Alan Jay Lerner: A Lyricist's Letters (18 page)

    
A week later, with
My Fair Lady
set in for a long run, Lerner wrote an extensive letter to Loewe, who was still on retreat in Europe. In this missive, Lerner hints at his unhappiness at the way Herman Levin was running certain aspects of the production, and suggests to Loewe a way forward now that their own importance had suddenly increased. The affection, familiarity, and detail of Lerner’s
letter to Loewe, compared to his communications with most of his other friends and colleagues, is quite arresting:

    
To Frederick Loewe

    
May 8, 1956

    
Dear Meistercocker,
²⁹

    
Not having heard from you for the last fortnight, I can only assume the wheel has beaten you and you have shot yourself on the terrace of the Monte Carlo Casino in fine heroic tradition. However, on the supposition that your silence has been due to your usual shit-heel negligence, I am writing you to bring you up to date on our affairs.

        
Things have been a bit rickety at the theatre. There has been a full scale investigation of the ticket situation of
My Fair Lady
by the city authorities with much blazing of headline every day. Not being able to get anything out of Levin and Adler,
³⁰
I only know what I read in the papers, which is that the main culprits seem to be the theatre party agents. It got so bad there was even an editorial in the Journal American about it the other day, about the disgrace of seats for
My Fair Lady
going for $150 a pair. Thus far, I have been unable to force our “producer” to make any statement to the papers assuring the public that there are seats and that requests are being honored. Irving Cohen’s
³¹
been in California and will be back tomorrow and there will be a full scale meeting then. I have been rather waiting for him to return. Herman assures me that Phil has been keeping the ice down to $1500 a week. Whether Herman is participating is anybody’s guess. He sold 20% of his stock three days ago for $425,000 capital gains, so why the hell he would want to, I don’t know.

        
Herman is a very good producer, but he approaches the theatre I think the way all producers seem to. They are basically cigar store operators. He’s very good on the little things but he doesn’t seem to think in the larger concepts that running a five million dollar business entails—and after all, that’s what this is. I mean, for example, the whole coordination of the road company, the English company, and the motion picture deal; the proper time to make a motion picture deal
(which I believe is within the next few months—prices can’t get any higher and they might get lower);
³²
the matter of signing Rex by doing it on some tax basis where Rex will profit more but it won’t cost the company any more; the proper public relations on the change of price; the proper use of CBS TV in areas where the mail orders are not as great as they are in other geographical areas, etc. etc. Even a little thing like the touring company was about to be done in an offhand way. I was told by both him and Phil that we would have to cut the show down. I know neither of us wants to do that. So I had lunch with Jerry Whyte
³³
who toured
Winged Victory
.
³⁴
He told me they toured with turntables by the simple device of having additional turntables which were always sent ahead in advance. It burned me up that they couldn’t have found that out and that I had to take the time to explore. All of this is fine but I don’t enjoy it very much and when we sit down to write another show, there’s no reason why we should have to be bothered by matters such as these when Herman is receiving a handsome sum to be doing it himself. Therefore, I have a very positive suggestion which I am sure you will agree to. I’ve already spoken to Ben [Aslan] and Irving [Cohen] about it and they both agree. My idea is for Lowal
³⁵
to hire somebody like Eddie Knill
³⁶
who would be a sort of business coordinator for Lowal’s activities. Until we go into production with something, we could probably get him for about $150. per week, but it wouldn’t take all his time and he could continue business managing whatever show he is doing until we need him full-time. He could then keep on top of all of these things and make a weekly report to us. Being an experienced man around the box office, his very presence would cause the boys to be a little cautious. He could also see that we get the proper business statements every week on such things as what our advance is—believe it or not, it took until yesterday to find out what our actual advance was. It’s a little over $600,000, incidentally, which is not nearly as high as it should be. The reason it isn’t higher could only be one of two things: either they are not filling the mail orders and are handing seats back for ice, or people are discouraged by all the publicity and aren’t buying with
the abandon they should. Of course, this does not imply that the show is in the slightest bit of trouble. It’s such an overwhelming hit that no mistakes can make any difference at this time.

        
However, as Moss [Hart] says, a continuation of this will shorten the run at some future time. Besides all of this, it’s very good for Lowal taxwise to have someone on the payroll. There is enough money coming in to Lowal all the time from the music business to take care of a salary until we start getting profits from the show.

        
There has been a lot of interest motion picture wise in the last couple of weeks and Irving has worked out a formula which he will, of course, go over with Ben, whereby whatever sum is paid for the picture rights will
exclude
GBS.
³⁷
He will get his on the gross later on. In other words, if the property sells for a million dollars, which is certainly the minimum, we will be able to divide it on the usual basis.

        
The songs are doing absolutely wonderfully. Vic Damone’s
³⁸
record in the last seven days has begun to crash through and you hear it all the time. Not only that, but “On The Street Where You Live” is getting wonderful plugging on radio and TV; in fact, all three of the songs are. Rosemary Clooney
³⁹
is making another record of “I Could Have Danced All Night” this week and the old record is being withdrawn. I have been keeping after Goddard [Lieberson] and Mitch
⁴⁰
and I’m going to try and get them to make another record of “Accustomed” with a male singer.

