As fate would have it, we were at La MaMa one night watching a play we had planned on seeing, and we learned that the next play that was being done at that same stage that night was a musical play entitled Red, White and Maddox, a takeoff on Lester Maddox, the governor of Georgia. That was on the ground floor at La MaMa, and at the same time there was being presented on the second floor an unknown play entitled Godspell. We could see another play that night but not both, since they were at the same time. So Annie and I conferenced, and we decided that we were political beings, and who needs that religious stuff? We suffered through Maddox and missed seeing and maybe getting involved with Godspell.
No need to call attention to the fact that no one living today would have any memory of Maddox, except maybe Jay Broad, who was part of it; and, of course, Godspell is still here with us and still being performed. I should mention in the name of accuracy that the La MaMa presentation did not have music and it wasn’t till after that production that Stephen Schwartz added the music to the play, which surely helped to make it the smash hit it became.
The House of Leather and Barry Bostwick
I guess I got to know Ellen Stewart after our trip to St. Paul, Minnesota, to see a play. So many unbelievable things happened with that play we went to see. In fact, something happened to me with the financing of that play that had never happened before or since and will probably never happen again. We had heard about the play from friends in the business and caught a plane for Minneapolis after warning the producers of our arrival. I had sufficient Off-Broadway credits at this time, The Fantasticks was flourishing, and they were anxious to greet us in Minneapolis. The two producers of the play took us to a garage in St. Paul with approximately ninety seats, and we were intrigued by the audience response to this musical play, The House of Leather. The place was sold out and there were fifty sold-out performances before it closed for the big trip to New York City.
The play was described as a psychedelic evening in a house of ill repute, which takes place during Civil War in this brothel cum ammunitions factory, in its basement; this way, the facility could diversify its patriotic efforts. The play was such a tremendous hit in the little garage in St. Paul that when the two producers engaged me to help them bring the play to New York City, what happened after that was the beginning of the unbelievable stuff. Before I could even complete the offering documents to obtain financing for the play, a record company on the West Coast heard about the play and insisted on financing it by itself. That was a first for me, and incidentally, also a last.
So the play was financed and arrangements were made to present the play at La MaMa starring Barry Bostwick, who was just beginning to become well-known in the business. We opened the play and Barry was great, as were the rest of the cast. As I saw it, or rather heard it, the music was so blasted loud, one could not hear or understand the lyrics, which told the story of the play. It opened and closed immediately, and no one has heard of it since.
The other amazing thing is this play was at the beginning of Barry Bostwick’s career. Barry is a really talented person and a really nice guy. Although the play went clunk, Barry’s career took off, and he performed in hundreds (yes, I said hundreds) of television films and specials and more movies than I can easily count. Barry was on the hit show Spin City as the mayor, on the hit show Scandal, lots of Law & Order episodes, and much more. Barry starred in film, TV, and the stage, and he deserved it even if no one remembers his performance in The House Of Leather. That is, no one but Annie and me. We remember it well.
Kurt and Don’s Usual Banter
Walter Miller was a good friend of Kurt’s. Walter was a writer and exchanged many communications with Kurt during their lifetime. Actually, Walter wanted to interview Kurt, and they were both so busy that the interview took place in a taxicab ride.
I went with Kurt to Harper Collins for another interview, and Ana Maria Allessi of Harper rode up in the elevator with me and Kurt, and Kurt and I were carrying on our usual banter of joshing each other. Ana Maria was so impressed that instead of Kurt being interviewed by a Harper Collins person, she said she wanted me and Kurt to just talk and do our thing; that is, that I should interview Kurt. It must have been good, because Ana Maria loved it, and I guess Harper Collins did too, because all of a sudden I was on a CD with Kurt. They released Kurt’s Walter Miller interviews on CD too.
