical Stages, p. 296.
10: AUF WIEDERSEHEN
“They came back,” Rodgers would recall: Richard Rodgers, Musical Stages, p. 299.
Maria was said to have loved the show: Max Wilk, The Making of The Sound of Music (New York: Routledge, 2007), p. 7.
In another account: Ronald L. Davis, Mary Martin: Broadway Legend (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2008), p. 208.
And as a gesture of goodwill: Wilk, The Making of The Sound of Music, p. 9.
“an audience must go away”: Ibid., p. 13.
Now Lindsay and Crouse sketched: Nolan, The Sound of Their Music, p. 246.
“She was bouncy, enthusiastic”: Martin, My Heart Belongs, p. 245.
Sister Gregory’s advice: David Kaufman, Some Enchanted Evenings: The Glittering Life and Times of Mary Martin (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2016), pp. 196–97.
As work on the show progressed: Sister Gregory to Hallidays, http://blogs.loc.gov/music/2013/01/sister-gregory-duffy-an-asset-to-the-abbey-and-the-theater-2.
Robert Emmett Dolan warned: Dolan to OHII, April 2, 1958, OHII LOC.
“As time goes on, Halliday is going”: Timothy Crouse telephone interview with author.
Howard Reinheimer warned them: Reinheimer to R&H, February 6, 1959, Sound of Music Box 1, OHII LOC.
Oscar told his son Jimmy: Fordin, Getting to Know Him, p. 345.
“The four guys loved the material”: Timothy Crouse e-mail to author, September 23, 2016.
“To laugh like a brook”: Asch, Complete Lyrics, p. 395.
By early May, Hammerstein was working: OHII sketches, Sound of Music Box 1, OHII LOC.
“You ask after the relationship”: Rittmann to Lotte Krebs, October 31, 1959; Susanna Drewry to author.
Meantime, Sister Gregory was weighing in: http://blogs.loc.gov/music/2013/01/sister-gregory-duffy-an-asset-to-the-abbey-and-the-theater-2/.
“This makes it a song with a reason”: Mark Horowitz e-mail to author, May 22, 2017.
“Given my lack of familiarity”: Richard Rodgers, Musical Stages, p. 301.
Sister Gregory enthusiastically approved: Gregory to Hallidays, September 24, 1959, http://blogs.loc.gov/music/2013/01/sister-gregory-duffy-an-asset-to-the-abbey-and-the-theater-2/.
But it’s at least possible: de Mille monograph, Rittmann cover letter, R&H office files.
By midsummer, it was Maria von Trapp’s turn: Richard Halliday to R&H et al., July 31, 1959, Sound of Music Green Box, OHII LOC; Sister Gregory to Hallidays, August 4, 1959, http://blogs.loc.gov/music/2013/01/sister-gregory-duffy-an-asset-to-the-abbey-and-the-theater-2/.
From the beginning, the decision had been made: Kaufman, Some Enchanted Evenings, p. 197.
Eventually they saw Theodore Bikel: Bikel OH, SMU.
Bikel was sent to the society hairdresser: Kaufman, Some Enchanted Evenings, p. 199.
Casting the seven children: Ibid.
Martin not only learned how to cross herself: Nolan, The Sound of Their Music, p. 249.
“I think this will be the 46th time”: OHII to Harry Ruby, September 1, 1959, Box 4 of 9, OHII LOC.
On September 16, he went for a checkup: Fordin, Getting to Know Him, p. 350.
“Dear Oscar: We are sixty”: Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse to OHII, September 17, 1959, Sound of Music Box 1, OHII LOC.
“Don’t look at it now”: Fordin, Getting to Know Him, p. 351.
Years later, Mary Martin would recall: Martin, My Heart Belongs, p. 239.
It was also a workout: Davis, Mary Martin, p. 213.
Halliday put a pedometer: Martin, My Heart Belongs, p. 249.
Martin was also receiving steady reassurance: Sister Gregory to Martin, September 17, 1959, http://blogs.loc.gov/music/2013/01/sister-gregory-duffy-an-asset-to-the-abbey-and-the-theater-2/.
The Boston opening was Tuesday: Kaufman, Some Enchanted Evenings, p. 202.
He sat in a box with Dorothy: Wilk, The Making of The Sound of Music, p. 43.
Oscar set to work on the lyrics: OHII sketch, undated, R&H office files.
“I love that Edelweiss”: Secrest, Somewhere for Me, pp. 348–49.
In Boston, Rodgers finally let Halliday have it: Ibid., p. 350.
The New York opening: Wilk, The Making of The Sound of Music, p. 38.
And Kenneth Tynan’s verdict: Green, Fact Book, p. 635.
The Hammersteins attended the opening: Wilk, The Making of The Sound of Music, p. 39.
“As in all your other shared creations”: Max Schuster to R&H, November 28, 1959, RR NYPL.
Taken together, those record sales: Laurence Maslon, The Sound of Music Companion (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007), p. 88.
After all, what movie: Wilk, The Making of The Sound of Music, pp. 54–56.
“God damnit!” he shouted: Kaufman, Some Enchanted Evenings, p. 202.
When a young Jon Voight joined: Jon Voight conversation with author, 2017 Vanity Fair Oscar party.
“How are you going to buck a nun?”: Kellow, Ethel Merman, p. 188.
“It is increasingly apparent that we have something”: RR
to OHII, December 18, 1959, Box 4 of 9, OHII LOC.
Oscar had big ambitions for the casting: OHII, Notes on Allegro TV, Box A, OH LOC.
“I realize that right now”: OHII to RR, April 7, 1960, Box 6 of 9, OHII LOC.
