Mark Griffin (57 page)

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Authors: A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life,Films of Vincente Minnelli

Tags: #General, #Film & Video, #Performing Arts, #Motion Picture Producers and Directors, #Minnelli; Vincente, #Entertainment & Performing Arts, #United States, #Motion Picture Producers and Directors - United States, #Biography & Autobiography, #Individual Director, #Biography

BOOK: Mark Griffin
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9
Miles Krueger, interview with author, 2008.
10
Minnelli,
I Remember It Well
, 61.
11
Ibid., 62.
12
Ibid.
13
Kevin Thomas, “Minnelli Back on the Scene,”
Los Angeles Times
, February 14, 1969.
14
Steven Bach,
Dazzler: The Life and Times of Moss Hart
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001).
15
“Artist and Model,”
House Beautiful
, December 1938, 52-53; “‘A Girl Needs a Background: Lester Gaba Designed a Perfect One for Me’ Says Cynthia,”
House and Garden
, December 1941, 46- 47, 75, 84.
16
Morton Myles, interview with author.
17
Discovering America’s Past: Customs, Legends, History and Lore of Our Great Nation
(Pleasantville, NY: Reader’s Digest Association, 1993).
18
Lester Gaba,
The Art of Window Display
(New York: The Studio Publications, 1952).
19
Morton Myles, interview with author.
20
Troy, “Never Had a Lesson.”
21
Minnelli,
I Remember It Well
, 65.
22
Peter Keyes, interview with author, 2008.
4. “A NEW GENIUS RISES IN THE THEATER”
1
Lyrics from Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington, “Something to Live For,” 1939.
2
Jack Hurd, interview with author, 2007.
3
David Gerstner, interview with author.
4
The line comes directly from the show itself. A rare audio recording exists—the one I heard was a presentation of the Council for Musical Theatre and Global Distribution Records Ltd. (London/Los Angeles).
5
Letter from J. J. Shubert to William Klein, August 2, 1935; Kevin Thomas, “Minnelli Back on the Scene,”
Los Angeles Times
, February 14, 1969.
6
Beatrice Lillie, with John Philip and James Brough,
Every Other Inch a Lady
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1972).
7
“Prodigy,”
The New Yorker
, October 12, 1935.
8
Elliot Norton, “‘At Home Abroad’ Real Hit,”
Boston Post
, September 4, 1935.
9
“The Play: Beatrice Lillie and Ethel Waters in a Musical Travelogue Entitled ‘At Home Abroad,’”
New York Times
, September 20, 1935; “Name Your Poison,”
The New Yorker
, n.d.
10
Vincente Minnelli, with Hector Arce,
I Remember It Well
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974), 31, 40.
11
Vernon Duke,
Passport to Paris
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1955).
12
Quoted in the liner notes of the Decca Broadway Original Cast Album of
Ziegfeld Follies of 1936
, released by Universal in 2002.
13
Norton, “‘At Home Abroad’ Real Hit.”
14
Elliot Norton, Profile of Minnelli, n.d.; Minnelli,
I Remember It Well
, 81.
15
Minnelli,
I Remember It Well
.
16
Minnelli,
I Remember It Well
.
17
Shubert Theatre press release for “The Show Is On,” by C. P. Greneker.
18
“His Old Dream of ‘Cock-Eyed’ Show Is True,”
New York Tribune
, December 20, 1936; Beatrice Lillie, “aided and abetted by John Philip, written with James Brough,”
Every Other Inch a Lady: An Autobiography
(New York: W. H. Allen, 1973).
19
John Lahr,
Notes on a Cowardly Lion: The Biography of Bert Lahr
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969).
20
R. Bobby, interview with author.
21
William A. H. Birnie, “A Chorine Thought and Was Wrong,”
World Telegram
, November 14, 1936.
22
Minnelli,
I Remember It Well
.
23
Letter from Vincente Minnelli to E. Y. Harburg, April 11, 1936 (courtesy of the Yip Harburg Foundation).