Happy Birthday, Wanda June
There were plenty of striking things and people to remember about the Kurt Vonnegut play Happy Birthday, Wanda June: the cast, like Bill Hickey, who taught Barbra Streisand at HB Studio; the understudy Dianne Wiest, who later became famous, as did Marsha Mason, who married Neil “Doc” Simon; Kevin McCarthy, star of Invasion of the Body Snatchers; Keith Charles, who followed Jerry Orbach as El Gallo in The Fantasticks; the Lilac Chocolate Shop across from the theatre; and, of course, Duff’s, where we all hung out.
But the most striking memory is of the room-temperature salsa verde always waiting on the table at Duff’s. Wow! Duff’s was an informal Italian restaurant, a hangout sort of place a few doors east of the Theatre de Lys on Christopher Street in the Village. Alfredo (the guy in the kitchen who later became well-known as Alfredo of Bank Street) prepared this green salsa, for which he adamantly refused to disclose the recipe.
Before the play opened at the Theatre de Lys on October 7, 1970, Kurt, Annie, and I were either in Duff’s or upstairs at the theatre in the office that we had taken away from the general manager, Paul Berkowsky. Most nights Paul didn’t mind because he was home, and many nights, wherever we were, Lester Goldsmith, the producer, joined us.
That was when the Village was “The Village.” That was when you could see a play of Strindberg’s, a Chekhov, the Threepenny, The Balcony with Sylvia Myles, The Fantasticks, or loll around in any number of dark, dingy espresso hangouts settling all the worries of the world or completely ignoring the world.
It started in our Madison Avenue apartment one night at dinner when Lester asked Kurt whatever happened to the play Penelope that Kurt had written. Lester, when he worked at Paramount Pictures, had read and remembered Penelope, and that question ended up with Lester producing the play, which later acquired the title of Happy Birthday, Wanda June.
Lester, a resident of Los Angeles, optioned the rights to produce the play, found a place to live in New York City, and went to work. He used my office facilities. Kurt was happy as a clown. Writing books was real work and writing a play was a dream for Mr. Vonnegut, who welcomed the change of pace. Before Kurt had finished rewriting the play, Lester had brought in Michael Kane (a Telly Savalas look-alike) from California to direct the play, licensed the Theatre de Lys on Christopher Street in the Village, and was hiring the cast and crew.
Lester, our producer of the play, was friendly with one of the young ladies who later became a very well-known movie star. The rumor was that the young lady in question lived in the Bowery next to an apartment where another young starlet was murdered. That she would become friendly with a person who could take her out of that environment was a natural. It was also viewed by the cast as “showbiz.”
During rehearsals Annie and I met Kurt every night. We would start at Duff’s and end up in the office of the theatre. Duff’s was the meeting place for cast and crew, and we would have a scotch or two before we scrambled up to the theatre office, where we drank more scotch and frolicked, laughing and carrying on in an attempt to tweak the play in a way that suited Kurt. Kurt welcomed the suggestions from Lester, Annie, and me but had his own unique way of putting the words into the mouths of the cast.
Kurt was never satisfied with the ending of the play. Should Ryan (Kevin) shoot someone, should Ryan shoot himself, should Ryan go offstage to shoot himself and miss, should someone else shoot Ryan, or should Ryan shoot someone else and miss?
Kurt would write, read what he wrote, and break out into his loud, distinctive laugh, enjoying every word he had just written. We all laughed too, and we all drank our scotch, including K
urt, while we carried on fixing the play. Intermission found us at Duff’s, where we drank more scotch, consumed a lot of salsa verde, and had dinner. If a member of the cast was not in what was being rehearsed, they ate with us.
Come opening night, we all celebrated at a party at Sardi’s. Of course, Lester would want the party at Sardi’s restaurant, the Broadway theatre showplace and the private dining room of the stars.