        
Did I tell you last time about the Actors Benefit? I don’t think so. Anyhow it was the goddamnedest night of all time. It made the opening night look like a Hadassah benefit. The laughter was enormous on every point; practically every song stopped the show and the ovation at the end was something I’ll never forget as long as I live. When Rex and Julie stepped out of the line for their final bow, the entire audience stood up like one person and shouted. There were over seven minutes of curtain calls. Comments at the end were something I’ve never heard before. It was an absolutely incredible experience and I can’t tell you how much
I wish you’d been there. Rex told me later it was the most extraordinary night in his entire theatrical career. Incidentally, Rex gave the greatest performance I’ve ever seen him give and it was fascinating to see how the actors knew that his was the really great performance of the show. His ovation was tumultuous.

        
I’ll send you
The Male Animal
⁴¹
but after reading it over carefully, I’m not as hot on it as I was. It’s awfully hard to get steamed up about things for any length of time when we are not together. The French play I told you about looks fascinating and Moss and I have also been kicking other things around from time to time. I am sure when you come home that it won’t take too long for us to decide on something. I want you to know, incidentally, that for the first time in my life, I am not bursting to go to work. The only reason I am doing what I am doing is just to keep my mind occupied in a vague way. However, I am sure this lethargy won’t last forever and the minute we’re together again, the old sparks will begin to fly.

        
Binkie arrives over the weekend to discuss London. After he leaves, at long last, I’ll be able to get away. Can’t wait. I’ll let you know where I’m going.

        
Put 500 fr. on number 17 for me some night and let me know what’s going on with you and the Poo.
⁴²

Love,

Alan

    
P.S. The Loesser show
⁴³
got over, but there was only one out and out rave; Chapman in the
News
—Atkinson was a fine notice with one or two reservations. Kerr had lots of reservations.
⁴⁴
I’ll let you know when I see it.

So little is known about the working relationship between Lerner and Loewe that this letter significantly increases our understanding of their collaboration. At this crucial moment in their joint development, with huge success just under way and a significant business now to manage, it is instructive to see the level of detail in which they discuss the financial and managerial issues at hand. Though
Brigadoon
and
Paint Your Wagon
had brought them to prominence,
Fair Lady
catapulted them into the major league, and with it came responsibility. We also learn from the letter that it was thanks to Lerner that the touring production of the show included the complete Broadway sets (with double turntables) by Oliver Smith. Evidently, Levin intended to simplify the show when it went around the country, but Lerner realized that the production was part of the
Fair Lady
brand and, as such, crucial to its continuing success. Equally interesting is Lerner’s confession that he was feeling lethargic and was “not bursting to go back to work”; he is known as a workaholic, but on this occasion even he seemed to feel it had been better to journey than to arrive. None of this information has been included in previous biographies of the writer, and the letter paints Lerner in a much more nuanced, serious light than is often the case.

    
Yet his ennui didn’t last for long. Just over a week later, Lerner wrote again to Loewe, this time more briefly, to entreat him to write the score of
Gigi
for MGM. The idea for a film based on Colette’s novella
Gigi
(1944) seems to have started at MGM in 1951 as a vehicle for Leslie Caron, but nothing came of it at the time.
⁴⁵
Anita Loos’s stage adaptation (as a play without songs) played Broadway in 1953, and MGM producer Arthur Freed showed renewed interest in the material in late 1955. He visited Lerner during the Philadelphia tryouts of
My Fair Lady
and offered him the project as the third and final movie (after
Brigadoon
and
Huckleberry Finn
) to fulfill his contract with the studio. Lerner agreed, though he anticipated struggling to persuade Loewe to write the music for the film. In the following letter, he writes to Loewe to ask him to take part in the film (probably after having previously mentioned it to him in Philadelphia), as well as passing on an idea for a new stage musical:

    
To Frederick Loewe

    
May 17, 1956

    
Dear Boy:

    
This is not the long letter I promised you in my cable. I’ll write again over the weekend.

        
Two things have just come up:

        
David Selznick
⁴⁶
called last night to offer us
Gone With the Wind
for a stage musical. Are you interested? He’s leaving for Europe tomorrow and would like to see you some place on the continent. I told him I’d
cable if it’s possible. Would you like to meet him or would you rather wait and have me do it the end of June when he gets back? Either way, let me know right away your thoughts.

        
The second thing is that Metro has started calling again in the last couple of days about
Gigi
. As you know, I am anxious to get rid of my last commitment to them. But I hate like hell to even think about it without you. It wouldn’t be much of a job and we could do it July or August here in the East. It could be a Lerner-Loewe picture à la Rodgers and Hammerstein’s
State Fair
.
⁴⁷
And they’re going to do it with an all-French cast, Leslie Caron, [Maurice] Chevalier,
⁴⁸
etc.

        
Now you know you’re going to be sick of toasting your Viennese ass by the first of July, so why don’t you be a good fellow and help me out. Please think about it and cable me. You know damn well it would be right up our alley.

        
Edwin Lester
⁴⁹
is here from California and Beaumont from London. I’ve been working on a second company and English company all week. Will write about it over the weekend.

        
The songs are doing great. I’ll send you the last
Variety
music pages to Vienna.

Love to the Poo and a kick in the balls to you.

Alan

Famously, Loewe’s reaction to the idea of writing a musical based on
Gone With the Wind
came through a telegram which inadvertently reproduced his German accent:
“vind not funny. love fritz.”
⁵⁰
He also seems to have turned down
Gigi
at this point (though he is reported to have agreed to read Lerner’s screenplay after its completion), partly due to his general antipathy toward Hollywood.
⁵¹
In consequence, Lerner proceeded without a composer, and the
New York Times
reported that “Alan Jay Lerner, author of book and lyrics of ‘My Fair Lady,’ will be here next week to work with Arthur Freed on the script of the musical version of ‘Gigi,’”
⁵²
without mentioning who was to write the songs.