Unruly Life of Woody Allen
Page 49
"very limited, very flawed": Mirabella, 3/4/97.
"I have never had that obsession": Rolling Stone, 7/1/76.
"always detested Woody": New York magazine, 10/21/96.
"A nasty shallow": The New Yorker, 12/9/96.
"Doesn't he look like a cadaver": Personal observation, audience conversation, 92nd Street Y, 7/25/96.
"We even use": Confidential source.
"I don't spend": 20/20, 2/7/97.
"Very quickly I learned": Speech delivered at American Booksellers Association convention, 6/96.
"shouting distortions": Ibid.
"You can't control life": Allen, Four Films of Woody Allen, p. 335.
"we don't care": Confidential source.
"book-lined and flower-filled": The New Yorker, 12/9/96.
"It was comfortable": Ibid.
"close friends with Louise": Newsday 12/1/96.
"Many times": Chicago Sun-Times, 2/2/86.
"There was so much collagen": Confidential source.
“the first love": New York Post, 5/16/98.
"solicit sympathy": New York Times Book Review, 2/23/97.
"a pathologically indiscreet": London Sunday Telegraph, 2/16/97.
"Should a 50-year-old": London Sunday Times, 2/16/97.
"Mix Old Grandad": The Tonight Show, 3/17/97.
"white O. J. Simpson": Politically Incorrect, 7/97.
"Ms. Previn, do you have": The New Yorker, 5/19/97.
"now she's responsible": The Oprah Winfrey Show, 2/11/97.
"Not interested": New York Daily News, 10/5/97.
CHAPTER 21: "Help"
"As far as I'm concerned": McCall's, 5/67.
"Love is pretty strong": Photoplay 11/71.
"very, very happy": New York Post, 12/26/97.
"This really is quite": New York Post, 1/6/98.
"I'll tell you": London Daily Telegraph, reprinted in Vanity Fair, 12/98.
"happiness is just a girl": New York Daily News, 12/25/97.
"He's 62": The Tonight Show, 12/30/97.
"few pleasures": The Late Show with David Letterman, 12/29/97.
"he needs a psychiatrist": New York Post, 12/25/97.
"She's his ball": Confidential source.
"the Duke and Duchess": New York Times, 12/25/97.
"to get past a little crisis": Time Out, 12/4-11 /97.
"Did you need it": Andrew Duncan interview with MM.
"one more year": Allen, Four Films of Woody Allen, p. 36.
"The guy finally": Allen, The Illustrated Woody Allen Reader, p. 124.
"a neutral factor": New York Observer, 11/30/98.
"He didn't need a scandal": Andrew Sarris interview.
"one long diatribe": New York Times, 2/8/98.
"Joan in a heavy make-out": Los Angeles Times, 12/14/97.
"Beth Kramer's": Deconstructing Harry, unpublished screenplay.
"got a film": New York Times, 12/14/97.
"Here's a guy": Neil Rosen interview.
"You know": New York Daily News, 11/15/98.
"They're probably ashamed": New York Observer, 11/30/98.
"I grew up with Woody": Andrew Sarris interview.
"diluted": New York Times, 6/1/98.
"Completely irresponsible": Indie magazine, 9-10/98.
"In today's American": Newsweek, 7/20/98.
"Working with Woody": New York Post, 7/2/98.
EPILOGUE: Victim of an Irregular Verb
"Who else has written": Vincent Canby interview.
"Guilt is petty": Bullets Over Broadway, unpublished screenplay.
"There are some things": Andrew Sarris interview.
"it was the kind of escalating": Roger Ebert interview.
"How can you debate": John Simon interview.
"He's written": Stanley Kauffmann interview.
"We were standing": Lawrence Schwartzwald interview with MM.
"I went as far": New York Daily News, 11/15/98.
"It's not my personality": Ibid.
"When I introduce them": London Sunday Times, 7/25/99.
"a supermother": Marie Claire, 12/98.
"I don't know how": Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 5/10/99.
"I have a son": New York Post, 5/11/99.
