Read Online My Life as a Mankiewicz by Tom Mankiewicz - Free Book Online

Howard Dietz were solid and easily flowing with only a few forced, wince- inducing rhymes. The cast was superb. It included the great tenor Richard Tucker, the popular and beautiful coloratura Patrice Munsel, and Robert Merrill, the reigning lyric baritone of his day, forever famous in New York for his full-throated version of the National Anthem at Yankee Stadium. All forms of theater have their own particular conventions, as Dad quickly found out when he was led onto the stage and joined the cast for a standing ovation. He looked down into the orchestra pit and gestured for the conductor, Alberto Erede, to join them.
    â€œAlberto!” he called out. “Come up, Alberto!” Erede didn't budge.
    Merrill leaned in and yelled into Dad's ear: “He answers to Maestro!”
    Dad yelled, “Maestro!” gesturing again. Erede came up at once.
    Dad's production of La Bohème lasted for more than a decade at the Met. It had wonderful, modern, and inventive directorial touches. Merrill tried to get him to direct a production of Otello in which he was to play Iago, but Dad decided to quit opera while he was ahead. Next stop, Broadway? It never happened. Despite his near worship for the theater, only a few faint attempts materialized. According to Moss Hart, when he visited his dear friend and coplaywright George S. Kaufman, who was terminally ill in the hospital, Kaufman looked at him and said, “Don't worry, I'm not going to die until Joe Mankiewicz writes his first play.”
    When Moss Hart was directing the classic musical My Fair Lady , he gave a young actress what I consider to be the ultimate piece of direction. She played one of the maids who greeted Julie Andrews when she returned triumphantly from the ball and sang “I Could Have Danced All Night.” They were out of town, putting the number on its feet for the first time. Moss told the maids, “You can fuss about her as the music begins, then gradually make your way out through the side doors, leaving Julie alone to sing.”
    One of the maids was a through-and-through Method actress, the Actors Studio being all the rage then. “But I wouldn't leave,” she told Moss. “I'd want to hear all about it. I'd have no motivation to go.”
    Moss said he understood her point, but Miss Andrews was going to be alone onstage for the number, so she'd better find her motivation.
    â€œI don't think I can,” the actress replied.
    â€œI forget,” said Moss. “How much are we paying you a week?”
    â€œOne hundred fifty dollars,” came the reply.
    â€œAhhhh,” he said. “There's your motivation!”
    Prep School
    Chris was already attending Lawrenceville. My grades at St. Bernard's were excellent and the school's reputation as a prep school feeder immaculate, so I pretty much had my pick and settled on Philip's Exeter Academy. It was the classic New England prep school nestled in a small New Hampshire town. Unlike some young teens who are apprehensive leaving home, I welcomed the prospect eagerly, with a real sense of relief. Exeter became my safe place where I could make new friends and develop myself in private, at my own speed.
    Exeter was a happy, creative, and constructive time for me. As I mentioned earlier, my cousin Josie was attending Wellesley College and I could go down to Boston (it was only one hour by train) to see her. The work was challenging enough to make it interesting. I sucked at math or any kind of science but was a star in English, French, Latin, and History. I joined the school Dramatic Club and costarred in a production of Gore Vidal's Visit to a Small Planet. Gore, himself an Exeter graduate, actually came up to see the production and was quite complimentary to me. He couldn't have known at the time, but he would be adapting Tennessee Williams's Suddenly, Last Summer for Dad in a few years, and I would be the “production associate” (glorified gofer) on his screen