After the opening we settled into the same routine. Meeting at Duff’s before the performance for our scotch and dipping the veggies in the salsa verde, picking up enough chocolate at the Lilac directly across the from the theatre to gorge on in the office during the performance, and then going back to the job of trying to get an ending to the play that we were all happy with. Kurt’s loud, deep-voiced laughter could be heard while he was writing away in the office. We were at this time leaving the office intermittently, sneaking into the theatre loge to watch the performance for a spell, and then hurrying back to enjoy the mirth in the office.
During the rehearsal and presentation at the theatre, Kurt was enjoying an extended family that he often wrote about, in this case a newfound theatre bunch. It was great fun for him to be involved in writing the play and the rehearsals, casting, rewriting, Duff’s fun, the office fun, and making new friends. It was a lot more exciting than sitting alone and writing a book.
When you get Kevin McCarthy, Marsha Mason, Dianne Wiest, Keith Charles, and some of the others in the cast around a table with Kurt at Duff’s, the theatre stories are going to result in almost constant laughter. It was a new and memorable experience for Kurt. And incidentally, it wasn’t only the salsa verde at Duff’s that was outstanding; the food was pretty good too.
Kurt was in heaven trying to fix the play, and he almost made it. With the five endings he came up with, when it came time to give a licensing agent the authority to license stock and amateur rights, Kurt said, “Don, you are my buddy, my agent, my lawyer, and my friend; you pick the ending.” I didn’t mind exercising my power of attorney to sign contracts, but this assignment was not what I anticipated. I did it; I chose the ending.
I did have the power of attorney to do whatever with Kurt’s work, but I always told him the deal and asked what he thought should be done. He always asked me what I thought of the deal, and I would tell him. Then he always said, “Do it.” We were a perfect team because we shared mutual respect for each other’s work. Respecting Kurt’s work was one easy job.
This play was dramatic, funny, and represented Kurt’s feelings about not killing people or animals needlessly and not fighting wars. It was an open secret that Kurt fashioned the lead character Harold Ryan, played by Kevin McCarthy, after Ernest Hemingway. I never discussed Kurt’s opinion of Hemingway’s writing, but we did talk about the lifestyle that Hemingway lived and represented. Kurt was not in sync with the lifestyle of hunting animals or fighting wars.
After opening at the Theatre de Lys on October 7, 1970, and running for forty-seven performances until December 22, 1970, there was an Actors’ Equity strike, and it seemed the smart thing to do to move from an Off-Broadway theatre to an uptown theatre. The play did this and opened at the Edison Theatre on 47th Street, west of Broadway, on December 22, 1970, running for ninety-six performances until March 14, 1971.
Authors fight for the right to have their lengthy bios appear in the program. The bio for Kurt that appeared in the program was written by Kurt, and it read:
“Kurt Vonnegut is an author
who lives in New York City”
THE COVETED RECIPE FOR THE OUTSTANDING SALSA VERDE OF ALFREDO OF BANK STREET
FORMERLY OF DUFF’S
Chop: 1 onion—5 fillets of anchovy—1 tbsp capers—2 pieces of Spanish pimento—1 bunch Italian parsley—4 cloves garlic—2 hard boiled eggs
Mix well. Add vinegar, olive oil, and black pepper. No salt. The sauce should be vinegary—to taste. Slightly heat the garlic and onion in a little olive oil before mixing them to bring out the flavor. Serve warm as a dip with anything, but vegetables work best. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Tracy Goss and Make Up Your Mind
It is just one more coincidence in our wonderful, exciting lives. We know about Kurt’s play Happy Birthday, Wanda June, and I wrote about the wonderful experience we all had in the production of the play back in 1971. When I met this dynamic person Tracy Goss a few years ago, I was reminded that way back then she had worked on the play Wanda June with the stage manager. Tracy was referred to me by Arthur Klebanoff, and she needed my assistance, as she wanted to produce a play and she wanted to act.