"an old pedophile": Ibid.
"I'm very compartmentalized": Staten Island Advance, 12/29/97.
"But we define ourselves": Allen, The Illustrated Woody Allen Reader, p. 198.
APPENDIX: Woody in 2010
“dribbling or hooked up”: New York Post, 5/16/10.
Previous Academy Award. In 1995, Mira Sorvino won Best Supporting Actress for Mighty Aphrodite.
“Tails of Manhattan”: The New Yorker, 3/30/09.
“I was persuaded”: New York Times, 7/21/10.
“Your back hurts”: BBC News, 5/15/10.
“I’m a firm believer”: Eric Lax, Conversations with Woody Allen: His Films, the Movies, and Moviemaking, Alfred A. Knopf, 2007.
“The one relationship”: Ibid.
“He’s my father”: Mail on Sunday, 1/23/05.
“I still delude”: The Telegraph (UK), 6/23/10.
Notable May-December marriages: Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, while in his late sixties, twice married law students forty years his junior. Photographer Edward Steichen, at the age of eighty, wed Joanna Taub, an advertising copywriter, who was twenty-seven. Oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall married Anna Nicole Smith, his junior by sixty-three years.
POSTSCRIPT
"We were happy": McKnight, Woody Allen: Joking Aside, p. 104.
"a small woman": Tim Carroll interview with MM.
"and always will": New York Post, 3/5/97.
"a lot about music": New York Post, 1/7/93.
"if I could possibly": New York magazine, 4/4/93.
"That is a closed chapter": Vanity Fair, 9/98.
"What happened": Nick Apollo Forte phone conversation with MM.
"a bad judgment": Los Angeles Times, 6/12/93.
"wasn't crazy": Vincent Canby interview.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The biographer who decides to write about a person who is still alive cannot help fantasizing. Might not the subject be willing to answer a few elementary questions about his life and work? Or, at the very least, contribute an entertaining family anecdote? If not, there are bound to be plenty of friends and colleagues with meaningful experiences to relate. And should all else fail, the biographer may even glimpse the subject in a smiling pose at a social event or chatting on late-night television with Charlie Rose.
In reality, living subjects by no means welcome the idea of a stranger, uninvited, rooting around in their personal affairs. Accustomed to a hard-won position in the driver's seat, they are more likely to rebuff offers to reminisce. Instead, they warn friends and relatives not to talk. They fire off churlish letters to the New York Times Book Review. They phone their attorneys with complaints of victimization, and sometimes, in desperation, they appoint an official biographer. Having spent their professional lives trying to attract attention, they suddenly wish to be left alone.
As I soon realized, however, the live subject's lack of enthusiasm is not a handicap but a blessing. Writing anyone's life story is laborious enough without having to relate to the subject too. Therefore, foremost among the many people to whom I am indebted is Woody Allen himself. Mr. Allen's disapproval compelled me to dig harder and deeper to unearth minutiae from his sixty-four years, particularly to seek out people who had direct knowledge of him but had never been interviewed before. This book would have been shorter had he decided to "help" me.
The names of those who chose to discuss with me the part they personally played in Woody Allen's story are listed in the notes. They allowed me countless hours of their time over lunches, in their homes and offices, or talking on the phone.
I regret that I can give no more than a mention to others who were equally generous in sharing their recollections: Bella Abzug, Conrad Bain, Bruce Baron, Marty Bregman,
Mel Bourne, Barbara Boyle, Stan Cardinet, Tim Carroll, Irene Copeland, Prudence Crowther, Marion Dougherty, Daren Firestone, Al Franken, Harriet Garber, Baylis Glascock, Hazel Greenberg, Stuart Hample, Margo Howard, Bill Irwin, Coleman Jacoby, Dennis Kear, Norberto Kerner, Ruth Kravette, John Kuney, Ruth Last, Martha LoMonaco, Judith Malina, Ernest Mider, Julius Moshinsky, Joshua Peck, Marvin Peisner, Anthony Picciano, Dorothy Rabinoff, Leah Reisman, Amelia Rollyson, Jeanne Safer, Naomi Diamond Sachs, Steve Sands, Barbara Shack, Stephen Spignesi, Jules Spodek, and Jeff Weingrad.
