Read Online I Hated to Do It: Stories of a Life by Donald C. Farber - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Donald C. Farber
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had met him when I represented Bob Socol, who bought an advertising agency from Lore Noto. So I said yes. Didn’t know a thing about theatre law, and I muddled through the legal work and the opening of an Off-Broadway play entitled
The Failures
, which it was, starring Albert Salmi. A few months later I got another call from Lore, this time telling me I should get to the Minor Latham Playhouse at Barnard to see a run-through of a little musical called
Joy Comes to Deadhorse
.
Annie and I hurried to Barnard that night; for Annie it was a trip from the suburbs to a long-ago life since she was a Barnard grad. Susan Watson was supposed to sing the ingenue part, but since she had laryngitis, a guy by the name of Harvey Schmidt played the piano and sang the part both. Susan Watson shortly afterward became the star of
Bye Bye Birdie
and we lost her as a star of this little musical.
I guess there were several persons who wanted to produce this musical play, and Harvey, who wrote the music and was responsible for the wonderful script in the title, later told me the reason they went with Lore was that he came to the reading in a white suit with his attorney. I was the attorney.
Lore set about immediately making this one-act play into a two-act play, and the name was changed to
The Fantasticks
. I remember sitting around the apartment of Tom and Harvey with Harvey at the piano and suggestions coming from Jerry Orbach, Kenny Nelson, and Rita Gardner, but the additions were all Tom’s and Harvey’s.
Theatre Law?
What did I know about theatre law? Answer:
nothing
. I didn’t know there was such a thing, although I did muddle through the documents for
The Failures
. Now Bob Montgomery from the firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind and I had to put together some real documents for this little musical. Bear in mind that when it came to theatre law, Bob Montgomery was an expert on Broadway and I was expert on nothing to do with theatre law. Together, over fifty years ago, Bob and I cobbled together some agreements that are used almost verbatim today for all Off-Broadway productions, with only minor changes.
So the play opened in May of 1960 and the summer was rough. The thing that saved us was the entertainment gang, the cast and crew in showbiz, all of whom loved the show. On some nights after opening during that summer, the only ones in the audience were a few people and the seven-year-old and nine-year-old who lived in the building and Annie and me. After eighty-two performances and a load of scotch each night starting at six thirty and ending at two thirty a.m. and driving home to Merrick, LI, pickled (except the one night we were too drunk and Tom Jones made us stay at his place on 74th Street in the city), it became obvious that if we were going to be in this theatre business, we would have to move to the city. It was just a question of time before I would wrap the car, with us in it, around a telephone pole.
The next weekend I went to the city, hocked my life insurance, and bought an apartment on 75th Street off Madison Avenue. That was over fifty years ago. We raised our children there and are still living there. When we bought the apartment, the Whitney Museum was just a hole in the ground and was built after we became city dwellers.
We loved
The Fantasticks
. In fact, obviously a lot of people must have loved it and still do. It played all over the world, and as I said, it is still running on 50th and Broadway in New York City.
Janice Mars
One of the people who saw
The Fantasticks
and wanted to promote it was Janice Mars. I debated with Janice, who was Janice Marks at Lincoln High School. When she came to New York and became Janice Mars, she also became friendly with Marlon Brando, Tennessee Williams, and Maureen Stapleton, who together financed the Baq Room, a dingy nightclub on Avenue of the Americas in the 50s in New York City. She was also a popular method chanteuse, as this hideaway was frequented into the late morning hours
The Failures
, which it was, starring Albert Salmi. A few months later I got another call from Lore, this time telling me I should get to the Minor Latham Playhouse at Barnard to see a run-through of a little musical called
Joy Comes to Deadhorse
.
Annie and I hurried to Barnard that night; for Annie it was a trip from the suburbs to a long-ago life since she was a Barnard grad. Susan Watson was supposed to sing the ingenue part, but since she had laryngitis, a guy by the name of Harvey Schmidt played the piano and sang the part both. Susan Watson shortly afterward became the star of
Bye Bye Birdie
and we lost her as a star of this little musical.
I guess there were several persons who wanted to produce this musical play, and Harvey, who wrote the music and was responsible for the wonderful script in the title, later told me the reason they went with Lore was that he came to the reading in a white suit with his attorney. I was the attorney.
Lore set about immediately making this one-act play into a two-act play, and the name was changed to
The Fantasticks
. I remember sitting around the apartment of Tom and Harvey with Harvey at the piano and suggestions coming from Jerry Orbach, Kenny Nelson, and Rita Gardner, but the additions were all Tom’s and Harvey’s.
Theatre Law?
What did I know about theatre law? Answer:
nothing
. I didn’t know there was such a thing, although I did muddle through the documents for
The Failures
. Now Bob Montgomery from the firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind and I had to put together some real documents for this little musical. Bear in mind that when it came to theatre law, Bob Montgomery was an expert on Broadway and I was expert on nothing to do with theatre law. Together, over fifty years ago, Bob and I cobbled together some agreements that are used almost verbatim today for all Off-Broadway productions, with only minor changes.
So the play opened in May of 1960 and the summer was rough. The thing that saved us was the entertainment gang, the cast and crew in showbiz, all of whom loved the show. On some nights after opening during that summer, the only ones in the audience were a few people and the seven-year-old and nine-year-old who lived in the building and Annie and me. After eighty-two performances and a load of scotch each night starting at six thirty and ending at two thirty a.m. and driving home to Merrick, LI, pickled (except the one night we were too drunk and Tom Jones made us stay at his place on 74th Street in the city), it became obvious that if we were going to be in this theatre business, we would have to move to the city. It was just a question of time before I would wrap the car, with us in it, around a telephone pole.
The next weekend I went to the city, hocked my life insurance, and bought an apartment on 75th Street off Madison Avenue. That was over fifty years ago. We raised our children there and are still living there. When we bought the apartment, the Whitney Museum was just a hole in the ground and was built after we became city dwellers.
We loved
The Fantasticks
. In fact, obviously a lot of people must have loved it and still do. It played all over the world, and as I said, it is still running on 50th and Broadway in New York City.
Janice Mars
One of the people who saw
The Fantasticks
and wanted to promote it was Janice Mars. I debated with Janice, who was Janice Marks at Lincoln High School. When she came to New York and became Janice Mars, she also became friendly with Marlon Brando, Tennessee Williams, and Maureen Stapleton, who together financed the Baq Room, a dingy nightclub on Avenue of the Americas in the 50s in New York City. She was also a popular method chanteuse, as this hideaway was frequented into the late morning hours
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