Read Online I Hated to Do It: Stories of a Life by Donald C. Farber - Free Book Online
Authors: Donald C. Farber
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television in daytime serials and Bob Hope specials, and one day she decided she had gone about as far as she could go in that area.
Miss Palmer, who had graduated from Manhattan Community College and studied at City College, enrolled at Brown, where she received a degree in theatre arts. She conceived a show that was to become
Shades of Harlem
, which ran for close to two hundred performances at the Village Gate.
Jeree married Adam Wade in 1989, and they have been performing together and producing another musical play. Adam Wade (born Patrick Henry Wade, March 17, 1935) is an American singer, drummer, and television actor. He is noted for his stint as the host of the 1975 CBS game show
Musical Chairs
, which made him the first African American game show host. He starred in the production
Guys and Dolls
in 1978 and hosted the talk show
Mid-Morning LA
.
Jeree and Adam are happily married and living in New Jersey.
The Fantasticks
The story of
The Fantasticks
and how it affected our lives is really fantastic. There are so many unbelievable parts of the story that one must suspend disbelief to accept some of the story. The little musical play ran for forty-two years at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in New York City. Opening night there were seven daily newspapers in the metropolitan area. We got clobbered, bombed by six, and our only rave review was written by a critic so drunk we threw him and his drunken girlfriend out at the end of the first act because they were disturbing the audience. I helped him out and into a cab, and he needed help. The dailies were not good but we got some raves from the weekly and monthly mags. But without the
New York Times
, it is one helluva job staying alive.
Want more? Opening night was a disaster in a lot of ways. We went to the ad agency of Blaine Thompson, who did 98 percent of the theatre ad work and got the reviews, raced to the home of Ed Wittstein, where there was a party (a crying session) in progress. Word Baker, the director, read the reviews amid the crying, and Harvey Sabinson, the most prestigious press agent of the time, put his arm on my shoulder and said, “Don, do Lore [the producer] a favor and tell him to close the show.” Of course we ran forty-two years at the Sullivan Street Playhouse and are still running in New York City on Broadway at 50th Street at the Snapple Theater. Every year after the opening night we had an anniversary party, and every year George Curley, who played the Indian in the original production, would remind Harvey what he said opening night, and every year, year after year, Harvey denied he said it. But he said it.
Want more? Before the show opened we were busy celebrating a birthday at a little party in Riverdale when I get a call from Lore about ten forty-five that night telling me that I have to get to the theatre immediately, the fire department says we can’t play because we have an extra seat in the theatre in violation of the fire laws. So we put together two carloads and race through a blinding rain, half-pickled, to get to the theatre and save the day, or in this case the night. Word Baker had this thing about doing midnight performances, and I had to get there so the show could go on.
We made it, and in my conciliatory fashion convinced the fire department to let us go on with the show since the show must go on in showbiz. When the curtain came down, Ira Kapp, the host of the party uptown, said he was so tired he slept through it, but feeling guilty said he was sorry that he did not get the chance to invest. To his then disappointment, I told him he could invest, and he and his business partner gave me the $330 for a 1 percent interest. To date, that investment, like all the rest in that amount, has paid off over $70,000, and Ira always says he should have given me the whole $330 himself.
Want more? Months before
The Fantasticks
entered our lives, this guy Noto called me and asked if I would represent him on a play he was producing. I
Miss Palmer, who had graduated from Manhattan Community College and studied at City College, enrolled at Brown, where she received a degree in theatre arts. She conceived a show that was to become
Shades of Harlem
, which ran for close to two hundred performances at the Village Gate.
Jeree married Adam Wade in 1989, and they have been performing together and producing another musical play. Adam Wade (born Patrick Henry Wade, March 17, 1935) is an American singer, drummer, and television actor. He is noted for his stint as the host of the 1975 CBS game show
Musical Chairs
, which made him the first African American game show host. He starred in the production
Guys and Dolls
in 1978 and hosted the talk show
Mid-Morning LA
.
Jeree and Adam are happily married and living in New Jersey.
The Fantasticks
The story of
The Fantasticks
and how it affected our lives is really fantastic. There are so many unbelievable parts of the story that one must suspend disbelief to accept some of the story. The little musical play ran for forty-two years at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in New York City. Opening night there were seven daily newspapers in the metropolitan area. We got clobbered, bombed by six, and our only rave review was written by a critic so drunk we threw him and his drunken girlfriend out at the end of the first act because they were disturbing the audience. I helped him out and into a cab, and he needed help. The dailies were not good but we got some raves from the weekly and monthly mags. But without the
New York Times
, it is one helluva job staying alive.
Want more? Opening night was a disaster in a lot of ways. We went to the ad agency of Blaine Thompson, who did 98 percent of the theatre ad work and got the reviews, raced to the home of Ed Wittstein, where there was a party (a crying session) in progress. Word Baker, the director, read the reviews amid the crying, and Harvey Sabinson, the most prestigious press agent of the time, put his arm on my shoulder and said, “Don, do Lore [the producer] a favor and tell him to close the show.” Of course we ran forty-two years at the Sullivan Street Playhouse and are still running in New York City on Broadway at 50th Street at the Snapple Theater. Every year after the opening night we had an anniversary party, and every year George Curley, who played the Indian in the original production, would remind Harvey what he said opening night, and every year, year after year, Harvey denied he said it. But he said it.
Want more? Before the show opened we were busy celebrating a birthday at a little party in Riverdale when I get a call from Lore about ten forty-five that night telling me that I have to get to the theatre immediately, the fire department says we can’t play because we have an extra seat in the theatre in violation of the fire laws. So we put together two carloads and race through a blinding rain, half-pickled, to get to the theatre and save the day, or in this case the night. Word Baker had this thing about doing midnight performances, and I had to get there so the show could go on.
We made it, and in my conciliatory fashion convinced the fire department to let us go on with the show since the show must go on in showbiz. When the curtain came down, Ira Kapp, the host of the party uptown, said he was so tired he slept through it, but feeling guilty said he was sorry that he did not get the chance to invest. To his then disappointment, I told him he could invest, and he and his business partner gave me the $330 for a 1 percent interest. To date, that investment, like all the rest in that amount, has paid off over $70,000, and Ira always says he should have given me the whole $330 himself.
Want more? Months before
The Fantasticks
entered our lives, this guy Noto called me and asked if I would represent him on a play he was producing. I
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