Read Online Backstage with Julia by Nancy Verde Barr - Free Book Online
Authors: Nancy Verde Barr
Ads: Link
required some assistance, since the crowds were usually too large for bookstore personnel to handle alone. A personal assistant at her side helped move the lines along by passing her the books already opened to the page she would sign. This seemingly minor expediency saved time and allowed Julia to concentrate on her fans until every person had a signature and a word with her, regardless of the fact that the lines inevitably wound out the door and around the block and the signings took hours. Someone recorded the bodies at one signing as fourteen hundred, and Julia stayed until the last smiling fan departed with a book inscribed, "Bon appétit! Julia Child." Of course, authors are expected to stay, but we did all gasp at stories of some who just up and left after a certain amount of time. Julia cared far too much for her audiences to allow them to shuffle slowly through a long line only to be left hanging with unsigned books. Besides, Julia was generally interested in people and loved hearing their stories. Initially I thought she engaged fans in conversation just for the show, but then sometime later in the day, or the week, she'd say something like, "Isn't it remarkable that the woman in the wheelchair went back to college with ten children at home and an infirm father to take care of?" Gosh! I hadn't picked up on that. But as in every crowd, some people just wore out their welcome, and when they lingered a bit too long in front of her, she artfully used her assistant to help graciously shuffle them away from the table. "That's fascinating," she would say to the fan. "Here, now tell [designated assistant] all about that," thereby forcing the lingerer to step out of line and redirect attention to the assistant.
It was at book signings and culinary gatherings that I realized one of Liz Bishop's most valuable assets as an assistantârunning interference. Since Julia believed that it was "part of the job" to speak to each fan who approached her, it was no easy task to get her from one end of a crowded room to the other. Some of those who approached her were friends, and Julia wanted to ask them about their families, or how their books, schools, or new shows were going. Others were strangers, but Julia felt no less need to give them her attention. Talking to everyone was impossible on those occasions when she was on a tight schedule, and that's where Liz came in. The two of them would perfectly orchestrate their moves through a crowd, with Julia smiling but not making eye contact with approaching fans and Liz close at her side, tersely reciting a litany of efficient brush-offs: "We are in a hurry. I have to get her to an appointment. We don't have time. Please let us pass." They did it so well.
A dog shows up to meet Julia at a book signing.
Julia essentially divided her assistants into East Coast and West Coast teams, and for all the years I worked with her, she varied and alternated the team players and their positions. No one ever participated in every Julia event. Sometimes a team member might fly to the working coast, but, being the practical, frugal person she was, she usually employed the person or people geographically closest to the job. In a letter she wrote to me from California a few months after I started at GMA, she described classes she had taught at Mondavi Vineyards and referred to Rosemary Manell as "my West Coast Liz." Rosie was more demure than Liz but, at six feet tall, probably more effective at blocking tactics. Since the GMA studios were in New York, I was part of the East Coast team. From April through June of 1981, when she suspended her taping until fall, that once-a-month gig and the one demonstration at De Gustibus were the only work I did with herâthe only direct involvement I had in the industry that was Julia Child Productions.
Then, early that summer, Sara was offered a chef's position at the New York restaurant La Tulipe to start the following October. Julia was delighted for her,
It was at book signings and culinary gatherings that I realized one of Liz Bishop's most valuable assets as an assistantârunning interference. Since Julia believed that it was "part of the job" to speak to each fan who approached her, it was no easy task to get her from one end of a crowded room to the other. Some of those who approached her were friends, and Julia wanted to ask them about their families, or how their books, schools, or new shows were going. Others were strangers, but Julia felt no less need to give them her attention. Talking to everyone was impossible on those occasions when she was on a tight schedule, and that's where Liz came in. The two of them would perfectly orchestrate their moves through a crowd, with Julia smiling but not making eye contact with approaching fans and Liz close at her side, tersely reciting a litany of efficient brush-offs: "We are in a hurry. I have to get her to an appointment. We don't have time. Please let us pass." They did it so well.
A dog shows up to meet Julia at a book signing.
Julia essentially divided her assistants into East Coast and West Coast teams, and for all the years I worked with her, she varied and alternated the team players and their positions. No one ever participated in every Julia event. Sometimes a team member might fly to the working coast, but, being the practical, frugal person she was, she usually employed the person or people geographically closest to the job. In a letter she wrote to me from California a few months after I started at GMA, she described classes she had taught at Mondavi Vineyards and referred to Rosemary Manell as "my West Coast Liz." Rosie was more demure than Liz but, at six feet tall, probably more effective at blocking tactics. Since the GMA studios were in New York, I was part of the East Coast team. From April through June of 1981, when she suspended her taping until fall, that once-a-month gig and the one demonstration at De Gustibus were the only work I did with herâthe only direct involvement I had in the industry that was Julia Child Productions.
Then, early that summer, Sara was offered a chef's position at the New York restaurant La Tulipe to start the following October. Julia was delighted for her,
Similar Books
