After a year and a half at Lincoln Center, and with a strong recommendation from Jack, I began apprenticing with theatrical press agent Bill Doll. Bill had been legendary showman Mike Todd’s press agent and was responsible for several memorable publicity stunts. For example, Bill had monkeys seeming to drive motor cars down Broadway to promote a show. More famously, Bill had Elizabeth Taylor (Todd’s movie-star wife) making a triumphant entrance into Madison Square Garden riding an elephant to promote the opening of his all-star film Around the World in 80 Days.
Working for Bill Doll, I discovered the creativity and imagination it took to be a good theatre press agent along with the necessary writing skills and dogged attention to detail. We were responsible for creating the right expectations about a show for both the audience and the critics. We struggled to find new and interesting ways to ‘sell’ our show, product or performer. We were always on the lookout for quirky ideas that we could turn into exclusive items for the powerful gossip columnists. We dug up story ideas and knew how to pitch them. Those old style, razzle-dazzle press agents, like Bill Doll, may have had dark, musty offices with creaky typewriters and ancient telephones, but they were smart, creative and they cared.
After apprenticing with Bill Doll, Frank Goodman, and other Broadway press agents, I finally earned enough weeks working under a union contract to join ATPAM (The Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers). I called the union office to report the completion of my required three year apprenticeship. The secretary-treasurer of the union said, “Welcome to the theatre, Susan. ATPAM currently has the highest unemployment rate in the history of our union. Please send $500 for your initiation fee.”
WELCOME TO THE THEATRE!
The Broadway musical APPLAUSE had everything going for it — a book by the legendary team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green (ON THE TOWN, WONDERFUL TOWN, the beloved film Singin’ in the Rain,) songs by Lee Adams & Charles Strouse (BYE BYE BIRDIE,) based on Mary Orr’s classic novella and the subsequent cult film All About Eve, plus it marked film icon Lauren Bacall’s first Broadway musical.
It was also the first Broadway show I handled from scratch. I was 23 years old and not yet a full member of the press agents union. I’d already assisted on several Broadway shows and was learning and growing, but was still at the bottom of the publicity office totem pole.
When APPLAUSE began rehearsals in December, 1969, several of the press representatives in the Bill Doll office were assigned to the show. We all attended rehearsals, pitched and covered publicity interviews, wrote releases and tried to come up with clever column items to plant with influential newspaper columnists like Earl Wilson and Ed Sullivan.
Lauren ‘Betty’ Bacall, who earned early film stardom through her good looks and sultry voice, had enthralled hard-drinking Humphrey Bogart into his third and final marriage, bore two kids and reigned as the Queen of the Rat Pack in Hollywood. When Bogart died of cancer, after 12 years of marriage to Bacall, the Hollywood establishment, that had so recently anointed her a star, turned its collective back on her. Without the protection of her powerful husband or the support of the film studio, Bacall returned home to New York to reinvent herself on the Broadway stage. She starred in two Broadway comedies (GOODBYE CHARLIE and CACTUS FLOWER) and was now ready to take on a big Broadway musical created especially for her by her pals Betty Comden and Adolph Green. She was raising her kids (two by Bogart and one by second husband, Jason Robards Jr.) in New York’s famed Dakota apartment building, on West 72nd Street, where her neighbors included Leonard Bernstein and John Lennon. A well-known New Yorker, Bacall was often photographed in designer clothes and jewels at glittering social events, escorted by rich and powerful friends. An outspoken Democrat who had famously opposed the Hollywood Black List in the 50s, she did not suffer fools gladly.
Bacall had not had an easy life. In addition to losing Bogart — the great love of her life — at 32, she had just finalized her divorce from Jason Robards after eight stormy years of marriage, and her mother had recently died. Her two kids by Bogart were young adults but her youngest child, Sam Robards, was seven when APPLAUSE began. Bacall’s natural defense mechanism was to attack first, ask questions later. Her sharp wit and cold stare could stop you dead. Her sarcasm was cutting and cruel. Autograph seekers quickly learned not to interrupt her at dinner. Limo drivers knew to show up on time, hairdressers followed her instructions exactly, and journalists approached with caution.
