Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof (64 page)

“book changes”
and subsequent quotations from this document and cover letter, JRP13:11.

“notes on the score”
and subsequent quotations from this document and cover letter, JRP5:4.

“Please, Reb Robbins”
letter from Bock and Harnick to Robbins, n.d., JRP5:4.

cut an amusing song for Lazar about “a butcher’s soul”
compare spring 1964 script; Harnick-3 interview.

composer, Albert Hague, had boasted
Stein interview.

Holding tryouts in town
Richard F. Shepard, “‘Café Crown’ Opens on April 17 after Presenting 30 Previews,”
New York Times
, April 9, 1964.

more than 42 percent of America’s Jews still lived in the New York metropolitan area
American Jewish Yearbook
65 (1964), 3.

fumbling their lines … failing to keep his wig on straight
review of
Café Crown
in
Life
, May 15, 1964.

“harmonious interfaith relations”
Jack Gould, “3 Faiths Discuss ‘Deputy’ with TV: Leaders Concerned over Coverage of Play’s Opening,”
New York Times
, February 20, 1964.

he offered the role of Golde
Harnick-2, Prince interviews; Altman and Kaufman,
Making of a Musical
, 82.

Harnick thought she was “great”
audition notes, SHP2:8; Harnick-2 interview.

too American
Harnick-2 interview; Altman and Kaufman,
Making of a Musical
, 80.

He took a chance on young Leonard Frey
letter from Frey to Robbins, October 15, 1963, JRP5:5.

Robbins didn’t want Perchik to be “too handsome”
Altman and Kaufman,
Making of a Musical
, 78.

some came dressed
Senn interview.

“The Russians are coming”
Bodin interview.

these were poor Jewish folk
Aberdeen, Bodin, Kazan, Modelski, Senn interviews.

“You’ve never seen such a motley crew”
Prince interview.

“Don’t ever ask me”
telegrams exchanged between Robbins and Prince, May 18, 1964, HPP105:6.

Prince coolly replied
Prince interview.

Prince urged Robbins … hurried to see the drawings
Robbins phone message log and appointment books, JRP568:1, 2, 3.

what was the show
JRP13:11; JSP-W27, 29:2.

Prince scanned the list
Harnick-3, Prince, Stein interviews.

CHAPTER 5: RAISING THE ROOF

circulation of 7.5 million
Nielsen Media Service stats quoted in Peter Bart, “Publisher Drops Nielsen Service,”
New York Times
, April 12, 1963.

“
The Vanishing American Jew”
Thomas B. Morgan,
Look
, May 1964, 43–46.

“
the vitality”
“Vanishing,”
Look
, 43.

third-generation
American Jewish Year Book
, October 1963.

“The liberalism of the Jewish parent”
Sklare, “Intermarriage and the Jewish Future,”
Commentary
, April 1964, 52.

the contemporary parallels Robbins found
in an interview with the
New York Herald Tribune
, June 11, 1964. Also, Prince interview.

He started the work
Aberdeen, Everett, Prince interviews.

“What the hell does all this have to do”
Aberdeen interview.

“Nobody ever complained to Jerry”
Prince interview.

“make a shtetl out of them”
Robbins quoted in Kotlowitz, “Corsets,” 91.

“like one of those figures”
Pendleton interview.

“You didn’t do”
Merlin interview.

He’d blurt out Actors Studio words
Lonne Elder report.

he helps her lay down a tablecloth
Merlin, Pendleton interviews.

“A couple of weddings”
Pendleton interview.

“two degrees below hostile”
Stein interview.

“Mostel likes to test you”
Robbins quoted in Kotlowitz, “Corsets,” 91.

Mostel touched the doorpost
Tobias Mostel, Harnick-3 interviews; oft-repeated lore.

When Bock and Harnick wrote
Harnick-1 interview, Bock and Harnick interview by Terry Gross on
Fresh Air
, June 21, 2004.

“little hoard” … “a large house with a tin roof”
Sholem-Aleichem,
Tevye’s Daughters
, 6, 9.

