one-fourth of the earth's population, the honor probably belongs to a
dapper, soft-spoken man in his early 60s who could walk from his
Westside apartment all the way to Times Square without being recognized.
He is not a familiar figure on book jackets or talk shows because Lee Falk
happens to be a comic strip writer. His two creations, The Phantom and
Mandrake the Magician, are published in more than 500 newspapers in 40
countries. His daily readership: close to 100 million.
"One of the few places in the world where my strips don't run is in New
York City," says Falk, leaning gently forward in his chair. "They ran in
the _New York Journal American_ for 25 years. That was the biggest
afternoon paper in America until the newspaper strike, about 10 years
ago. Then it folded, as did most of New York's papers; we were left with
the _Times_, the _Post_, and the _Daily News_. But my strips do run in
_El Diario_, the Spanish-language newspaper, and in the _New York
News World_."
He arrived in New York from Missouri during the Great Depression,
while still in his teens, carrying a sample strip he had written and drawn.
King Features bought Mandrake the Magician and two years later added
The Phantom to their syndicate.
In the beginning, Falk did both the drawing and the writing himself.
"Then for a long time I used to make rough sketches and give them to my
artists," he recalls. "Now I just give a description of each panel. I might
say 'close-up' or 'long shot' like you do in a film. Then I put in the
dialogue. ... Some of my early artists are dead. They've gone on to their
reward -- to that big bar up in the sky, where all artists go. ... Now
there's one group drawing my strips on Long Island, and another one on
Cape Cod. Very often I don't see them from one year to the next.
Collaboration works best that way."
Since giving up his drawing pad, Falk has increased his literary output
many times over. Besides doing all the writing for his strips for the past
40-odd years -- which now takes up but a small part of his time -- he has
written five novels and a dozen plays. He owns five theatres; he has
directed about 100 plays and produced 300. None of his own dramatic
works has been a big commercial success, although one is currently doing
well in Paris. Then there was the comedy that he co-authored with a
young American he met in Rome just before World War II. "It almost
made it to Broadway," says Falk. "It was redone about two years ago on
the West Coast. My collaborator was there to see it too; we've remained
friends to this day. You may have heard of the man. He's a senator from
California, the senate majority whip. His name is Alan Cranston. ... You
see, it's best to save the punch line for the end."
Another of Falk's main pastimes is travel. He has visited enough islands,
jungles, and out-of-the-way places to keep the story ideas flowing for
years to come, but his appetite is still unwhetted. Early this year he toured
Scandinavia, when "they were making a big fuss about the Phantom's
marriage. There were so many press conferences to attend. One guy made
me wear a mask, and the next day as I got on the plane, there was my
picture on the front page. I said, 'But your paper doesn't even run The
Phantom.' He said, 'The Phantom belongs to all of Norway.'"
In April of this year, Lee and his wife Elizabeth, a cosmetics executive
turned mystery writer, spent three weeks in the People's Republic of
China. Ironically, although that is one of the few places in the world
where Falk's name is completely unknown, neither he nor anyone else in
his touring group could escape the public eye. "They were fascinated by
seeing us, because for a whole generation the Chinese have been shut off
from foreign visitors. They crowded around us 10 deep, and held up their
babies."
An action-oriented man who loves to play tennis, ride his bicycle, and go
swimming, Falk has lived on the West Side for over 20 years because "I
find the East Side a little too chichi for my tastes." Another Westside
characteristic he likes is the abundance of Puerto Rican residents:
"They're very sweet, gentle people. ... [Deputy Mayor] Herman Badillo
is an old friend of mine. He knew my comic strips from Puerto Rico."
Lee Falk estimates that "over a period of 40 years I must have written
about 800 to 1,000 stories. They would fill this whole room." Where does
he get his inspiration? "A lot of it comes from my travels. It's all grist for
the mill. Now and then I see something in the news and adapt it to my
features. For example, once I saw a story in _Life_ magazine about a
Swiss scientist who was experimenting with back-breeding. He managed
to breed some European cattle back to the original aurochs, which has
been extinct for several hundred years. ... I put his idea into Mandrake.
A scientist started with a lizard and ended up with a dinosaur."
The veteran storyteller never gets tired of spinning his yarns. "I enjoy it.
It's something I can do. ... Both The Phantom and Mandrake are
translated into about 20 languages. After all these years, they're bigger
than ever -- except in this country, because we've lost so many papers."
********
WESTSIDER BARRY FARBER
Radio talkmaster and linguist
8-12-78
"Dull" is a word that could never be used to describe Barry Farber. He
is a totally unique individual with so many far-reaching ideas that his
conservative label seems to fit him poorly, even though it was as a
conservative that he ran for mayor of New York last year and garnered
almost as many votes as his Republican opponent Roy Goodman.
During that campaign, Barry quit the syndicated talk show on WOR Radio
that he had hosted for 16 years. In March of this year his mesmerizing
Southern drawl took over the 4 to 7 p.m. Monday to Friday time slot on
WMCA (570 AM). The ratings have gone up at least 50% since he joined
the station.
I meet Barry for an interview one August afternoon at a Chinese
restaurant near the studio. To my amazement he orders the meal entirely
in Cantonese. Then he withdraws a stack of index cards from his pocket
on which are printed vocabulary words in Finnish, Italian, and Mandarin
chinese -- a few of the 14 languages that he studies during spare moments
in his hectic work week.
The lank 48-year-old, neatly garbed in a pin-stripe suit, is surprisingly
low-keyed in our hour-long conversation. Yet the verbal gems still trip as
neatly off his tongue as they do when he's putting an irate telephone caller
in his place, to the delight of radio listeners. Never hesitant to voice his
opinion on any topic, Barry pounces on my questions with an eagerness
that belies his calm exterior.
New York's reputation outside the city limits, says the widely travelled
Farber, has gone way downhill in recent decades. "It used to be, where
I grew up, that people would brag about coming to New York four times
a year. Today they brag about never coming here. The large companies
send their salesmen to Manhattan for a 45-minute conference like an
Entebbe raid. ... New York needs not a slow, gradual, ho-hum comeback.
It needs a dramatic voice who is going to say that the city's priorities for
the last 40 years have been wrong. New York is a sexy woman who's
been running around in the mud. Turn the hose on her and she's going to
regain her allure."
The tax revolt, he believes, "should definitely come to New York. You
cannot expect to live as sinfully economically as we've lived, and avoid
a rampage. The politicians have brought this upon themselves. And don't
let them get away with telling us that they have to cut police, firemen, and
sanitation before they cut themselves, because they don't.
"When John Lindsay was mayor, he flung back his head and inhaled the
vapors of the 1960s. And it was left, baby, left. He bet his presidential
hopes on that. But in the last mayoral election, it was the conservatives
who did the best. Koch was the most conservative Democrat running."
His anticommunist sentiments come to the surface when the subject turns
to the 1980 Olympics. "I think we should have never allowed it in
Moscow on the grounds that we have never had the Olympics in a
dictatorship in the modern era. I'd like to see the athletes of the world
say, 'We're not going to Moscow to play sportive games by rules when
the Russians live in violation of the rules of civilization itself.' Russia is
guilty of the world's worst cast of unsportsmanlike conduct. ... Yes, we
should pull out. But the Olympics is small potatoes. I say, start a new
United Nations for the free countries of the world -- a UFN, a United
Free Nations, which shall be an association of all nations governed by
law, of all free democracies that want to remain free. In 1945, we did not
seek to build a fraternity of dictatorships where tinhorn tyrants would
outvote democracies 10 to one."
Barry has lived on the West Side ever since he came to the city from
Greensboro, North Carolina 21 years ago, and now occupies a 17-room
penthouse overlooking the Hudson River. "The West Side and the East
Side are like East Berlin and West Berlin in terms of the rigidity of
lifestyle," he says. "There's a feeling on the West Side that we don't have
to impress each other. We know where it's at."
Recently divorced from his Swedish wife, Barry makes frequent overnight
trips to Sweden to see his children. He has to be back at the WMCA
studio on Sunday at 11 a.m. for his four-hour live show with guests. Two
weeks ago, he asked Robert Violante, who was shot and partially blinded
by Son of Sam, what it felt like to be shot in the head. Questions like this
tend to provoke as many listeners as they fascinate, and that is why Barry
prefers not to be too specific about his address.
"I don't do a Merry Mailman kind of show," he says with a half-smile.
"One of my fantasies is to have a hit man from the Communist Party, the
Nazi Party, the PLO, and the Black Panthers approach me from four
different directions and fire all at once -- and I duck."