“This is the accepted age of retirement”: Fordin, Getting to Know Him, p. 355.
“Goddamnit!” he burst out: Ibid., pp. 357–58.
One day that summer: Ibid., p. 358.
As late as July: Robert C. Kitchen to OHII, June 21, 1960; OHII reply, July 6, 1960, OHII LOC, Mark Horowitz e-mail to author.
“I understand this perfectly well”: RR to Jerome Whyte, August 15, 1960, R&H office files, copy from Amy Asch copy.
On Oscar’s last office visit: Benjamin Kean condolence letter to DBH, Box 7, OHII LOC.
As the days wore on, Oscar lay: Fordin, Getting to Know Him, p. 359.
“No man can work as long as Oscar did”: Funeral file, OHII LOC.
Condolence letters flooded in: Letters from Hart, Ferber, and de Mille, X Box 7, OHII LOC.
“The guy is falling apart”: Secrest, Somewhere for Me, p. 355.
Mutual friends confided: Edwin H. Knopf to RR, September 3 1960, RR NYPL.
With uncanny acuity, Sister Gregory: Sister Gregory to RR, August 24, 1960, RR NYPL.
Indeed, Dick’s letters: RR to S. N. Behrman, September 6, 1960, RR NYPL.
“I suppose patience is a lesson”: RR to Jan Clayton, September 6, 1960, RR NYPL.
“I am permanently grieved”: Nolan, The Sound of Their Music, p. 266.
11: WALKING ALONE
“It was all very placid”: Fordin, Getting to Know Him, pp. 343–45.
“I don’t think we need a psychologist”: RR to Edna Ferber, September 6, 1960, RR NYPL.
“Under the circumstances”: Richard Rodgers, Musical Stages, p. 306.
“She would not represent a cause”: Ibid., p. 307.
That was a debatable proposition: Diahann Carroll, Diahann: An Autobiography (Boston: Little, Brown, 1986), p. 114.
Rodgers’s own take: Richard Rodgers, Musical Stages, p. 308.
“Thurgood Marshall is wildly enthusiastic”: RR to Daniel Melnick, October 9, 1961, RR NYPL.
“It only confirmed that he accomplished”: Carroll, Diahann, p. 113.
“It was just an obvious thing to do”: Maslon, The Sound of Music Companion, p. 89.
“No musical with swastikas”: Wilk, The Making of The Sound of Music, p. 61.
“The characters were more clearly defined”: Saul Chaplin, The Golden Age of Movie Musicals and Me (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994), p. 209.
Chaplin agreed to try: Ibid., p. 218.
“Suddenly everything made sense”: Julie Andrews e-mail to author, 2017.
“‘That’s our girl’”: Maslon, The Sound of Music Companion, p. 92.
“Everyone on the film was unified”: Andrews e-mail to author.
At first, Sondheim would remember: Secrest, Stephen Sondheim, p. 175.
“The more we worked on the show”: Richard Rodgers, Musical Stages, pp. 318–19.
“Someday, when we see each other again”: RR to Sister Gregory, April 30, 1965, RR NYPL.
he had warm words: RR to Dave Brubeck, January 24, 1966, RR NYPL.
In a similar letter: RR to Burt Bacharach, April 14, 1970, RR NYPL.
“I simply went back”: Richard Rodgers, Musical Stages, p. 321.
“which meant we were not only working with him”: Nolan, The Sound of Their Music, p. 281.
“If you wanted to talk to the composer”: Ibid., p. 282.
“I’m glad you’re here”: Richard Rodgers, Musical Stages, p. 323.
“This is a unique talent”: RR to Stephen Sondheim, June 3, 1970, RR NYPL.
Rodgers complained to Liza Minnelli: Secrest, Somewhere for Me, p. 388.
It was a major achievement: Ibid., p. 389.
At first, Harnick assumed: Sheldon Harnick interview with author.
“I didn’t just have a good time”: RR to Michael Bennett, June 23, 1975, RR NYPL.
“When he’d go to get in his car”: Florence Henderson interview with author.
Dorothy Rodgers vetoed that idea: Nolan, The Sound of Their Music, p. 294.
He would sit, his daughter Linda would recall: Secrest, Somewhere for Me, p. 400.
“Thirty-eight years ago”: Agnes de Mille to RR, undated, RR NYPL.
“As I went up the aisle”: New York Times, “Oklahoma! Returns to Broadway: Free as the Breeze,” December 14, 1979.
“In spite of our differences”: Stephen Sondheim to DFR, December 31, 1979, RR NYPL.
Shirley Verrett, the Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano: Secrest, Somewhere for Me, p. 363.
The presiding rabbi: Ibid., p. 401.
“I don’t think anybody”: Mary Rodgers interview for the PBS documentary Richard Rodgers: The Sweetest Sounds, Laurence Maslon transcript to author.
“Dear Mr. Rodgers”: Terrell Dougan to RR, February 28, 1968; RR reply, March 4, 1968, RR NYPL.
EPILOGUE: BLOOM AND GROW FOREVER
Even as a twelve-year-old boy: Crouse e-mail to author, September 23, 2016.
Barbara Cook would recall: Barbara Cook telephone interview with author.
By 1967, the critic Martin Gottfried: Martin Gottfried, A Theater Divided: The Postwar American Stage (Boston: Little, Brown, 1969), pp. 177–80.
On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary: New York Times, January 24, 1993.
Brooks Atkinson wrote: Henderson, Mielziner, p. 173.
“Hammerstein rarely has”: Sondheim, Finishing the Hat, p. 37.
“They thought big”: Andrews e-mail to author.
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