“dream-tasting spiral”
Richard Gilman, “Hail the Conquering Zero,”
Newsweek
, October 19, 1964, 95.

“He can do the same thing four ways”
Stein quoted in Gilman, “Hail,” 95.

“bagful of water”
Robbins quoted in Kotlowitz, “Corsets,” 91.

simply a song
Harnick-1 interview.

“the butchest dancers”
Aberdeen interview.

those playing Jews
Aberdeen, Bayes interviews;
Fiddler on the Roof Choreographic Manual.

Robbins clapped his hands
Pendleton, Modelski, Senn interviews;
Fiddler on the Roof Choreographic Manual
, 224.

“accumulated” … “kept rolling”
Bock in Landmark Symposium, 19.

“are not ‘characters’”
Robbins notes on costumes for Zipprodt, JRP13:11.

vegetable graters, wood rasps
Zipprodt notes, “Principles of Ageing,” PZP53:1.

“bleach and overdye”
Zipprodt notes in “Costume Bible,” PZP53:2.

outrageous cost of $9,000 … “biggest monsters”
memo from Prince office objecting to ten trailers at $896.90 each, July 30, 1964, HPP105:9.

“those very mild pickups”
Robbins phone message, JRP568:1.

Fisher Theater’s lush lobby
Luzenski and Levin,
Fisher Theatre
; Lynn,
National Trust Guide
, 105–7; “Fisher Building Interior,” June 2, 2009, Detroitfunk,
http://detroitfunk.com/?p=1849
; and “Fisher Building Damage,” June 3, 2009,
http://detroitfunk.com/?p=1852
.

“milk towns”
Robbins office note, July 16, 2004, JRP568:1.

“The subscription in Detroit is hefty”
Prince letter to Robbins, February 6, 1964, HPP108:1.

“we could die in Detroit”
Harnick-1 interview.

“You should see this ladies’ room!”
Elder, “Observer’s Report,” 12.

“easy to assume”
Harrington,
Other America
, 4.

“What are you going to do” … “Whatever it is”
Elder, “Observer’s Report,” 17.

“They were inching out backwards”
Harnick-2 interview.

“Well,
we
like it”
Stein interview.

“we got through”
Duane Bodin interview.

“Dear, Sweet Sewing Machine”
lyrics provided by Harnick; Harnick-1, Pendleton interviews.

“a feeling that we might have something very special”
Stein quoted in William Glover, “Fiddler on the Roof on Top the Longest,”
The Record
, July 12, 1971.

“Everything is ordinary”
Tew, “Legit Tryout: Fiddler on the Roof,”
Variety
, July 28, 1964, 2.

“uncommonly fine musical”
Jay Carr quoted in Prince letter to investors, July 28, 1964, HPP120:4.

upbeat letter to investors
July 28, 1964, HPP120:4.

“receiving good response”
“Detroit Responding to ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’”
New York Times
, August 8, 1964, 10.

“agonizingly long” … “hell to go to”
Bodin, Kazan interviews.

innocent, even pretty
Everett, Aberdeen, Ponazecki interviews.

“that ‘golly–oh gee shucks’ business”
Elder, “Observer’s Report,” 15.

“You are not going to Coney Island”
ibid., 23.

“Are you out of your mind?”
Harnick-1 interview.

“what a lot of fun it is”
Prince letter to Robbins, June 18, 1964, HPP105:6.

“his world begins to tilt”
Robbins notes, n.d., JRP13:10.

“the show died”
Stein in Landmark Symposium, 23.

“If he takes it out altogether”
Harnick-1, 2 interviews.

“It was a mistake”
Harnick-2 interview.

Mostel was channeling
Tobias Mostel interview.

five minutes’ worth of lazzo
Harnick-2 interview.

threw new pages
Elder, “Observer’s Report,” 22.

“The man is a genius”
Pendleton, Everett interviews.

Fiddler
pulled its first hint of profit
HPP120:6 and Prince interview.

“Suddenly all the composition”
Pendleton interview.

Robbins was faring even worse
Kazan, Pendleton, Bodin, Harnick interviews.