24
Helen Eager, “A New Genius Rises in the Theater,”
Boston Traveler
, 1936.
5. A SMALL BUT EXQUISITE TALENT
1
Vincente Minnelli, with Hector Arce,
I Remember It Well
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974).
2
James Aswell, “My New York,”
Hammond Times
, November 10, 1937, 26.
3
Minnelli,
I Remember It Well
.
4
Elinor Hughes, “The Theater: Ed Wynn’s New Vehicle Good-Natured Satire on League of Nations,”
Boston Herald
, October 31, 1937, 6.
5
Hugh Martin, interview with author.
6
“News of the Stage,”
New York Times
, September 20, 1938.
7
Eve Arden,
Three Phases of Eve
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985).
8
John Leggett, interview with author.
9
Minnelli,
I Remember It Well
.
6. “A PIECE OF GOOD LUCK”
1
Marsha Hunt, interview with author.
2
Hugh Fordin, interview with author.
3
Betty Comden, interview with author.
4
Richard Schickel, interview with author; Betty Garrett, interview with author.
5
Barbara Freed Saltzman, interview with author.
6
Ibid.
7
Hugh Fordin,
The World of Entertainment: Hollywood’s Greatest Musicals
(New York: Doubleday, 1975).
8
Musicals Great Musicals: The Arthur Freed Unit at MGM
, 1996, Alternate Current, NHK, Thirteen/ WNET, and Turner Entertainment in association with BBC Television and La Sept Arte, produced by Margaret Smilow, directed by David Thompson, released through Warner Home Video.
9
Frank Lysinger, interview with author.
10
Jess Gregg, interview with author.
11
Michael Feinstein, interview with author, 2003.
12
Musicals Great Musicals.
13
Matthew Tinkcom, interview with author.
14
Jess Gregg, interview with author.
15
The Horne quote is from the documentary
That’s Entertainment! III
, directed by Bud Friedgen and Michael J. Sheridan, MGM/Turner Entertainment, 1994; Hilary Knight, interview with author.
16
Fordin,
The World of Entertainment
.
17
Vincente Minnelli, with Hector Arce,
I Remember It Well
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974).
18
Ibid.
19
Ibid.
20
Ibid.
21
Ibid.
22
Judy: Beyond the Rainbow
, documentary initially broadcast on the A&E Network in 1997, produced by John Fricke.
23
Jess Gregg, interview with author.
24
Judi Blacque, interview with author.
7. “HONEY IN THE HONEYCOMB”
1
Vincente Minnelli, with Hector Arce,
I Remember It Well
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974).
2
Gail Lumet Buckley,
The Hornes: An American Family
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1986).
3
Horne’s quotes are taken from her audio commentary on the Warner Home Video DVD version of
Cabin in the Sky
.
4
Minnelli,
I Remember It Well
; Ethel Waters,
Her Eye Is on the Sparrow
(New York: Doubleday, 1950).
5
Buckley,
The Hornes
.
6
Waters,
Her Eye Is on the Sparrow
.
7
Buckley,
The Hornes
.
8
Hollywood Reporter
, February 10, 1943;
New York Times
, May 28, 1943. Both are quoted in Hugh Fordin,
The World of Entertainment: Hollywood’s Greatest Musicals
(New York: Doubleday, 1975).
9
Charlene Regester, interview with author.
10
Eva Anderson, interview with author.
11
David Gerstner, interview with author.
12
Time
, November 24, 1943.
8. 5135 KENSINGTON AVENUE
1
Irving Brecher, interview with author.
2
Irving Brecher, interview with author.
3
Ibid.
4
Ibid.
5
Vincente Minnelli, with Hector Arce,
I Remember It Well
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974).
6
Margaret O’Brien, interview with author.
7
Gerald Kaufman,
BFI Film Classics:
Meet Me in St. Louis (BFI, 1994).
8
Minnelli,
I Remember It Well
.
9
Mary Astor,
A Life on Film
(New York: Delacorte Press, 1967).
