Pink Triangle: The Feuds and Private Lives of Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal, Truman Capote, and Famous Members of Their Entourages (Blood Moon's Babylon Series) (124 page)

Tennessee convinced Newman that he should sign a contract to star in
Sweet Bird of Youth
on Broadway. Asked to comment on his return to the New York stage, Newman said, “You wake up in the middle of the night and find yourself drenched in sweat. You have this terrible fear that your fraud will be discovered, and you’ll be back in the dog kennel business. That’s why it’s good to work on Broadway as well as in Hollywood. You know you’ll get the hell kicked out of you once in a while, but if you don’t you’ll fall back on a lot of tried-and-true tricks an actor always has stashed away in his pocket.”

Unknown to Newman at the time, Tennessee had first shown the play to Marlon Brando. After reading the script about the doomed hustler—a gigolo servicing the physical and emotional needs of a faded movie star—Brando flew to Key West to discuss his possible involvement. He later dropped out after being told that producer Cheryl Crawford and director Elia Kazan really wanted “pretty boy Newman” in the role.

Brando later regretted that he didn’t pursue the role of Chance Wayne more aggressively. “I know more about hustling than Newman,” he said. He also regretted not having appeared in the film version of
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
opposite Elizabeth Taylor. “I know more about being a homosexual than Newman,” he said. “It’s very clear to me that Tennessee modeled Alexandra del Lago after Tallulah. I surely know how to appear opposite Tallulah better than Newman does. Besides, I hear my prick is bigger than his.”

For the role of Alexandra Del Lago (aka Princess Kosmonopolis), Tennessee first offered the part to his dear friend, Anna Magnani, whom he’d visited in Rome. Producer Cheryl Crawford later said, “Tenn must have been on something at the time. Magnani is all wrong for the part. The role calls for an American star, and the Hollywood Hills is full of women who can play has-been actresses: Lana Turner, Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, Lauren Bacall—the list is long, indeed.”

Magnani had never viewed a Newman film, and she demanded to see an image of him. Frank Merlo, Tennessee’s longtime companion, found a publicity shot of Newman and presented it to the Italian diva. She studied it seriously for a moment and then ripped it to shreds. “No! No! No!” she shouted at Tennessee. “I can’t play with this man. There is no poetry in his face.”

After Magnani wisely turned down the role, Tennessee presented it to Tallulah. After all, he’d written the part with her in mind. She read the script and told Tennessee that she’d seriously consider it. Immediately she wanted to know what actor would be cast as the gigolo opposite her. “Not Marlon Brando!” she yelled at Tennessee, puffing furiously on a cigarette. “I will never work with that bastard again.”

“No, it’s not Marlon. I want that divine creature, Paul Newman, to play Chance opposite you. His golden velvet body was designed by God herself to grace pink satin sheets.”

“I must meet this Apollo,” she said. “I’ve only seen one of his movies,
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
. After seeing him shirtless, I decided I must have him. After all, I went to Hollywood with only one purpose in mind—not to make those stupid movies I did, but to fuck that divine Gary Cooper. Why don’t you arrange for me to meet God’s new wonder? Have you had him yet,
dah-ling
?”

“Not yet, Princess,” he said, “but Bill Inge has. If Inge can get Newman, so can I. I’ll place a hundred dollar bet with you that before
Sweet Bird
ends its run, I will have had him.”

“You’re on,
dah-ling
” she said. “I like bets. My whole life is a bet. Right now I’m betting against the clock. What perfect type casting
Sweet Bird
will be for me. A fading has-been of an actress. Look at me,
dah-ling
. I used to be Tallulah Bankhead.”

To his friends at Actors Studio, Newman recalled his first meeting with Tallulah in her apartment. After being introduced to him by Tennessee, she went right to the point. “How big is your cock,
dah-ling
?”

“That’s for you to find out later tonight,” Newman said.

“A promise I will hold you to,” she said. “Come in, dear one. I’m already seven drinks ahead of you pansies.”

“I’m not a pansy,” Newman protested. “I’m a happily married man.”

“Oh, please,
dah-ling
, people are eating,” she said. “Sit down and tell me all about your divine self. I’m especially interested as to why you haven’t put out yet for my devoted friend here. After all, he wrote your greatest part in that
Cat
movie, and I think you’d owe him one.”

Trying to be as sophisticated as this worldly pair, Newman looked over at Tennessee. “I do owe you one,” he said. “But you can only have me from the neck down—and not tonight.” He glanced toward Tallulah. “It appears that I’m going to be booked up this evening.”

For three hours, Tallulah amused Newman and Tennessee with her quick wit and drunken charm.

“Oh, God,
dah-ling
,” she said. “I’ve had everybody from Hattie McDaniel to John Barrymore. I struck out with Ethel Barrymore, however. When I propositioned her, she slapped my face.”

As she went on and the drinking continued, she said, “I’ve tried several varieties of sex. The conventional position makes me claustrophobic, and all the other positions give me either a stiff neck or lockjaw.”

By one o’clock in the morning, both Tennessee and Newman were ready to leave. As they rose to bid her good night, Tallulah urged Tennessee “go run along into the night,
dah-ling
. I know you’re meeting up with this new kid on the block—Warren Beatty, I think that’s his name. He’s going to appear in Bill Inge’s
A Loss of Roses
. He also wants to audition for you. Good luck tonight. This Warren Beatty sounds divine.”

Newman started to leave with Tennessee but Tallulah possessively grabbed his arm. “Not you,
dah-ling
. Tonight you’re going to experience firsthand what brought such enchantment to Sir Winston Churchill.”

