Fosse (83 page)

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   He told them a story about Fanny Brice: Ibid., 176.

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   “So you’re going to be nervous”: Ibid.

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   “I think he had some sort of motto”: Bob Fosse, interview with Stephen Harvey, LOC, box 60F.

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   Meisner saw what few had seen: “Sanford Meisner: The American Theatre’s Best Kept Secret,”
American Masters,
PBS, August 27, 1990.

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   despite Richard Rodgers’s objections to Fosse’s: Martin Gottfried,
All His Jazz
(Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 1998; first published by Bantam in 1990), 62. Citations refer to the Da Capo edition.

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   Apparently, one of Metro’s scouts had seen him: Ibid.

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   “natural-born hoofer”: William Saroyan,
The Time of Your Life
(New York: Samuel French, 1941), 23.

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   contract for five hundred dollars: Bob Fosse’s MGM contract, LOC, box 51A.

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   She had diabetes: Sagolla,
The Girl Who Fell Down
, 225.

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   “Bobby was great in the show”: Phyllis Sherwood, interview with the author, December 12, 2010.

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   Fosse went up to Sherwood’s hotel room: Ibid.

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   “We laughed about it afterward”: Ibid.

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   “He never had a sleaziness about him”: Candy Brown, interview with the author, January 7, 2011.

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   “He always sort of tucked his head”: Blane Savage, interview with the author, February 26, 2011.

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   with chorus girls Norma Andrews: Gottfried,
All His Jazz
, 64.

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   “When he fell out of love with her”: George Marcy, interview with the author, February 8, 2011.

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   some wondered if Niles really understood: Ibid.

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   “added a lot of talking to his act”: Bill Smith, “Empire Room, Waldorf-Astoria, New York,”
Billboard,
February 2, 1952.

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   “Fosse’s ‘Time of Your Life’ bit: “Waldorf-Astoria, N.Y.,”
Daily Variety,
January 30, 1952.

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   he was visibly restless: Gottfried,
All His Jazz
, 64.

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   Andrews and Jackson suggested: Ibid.

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   filled his stomach with that sour: Chase, “Fosse, from Tony to Oscar to Emmy.”

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   April 28, 1952: “Equity Fines Miss Morrow,”
Billboard,
March 29, 1952.

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   Returning to Hollywood, to MGM, Donen learned: John Anthony Gilvey,
Before the Parade Passes By: Gower Champion and the Glorious American Musical
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005), 53.

THIRTY-FIVE YEARS

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   Just outside the high walls: Scott Eyman,
Lion of Hollywood
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005), 329.

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   “You know, Helen”: Hugh Fordin,
MGM’s Greatest Musicals: The Arthur Freed Unit
(Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 1975), 439.

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   Mayer hated Smith and Salsbury: Leslie Caron,
Thank Heaven: A Memoir
(New York: Viking, 2009), 60.

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   Mayer’s 167 Culver City acres: Eyman,
Lion of Hollywood
, 1.

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   “If I start up another studio”: Ibid., 436.

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   five-hundred-thousand-dollar budget for a single number: Ibid., 440.

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   Bob Fosse sublet Buddy Hackett’s place: Martin Gottfried,
All His Jazz
(Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 1998; first published by Bantam in 1990), 67. Citations refer to the Da Capo edition.

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   Fosse endured many screen tests: Kevin Boyd Grubb,
Razzle Dazzle: The Life and Work of Bob Fosse
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989), 27.

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   They gave him a toupee: Ken Geist, e-mail to the author, February 14, 2011.

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   “That was a trauma for me”: Gaby Rodgers, “Bob Fosse: ‘Choreography Is Writing with Your Body,’”
Long Island,
October 1, 1978.

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   the part Kelly was
supposed
to play: John Anthony Gilvey,
Before the Parade Passes By: Gower Champion and the Glorious American Musical
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005), 50.

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   they had a turkey on their hands: Stephen M. Silverman,
Dancing on the Ceiling: Stanley Donen and His Movies
(New York: Knopf, 1996), 181.

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   The last-minute casting: David L. Goodrich,
The Real Nick and Nora: Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, Writers of Stage and Screen Classics
(Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2004), 194.

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   Unceasing revisions put a strain: Marge Champion, interview with the author, August 24, 2011.