When rehearsals for APPLAUSE began, Bacall made it clear to the Bill Doll press agents that she was not interested in rehashing her past but would talk about her present and future as a newly minted Broadway musical performer. Despite our instructions, journalists would talk nostalgically about Bogey and ask her to whistle as she did famously in the film To Have and Have Not. She would rant, asking what the hell she had to do to be seen as an independent woman with some talent of her own instead of as Bogey’s Baby. In the April 3, 1970 issue of Life Magazine, she told Barry Farrell, “Bogart’s been dead for 13 years. I’m still alive. I’ve got three kids and being a widow isn’t exactly a profession, you know.”
She also told Life Magazine, “APPLAUSE was preceded by 14 years of bad luck, I mean pretty desperately bad luck. Believe me, I’m due, I’m overdue.”
Despite Bacall’s tough façade, this very young press agent felt protective of this world-renowned film star and she sensed it. I would see flashes of her insecurity and vulnerability. She seemed both lonely and a loner to me. But she was 100% committed to making APPLAUSE a success and desperately wanted to do well in the musical. She took daily voice lessons before rehearsals began each day and continued to work with her vocal coach throughout the entire run. She knew she had a limited vocal range and that she was taking a big chance singing and dancing on Broadway. And she was playing Margo Channing, a role made famous on film by her childhood idol, Bette Davis.
She was easily hurt by thoughtless comments from fans or the press. I saw the ‘softie’ under the hard sarcastic shell and the withering scowl. And I always told her the truth. When she asked one of my associates in the Bill Doll office if something was done, he or she would automatically say “Yes” to avoid her scorn. But if she discovered it was NOT done, she would verbally rip them to shreds. When she asked me, I would respond “I don’t know. I’ll check and if it isn’t done, I’ll fix it.” I was no Eve Harrington, the back-stabbing opportunist in All About Eve. I was simply trying to be helpful and get things done.
Within weeks Bacall told APPLAUSE producers Joe Kipness and Larry Kasha that the only person she would deal with in the Bill Doll office was Susan Schulman. She literally refused to speak to any of the older, more experienced press agents. I was called into Bill’s office and informed I was to be the sole press agent handling APPLAUSE. It was unheard of for someone so young to be handling such a big Broadway musical but they must have thought I could do it and, with the arrogance of youth, so did I. So, thanks to Betty Bacall, at the age of 23, I was handling what became one of the biggest hit musicals on Broadway.
Bacall taught me that the star sets the tone for an entire company. If the star is mean-spirited and selfish, the other actors become defensive and feel they need to watch their backs. But if the star is up-beat and generous, people feel valued and appreciated and look out for each other. APPLAUSE was a happy company because backstage Betty Bacall assumed the role of Head Cheer Leader and Den Mother. Tough Betty disappeared as she walked through the Palace Theatre stage door and the cast and crew saw the kinder, gentler version. If someone was injured, they were immediately taken to Bacall’s dressing room couch where the star would be applying ice to their ankle while making appointments for them with her personal physician.
But she could be snarky with me too. A week before Christmas she gave me a lovely metallic choker necklace with dangling coins. I was thrilled to receive a gift from her and proudly wore it to the APPLAUSE Christmas party. When she saw me wearing it at the party, she was annoyed with me. It seems
she had bought the same necklace for all the women in the company but had not given them out yet. She felt I had jumped the gun by opening (and wearing) my gift early and had ruined the surprise of her gift to the others.
Bacall’s leading man in APPLAUSE was a young, good looking, classically-trained Canadian actor named Len Cariou who had previously appeared briefly on Broadway with the Guthrie Theatre Company. He was about 15 years younger than Bacall and knew APPLAUSE marked a big turning point in his career. In her autobiography, By Myself... and then some, Bacall wrote “Len was attractive and bright, a wonderful actor, a joy to work with. It was inevitable.”