********
WESTSIDER SUZANNE FARRELL
Star of the New York City Ballet
5-19-79
She arrived in New York like a fairy princess -- a wondrous creation
whose beauty and talent left audiences gaping in astonishment. At 16, she
became the youngest person ever to join George Balanchine's New York
City Ballet, and at 19, she was promoted to the rank of principal dancer.
Since that time, 14 seasons have come and gone, but Suzanne Farrell, the
girl from Cincinnati, is still the darling of America's foremost ballet
company.
In a dressing room interview last week at the New York State Theatre, the
slender, angelic-looking Miss Farrell spoke at length about her public and
private life, quickly revealing the two qualities that have enabled her to
remain one of the world's top ballerinas for so long. First is her boundless
energy; second is her genuine love for people and the world of ballet.
Warm, funny, and articulate about her art, she discussed with enthusiasm
the upcoming television special, _Choreography by Balanchine, Part
One_, which will be aired May 23 on Channel 13.
"This is one of four programs we taped in Nashville," she said, in a voice
as clear and melodic as an actress's. "The name of the ballet I'm in is
_Tzigane_; the music is by Ravel. We did the finale before the beginning
because they wanted to let go the four extra couples that were needed for
that part. It was very strange -- like having dessert before the meal." She
laughed lightly, tossing back her long, silky brown hair. "The TV studio
is very small, and the camera sees things differently than the audience sees
when you're on stage. Things that are done in a circle look like an oval.
And diagonal movement has to be done in a straight line."
Suzanne's brightest moment in the program is a solo at the beginning,
which she performs to the music of a solo violin. "One of the things I like
about doing ballet on television is that you can reach many people who
have never seen live dance before. About two years ago I got a beautiful
letter from an older man in Oklahoma who was certainly not in the habit
of writing fan letters. Now, every time I tape a new program, I think of
that man.
"_Tzigane_ is one of my favorite ballets, because it was the first one that
Balanchine choreographed for me after I returned to the company in
1974."
In 1969, Suzanne left the New York City Ballet and spent the next four
seasons with Maurice Bejart's Ballet of the 20th Century in Brussels,
Belgium. When she finally wrote to Balanchine to find out the chances of
dancing with him again, he simply asked when she could start.
"In Brussels, the type of ballet they're used to is different, so they react
differently. If you were to give them a beautiful, wonderfully stark ballet,
with little costume and scenery, they might not take to it as much. ... But
it was a good thing to have in my career. I demand that I get something
constructive out of any situation. Because life is so short that you can't
afford to not give everything, every time you go out there."
For the past 10 years she has been married to Paul Mejia, a former dancer
who is today the artistic director and choreographer for the Ballet de
Guatemala, one of Latin America's major companies. Although the couple
must undergo some long separations, their marriage is a happy one.
Spending time alone at her Lincoln Center area apartment does not bother
Suzanne. With a steady diet of exercise classes, rehearsals and
performances, and her nine pets (eight cats and a dog), Suzanne has little
time to be lonely.
"When I have a free night, it's terrible," she lamented, "because every
time the phone rings, I think, 'Oh no, they want me for a performance.'
I dance just about every night. By the time I go to bed, it's about 2
o'clock. I happen to get up about 6. ... On Monday, my free day, I teach
at the American School of Ballet. It's such a shock to do two
performances on Saturday and Sunday, and none on Monday. It's hardly
worth it, because the body can't adjust. ... I have always thought that
actors have it easier than dancers, because it doesn't matter so much how
tired your body is: all you need is your mouth."
A Westsider for most of her career, Suzanne lists reading and cooking as
her preferred pastimes: "I'm a great short-order cook. I think if I weren't
a dancer, I'd be a waitress." Two local restaurants she likes to frequent
are Rikyu (210 Columbus Ave.) and Victor's Cafe (240 Columbus).
Asked about her salary, Suzanne admitted that "you'll never make a lot
of money in ballet. It's something we do because we love it, and we have
to do it to be happy. ... The sole attraction is working for Balanchine and
the New York City Ballet: that's something you can't put down in dollars
and cents. I just assume that the company is paying us as much as they
can." She smiled radiantly and added: "Most dancers wouldn't know what
to do with a lot of money anyway, because they wouldn't have time to
spend it."
********
WESTSIDER JULES FEIFFER
Screenwriter for _Popeye the Sailor_
11-5-77
Imagine a movie starring Dustin Hoffman as Popeye the Sailor and Lily
Tomlin as his girlfriend Olive Oyl.
Anyone who has seen the old Popeye cartoons, or the new computer
animated ones, might think that the fighting mariner does not have the
dramatic qualities needed for a full-length film. But according to
Westsider Jules Feiffer, who is now writing the script for _Popeye the
Sailor_, the original comic strip in the daily newspapers was the work of
"an unrecognized genius." E.C. Segar created Popeye and drew him from
1924 to 1938. After that the character changed. Feiffer finds the original
strip to be his biggest source of inspiration.
"The cartoons," says Feiffer, sitting on one arm of a chair in his Riverside
Drive apartment, "exploit the violence between Popeye and Bluto. That
was never part of the strip. It's more along the lines of the traditional
cartoon of the 1940s, which could find nothing more interesting than one
character dismembering another. I didn't find that funny when I was a kid
and I don't now."
Feiffer developed his unique style of humor long before he sold his first
cartoon. Today, though still perhaps best known as a cartoonist, he has
gained a reputation as a playwright for both the stage (_Knock, Knock_
and _Little Murders_) and the screen (_Carnal Knowledge_). He is also
a respected prose writer, having recently published his second novel,
_Ackroyd_.
A product of the Bronx, Feiffer recalls that after graduating from high
school he went through "a series of schlock jobs to buy food and drawing
materials. And long periods of unemployment." He planned all along to
become a cartoonist. "I was prepared," he says, "for the eventual success
which I was certain was going to happen if my work remained true to
myself."
Feiffer spent several years as an assistant to other cartoonists and attended
two art schools. Still, no one would publish his work until a day in 1956
when Feiffer, age 27, took a batch of his best 'toons to the office of a
new, relatively unknown weekly called _The Village Voice_. They loved
his work, and he became a regular contributor.
"All other publications at that time had their own idea of their readership.
And editors insisted on tailoring stories to their own taste. The _Voice_,"
says Feiffer, "existed for the artist's taste and the writer's taste. It was a
time when McCarthyism and the blacklist were rampant through every
strata of society."
The _Voice_ was then the only publication of its kind. It wrote about
dissent; it was considered revolutionary, and Feiffer's weekly cartoons
helped it to maintain that image.
Success came quickly to Feiffer after he joined the _Village Voice_: "It
happened faster than I thought. It was only about three months or so
before my work came to be talked about, and publishers began to offer
book contracts." Syndication took place a few years later. Now the
cartoon is carried by somewhat over 100 publications in every country of
the western world and several in the Far East.
Feiffer's cartoon takes him one day a week to conceive and draw. During
the other six days he works on his latest writing project. For three years
-- until it was published this past summer -- that project was _Ackroyd_,
an unconventional detective-type novel in which the characters are too
human to keep their traditional roles as props for the detective's
cleverness. The book is less suspenseful than a standard detective novel,
but more revealing of human nature.
One of the things that has been in my work for many years," says Feiffer,
"is people's need to communicate with each other not directly, but in
code. ... Coded language is used to guide our lives, to frame our
relationships with people." Feiffer's main character takes the name Roger
Ackroyd and tries to become a private detective. Instead he gets "so
intertwined with the coded life of his clients that he works on that for the
rest of his career."
_Ackroyd_ got extremely mixed reviews. "It's what I'm used to," notes
the author. "Some reviews have been glowing. Others wondered what the
hell the book was about and why I bothered to write it." Feiffer takes the
good and the bad in stride, remembering what happened when his first
play, _Little Murders_, opened on Broadway in 1967.
"It got all negative reviews and closed in a week," he recalls. "It was
immediately done in London after that, which started the revival, because
it was done very successfully. Then it was brought back to New York the
following year and it won all the awards." In 1971 it was made into a
successful film starring Elliott Gould and Marcia Rodd.
An occasional theatregoer, Feiffer ends the interview on a customary
depressing note, saying that he is generally disappointed by even the
biggest hits in town.
"I don't think of myself as a Broadway playwright," he says. "I'd be
ashamed of that title. I don't think the Broadway theatre is very interesting
or has been for the last 20 years."
********
EASTSIDER GERALDINE FITZGERALD
Actress, director and singer
3-15-80
Anyone hearing her rasping, throaty, Irish-accented voice for the first time
might think she were suffering from laryngitis. But those who have come
to love and admire Geraldine Fitzgerald over the past 40 years hear
nothing but earthy humanity in the voice. One of the most versatile
actresses in America, as unorthodox as she is gifted, Miss Fitzgerald at
66 remains at the height of her career, constantly juggling a variety of
projects, as she says, "like somebody cooking a meal with many courses."