***

Tallulah later claimed she’d turned down the role and the chance to star opposite Newman in
Sweet Bird of Youth
because she’d already committed to an involvement in
Crazy October
, a play written by her friend James Leo Herlihy. Her co-stars would be Estelle Winwood and Joan Blondell. Even though Herlihy graciously offered to tear up her contract, she said she felt that “would not be right. If anything,
dah-ling
, Tallulah is loyal to her friends,” she said.

The pivotal role eventually went to Geraldine Page, Newman’s close friend from the Actors Studio.

Years later, Herlihy told Darwin Porter, “I think Tallulah was afraid to go on the stage as Alexandra Del Lago. Tennessee had modeled the character on her, and she would have been better in the part. Let’s face it: Tallulah is a debauched, drug-addicted ex-film queen, and Geraldine is not.”

“With Paul Newman and Tallulah Bankhead starring in the same play, those two would have had theater-goers lined up for blocks,” Herlihy predicted.

One afternoon at the Actors Studio, Newman told Rod Steiger and Lee Strasberg, “In Tennessee’s play, I’m a male whore. Guess who is giving me tips on how to play the character? Steve McQueen. In his teenage years, he had a lot of experience selling his meat to guys.”

For the play, Kazan had assembled what was perhaps the most talented cast on Broadway during its 1959 season. Although she’d been considered too young for the part, Geraldine settled beautifully into the role of Alexandra Del Lago.

Even during rehearsals, she electrified the cast with her interpretation of this boozing, washed-up actress. Vain, insecure, and desperate, she played it with raw emotion, and she would well deserve the award she eventually won for her interpretation—a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama.

Diana Hyland played Heavenly Finely, Chance’s former girlfriend. In the play, Chance takes Alexandra Del Lago back to his hometown in Florida to hook up with Heavenly again. But before leaving town, he’d infected her with a venereal disease, forcing her to have a hysterectomy.

Heavenly is the daughter of Boss Finley, a brutal figure who rules the town. The role was played on the stage by veteran actor Sidney Blackmer. Rip Torn, who would later take over the role of Chance, was cast as Boss Finley’s son and Chance’s avowed enemy.

Torn and Geraldine would marry in 1963, a union that lasted until her death in 1987.

Madeleine Sherwood was brilliantly cast as Boss Finley’s discarded mistress. Bruce Dern, who became a great drinking buddy of Newman’s, was cast in a small role.

Making some excuse to Kazan and presumably to his family, Newman flew to San Juan for a long weekend with Tennessee. Both the actor and playwright were world-class drinkers, and they shared a suite together at El Convento Hotel. One old-time retainer there remembered them checking in.

When asked about it during an interview, Tennessee, as predicted, denied their weekend together. “I have never auditioned actors that way,” the playwright claimed, although his statement wasn’t true. “Besides, Paul Newman is too big a star to lie on a casting couch.”

Frank Merlo revealed to Tennessee’s friend, Stanley Haggart, that during “pillow talk,” Tennessee had confessed that he had indeed serviced Newman one weekend. “I knew it would be my one and only chance to have him, and I took advantage of it, just as I did with Marlon way back in those early days in Provincetown.”

Although Frank and Tennessee were lovers, they had an open relationship and talked about their lovers with each other. Newman sometimes spoke to his
confidants
, but he never mentioned that San Juan weekend with his friends, so far as it is known.

“Let’s just call it
The Lost Weekend
,” he told Kazan upon his return. Newman was referring to a film Ray Milland made in 1945, where he’d won an Oscar for playing an alcoholic.

Tennessee also told Frank that after their weekend together, Newman had quipped: “Now, God damn it, the next time you have a great part, you come to me, not Marlon Brando. Who’s the man, baby?”

Privately, Elia Kazan told Tennessee that “Newman was too much of a pretty boy for the part. I’m going to dye his hair red to make him look more sleazy, and I’m also going to order him to get his hairline shaved. I want audiences to see him with a receding hairline. That will make him look over the hill. After all, he’s playing a gigolo past his prime.”

Initially, Kazan feared that Newman was not adequately portraying the vulnerability of Chance. Then Kazan came up with a plan, although he knew it would be brutal on the actor. He never gave Newman one compliment for his work, although he praised almost everything Geraldine did.

Years later, Kazan confessed to Tennessee that he’d deliberately “cold-shouldered” Newman throughout the rehearsals.

“Chance Wayne is terribly insecure, uncertain of his manhood, possibly gay, and afraid of tomorrow. By destroying his self-worth, I’ll make Newman a more believable Chance Wayne on opening night,” Kazan said.

In spite of his brutal treatment during rehearsals, Newman had only kind words to say about Kazan, who had so intimidated him. “Kazan has broad shoulders, and his invention, patience, and imagination are extraordinary,” he later said. “Not once did the man who’d directed Brando compare me to him, and for that I was God damn grateful.”

Before opening night, Newman tried to hide his private intimacies with Tennessee from Kazan, but he did make one confession. During one drunken night, he’d gone to bed with Geraldine Page. “I was always planning to do it, but we finally committed the horrible sin. We’re both Method actors. We felt it would make our characters more believable if we knew each other as David knew Bathsheba.”

Kazan congratulated him on his good judgment. Unknown to Newman, the director was not the best person to keep a secret. After Kazan’s appearance before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, where he “outed” fellow Communists, Brando had nicknamed him “The Squealer.” Kazan liked to discuss the private sex lives of stars he’d directed, including not only Brando but James Dean as well.

On March 10, 1959,
Sweet Bird of Youth
opened on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theater. The play had a shattering climax when Boss Finley’s goons come to seek their revenge on Chance for deflowering Heavenly. Led by Rip Torn, the bully boys of the Old South descend to castrate Chance, presumably so that he’ll never again ruin the life of another young woman.