Was Len just an opportunist or did he genuinely care for Betty? Clearly she cared for him. Bacall and Cariou tried to keep their relationship out of the press, often taking Lee Roy Reams and other cast members with them to distract the press. I spent a lot of time trying to discourage Earl Wilson from running juicy items about the cozy Broadway co-stars frequently seen out on the town together. Cariou always appeared friendly and attentive to Bacall although he continued living with Roberta Maxwell, a Canadian actress with whom he’d been involved for several years. At the start of every performance, he would come to Bacall’s dressing room and walk her upstairs to the stage before the overture began. After more than a year together, on stage and off, he took Bacall out for dinner after the show and told her he was leaving the company — he had another acting job. He did not call her for months after he left.
Len and Betty singing ‘One of a Kind’ in APPLAUSE.
(Photo credit: Freidman-Abeles)
When APPLAUSE was out of town, pre-Broadway, I received a call from Barbara Walters, wanting to interview Bacall for the Today Show. It is rare for a TV star like Walters to arrange an interview herself. Normally a producer, a talent coordinator or a booker schedules a celebrity interview. But Barbara Walters made the effort to find out who in the Bill Doll office was the contact for Bacall and APPLAUSE and called me directly. I asked Bacall if she wanted to do the Today Show, but she rolled her eyes and blew it off. Every week, I would receive a brief, friendly call from Walters, asking how I was doing with the interview. So every few weeks I’d remind Bacall of the Today Show request. I began to feel a vested interest in making this happen which was, of course, Walter’s intention. I felt we were a team. In her autobiography Audition, Walters writes she was known as the ‘Pushy Cookie’ for her relentless efforts to book key interviews. It worked. Together, we wore Bacall down and eventually she agreed to the Today Show interview.
I began arranging the logistics of taping a major TV show in her apartment at The Dakota. Would the aging electrical circuits in the venerable landmark building handle the TV lights, or would they need to bring in a generator? Could the ancient manual service elevator, which mysteriously ran on water power, support the weight of the cameras and lights we needed to bring up to Bacall’s apartment? What would she talk about and which subjects (like Bogie and Robards) would be taboo?
After the production crew had set up the lights and chosen the camera angles, Bacall appeared from her bedroom, looking gorgeous and anxious, sat in the carefully lit ‘guest’ chair and taped the interview. In Audition, Barbara Walters refers admiringly to what she called ‘Bacall’s tough candor’ during that interview, including a slap at Frank Sinatra, who had publicly dumped Bacall immediately after their engagement was announced. When the interview was over, Walters asked me if I would sit in for Bacall while she taped her cutaways or reaction shots which would be inserted into the interview in the editing room. So I sat, knee to knee with Barbara Walters, as she smiled, nodded and frowned at me, in complete silence, while the camera shot her from different angles over my shoulder.
When the segment aired on the Today Show it generated positive attention for Bacall, and sold a lot of tickets to APPLAUSE. A few days later I received a hand written note from Barbara Walters thanking me for making the Bacall interview happen. I’ve always felt that Walters’ tenacity and attention to detail, as well as her personal attention to the ‘little people,’ was partially responsible for her enormous success.
In later years, Bacall’s caustic tongue and defensive behavior became legendary on Broadway. During her next Broadway musical, Kander and Ebb’s WOMAN OF THE YEAR, again at the Palace Theatre, Bacall was so disliked by the producers, cast and crew, it was rumored they set her up for public humiliation. Evidently she demanded a vacation during the lucrative period between Christmas and New Year’s when tourists inflate the box office ‘take’ at every show on Broadway. No Broadway producer would voluntarily let the star out of a hit show over the holidays but Bacall insisted she needed and deserved a Christmas vacation.
So the producers hired Raquel Welch to fill in during Bacall’s two week Christmas vacation. Not only did Welch do many press interviews promoting her Broadway musical debut, she also delivered the goods on stage, received great reviews and sold tickets.
The sexy, ageless actress, who had always been something of a cinema joke, was instantly crowned a legitimate Broadway star who charmed audiences and critics alike. People who hadn’t cared about WOMAN OF THE YEAR now rushed to buy tickets during Welch’s limited run. It became an event. Between Welch’s own team, no shrinking violets in the publicity department, and the show’s press agents, everyone in the industry knew the musical was now selling out and that Bacall had done less than stellar business in the weeks running up to Christmas.