For various types of research and tips, I must thank Louise Bernikow, Myron Brenton, Marlene Coburn, Don DeLillo, Clyde Gilmour, Amy Goldberger, John Haber, Don Harrell, Tony Hiss, Jeff Hoffman, Ted Klein, Herb Leibowitz, Michael Martinez, Angela Miller, Patricia Parmalee, Matthew Ross, Roselle Salzano, Victor Sidhu, Brian Skene, Richard Stern, Sue Terry, Pamela Turner, Philip Turner, Ben Yagoda, and Susan Yankowitz.
In gathering nearly four decades' worth of clippings, I received assistance from Liz Cam-pochiaro, Mary Epifanio, Peggy Sprague, and Nelson Winters. Both Charles Stecy and Bob Borgen gave me access to their excellent clipping collections stretching back to the 1960s.
For genealogical research, I relied on the expertise of Laurie Thompson.
I am indebted to the talented professionals associated with many institutions and archives: Julio Hernandez-Delgado at Hunter College Library Archives, Wendy Keys and Rosemary Hawkins of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Paul Kerr at BBC-TV, Rachel Gottlieb at the Hartford Courant, Kendall Crilly at Yale University Music Library, Wendy Shay at the National Museum of American History, Margaret Sherry from Princeton University Library, Charles Silver at the Museum of Modern Art Film Library, Harold Miller at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, the staffs of the New York Public Library Rare Book and Manuscript Library and the Billy Rose Theatre Collection at Lincoln Center and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Karen Mix at Boston University Mugar Memorial Library, the staff of the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University, Jonathan Rosenthal of the Museum of Television & Radio, Michael Shulman at Sygma Photo News, Ron and Howard Mandelbaum at Photofest, Larry Schwartz at Archive Photos, Rosa Di Salvo at Liaison, and Ken Podsada at Star File.
In the last several years I have spoken at length to many individuals about Woody Allen. I would like to single out for special gratitude the editor Carol Southern, who initially offered me encouragement to write this book over breakfast one morning at Sarabeth’s Kitchen in the fall of 1995.
Throughout my research, one of the people who gave most freely of her time was Carole Chazin, the documentary filmmaker. Thanks as well to my old friends Janet Gardner and Minda Novek, who also taught me a great deal about documentaries.
As always, my good friends and colleagues at the New York University Biography Seminar provided unwavering interest and support, in particular Barbara Foster, Diane Jacobs, Brenda Wineapple, Kenneth Silverman, Nancy Dougherty, Judith Hennessee, Sydney Stern, Ann Waldron, Judy Feiffer, Amanda Vaill, and William Luhr.
For friendship and wise counsel when the road seemed endless, I have again depended on Dorothy Herrmann, Carole Klein, Lisa Paddock, and Carl Rollyson.
In London I was skillfully represented by Bill Hamilton, Andrew Nurnberg, and Anna Chodakowska, who worked hard on behalf of this project.
To my American and British editors, deepest thanks for guiding my work. At Scribner, Jane Rosenman was a patient and caring editor whose enthusiasm for the project was invaluable throughout and whose sage judgment helped to refine the material. At Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Ion Trewin was enormously helpful as a witty and astute sounding board. Thanks, also, to his resourceful assistant Rachel Leyshon.
I have the good fortune to have as my literary agent Lois Wallace, whose friendship and support over the years have meant so much to me, and whose perceptive criticism never dulls. Her contributions to this book—apart from her eagerness to accompany me on field trips to Michaels Pub and the Café Carlyle—are on every page.
Most of all I thank my daughter Alison Sprague, who was always there when I needed her, and whose observations as a youthful Woody Allen fan added immeasurably to my understanding.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
Copyright © 2000 by Marion Meade
Cover design by Open Road Integrated Media
ISBN 978-1-4976-3153-3
This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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