We're sitting in her Upper East Side living room, which is decorated in
white from floor to ceiling -- carpet, chairs, tables, sofa, and even the
television. The only picture is a childhood portrait of her daughter Susan
Scheftel, now a 27-year-old graduate student.
"I like light unimpeded," explains Geraldine, her rosy face breaking into
its customary smile. "And if everything is white, it's different in the
morning and it's different in the middle of the day, and it's different all
the time."
A slender, handsome woman with a penchant for long flowing skirts and
bright lipstick, whose straight gray hair descends halfway down her back,
Geraldine is soon talking about _Mass Appeal_, the two-character play
that she is directing at the Manhattan Theatre Club; it will open in mid
May. "It's by a very young author called Bill Davis. We did it last
October at the Circle Rep Lab, and it was very successful, but it needed
strengthening points. So Bill has just completed the ninth draft. ... Milo
O'Shea is going to star in it. He's Ireland's premier comedian and a
magnificent dramatic actor too."
Miss Fitzgerald's next acting role will be in a play titled _Eve._ "It's
about a woman who runs away from home to seek her own internal
freedom, like Nora in _A Doll's House_. The only difference is, she's my
age. So of course her options are few. And she goes right down to the
bottom: she becomes a derelict. And then slowly, slowly, slowly she
comes up to find some kind of strength and independence. It's a drama,
but a very comedic drama."
Her third major project at the moment is to prepare her acclaimed one
woman show, _Street Songs_, for a small Broadway house such as the
Rialto.
She started to take singing lessons about 10 years ago, and introduced her
one-woman nightclub act in 1975, employing her remarkable acting
technique to make the songs personal and moving. She has performed the
act at Reno Sweeney, at Lincoln Center, in a one-hour special for public
television, and at the White House for President and Mrs. Carter.
"I don't sing what's called 'folk songs.' People think I do. I sing songs
that are very -- winning. Because the songs that people sing when they're
on their own -- whether singing in the streets, singing in the shower,
singing in the car -- they do not sing losing songs. We didn't know that
for a long time. 'We' is Richard Maltby Jr., who did _Ain't
Misbehavin'_. He's my colleague and partner and he directed it.
"At first we couldn't understand why a marvelous song like 'Loch
Lomond' was sort of rejected by the audience, and then a song like
'Danny Boy', that you'd think everybody's sick of, was acceptable. Well,
'Danny Boy,' believe it or not, is a winning song. At the end of it, the
girl says, 'Even if I'm dead, if you come back and you whisper that you
love me still, I'll hear you in my grave.' And then I'll know that you'll
be beside me for eternity. Whereas 'Loch Lomond' starts off so well, but
each verse says 'But me and my true love will never meet again ... "
She began her acting career at the Gate Theatre in Dublin while in her
teens, came to the U.S. in 1937, and acted with Orson Welles' Mercury
Theatre on the Air before heading for Hollywood, where she made such
classic films as _Dark Victory, Watch on the Rhine_, and _Wuthering
Heights_, for which she received an Oscar nomination. In 1946 she settled
on Manhattan's East Side, and has been based there ever since, although
she frequently returns to Hollywood to act in movies.
Perhaps even better known for her stage roles, she names Eugene
O'Neill's poignant, autobiographical _Long Day's Journey Into Night_ as
her favorite play. When it was revived Off Broadway in 1971, her
portrayal of the morphine-addicted Mary Tyrone became the biggest hit
of her stage career. Miss Fitzgerald has recorded this play and others for
Caedmon Records.
Married to Stuart Scheftel, a wealthy executive and producer, she has one
son from a previous marriage, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the hugely
successful young director who was nominated for a Tony Award for
_Whose Life is this Anyway?_ Miss Fitzgerald is the first actress ever to
receive the Handel Medallion, New York's highest cultural award.
If Geraldine has one regret about her career, it is that it took her "so
many decades to get up the courage to sing. Everybody told me not to,
because I have such a funny voice. ... Then I realized that I needed a
vehicle for expressing what I feel about the world and about people that
was very flexible, and was mine. And if the audience would put up with
the harsh sounds, then I could use it. And evidently they can, so if they
can now, I guess they always could."
********
EASTSIDER JOAN FONTAINE
Actress turns author with _No Bed of Roses_
12-30-78
The Oscar statuette stands on the end of a shelf about eight feet off the
floor, partially obscured by a row of books, its gold surface gleaming
dully in the subdued light of the room. Below, in one of the apartment's
four fireplaces, a small log is softly burning. This room, like the rest of
the large, immaculate home, is furnished in the style of an early 20th
century country manor. Here, in the heart of the Upper East Side, Joan
Fontaine has spent 15 years of an immensely productive life. I take a seat
on one side of the fire, and Miss Fontaine faces me from the opposite side
of the room, her slender, regal form resting comfortably in an antique
chair, to talk about her best-selling autobiography, _No Bed Of Roses_
(Morrow, $9.95). Published in September, the book has already sold more
than 75,000 copies in hardcover.
As the title implies, Miss Fontaine's life has been one long roller coaster
ride of triumph and tragedy. During the 1940s she received three Oscar
nominations for Best Actress in the space of four years, and won the
award for _Suspicion_ (1941). She had the joy of raising two children --
one of them adopted -- but the disappointment of four divorces. Her
mother, who died in 1975, was the best friend she has ever known, yet
both her father and her stepfather gave her nothing but unhappiness, and
she never had a close relationship with her famous older sister, Olivia de
Havilland. In fact, the pair have not spoken in years -- for reasons clearly
explained in Fontaine's book.
A fiercely independent woman who has flown her own airplane and taken
part in international ballooning competition, she has suffered through
numerous illnesses and injuries that brought her close to permanent
disability or death. These are the elements of _No Bed Of Roses_, a
disarmingly frank memoir that is frequently unsettling but never boring.
"The fan mail for this book is getting to be enormous," says Fontaine, still
radiant at 61. "A lot of people identify with the illnesses, or with trying
to bring up children alone. Some people empathize because they had harsh
relations with their siblings. A lot of men have told me they cried at the
end, in my epitaph to my mother. And then of course, I have heard from
a lot of people who wanted to be actresses, or actors."
Did she write the entire book herself? "Every single word. I wouldn't let
them touch one of them. ... It's not a sordid book; it's not tacky. One
reviewer said it was immoral. I don't think I can figure that out. If you
ask me, it's rather religious."
The words come out like perfect silver beads. She has always been a
formidable presence on the screen, and is no less so in person, as she
gives her unrestrained opinions on every topic introduced.
Marriage, says Fontaine, is "waiting on -- or waiting for somebody."
Asked whether she believes two average people can remain happily
married for a lifetime, she replies: "It depends how hypocritical they are,
and how much lying they want to do. ... I think the word 'love' means an
entirely different thing to a woman than it does to a man."
Her classic movies, including _Rebecca, Jane Eyre, Suspicion_, and _This
Above All_, are frequently seen on television now, but Fontaine has little
respect for television as a medium: "I consider it nothing more than B
pictures. I think we took a little more care with B pictures; the actors and
actresses got a chance. In a television film, if the actor slips on a word,
to hell with it. We'll cut around it."
Earlier this year, Fontaine appeared in the made-for-television movie _The
Users_, starring Jaclyn Smith. She could do many others, but prefers to
be choosy. "The quality of the scripts is so poor. I think it's the taste of
the times. It's a brutal world; it's a vulgar world. ... It's quite different
from the romance of Jane Eyre. I don't think I could act those roles. I'd
rather sit in my library in front of the fire."
In truth, she has little time for sitting around: her acting talents are too
much in demand, in dinner theatres and in college auditoriums around the
country. Recently she returned from a three-month working trip. In
February she'll be opening in Dallas. "I haven't decided on the play yet,"
she says.
In spite of her words, she somehow comes off as being thoroughly
charming. A highly sociable woman who loves to attend cocktail parties
and make new acquaintances, Fontaine is also a gourmet cook. "At
Christmas I cook for about 75 people. No one married can come. I'm
thrilled that one of my friends has just gotten divorced. Now she can
come." Among the Eastside restaurants that Fontaine visits frequently are
21 and the Four Seasons.
When she has time to herself, Fontaine enjoys reading literature and
adapting it for her lectures. "I lecture on many subjects," she says. "I do
the entire Jane Eyre -- all the roles. It takes about an hour and a half. It's
more like a film reading than a lecture. I do one on American poets, and
one on Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning -- all their own words.
