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Authors: William V. Madison
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raves from Judith Crist (first at the
New York Herald Tribune
, then at the
Times
), the two record albums, and a few television appearances, including those on
The Today Show
and
TheEd Sullivan Show
. But Madeline never saw the revues as a permanent or even lasting gig, and as soon as Aberlin and Flagg left
Just for Openers
, she began looking for other options.
One came from David Hoffman, her friend from Hofstra. Already a budding filmmaker in college, Hoffman would go on to make award-winning documentaries. In 1967, he’d been hired to co-direct an industrial film for Metropolitan Life Insurance. Intended for insurance agents, medical professionals, and patients,
A Song of Arthur, or How Arthur Changed His Tune and Solved a Weighty Problem
addressed the diet of a suburban father. To keep things lively, it was through-composed, with every line of dialogue sung to music and lyrics by Stan Freeman. The role of Arthur’s wife isn’t large, but it involves some comedy, and Hoffman considered the score “operatic.” He immediately thought of Madeline.
They shot on Long Island in winter, 1967. On the set, Hoffman found Madeline easy to work with. He still considered her extremely attractive, though she seemed no more interested in men than she had seemed at Hofstra. On screen, she looks quite chubby, and her character, like Arthur, goes on a diet. Despite Madeline’s persistent concerns about her appearance, she recognized the movie’s value as a promotional tool. For the next few years, she used it to demonstrate her proficiency both as a screen actor and as a singer. 27
Her next break came not from
A Song of Arthur
, but at the Upstairs several months later. “What you hoped for in those shows,” she told James Gavin, “was that [Broadway producer] David Merrick would come in and say, ‘Have I got a part for you!’ And that’s exactly what happened.” As New York’s cabaret scene faltered, unable to compete with television, rock‘n’roll, and turbulent social change, “It was the right time to leave,” she said. “I had gotten in right under the wire. I felt, ‘This is gonna end soon.’ I didn’t miss it.”
-7-
Pink-Slipped
How Now, Dow Jones
(1967)
MADELINE’S REMARKABLY BAD LUCK IN BROADWAY MUSICALS STARTED with her first. A swinging, topical farce,
How Now, Dow Jones
featured a book by Max Shulman (best known for
Dobie Gillis
), lyrics by Carolyn Leigh (
Wildcat, Little Me
, and many of Frank Sinatra’s best-known songs), and music by Elmer Bernstein (fresh from his Oscar for the score to
Thoroughly Modern Millie
). The plot, which Leigh suggested, focuses on a young woman who works on Wall Street and whose boyfriend refuses to marry her until the Dow Jones average tops one thousand; naturally, she winds up with someone else. Produced by David Merrick and bound for Broadway,
How Now
stopped first in Boston.
Brenda Vaccaro played the lead, “and I played this extraneous nurse,” Madeline told an interviewer in 1973. “I really didn’t know why they needed me. I had nothing to do. But David Merrick kept saying I was great and that he would build the part up. So I relaxed and did my job.” But after the last performance at the Colonial Theatre, Madeline was handed an envelope. “I jokingly said: ‘What’s this—a pink slip?’ And that’s what it was. It was pink and it was a slip saying, ‘Services no longer required.’ I couldn’t speak. My heart stopped.” 28
Vaccaro and another cast member, George Coe, offer more details. Director Arthur Penn hired Madeline to play a character called Miss Whipple; she was also Vaccaro’s understudy. Madeline “was just funny, if you can picture her as a young woman, in a nurse’s costume,” says Coe. An Upstairs veteran who would figure several more times in Madeline’s career, he remembers a solo number for Miss Whipple called “Rich Is Better.” The song isn’t listed in a playbill from later in the Boston run. At that point,
New York Herald Tribune
, then at the
Times
), the two record albums, and a few television appearances, including those on
The Today Show
and
TheEd Sullivan Show
. But Madeline never saw the revues as a permanent or even lasting gig, and as soon as Aberlin and Flagg left
Just for Openers
, she began looking for other options.
One came from David Hoffman, her friend from Hofstra. Already a budding filmmaker in college, Hoffman would go on to make award-winning documentaries. In 1967, he’d been hired to co-direct an industrial film for Metropolitan Life Insurance. Intended for insurance agents, medical professionals, and patients,
A Song of Arthur, or How Arthur Changed His Tune and Solved a Weighty Problem
addressed the diet of a suburban father. To keep things lively, it was through-composed, with every line of dialogue sung to music and lyrics by Stan Freeman. The role of Arthur’s wife isn’t large, but it involves some comedy, and Hoffman considered the score “operatic.” He immediately thought of Madeline.
They shot on Long Island in winter, 1967. On the set, Hoffman found Madeline easy to work with. He still considered her extremely attractive, though she seemed no more interested in men than she had seemed at Hofstra. On screen, she looks quite chubby, and her character, like Arthur, goes on a diet. Despite Madeline’s persistent concerns about her appearance, she recognized the movie’s value as a promotional tool. For the next few years, she used it to demonstrate her proficiency both as a screen actor and as a singer. 27
Her next break came not from
A Song of Arthur
, but at the Upstairs several months later. “What you hoped for in those shows,” she told James Gavin, “was that [Broadway producer] David Merrick would come in and say, ‘Have I got a part for you!’ And that’s exactly what happened.” As New York’s cabaret scene faltered, unable to compete with television, rock‘n’roll, and turbulent social change, “It was the right time to leave,” she said. “I had gotten in right under the wire. I felt, ‘This is gonna end soon.’ I didn’t miss it.”
-7-
Pink-Slipped
How Now, Dow Jones
(1967)
MADELINE’S REMARKABLY BAD LUCK IN BROADWAY MUSICALS STARTED with her first. A swinging, topical farce,
How Now, Dow Jones
featured a book by Max Shulman (best known for
Dobie Gillis
), lyrics by Carolyn Leigh (
Wildcat, Little Me
, and many of Frank Sinatra’s best-known songs), and music by Elmer Bernstein (fresh from his Oscar for the score to
Thoroughly Modern Millie
). The plot, which Leigh suggested, focuses on a young woman who works on Wall Street and whose boyfriend refuses to marry her until the Dow Jones average tops one thousand; naturally, she winds up with someone else. Produced by David Merrick and bound for Broadway,
How Now
stopped first in Boston.
Brenda Vaccaro played the lead, “and I played this extraneous nurse,” Madeline told an interviewer in 1973. “I really didn’t know why they needed me. I had nothing to do. But David Merrick kept saying I was great and that he would build the part up. So I relaxed and did my job.” But after the last performance at the Colonial Theatre, Madeline was handed an envelope. “I jokingly said: ‘What’s this—a pink slip?’ And that’s what it was. It was pink and it was a slip saying, ‘Services no longer required.’ I couldn’t speak. My heart stopped.” 28
Vaccaro and another cast member, George Coe, offer more details. Director Arthur Penn hired Madeline to play a character called Miss Whipple; she was also Vaccaro’s understudy. Madeline “was just funny, if you can picture her as a young woman, in a nurse’s costume,” says Coe. An Upstairs veteran who would figure several more times in Madeline’s career, he remembers a solo number for Miss Whipple called “Rich Is Better.” The song isn’t listed in a playbill from later in the Boston run. At that point,
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