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   “They were Mr. Show Biz”: Gilvey,
Before the Parade Passes By,
53.

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   “In my opinion”: Stanley Donen, interviewed by Michael Kantor, August 26, 2006, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Theatre on Film and Tape Archive.

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   “Fosse and Donen were wrapped up”: Marge Champion, interview with the author, August 24, 2011.

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   Donen was seen creeping up behind: Ken Geist, e-mail to the author, February 14, 2011.

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   Fosse was seen creeping up behind: Harvey Evans, interview with the author, January 28, 2011.

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   Out of a distant sound stage sailed: “Bob Fosse: Steam Heat,”
Great Performances: Dance in America,
PBS; first aired February 23, 1990.

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   “Hiya, Foss!”:
American Film Institute Salute to Fred Astaire,
CBS, April 18, 1981.

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   “You see it on the screen”: Ibid.

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   they’d never let her dance: Lisa Jo Sagolla,
The Girl Who Fell Down
(Lebanon, NH: Northeastern University Press, 2003), 229.

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   “After they previewed it”: Marge Champion, interview with the author, August 24, 2011.

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   “Charlie”: Charles Grass, interview with the author, September 4, 2012.

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   “That’s the teenaged Bob Fosse”: Ibid.

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   “I was living in a one-room apartment”: Paul Rosenfield, “Fosse, Verdon and ‘Charity’: Together Again,”
Los Angeles Times,
July 21, 1986.

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   choreographer Michael Kidd’s parties: Interviews with Geraldine Fitzgerald, Gwen Verdon, Marian Seldes, and Elizabeth McCann,
CUNY Spotlight
, CUNY-TV, 1991, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Theatre on Film and Tape Archive.

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   “Dance it like a lady athlete”: Glenn Loney,
Unsung Genius: The Passion of Dancer-Choreographer Jack Cole
(New York: Franklin Watts, 1984), 214.

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   Joan McCracken, Mrs. Bob Fosse, had been one of Verdon’s: Gwen Verdon interview,
Dance in America,
WNET archives, September 6, 1989.

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   “Then came
David and Bathsheba
”: Hyman Goldberg, “Little Knock-Knees Knocks ’Em Cold,”
Sunday Mirror Magazine,
n.d., ca. 1955.

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   “One more body on the cutting room floor”: Jack Stone, “In Hollywood They Call Gwen Verdon the Naughty Girl on the Cutting Room Floor,”
American Weekly,
July 31, 1955.

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   “I never think of myself as sexy”: Ibid.

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   turned into loneliness: Peggy King, interview with the author, February 21, 2011.

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   “My parts were getting smaller”: Rosenfield, “Fosse, Verdon and ‘Charity.’”

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   “He was depressed”: Peggy King, interview with the author, February 21, 2011.

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   producer Arthur Loew, Kirk Douglas: Jane Allen,
Pier Angeli: A Fragile Life
(Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2002), 35, 75, 84.

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   “Anna was moving up”: Peggy King, interview with the author, February 21, 2011.

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   “I think it would have been better if”: “AFC’s Loew Gives Fosse Salute,”
Daily
Variety,
September 25, 1987.

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   Schary’s mood worsened several months later: Dore Schary,
Heyday
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1979),
261.

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   a high-ranking executive: Ibid.

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   “When I saw the sets for
Kate
”: Paul Gardner, “Bob Fosse,”
Action,
May/June 1974.

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   Choreographer Hermes Pan asked: Tommy Rall, interview with the author, April 20, 2011.

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   “I met Bobby for the first time”: Ibid.

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   After the screening, Pan broke: Ibid.

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   “You just have a way of dancing”:
“Bob Fosse: Steam Heat,”
Great Performances: Dance in America.

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   to work with Joe Price: Donald Duncan, “They Flip for Joe Price,”
Dance
Magazine,
August 1964.

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   “I thought choreographers were all”: Glenn Loney, “The Many Facets of Bob Fosse,”
After Dark,
June 1972.

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   “Bob knew what was happening”: Tommy Rall, interview with the author, April 20, 2011.

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   the studio granted Fosse: Fosse employment correspondence with MGM, LOC, box 51A.