Then a new one has crept up -- if I may say so, by popular demand --
called 'The Golden Years.' I tell how to do it -- how to make these years
the best. I've never felt so happy or so free or so contented as I am now."
born 10-22-17
********
WESTSIDER BETTY FRIEDAN
Founder of the women's liberation movement
7-14-79
One of the most-discussed nonfiction works published in 1978 was _The
100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History_ by
astrophysicist Michael H. Hart. He writes: "My criterion was neither fame
nor talent nor nobility of character, but actual personal influence on the
course of human history and on the everyday lives of individuals." Seven
native-born Americans were included in the 100, and when _People_
magazine requested Hart to expand his list of Americans to 25, the first
name he added was that of Betty Friedan, who, he said, "through
women's liberation, has already had a greater impact than most
presidents."
The book that did most to trigger the women's movement was Friedan's
_The Feminine Mystique_ (1963), a brilliant analysis of the postwar "back
to the home" movement, when women were led to believe that they could
find fulfillment only through childbearing and housework. That myth, said
Friedan, resulted in a sense of emptiness and loss of identity for millions
of American women. Her book became an international best-seller, and
has been translated into more than a dozen languages.
But _The Feminine Mystique_ was only the first of many contributions
that Friedan has made to the women's movement. In 1966 she founded the
National Organization for Women (NOW), which today has more than
70,000 members and is by far the most effective feminist group in the
world. She has written a second book, _It Changed My Life_, made
countless appearances on radio and television, and become one of the most
sought-after lecturers in the country. Despite her public image as a hard
core activist, Betty Friedan at 58 is a charming, decidedly feminine
woman who enjoys wearing makeup and colorful dresses. In an interview
at her brightly decorated apartment high above Lincoln Center, she reveals
that these two aspects of her personality are not at all contradictory.
"The women's movement had to come. It was an evolutionary thing," she
says, in robust, throaty, rapid-fire bursts of speech interspersed with long
pauses. "If I had not articulated these ideas in 1963, by '66 somebody else
would have. I think that it's good that I did, because what I had to say
somehow got to the essence of it, which is the personhood of woman, and
not what later obscured it, with a woman-against-man kind of thing."
It was largely through the lobbying efforts of NOW that the U.S. Senate
last October approved a three-year extension of the deadline for ratifying
the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). So far, 35 of the required 38 states
have voted for the amendment. The new deadline is June 30, 1982.
"There's no question that three more states will pass it by that time," says
Friedan. "But it's not going to be easy, because there are these well
financed right-wing campaigns trying to block it. They understand that the
ERA is not only the symbol but the substance of what women have won
-- that it will give them constitutional underpinning forevermore, so that
they can't push women back to the second-class status of the cheap labor
pool.
"The ERA will not do anything dramatic -- like change the bathrooms --
but it will ensure, for example, that women have their own right for social
security, which they don't have now. You have to realize that the
reactionary forces in this country are using the sexual issue as a kind of
smoke screen, to create a hate movement. They're the same forces that
tried to prevent labor from organizing, that burnt crosses on lawns in the
South, that painted swastikas on synagogues. ... NOW has made it _the_
priority, because if the ERA is blocked, it will be the signal to take back
everything."
A woman who smiles and laughs easily in spite of her intensity, Friedan
prefers to be called not Miss, Ms., or Mrs., but simply Betty. Born in
Peoria, Illinois, she majored in psychology at Smith College and
graduated summa cum laude. In June, 1947, after moving to New York
City, she married Carl Friedan, then a theatrical producer. Three children
later, the Friedans moved to the suburbs, and it was there that she
formulated the ideas for _The Feminine Mystique._
Divorced since 1969, Friedan maintains a very close relationship with her
children, who are at Columbia University, the University of California,
Berkeley graduate school, and Harvard Medical School. A Westsider since
1964, she runs in Central Park for an hour each day.
Of the half dozen major projects she's involved in at the moment, the
most significant is her new book, _The Fountain of Age._ "It's about the
last third of life," she explains. "I call it the new third of life, because
many women have only begun to discover that it exists."
Asked about her chief pleasures in life, she replies with obvious
satisfaction, "I like parties, I like my friends, I like talking, I like dancing.
... One thing I've discovered is that the stronger you get, the more you
_can_ be soft and gentle and tender, and also have fun. I _demand_ my
right to be funny and to have fun, and not just to always be deadly
serious."
********
WESTSIDER ARTHUR FROMMER
Author of _Europe on $10 a Day_
10-8-78
His name rhymes with "roamer" and that's an accurate description of
Westsider Arthur Frommer, author of _Europe on $10 a Day_.
In 1957, when he wrote the first edition, _Europe On $5 a Day_, Arthur
was a dedicated New York lawyer. But the book became so popular that
he finally decided, after much agonizing, to leave his law firm and
become a full-time travel writer. Every year in the past two decades,
Arthur and his wife Hope have revisited the 17 European cities covered
in the book; they have distilled the wisdom from thousands of letters
received from readers; and they have revised and updated the famous
travel book for the new edition each spring. It is still the world's best
selling guide to Europe.
"This is not necessarily the glamorous occupation that some people
imagine it to be," says Arthur, biting into a sandwich as he, Hope and
their daughter Pauline invite me to join them at the dinner table at their
Central Park West home. "One of the hazards of being a travel writer is
that when you're on vacation, you're always checking to see where the
bargains are, or whether the restaurants are worth their reputation. I've
visited so many exotic cities of the world that for me, the best way to
relax is to stay home."
Due to a miscommunication on my part, I arrive on an evening exactly
one week later than the Frommers have expected me, yet they manage
such a warm welcome that I end up staying three hours. They seem to
have plenty of time to talk. Still, there is a reminder throughout the
evening that they lead very busy lives -- the constantly ringing telephone.
One reason for my lengthy visit is that it takes place on the same night as
the second heavyweight championship boxing match between Muhammad
Ali and Leon Spinks. Arthur and I sit on his living room couch, watching
the fight live on TV with great interest, rooting for Ali and resuming our
interview between the rounds. Ali, who had lost the first fight with Spinks
the previous February, beats him handily this time.
"I'm a workaholic," confesses Arthur, excusing himself while he gets up
to answer another call from overseas. An energetic, detail-oriented man,
Arthur once worked 12 hours a day writing legal briefs and eight hours
a day on his book. Today he is the head of Arthur Frommer Enterprises,
an international corporation that includes a publishing company, a charter
service and four hotels -- two in the Caribbean and two in Europe.
Publishing remains his biggest enterprise. He publishes 30 to 40 travel
guides each year, ranging in subject matter from the Far East to New
York City. _Europe On $10 A Day_ has for many years been co-authored
by his wife Hope. "While Arthur is on the streets grubbing for bargains,"
she says, "I'm in the museums."
With her own career as an actress and director, Hope does not fly the
Atlantic quite as often as her husband. Says Arthur: "I go to Europe like
other people commute to Long Island. Sometimes I go without even a
change of clothes."
Twelve-year-old Pauline Frommer made her first trip to Europe at the age
of two and a half months. Bright and precocious, she seems a natural to
succeed her father in the business one day.
Arthur Frommer's success story began shortly after he graduated from
Yale Law School in 1953. While serving in the Army in Europe, he used
every weekend to travel. "At the end of my stay in the Army," he recalls,
"having nothing to do, I sat down and wrote a little volume called _The
GI Guide to Europe_. It was written strictly from memory; it had no
prices or phone numbers. I went home and started practicing law. Then
I got a cable saying that all 50,000 copies had sold out immediately."
Arthur used his first summer vacation from the law firm to go back to
Europe and rewrite his travel guide, for civilian readers. It became "a
monster which ate up my life." But he has never regretted his choice of
careers.
"The book coincided with a revolution of American travel habits," says
Arthur, not giving himself credit for being a prime force behind this
revolution. "When I was in college, it was unheard of for young people
to go off to Europe. It was too far, too expensive. The students of the
early 1960s became the first students in history to travel in great numbers
to Europe. Many people think the country was greatly changed by this
massive travel."
Arthur and Hope moved to the West Side in 1965, just after their daughter
was born. Among their favorite neighborhood businesses: DelPino Shoes,
which has some of the lowest prices in the city for quality Italian
footwear, and the Jean Warehouse, where Pauline buys many of her
clothes.
These days, while Hope is busy directing a play by Pamela O'Neill,
Arthur is working on several new projects. One is a course he will be
teaching at the New School starting in February. Titled "Great Cities of
Western Europe," the course will concentrate on urban problems and their
political and social solutions.
But Arthur's biggest ambition these days is to expand his company's
week-long chartered tour of Jerusalem into a two-week package for
Jerusalem and Cairo. Such a tour, he believes, would help create a bond
of understanding in the Middle East.
"It's a dream of mine," says Arthur, "that we might be a force for peace
sometime. It may not happen overnight, but I'm sure it will come."