“bête noire number 2”
title on set of unused lyrics supplied by Harnick and Harnick–2 interview.

“Give me klutzy!”
Bodin interview.

Attle, was knocked out
Bayes, Aberdeen, Everett, Pendleton interviews.

he filled out the quitting notice
Bodin interview.

“unsophisticated audience” … “electrifying”
Rich interview.

“Joy, there is such joy”
Leo Sullivan, “‘Fiddler on the Roof,’ Is a New Musical to ‘Enjoy, Enjoy,’”
Washington Post
, August 28, 1964.

His understudy, Paul Lipson
Aberdeen, Bodin, Everett, Kazan, Prince interviews.

people in the lobby
Elder, “Observer’s Report,” 28.

Lipson … played the role more than two thousand times
Paul Lipson obituary,
New York Times
, May 5, 1996.

“you may just not be able to find”
“National’s ‘Fiddler’ a Winner,”
Star
, August 28, 1964.

“Last night during the wedding scene”
Pendleton interview.

Convy had lobbied … “Miracle of Miracles” fitting
Pendleton, Harnick-2, Prince interviews.

“What’s the problem, Austin?”
Pendleton interview.

“over here a few”
“When Messiah Comes” unused lyrics from Harnick, and bonus track on
Fiddler
Broadway Deluxe Collector’s Edition.

“From the stage he couldn’t see”
Harnick-2 interview.

doctrinal difference
S. A. Lewis made this point in a letter in response to an article of mine about
Fiddler
in the
Forward
, “Letters,” September 15, 2006.

“without any constructing elements”
Robbins draft letter to Clurman, JRP16:43.

“The wedding scene is going to be wonderful”
Robbins, notes on Tevye, JRP13:11.

What are Tevye and Golde
doing
?
Harnick-1 interview.

“This is the dance”
Bayes, Aberdeen, Bodin, Prince interviews;
Fiddler on the Roof Choreographic Manual
.

“You’re working yourself into a state of joy”
Bayes interview.

when choreographing “The Small House of Uncle Thomas”
Eileen Blumenthal, “In the Wings, ‘Noh, Noh, Nanette?’”
New York Times
, April 26, 1987, H5; and Eileen Blumenthal, “How Thai Is It?,”
American Theater
, July–August 1996, 6–7.

“Any man who can do that”
Aronson quoted in Altman and Kaufman,
Making of a Musical
, 68.

a new generation of Pilgrims
Wolitz, “Americanization of Tevye.”

“swirling away”
Everett Bagot interview.

“some real excitement … enormous”
ibid.

“We’re not going to put it in”
Pendleton interview.

“gamboling on the green”
Prince interview.

“For the only time in my life”
Harnick-2 interview.

“serene quietness”
Elder, “Observer’s Report,” 31.

“We came to love our village”
Modelski interview.

break-a-leg telegrams
JRP5:7,8,9; SHP5:14; JBP20:7.

gifts they exchanged
JRP545:14; SHP5:14; Lisa Aronson, Harnick-2 interviews.

troupe gave Robbins a white yarmulke
JRP13:19.

Mostel … opened his mouth
Merlin, Modelski interviews.

“like somebody tiptoeing”
Modelski interview.

He had never been so certain
Prince interview.

Robbins was startled
Altman and Kaufman,
Making of a Musical
, 106.

“a picturesque twist session” “
Frank Farrell’s New York by Day: The Play Was the Thing, Dinner’s Forced to Wait,”
New York World Telegram
, September 23, 1964.

Kate Mostel … jitterbug with John C. Attle
Tobias Mostel interview.

her husband whirled around the floor
Joanne Stang, “At Home with Tevye, Tevye at Home,”
New York Times
, October 4, 1964, X1.

Kerr accused the creators
New York Herald Tribune
, September 23, 1964;
Fiddler
clips, NYPL-PA.

Prince took the mic
Prince, Pendleton interviews.

“didn’t want to see Jerry”
Pendleton interview.

Taubman declared
New York Times,
September 23, 1964, 56;
Fiddler
clips, NYPL-PA.