Of course, most Broadway shows see a drop in business in early December as people have other priorities like shopping and attending holiday parties. No one had bothered to share this simple but important fact with Bacall. Had she realized the traditionally low pre-Christmas business combined with the expected up tick in the box office between Christmas and New Years, would make her look bad (and make Welch appear more valuable to the producers), she might have altered her demands. But no one was watching her back and she wound up looking both selfish and diminished in the Broadway community.
The night Lauren Bacall and APPLAUSE both won Tony Awards® was ‘The Best Night of My Life’ (one of the songs in the show) for her, and pretty thrilling for me. In addition to APPLAUSE being my first big Broadway show, it was the first time I attended the Tony Awards®. That year the Tonys were hosted by Julie Andrews, Shirley MacLaine and Walter Matthau and included special awards to Barbra Streisand, The Lunts, and Noel Coward, the latter presented by Cary Grant. The show began with Bonnie Franklin leading the APPLAUSE cast singing the show’s title song and, later, Ron Field won two Tonys, for directing and choreographing APPLAUSE. It was OUR night.
At 10:45 PM Betty joyfully accepted her Tony as Best Actress in a Musical and joined the cast of APPLAUSE singing ‘Welcome to the Theatre’ as the finale of the Tony broadcast. I had to take her to the press room as soon as the broadcast ended, so I left my seat and went backstage during the finale. As the TV show ended, Bacall swept off stage of the Mark Hellinger Theatre, still in costume, and saw me standing in the wings — a friendly face. In her excitement, she grabbed my hand and wouldn’t let go. It was a cool spring night so I tossed my broadtail jacket over her shoulders and together we sprinted down the street to the Pyrenees Restaurant where members of the press were awaiting the Tony winners.
On arrival, we were greeted by Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Noel Coward and Cary Grant who had made an early exit from the theatre. As flashbulbs exploded, the glamorous, world-famous foursome graciously stood and applauded their friend Betty in her moment of triumph. Still clutching my hand, Betty turned to this impressive little group, inclined her head towards me and said, very casually, “You all know Susan Schulman.” They looked blankly at me, smiled and murmured, “Oh, yes ... of course ... so lovely to see you again,” before we moved on to greet the waiting press. Somewhere there is a photo of five international stage and film stars and one unknown ‘hanger on’ clasping Lauren Bacall’s hand. I’d pay cash money to have it.
Diane McAfee was originally cast to play Eve Harrigton in
the Broadway musical APPLAUSE. During the pre-Broadway tryout in Detroit, Diane was deemed to be too young and not a strong enough presence on stage to be a threat to Bacall’s Margo Channing. She was replaced in Baltimore, with just five days of rehearsal, by the more experienced Penny Fuller. But during rehearsals, Diane met and fell in love with Brandon Maggart, who played her lover in the musical. Diane married Brandon and they had two daughters — now the well-known singers Fiona Apple and Maude Maggart. Diane eventually played Eve in the National touring company of APPLAUSE opposite Patrice Munsel as Margo.
THE SHOW THAT KILLED ZERO MOSTEL
In 1977, The Shubert Organization, Roger Stevens, Eddie Kulukundis and Roger Berlind agreed to produce a new play by Arnold Wesker, called THE MERCHANT, to be directed by the renowned English stage director John Dexter, and starring Zero Mostel. Wesker’s play, using the character names and about half a dozen lines from THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, was intended to be an antidote to the perceived anti-Semitism of Shakespeare’s play. The producers felt this intelligent drama about important social and moral issues could become the ‘must-see’ cultural play of the season. It was a labor of love for Zero Mostel, the author and the producers. Merle Debuskey and I were hired as the press agents.
Mostel’s early acting career had been stalled by the anti-communist blacklist so he had pursued painting instead, eventually teaching art as a WPA artist. He still considered himself an artist first, an actor second. A brilliant if undisciplined actor, he was proud of his Jewish roots and felt this re-telling of the ‘pound of flesh’ story from Shylock’s perspective was worthy of his time and talents. Best known as the crooked producer in Mel Brooks’ film The Producers, Mostel had just completed a highly successful farewell tour of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, returning to the role that had made him a theatrical folk hero.
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