********
EASTSIDER WILLIAM GAINES
Publisher and founder of _Mad_ magazine
9-15-79
_Mad_ magazine, an institution in American humor ever since it first
appeared in 1955, is one of the few publications on the newsstand that
carries no advertising. In the past few years, rising costs and changing
tastes have driven Mad's circulation slightly below two million, but
publisher William Gaines has no plans of giving in to commercialism.
"I was brought up on a newspaper called _PM_," recalls Gaines, an
instantly likable native New Yorker who looks like a cross between Santa
Claus and a middle-aged hippie. "It sold for a nickel while everything else
was two cents. Its policy was to take no ads, and I was kind of brought
up on the idea that it's dirty to take advertising." His face breaks out in
merriment, and he laughs the first of many deep, rich, belly laughs that
I am to hear that afternoon.
"I don't think your publication's going to want to print that, so you'd
better leave it out. Um, so I, I. ... I mean, it's not --" he sputters, before
quickly recovering and driving the point home with his customary
journalistic finesse. "As a matter of fact, if you're going to take ads, I
think the way your people do it is the way to do it. If you're _going_ to
take ads, give the publication away. But if somebody's putting out money,
it's not right. It's like going to the movies and seeing a commercial.
Television, fine: you're getting it free."
We're sitting in his somewhat disorderly Madison Avenue office, which
is decorated with paintings of monsters, huge models of King Kong, and
a collection of toy zeppelins suspended from the ceiling. When Gaines is
asked about lawsuits, his eyes sparkle with glee.
"We have been sued many times. We've never been beaten. We had two
cases that went to the U.S. Supreme Court. The first was on Alfred E.
Newman (the gap-toothed, moronic-looking character who appears on the
magazine cover). Two different people claimed it was theirs -- a woman
by the name of Stuff and a man by the name of Schmeck. Neither one
knew about the other one, and we didn't tell them. It was pretty fun when
they all got to court and found that both of them were claiming to own
Alfred. Through a series of decisions, the Supreme Court decided that
neither one of them owned Alfred, and we were free to use him.
"The other case was when Irving Berlin and a number of other
songwriters sued _Mad_, because we used to publish a lot of articles of
song parodies which we'd say were sung to the tune of so-and-so. And
they took umbrage to that. They said that when people would read the
words, they were singing their music in their heads. The judge ruled that
Irving Berlin did not own iambic pentameter."
The son of a prominent comic book publisher named M.C. Gaines,
William planned to become a chemistry teacher when he returned to
college after World War II. Then his father was killed in an accident, and
Gaines decided to enter the comic business himself. "I started putting out
some very undistinguished, dreadful stuff, because I didn't know where
I was going. After three years, Albert Feldstein (_Mad's_ editor) joined
me, and we just had a rapport right away. We started putting out stuff that
we had a feeling for -- science fiction, horror, crime."
These comics, known as E.C. Publications, are today worth up to $200
each. Classics of their genre, they became the target of a Senate
subcommittee on juvenile delinquency. Largely because of public pressure,
Gaines dropped all of them except _Mad_, which he changed from a 10
cent comic into a 25-cent, more adult magazine. The complete E.C. works
have recently been reprinted in bound volumes.
A divorced father of three, Bill Gaines hates exercise, and drives the 18
blocks each day from his Eastside apartment to the _Mad_ office. His
favorite hobbies are attending wine and food tastings, and visiting Haiti.
"I've been there about 20 times. It's a wild, untamed place. Something in
my nature is appealed to by that kind of thing. ... They have no
maliciousness toward tourists. I was almost shot there twice, but it was by
mistake."
Things are so relaxed around the _Mad_ headquarters that eight out of the
nine full-time staffers have been with the publication for more than 20
years. "Our writers and artists are free-lancers," says Gaines. "Most of
them have been with us 20 years also. ... We get quite a few unsolicited
manuscripts, but most of them, unfortunately, are not usable. Every once
in a while we'll get one, and then we've got a big day of rejoicing. ...
We're always looking for writers. We don't need artists, but you _never_
have enough writers. And we firmly believe that the writer is God,
because if you don't have a writer, you don't have movies, you don't have
television, you don't have books, you don't have plays, you don't have
magazines, you don't have comics -- you don't have anything!
"We don't assign articles. The writers come to us with what they want to
write, and as long as it's funny, we'll buy it. And we don't care what
point of view, because _Mad_ has no editorial point of view. We're not
left, and we're not right. We're all mixed up. And our writers are all
mixed up -- in more ways than one."
died 6-3-92. born 3-1-22.
********
WESTSIDER RALPH GINZBURG
Publisher of _Moneysworth_
7-8-78
Less than two months ago, the U.S. Supreme Court passed an edict
allowing the police to raid the files of newspaper offices in search of
information relating to a crime. "If they came here, I'd stand at the
entrance and block their way," says Ralph Ginzburg, gazing out the
window at his suite of offices near Columbus Circle. "I don't care if they
arrest me," he adds in his thick Brooklyn accent.
The owlish-looking Ginzburg means what he says. He's the publisher of
_Moneysworth_, which is mailed each month to 1.2 million subscribers.
It is the most successful item he has ever published, but there is no doubt
that he would risk losing it and going to jail, because Ginzburg has done
so already. In a flamboyant career marked by much notoriety, he has
emerged as one of the most important figures of his generation in
expanding the freedom of the press.
Of the six magazines and newspapers that Ginzburg has founded, none has
caused such a stir as his first one, _Eros_, which lasted from 1962 to
1963. "It was the first really classy magazine on love and sex in American
history," he says. "I signed up 100,000 subscribers right away, at $50 a
year. Many leading American artists contributed to it. The big difference
is that it was sold entirely through the mails. Our promotion of
subscriptions through the mail got a lot of complaints."
About 35,000 complaints, in fact -- more than the U.S. Post Office had
ever received up to that time. Ralph Ginzburg was charged with sending
obscene material through the mails, and _Eros_ was forced to suspend
publication while the debate went on. Most Washington lawyers, after
examining the magazine, concluded that it was not obscene. But the case
became a political issue, and in 1972, 10 years after the so-called crime
had taken place, Ginzburg was ordered to serve an eight-month term at
the federal prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania. His imprisonment led to
a nationwide outcry by intellectuals and public officials.
Not long after the demise of _Eros_, Ginzburg started another magazine
called _Fact_. It, too, ended over a lawsuit. This time the plaintiff was
U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater. He sued the magazine for $2 million on
the charge of libel, and was awarded $65,000 in damages. "It was a
compromise, as jury decisions frequently are," remarks Ginzburg.
"Unfortunately I didn't have very much money back then, and it wiped us
out."
Describing the case, he said: "In 1964, when Goldwater was running for
president, he advocated the use of nuclear weapons in Vietnam. I thought
the guy was out of his mind and I wondered if anyone else had the same
suspicion. ... We polled all the members of the American Medical
Association who were listed as psychiatrists and asked them if they
thought Goldwater was fit to be president. We printed their replies and
their long-distance diagnoses ... "
Both the _Eros_ case and the Goldwater case made the American public
examine some far-reaching questions: What is obscene? What is libelous?
Ginzburg helped to establish new definitions for these terms, and in so
doing, widened the power of the press.
_Avant-Garde_, his third publication, existed from 1967 to 1970. "It was
born during the Vietnam uprising in this country," he explains. "It was a
magazine of art and politics, and had no ad revenue."
In the same year that _Avant-Garde_ folded, he began a newsletter called
_Moneysworth_. Soon it expanded into a full-sized newspaper. "It was
launched," says Ginzburg, "because we felt that the only existing
periodical in the area of consumer interest -- _Consumer Reports_ --
wasn't broad enough. Spending money is more than buying appliances."
While _Moneysworth_ does carry many valuable tips on personal finance,
it also has a considerable amount of sensationalism that would seem at
home in the _National Enquirer_. Even so, Ginzburg's managerial skills,
his nonstop working habits, and his literary expertise -- he has written
several books -- have made _Moneysworth_ a winner. Using the same
staff of 40, along with many free-lance writers, he now publishes two
other monthly newspapers as well, _American Business_ and Extra!
He has been a Westsider for 15 years, and his publishing company,
Avant-Garde Media, is located on West 57th Street.
If Ginzburg has a single goal right now, it's "to saved up enough money
to enable me to put out a periodical exactly like _Avant-Garde_ was. It
was pure pleasure for me: there was no commercial compromise. But
even though this is a multimillion-dollar corporation here, I can't afford
it at the moment. ... Money is important in publishing. I have to spend 99
percent of my time and effort chasing the buck. I guess I'm lucky. Most
people spend 100 percent of their time that way."