10
June Lockhart, interview with author.
11
Hugh Martin, interview with author, 1998.
12
Ibid.
13
Meredith Ponedel, interview with author.
14
John Meyer, interview with author.
15
Author interviews with June Lockhart, Meredith Ponedel, and Hank Moonjean.
16
Darryl Hickman, interview with author.
17
John Fricke, interview with author.
18
MGM memo from Margaret Booth to Vincente Minnelli, March 2, 1944, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, California.
19
Irving Brecher, interview with author.
20
Howard Barnes, review of
Meet Me in St. Louis
,
New York Herald Tribune
, November 29, 1944; Bosley Crowther, review of
Meet Me in St. Louis
,
New York Times
, November 29, 1944.
9. “A JOY FOREVER, A SWEET ENDEAVOR . . .”
1
Leonard Stanley, interview with author.
2
Howard Thompson,
Fred Astaire: A Pictorial Treasury of His Films
(New York: Crescent Books, 1970); Vincente Minnelli, with Hector Arce,
I Remember It Well
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974).
3
Matthew Tinkcom interview with author.
4
William Fadiman, “Minnelli Remembers When: Memoirs of Make Believe,”
Los Angeles Times
, September 6, 1974.
5
Peter Lehman, Marilyn Campbell, and Grant Munro, “Two Weeks in Another Town: An Interview with Vincente Minnelli,”
Wide Angle
3, no. 1 (1979).
6
Joe Morella and Edward Z. Epstein,
Judy: The Films and Career of Judy Garland
(Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press, 1969); Christopher Finch,
Rainbow: The Stormy Life of Judy Garland
(New York: Ballantine Books, 1975).
7
David Ehrenstein, interview with author.
8
Hugh Fordin,
The World of Entertainment: Hollywood’s Greatest Musicals
(New York: Doubleday, 1975), 140.
9
Minnelli,
I Remember It Well
; Gerald Clarke,
Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland
(New York: Random House, 2000).
10. “IF I HAD YOU”
1
Hugh Fordin,
The World of Entertainment: Hollywood’s Greatest Musicals
(New York: Doubleday, 1975).
2
John Meyer, interview with author.
3
John Fricke,
Judy Garland: A Portrait in Art and Anecdote
(New York: Bulfinch, 2003).
4
Vincente Minnelli, with Hector Arce,
I Remember It Well
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974).
5
Ibid.; Fordin,
The World of Entertainment
.
6
Minnelli,
I Remember It Well
.
7
Learning from Performers
, audio recording of Vincente Minnelli at Harvard University, recorded on November 10-15, 1980, at Carpenter Center.
8
Gloria Marlen, interview with author.
9
Time
, May 14, 1945.
10
Manny Farber, “Dream Furlough,”
New Republic
, May 21, 1945.
11
Joyce Haber, “Vincente Minnelli Remembers It Well . . . Some of It, Anyway,”
Los Angeles Times
, September 29, 1974.
11. DADA, DALI, AND TECHNICOLOR
1
Judi Blacque, interview with author.
2
Lee Server,
Screenwriter: Words Become Pictures
(Pittstown, NJ: Main Street Press, 1987).
3
Aljean Harmetz,
The Making of
The Wizard of Oz (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977).
4
Clive Hirschhorn, interview with author.
5
Gerald Clarke,
Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland
(New York: Random House, 2000).
6
Hilary Knight, interview with author.
7
Margaret Whiting, interview with author.
8
Vincente Minnelli, interview with Richard Schickel for
The Men Who Made the Movies
, produced by WNET/13, aired November 4, 1973, on the Public Broadcasting Service.
9
Bob Claunch, interview with author.
12. UNDERCURRENT
1
Vincente Minnelli, with Hector Arce,
I Remember It Well
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974).
2
Ibid.
3
Jayne Meadows Allen, interview with author.
4
Jeanine Basinger, interview with author.
5
Time
magazine review, November 1946.
6
Jayne Meadows Allen, interview with author.

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