When the first play she asked me to get the rights to was not available for production, Tracy inquired whether Kurt ever wrote another play, and I explained to her that he not only wrote several plays, but that he had written one play five times, which we later learned was many more than five times. So Tracy buries herself in the play Make Up Your Mind, a humorous play with some moral significance that Kurt wrote and kept trying to rewrite. When I say she became involved, Tracy is one thorough person: she learned everything she could about Kurt, about the play, about the people who had worked on it, and she even had a big picture of Kurt on her wall in her apartment.
The reading of the play did not go as well as she wished, and at this time she had joined with two coproducers, Terry Schnuck and Jim Fugitte, both most astute and helpful with the development of the play. Some rewrites were made by a playwright engaged, and the play opened at a small house in Boston last year. The play still needed work, and Tracy, with her perseverance and dedication, is still working on improving the play so that she and her coproducers can bring it to Broadway. They have my total confidence and support.
During the period between Wanda June and Make up Your Mind, Tracy was not idle. She had written a successful book, The Last Word On Power: Executive Re-Invention for Leaders Who Must Make the Impossible Happen, for corporate executives or any leaders who must acquire the power to go beyond continuous improvement and make the impossible a reality.
So from Happy Birthday, Wanda June in 1971 to Make Up Your Mind, which is happening now, Tracy and I are working together on different plays, but both plays written by Kurt Vonnegut and both with the Vonnegut subtle humor and not so subtle “do something about it” message.
Arthur Klebanoff referring Tracy to me was not my first encounter with Arthur; no way, not by any means. There was his battle with Random House, which I got involved in a bit.
Arthur Klebanoff
When I started this book and as I was writing it, I thought that I really should say something about Arthur but kept thinking that I am incapable of doing him justice with my limited writing skills. Arthur, unlike one of our former presidents who could not walk and eat gum at the same time, is a multitasker, someone I am confident can walk and eat gum at the same time. In a nutshell, Arthur runs Scott Meredith Literary Agency and RosettaBooks, an e-book publisher of note; he is an author of a classic book; he defeated the mighty giant in the industry, Random House, in a momentous lawsuit that changed several industries; and he has been an always-there guy, working with me on a number of projects.
Scott Meredith Literary Agency is a distinguished, well-respected agency that represents some of the great writers of our age, including Michael Bloomberg, Danielle Steel, Bill Bradley, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Linda Goodman, and the pope. Need I say more?
Arthur’s book The Agent: Personalities, Politics, and Publishing was published in 2002, but it left such an impression on me that I remember it today. But mostly I remember the publishing party for the book, which just happened to be at the business office of Michael Bloomberg, you remember, our recent mayor of our city.
This is all fine, but the tremendous effect that Arthur, with his company RosettaBooks, has made on the publishing industry and the rest of the entertainment industry is what is of immeasurable importance. Although maybe not known or appreciated by many laypeople, I can assure you that the publishing industry, especially Random H
ouse, knows it well.
RosettaBooks had acquired the rights to publish e-books of print books written by my client, Kurt Vonnegut, and by Robert Parker, William Styron, and other prominent authors. RosettaBooks launched its list of one hundred e-books in February 2001 and was sued the following day by Random House.
Simply stated, although the legal documents in the case were not always all that simple, Random House claimed that the contracts they entered into with the authors gave them the exclusive rights to publish e-books. Through various legal maneuverings, Arthur and RosettaBooks won. Since I had, as Kurt’s attorney, granted the rights to publish his books as e-books to Rosetta, I was delighted to furnish an affidavit, together with other more distinguished names, in support of the Rosetta legal position.
The reason I found the results of this suit so satisfying is that there is a clause that appeared in every publishing contract back then, every film production contract, and every TV contract acquiring rights to a novel or other writing. The clause provided that the publisher was acquiring the rights to publish the book in all media now known or hereinafter invented. The court didn’t buy the argument that e-books were in the minds of the parties to the agreement when they granted Random House exclusive rights to print books.
I Hated to Do It: Stories of a Life Page 8