********
EASTSIDER LILLIAN GISH
78 years in show business
1-5-80
D.W. Griffith, the father of motion pictures, used to say there were only
two people who outworked him -- Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish.
Pickford, who died last May, made her final film in 1933. But Lillian
Gish never got around to retiring. At 83, she is perhaps the most active
living legend in America.
Sipping tea at her Eastside apartment, which is decorated like a Victorian
drawing room, Gish appears to have defeated time. Her clear blue eyes,
porcelain-smooth complexion, and slender, girlish figure have not changed
all that much since she rose to international stardom in Griffith's
controversial 1915 classic, _The Birth of a Nation_. She also starred in his
1916 film _Intolerance_, a box office failure when released, but later
recognized as a masterpiece.
An animated speaker who makes sweeping gestures, she still has the
crystalline voice and flawless enunciation that enabled her to make the
transition from silent films to talkies and Broadway shows in the early
1930s. The 1978 Robert Altman film _A Wedding_ marked her 100th
screen appearance.
"I've never worked harder in my life than I have in the last three or four
years," says Miss Gish, who, during that period has made her singing and
dancing debut in Washington's Kennedy Center, hosted a 13-week series
for public television, _The Silent Years_, appeared in an ABC-TV movie
of the week, and toured the world three times to present a one-woman
show that combines film clips with narration. Her autobiography, _The
Movies, Mr. Griffith and Me_, has been translated into 13 languages.
"I dedicated the book to my mother, who gave me love; to my sister, who
taught me to laugh; to my father, who gave me insecurity; and to Mr.
Griffith, who taught me that it was more fun to work than to play," she
recalls with merriment, describing how her mother wound up in the
theatre around 1901 due to financial need. Five-year-old Lillian and her
4-year-old sister Dorothy soon followed in the business. "We didn't use
our real names because we didn't want to disgrace the family. ... They
used to have signs on hotels: 'No actors or dogs allowed.'"
She never got a chance to attend school. "I loved the book _Black
Beauty_, and everybody would read it to me on the train or waiting for
the train. Well, I finally had it read to me so much, I knew it by heart.
And that's how I learned to read. When we were travelling around,
mother would always take her history book. When we were in historical
places, she'd take us to where history happened."
At the height of her silent film career, Lillian received 15,000 fan letters
a week, many from overseas. "Silent films are the universal language that
the Bible predicted would bring about the millennium. ... When Mr.
Griffith made his first talking picture in 1921, he said, 'This is committing
suicide. My pictures play to the world. Five percent of them speak
English. Why should I lose 95 percent of my audience?'
"One of the things I'm trying to do now is to bring back silent films and
beautiful music. I'm doing it with my film _La Boheme_, which was
made in 1926. I've done it in the opera house in Chicago with an organist,
and at Town Hall here. Harold Schonberg of the _New York Times_ gave
it the most ecstatic review."
Her credits include an honorary Oscar award, dozens of major stage roles,
and a movie that she co-wrote and directed. But Miss Gish, with
characteristic modesty, prefers to talk about her friends and family.
Bitterness and complaint are alien to her nature, although life has not
always been easy. She never married, and her mother, to whom she was
highly devoted, spent the last 25 years of her life as an invalid. "But she
was never unhappy," testifies Lillian. "She was always the first to laugh,
and the gayest."
Following her mother's death in 1948, the apartment was given to Dokey,
her nurse, who died the following year. Then Lillian and Dorothy Gish
shared the apartment until Dorothy's death in 1968. Although Lillian now
lives alone, she has no opportunity to be lonely. Besides work, travel, and
reading -- her favorite activities -- she has 13 godchildren.
One thing that helps keep her young, says Miss Gish, is her intense
curiosity. "I was born with it, thank heavens. I feel sorry for people who
say they're bored. How in the world can anyone be bored in the world
today? How can fiction complete with what's going on?"
A few of her films, have been lost forever, since no original prints exist
in good condition. Most, however, are still shown around the globe,
which explains why her autobiography is available in such languages as
Burmese and East Malaysian. The Museum of Modern Art on West 53rd
Street has one of the country's finest collections of vintage Gish films.
One of her upcoming projects is a movie based on a story by the Danish
writer Isak Dinesen, scheduled to begin shooting in Europe this winter.
Another is a television pilot to be shot in California for Julius Evans.
Asked to name some of the things she is most curious about today, Miss
Gish quickly replies, "Naturally what's happening in Cambodia -- how
they're going to solve that problem. Those poor children. It breaks my
heart. ... And who's going to be our next president. We've come to the
point where we should have two presidents, I think -- someone to look
after the world and somebody to look after us."
died of natural causes 2-27-93.
born 10-14-1893
WESTSIDER MILTON GLASER
Design director of the new _Esquire_
2-11-78
Two decades before _Playboy_ first hit the newsstands, there was only
one men's magazine in America. A generation of schoolchildren grew up
speaking its name in hushed whispers, though anyone reexamining those
early issues today could hardly understand why. The magazine was
_Esquire_.
Its popularity has dipped somewhat in recent years, but _Esquire_ still
sells one million copies per month. And it still has the reputation of being
the most tasteful, literary, and sophisticated publication for the American
male. If some people have complained that it has not kept up with the
times, they won't be able to say that any longer -- not since _Esquire_
became the property of Clay Felker and Milton Glaser, the publishing
team who made _New York_ magazine into one of the best-selling
weeklies in the city.
With Felker as editor and Glaser as design director, _Esquire_ will have
a totally new look starting with the February 14 issue. It will have a
different size, binding, shape, length, and contents. It will also change its
name to _Esquire Fortnightly_ and appear 26 times a year instead of 12.
"The new _Esquire_ will be ungimmicky, easy to understand," says
Milton Glaser, taking a half-hour break from his numerous artistic
projects. He is as animated as his enlarged signature, which glows from
a custom-made neon lamp on the wall beside a Renaissance Madonna and
a framed Islamic drawing.
The first thing you notice about Glaser is the colored handkerchief
adorning his jacket pocket. Then you notice how relaxed he is, and how
easily he smiles.
"The name of the game is to get an audience that identifies with the
magazine and feels it's on their side. People buy a magazine because it's
of considerable interest to them, not because they get a deal on the
subscription. ... What you want to do is to find the right-size audience,
made up of people who believe in the values that the magazine reflects."
The original _Esquire_, Glaser points out, helped to glamorize the rich,
privileged man of the world -- the man who had arrived, who knew his
place in the world, and whose greatest desire was to surround himself
with the symbols of wealth, such as fancy cars and beautiful women.
Today, says Glaser, the American male no longer measures success by
symbols alone. Rather, he aims for self-development, for the richness of
life itself -- professional, personal, physical, intellectual and spiritual.
Clay Felker writes, in a yet-unreleased editorial in _Esquire_: "We will
explore how a man can develop a more rewarding life with the women
and children in his life. ... I see _Esquire_ magazine as a cheery, book
filled, comfortable den, a place of wit and sparkling conversation, of
goodwill and genial intelligence, where thoughtful discussions take place
and wise conclusions are reached."
Milton Glaser is probably the best-qualified artist in America to redesign
_Esquire_. Besides his success with _New York_ magazine, which began
as a Sunday supplement to the old _New York Herald Tribune_, Glaser
has designed _The Village Voice_, _Circus_ magazine, _New West_ and
two of France's leading publications, _L'Express_ and _Paris-Match_.
Glaser's posters have sold in the millions. He has put on one-man
exhibitions in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East. (He believes, in fact,
that his work is more appreciated abroad than at home). He has designed
everything from stores to toys to new typefaces.
He is a faculty member at both Cooper Union and the School of Visual
Arts. He is responsible for all the graphic design and decorative programs
at the World Trade Center. Two volumes of his works have been
published -- _Milton Glaser: Graphic Arts_ and _The Milton Glaser Poster
Book_.
In addition, he is a noted food critic. For the past 10 years he has co
authored and constantly updated the best-selling Manhattan restaurant
guide, _The Underground Gourmet_.
A native New Yorker, Milton Glaser has fond memories of his boyhood
in the Bronx. He especially likes recalling an event that took place in 1933
-- the year that _Esquire_ was founded.
"When I was 4 years old, a cousin of mine said, 'Would you like to see
a pigeon?' He had a paper bag with him and I thought he meant there was
a pigeon in it. But then he took out a pencil and drew a picture of a bird.
I was so astonished that you could invent reality that I never recovered
from it. The only thing I wanted to do in my life was to make images."
Milton and his wife, Shirley, moved to the West Side last August. "I
guess it was the opportunity to find the right physical space. I like the
neighborhood because of the mix of working class, middle class, and
upper class. ... That really is the richest thing the urban scene offers."