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   they bought waterfront land in the Pines area: Sagolla,
The Girl Who Fell Down
, 244.

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   She wanted a baby: Bill Hayes, interview with the author, December 14, 2012.

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   Her eye for décor, like her conversation: Sagolla,
The Girl Who Fell Down,
127.

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   was home to writers, painters, and dancers invited: Ibid., 173.

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   “She was often very upset”: Ibid., 212.

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   “There were three rehearsal rooms at MGM”: “Bob Fosse,”
The Dick Cavett Show,
PBS, July 8, 1980.

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Can-Can
’s producers, Cy Feuer and Ernie Martin: Cy Feuer and Ken Gross
, I Got the Show Right Here
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003), 121.

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   a voice she described as sounding like a 78 rpm record: Pierre Bowman, “She’s Broadway’s Former Dancing Star with a Heart of Gold,”
Honolulu Star Bulletin,
October 8, 1985.

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   offered Verdon a fully paid weekend: Verdon interview on
CUNY Spotlight.

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   “I was so scared”: Chris Chase, “What Gwen Verdon Wants Is to Act,”
New York Times,
December 2, 1983.

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   “It probably sounded like”: Ibid.

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   “Well, Claudine”: Ibid.

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   Gwen went to the Warwick Hotel: Bowman, “She’s Broadway’s Former Dancing Star.”

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   “How’d it go, honey?”: Chase, “What Gwen Verdon Wants.”

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   He punched her: Ibid.

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   director Michael Kidd: Feuer and Gross,
I Got the Show Right Here,
174.

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   Jealous of Verdon, Lilo insisted: Ibid., 180.

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   “I don’t really blame Lilo”: Rex Reed, “‘I Never Wanted to Be Special,’”
New York Times,
February 6, 1966.

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   phone-booth-size dressing room: Verdon interview on
CUNY Spotlight.

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   “I don’t know how Michael [Kidd] did it”: Cy Feuer, interviewed by Michael Kantor, February 23, 1999, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Theatre on Film and Tape Archive.

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   “Sometimes I’m on stage”: Louis Sheaffer, “Sudden Fame Means Busy Schedule to Gwen Verdon,”
Brooklyn Eagle,
May 19, 1953.

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   she got on opening night:
American Musical Theater with Earl Wrightson,
CBS, January 1, 1962.

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   the response to Gwen’s Apache dance was so powerful: Cy Feuer, interviewed by Michael Kantor.

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   Gwen Verdon, meanwhile, was oblivious: Verdon interview on
CUNY Spotlight.

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   Michael Kidd figured as much: Ibid.

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   “You have to go out there”: Ibid.

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   “I could have walked into Tokyo”: Ibid.

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   Gwen had to ride with a policeman: Ibid.

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   “I remember the first time I saw her”: Rosenfield, “Fosse, Verdon and ‘Charity.’”

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   Fosse would wait for Joan: Bill Hayes, interview with the author, December 14, 2012.

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   she led a small acting class: Shirley MacLaine,
My Lucky Stars: A Hollywood Memoir
(New York: Bantam, 1995), 157.

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   She taught Mary Tarcai: Bill Hayes, interview with the author, December 14, 2012.

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   Fosse could be seen pacing: MacLaine,
My Lucky Stars,
157.

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   “Joan was pregnant”: Bill Hayes, interview with the author, December 14, 2012.

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   she lost the baby: Ibid.

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   “Joan had hard numbers in that show”: Ibid.

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   Biographer Lisa Jo Sagolla submits: Sagolla,
The Girl Who Fell Down
, 220–21.

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   The property the Fosses bought: Ibid., 245.

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   “by the time they did
Me and Juliet
”: Harold Prince, interview with the author, October 6, 2010.

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   “Others seemed to be even more shy”: George Abbott,
Mister Abbott
(New York: Random House, 1963), 248.

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   Robbins was aiming higher: Harold Prince, interview with the author, October 6, 2010.

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   McCracken took Abbott to see
Kiss Me Kate:
Ibid.

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   “Joanie sounded off about Bob every time”: Grubb,
Razzle Dazzle,
33.

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   “Have you done much choreography?”: George Goldberg, “Bob Fosse, Not an Ordinary Man,”
Faces International,
Summer 1985.