The number of Westside restaurants listed in _The Underground Gourmet_
has sharply increased over the years. Among his favorite dining spots of
all price ranges are Ying's on Columbus Avenue (at 70th St.), the Cafe
des Artistes (1 West 67th St.), and the Harbin Inn (2637 Broadway).
Look in any New York subway station and you'll see a poster advertising
the School of Visual Arts. It shows two identical men in a room. One is
lying on a bed and the other is floating in the air. The caption reads:
"Having a talent isn't worth much unless you know what to do with it."
Milton Glaser, the designer of that poster, is a supreme example of a man
with many talents who knows what to do with all of them.
********
WESTSIDER PAUL GOLDBERGER
Architecture critic for the _New York Times_
12-3-77
"What is architecture? It's the whole built environment. It's the outside of
a building, the inside, the function; it serves social needs, physical needs.
... And a building has an obligation to work well with the buildings
around it -- at least in the city."
The speaker is Paul Goldberger, architecture critic for the _New York
Times_. His immaculate suit and tie, refined manners, dry wit, and
somewhat formal way of speaking seem to mark him a Timesman even
more than the carefully researched, colorfully written articles that have
poured out of his pen in the last four years.
As a critic, Goldberger is accustomed to vocalizing opinions and facts in
equal measure. His open-mindedness on architectural styles is
demonstrated by his apartment, a lavish, ultramodernized suite of high
ceilinged rooms inside one of the oldest buildings on Central Park West.
The interview begins with a trick question: "What is the third tallest
building in New York?" (Answer: the Empire State Building.) He fields
it without cracking a smile.
"I guess the question is, do you consider the World Trade Center two
buildings?" he says. "I guess it's like asking whether Grover Cleveland
was two presidents or one because he served two non-consecutive terms.
... The World Trade Center was not necessary built functionally or very
pleasing aesthetically. It was built as a kind of symbol of power by the
Port Authority. I'm used to it now; human beings can adapt to anything.
I even like going to the restaurant at the top and the restaurant at the
bottom. It's the floors in the middle I don't like."
He points to the new Citicorp Center on East 53rd Street as an example
of modern architecture at its best, and the mosquelike Cultural Center at
Columbus Circle as an example of the opposite. "It's pretty horrible,"
says the critic, agreeing with a newspaper writer who recently labeled the
Cultural Center one of the 12 ugliest buildings in Manhattan. "It's a very
silly building; it's so obviously dumb. But it doesn't particularly bother
me. It's almost innocent, it's so silly."
Lincoln Center, too, draws his barbs. "I find it very pretentious. Rather
boring, really. It's a set of imitations of classical themes. The buildings
are an unfortunate compromise because the builders were afraid to build
something really modern, or to design something that really looked like
a classical building. ... There's a feeling that they sort of want to be
modern and sort of want to be classical and end up being a very
unsatisfying compromise."
A New Jersey native who developed a passion for architecture in his
earliest years, Paul Goldberger attended Yale University and then worked
as a general reporter for another newspaper. Several years later he became
an editorial assistant for the _Times_. In 1973 there came an opening for
an architectural writer, and because the _Times_ knew of his background,
Goldberger was given the first shot at the job. "It was fabulous," he
recalls, because it was what I always wanted to do. And it was very much
a matter of luck -- of being at the right place at the right time." His
articles appear most often in the daily _Times_; Louise Huxtable remains
the chief architectural writer for the Sunday paper.
Why would a sophisticated Timesman choose the West Side over the East?
"There are many more wonderful buildings on the West Side," says
Goldberger. Unfortunately not many of the buildings on the West Side
have been kept up as well as the East Side. ... In terms of apartment
house architecture, Central Park West is probably the best street in New
York. It has all the grandeur and beauty and monumentality of Fifth
Avenue and it also has the relaxed atmosphere."
There's not one West Side," he continues. "There's at least 10. Around
here is one neighborhood. Riverside Drive is another. Up by Columbia is
another. ... One of the reasons I like my own neighborhood is because
though it is very much West Side, it's handy to the East Side and
midtown. I walk through the park all the time."
Any chance that Manhattan's skyscrapers will eventually weigh down the
island? "No," replies the critic emphatically. "First, the island is very,
very solid rock and nothing could cause it to sink. The other factor,
especially today, is that buildings are not all that heavy, because they're
being built with lighter materials and more modern engineering methods.
So a huge new building like the Citicorp, which is 900 feet high, is not
any heavier than a building 500 feet high built 30 years ago. And since we
don't have earthquakes, this is probably the safest environment in the
world to build a skyscraper."
Although studying and writing about architecture is "more than a full-time
job," Goldberger manages to keep abreast of the legal aspects of buildings
as well, including tenants' rights, rent control, zoning laws and redlining.
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission is another of his
interests. "I think landmarking is crucial to the city," he testifies. "A city
exists in time as much as space. It's the mixture of new and old buildings
that gives the city life and vitality."
********
EASTSIDER MILTON GOLDMAN
Broadway's super agent
4-14-79
"Pardon me -- just one more call to make," said Milton Goldman, pushing
the buttons on his nearest desk phone. "Go on, you can ask me questions
at the same time," he added, holding the receiver to his ear.
"Are you the biggest theatrical agent in the world?" I said. He returned
my gaze evenly.
"Others have said it. It would be immodest for me to say it -- but I
probably am," said Goldman, who by this time had reached his party and
was inviting the young actress on the other end to a Broadway opening
that night. He chatted with her for several minutes, his Jack Bennyish
voice breaking occasionally into rich laughter.
Sitting upright behind a desk-sized table covered with papers, folders,
notebooks and play scripts, the ruddy-complexioned, jacketless Goldman
looked far more relaxed that I had expected of a man who, in his 32 years
as an agent, has handled the careers of close to 5,000 actors and actresses.
Among those he has helped "discover" are Jack Lemmon, Walter
Matthau, Grace Kelly, Lee Marvin, Charlton Heston and Faye Dunaway.
And though Goldman has become a celebrity in his own right, he still
exudes the low-keyed charm of a friendly neighbor talking over a fence.
The appearance is no deception: he owes his success not to high-pressure
tactics, but to an encyclopedic knowledge of the theatre on both sides of
the Atlantic, a keen judgment of which shows are best for his clients, and
a long-proven record for trustworthiness. By title, he is vice president in
charge of the theatrical division of International Creative Management,
which is matched in size only by the William Morris Agency.
Unofficially, he serves as father confessor, rabbi, psychiatrist, and best
friend to many of the top stars he represents. Attending the theatre up to
five times a week, he is always on the lookout for new clients. His
weekends are devoted to reading and casting new plays.
"I can't resist talent, and when I see a talented young actor or actress, I
want very much to help realize their potential by opening as many doors
as I can for them," he explained, gripping the arms of his chair. "I don't
think of my job as work. For me, it's fun. And I never know where the
one begins and the other ends. Because I'm that lucky individual whose
private life and public life are one and the same thing."
Every year he takes a vacation to Europe on the Queen Elizabeth II. "I'm
in Paris for a week and London for about three weeks." In slow, carefully
chosen sentences, he stated, "I represent many English clients because my
knowledge of the English theatre is probably better than anyone else in the
American theatre. Every year in London, I get the same suite in the Savoy
Hotel and give great parties. I go to at least eight plays a week --
sometimes as many as 10. So I get to see all the plays in London. And I
know all the English actors and they know me." Among his British
clients: Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir Ralph Richardson and Sir John Gielgud.
"American performers excel in the musical comedy theatre, where dancers
and singers also very often are fine actors. This is not true in England.
Dancers are especially hard to cast in London, though I think that is
changing now. ... It's sad that the American theatre can't support serious
plays. They're either musicals or they're comedies. I think a healthy
theatre should be able to support the works of serious playwrights. This
season, we happen to have on Broadway an important play by an
American playwright -- Arthur Kopit's _Wings_, which stars our client
Constance Cummings, who is an American actress who went to England
and made her reputation abroad, and has now returned here to great
acclaim."
A native of New Brunswick, New Jersey, Goldman witnessed his first
Broadway show in the summer of 1929, and from that day forward, the
theatre was his passion. For 10 years he worked as a tire salesman at a
family-owned business. Then, through his friend Arnold Weissberger, a
noted lawyer, Goldman was offered a job as a theatrical agent at no base
salary, but with a $25 weekly expense account and a 25 percent interest
in any clients he signed up. Success came to him almost at once.
A lifelong bachelor, Goldman today shares an apartment with Weissberger
on the Upper East Side. His favorite local restaurant is the Four Seasons.
"I go there all the time for lunch; that's my main meal of the day. I think
it's the best restaurant in the world."
The actor's life, he believes, "is a sad and a difficult one. Every time you
get a good part, the next part has to be bigger -- more money. As you
reach the top, it becomes tougher and tougher to get those parts."
Nevertheless, Goldman does not find his own job at all frustrating.
"Pressures? Yes, there are many pressures. But I have said this before:
there are so many rewards for me when I see a client in whom I believe
get a great break in the theatre or films of television. It's a source of great
satisfaction. And with the number of clients I represent, each day brings
some rewards. That's why I've often said to clients: 'I have many lives
to live.'"
********
EASTSIDER TAMMY GRIMES
Star of _Father's Day_ at the American Place Theatre
6-23-79
Tammy Grimes is one of the few Broadway stars to have received Tony
Awards in two categories -- for best Musical Comedy Actress in _The
Unsinkable Molly Brown_ (1961), and for Best Dramatic Actress in Noel
Coward's _Private Lives_ (1969). In a sense, she is Molly Brown
personified -- a powerful stage presence whose charm, beauty, and pure
talent make her shine in every production she takes part in, regardless of
the overall merit of the show itself.
Her disappointments have been, at times, as spectacular as her triumphs.
For example, there was her shot at network television in the early 1960s,
_The Tammy Grimes Show_, which lasted only 11 episodes because, she
says, "the writing, the concept, and the talent never really got together.
And I blame myself for that. Because if your name's up there, you are
responsible for the product."
Her marriage to actor Christopher Plummer ended in divorce after four
years, but had the happy result of producing a daughter, Amanda
Plummer, who is now a successful actress herself.
Tammy played Molly Brown on Broadway for the show's entire two-year
run, but the movie role went to Debbie Reynolds. She got some rave
reviews for her acting in a Broadway thriller named _Trick_ this year, but
the show closed within weeks. When that happened, she quickly started
working on a new show, _Father's Day_ by Oliver Hailey, that is
scheduled to open on June 21 at the American Place Theatre on West 46th
Street.
"It's about three women who get together on Father's Day," says Miss
Grimes in an interview at her Upper East Side apartment. "They live in
the same building, and they're divorced. It shows how the three of them
are coping with the situation. My feeling is that they don't want to be
divorced. It's a very well-written play -- a comedy. ... It's at the same
theatre where _In Cold Storage_ started."
The interview takes place in her softly decorated bedroom looking out on
a garden. Tammy is propped up on pillows beneath the covers, smoking
a cigarette and sipping a bottle of Tab as she apologizes for her condition.
"It may have been the caviar I had last night," she says, cheerful in spite
of her discomfort. Her pixyish features expand easily into a grin, and at
45 she has lost none of the childlike playfulness that first propelled her to
stardom. But the most surprising quality about Tammy Grimes is her
throaty British accent. Although she has done little work in England, her
normal speaking voice is far more British than American -- a fact which,
for some reason, she strenuously denies. "I spent a lot of time doing
British comedy," she explains, "but I don't sound British!"
A native of Lynn, Massachusetts -- "I just happened to be born on the
way home from a party" -- she grew up in Boston and decided early to
become an actress. When she was 16, Thornton Wilder saw her in a
production of his classic play, _The Skin of Our Teeth_. He declared:
"Young lady, even Tallulah Bankhead didn't do the things you did to the
role." By her early 20s she was performing in numerous Off Broadway
shows. A singing act she developed for one of New York's leading supper
clubs won her a rave review in _Life_ magazine, and shortly after her
25th birthday, she received her first starring role on Broadway, in an ill
fated Noel Coward production called _Look After Lulu_.
The following year, 1960, saw _The Unsinkable Molly Brown_ reach
Broadway. It was the most expensive musical ever mounted until then,
and became a smash. Tammy played the role 1,800 times; she missed only
13 performances. "I believe that if you can speak, you should be up
there," she says. "Even today, people will stop me and say, 'We came in
from North Carolina to see you, and when we got to the theatre, you
weren't there.'"
As a television performer, she has appeared as a guest star in dozens of
dramatic series, situation comedies, and variety shows. She has played
numerous Shakespearean roles, made five movies, done a great deal of
radio work, and recorded numerous albums, including several for
children. An animal lover, she gives her time freely to such groups as the
American Horse Protection Association and Friends of the Animals.
Tammy has been at her present East Side address since 1969. Though she
likes to cook, she also frequents many restaurants including Veau d'Or
and Gino's.
Asked to evaluate her career as a whole, Tammy notes that all but one of
the shows she has done "seemed to open and close in a natural way.
There's always a reason why a play ends prematurely. ... It's nice to
please the public, but you can't constantly be thinking that they will accept
this but not something else from you. You have to go by your feelings.
If something is good, the public will go to see it."
********
WESTSIDER DELORES HALL
Star of _Your Arms Too Short to Box with God_
5-21-77
It's just after 10 on a Wednesday evening when Delores Hall steps out of
the Lyceum Theatre's stage door onto 46th Street. At least 20 fans are
waiting; they give a cheer as she emerges and rush toward her. Delores
Hall smiles broadly as she autographs their programs, for these fans are
hers. She has worked hard to become a Broadway star, and now in _Your
Arms Too Short to Box with God_ she is precisely that.
"No, I'm not really tired," says Ms. Hall a few minutes later over a snack
at the All-State Cafe. "I'm still at a peak of energy from the show. That
was my second performance today, but I could do another one if I had
to."
Asking Delores about her earlier days brings a flood of memories and
laughter. She's a happy, bouncy woman and seems as pleased to talk as
any friendly neighbor. "When I was 3 I discovered I had vibrato," she
recalls. "My mother taught me everything I know about singing. I can
remember her hitting me in the stomach, showing me how to breathe. But
whatever she did, she did it right. I was 4 when I first sang in public; they
stood me on a table. I can remember some people throwing 50-cent
pieces."
Born in Kansas City slightly more than 30 years ago, Delores grew up
with music in her ears. Her father played the bass for Count Basie, and
her mother was -- and still is -- a missionary in the Church of God in
Christ, which produces gospel singers the way southern universities raise
football players. Young Delores began singing regularly at the church
services -- an activity she continued when her family moved to Los
Angeles. When Delores entered college she formed her own gospel group,
an act so popular that she soon left school to become a full-time musician.
Later, Harry Belafonte invited the Delores Hall Singers to tour with him
for six months.
"Harry is a beautiful man," Delores grins. "He came to the show a month
or so ago, and afterwards he went backstage and somebody introduced us.
He said, 'Miss Hall, I've heard so much about you,' and then he
screamed, and we jumped into each other's arms.
Delores has lived in New York since 1969. Five years ago she moved to
the West Side. "People are so much warmer here," she says. Her
remarkable singing has won her parts in half a dozen Broadway shows,
but with _Box_, for the first time, she suddenly found herself the star of
a hit production. Clive Barnes, in a highly positive review in the _New
York Times_, declares: "Miss Hall has the audience in the palm of her
voice." The all-black cast of this musical adaptation of the Book of
Matthew has been packing the Lyceum since Christmas, and advance
ticket sales go to October.
In spite of Ms. Hall's unbroken musical success, her life has not been
without personal tragedy. Just before the Broadway premiere of _Box_
last December 22, she suffered the heartbreaking loss of her only brother,
a minister. "It was very hard to open the show," she recalls, "but I got
through it with the help of God."
Delores lives on West 72nd Street with her husband of seven years,
Michael Goodstone. Whenever she can, Delores joins Michael at temple
in Westchester County: "I find it very uplifting spiritually, because I
believe God is everywhere." Each Sunday the couple both attend the
Church of God in Christ. "Some people call it the Holy Roller church,"
she explains. "After the service, we go downstairs for a piece of the best
fried chicken."
Ms. Hall's face glows with pride when she speaks of Deardra, her 14
year-old daughter from a previous marriage: "My daughter is a singer,
too. She won the music award from her school." Deardra is hoping to
enter New York's High School of Performing Arts this fall.
Plans for the future? Delores would like to try grand opera someday --
possibly the role of Aida. And a new record album is not far off. Several
years ago she recorded her first album for RCA. Since she began drawing
national attention in _Box_, some tempting offers have come in from
recording companies, and her manager is in the process of negotiating a
contract. The new album may be either gospel or middle of the road: "I'm
praying very hard, so it depends on what the Lord says."
But for the moment, Delores Hall is well satisfied at filling the Lyceum
Theatre seven times each week. "This show I love so much," she says,
her eyes sparkling, "because it takes me home."
********
WESTSIDER LIONEL HAMPTON
King of the Newport Jazz Festival
6-24-78
The world's greatest celebration of jazz, the Newport Jazz Festival, will
get off the ground on June 23 -- its 25th consecutive year. During the 12
day festival, in indoor and outdoor settings all over Manhattan and
beyond, the most important names in jazz will stage nearly 30 major
musical events.