Alan Jay Lerner: A Lyricist's Letters (30 page)

    
Lerner also started to think about his next stage musical, and his thoughts returned to the show about Coco Chanel for Rosalind Russell and Frederick Brisson:

    
To Frederick Brisson

    
June 12, 1963

    
Dear Freddie:

    
Thank you for your letter. I will be here most of the summer and as available as Christine Keeler.
¹⁰³

        
I would love to talk to you about the project, and if I have seemed evasive it’s not been because I have been avoiding you but because I have been avoiding everybody until I got finished. I think I must need the delusion that I am an outcast.

Love to you both.

Alan

    
But
I Picked a Daisy
was about to come unstuck. Stories were leaked in mid-June that the December opening might not be met, and it was revealed that Rodgers and Lerner’s booking of the Majestic Theatre included an escape clause if they could not finish the show on time. By mid-June, Rodgers had written half the songs and Lerner had done the book, but the lyrics were slow in coming.
¹⁰⁴
Another ominous article on June 28 announced that the musical had “two more weeks” before falling through and claimed that Lerner hoped to finish his work by July 8.
¹⁰⁵
But three days after this deadline, the inevitable happened, and
the
New York Times
announced, “Failure by Alan Jay Lerner to finish the lyrics for ‘I Picked a Daisy’ has brought about the cancellation of the show.” Busy in Hollywood with the filming of
My Fair Lady
, Lerner refused to say whether this meant the show would not now happen, while Rodgers commented “When and if there’s more material, we’ll go back to work.”
¹⁰⁶

    
In reality, the collaboration was over. A few days after the announcement, Lerner received an unexpected letter from composer Burton Lane, with whom he had written the score for
Royal Wedding
at MGM:

    
From Burton Lane

    
July 17, 1963

    
Dear Alan,

    
This is a very difficult letter for me to write. I realize that it may be unwelcome and that you perhaps feel that our past differences preclude our working together again. But I feel I must write it because, in so many ways, it seems a logical step to take and one that could lead to fruitful results for both of us.

        
I have been severely handicapped because I have not had the kind of steady collaborator one needs in this business. There is no need for me to elaborate on the difficulties this creates.

        
The possibility of your being available is, of course, what prompts this letter. You and I in the past have done good work together. I feel we could do it again.

        
Alan, look, even as I write the U.S.S.R. and the United States seem to be nearing a détente, Kennedy is a Berliner, and Harold Rome is about to do another musical for David Merrick.
¹⁰⁷
This proves, beyond a doubt, that anything can happen if the desire is there.

        
I look forward to hearing from you. Best wishes.

Sincerely,

Burt

This was evidently a tempting offer for Lerner, who later claimed he had independently thought of contacting Lane to take over
Daisy
, and on July 25 he
leaked the idea to the press, apparently without informing Rodgers of the new plan.
¹⁰⁸
(Strangely,
Variety
published a rumor the day before, suggesting Leonard Bernstein had been approached as replacement composer.)
¹⁰⁹
Over the summer, while shooting on
Fair Lady
continued, Lerner and Lane agreed to complete the show (whose title was to change) together, and Rodgers bowed out gracefully. The new team spent the rest of the year trying to complete the score to yet another revised version of Lerner’s script, but plans to take the show into rehearsal in January 1964 were again frustrated.

    
It was obvious that
Clear Day
was a challenge that Lerner was struggling to meet, and further drafts of the script were written throughout 1964. In the meantime, however, he started to look at other things to do. In January 1964, he signed up to write the screenplay and lyrics for a movie musical based on Hugh Lofting’s
Doctor Dolittle
stories. Lerner was due to co-produce the film with Arthur P. Jacobs, on a budget of $6 million.
¹¹⁰
He managed to engage Rex Harrison to play the title character in March,
¹¹¹
and Twentieth Century Fox agreed to finance and distribute the project in May.
¹¹²
He also continued to pursue the idea of the Coco Chanel musical, though between the complications associated with his divorce from his fourth wife, the plans for the
Dolittle
film, and the continued work on
Clear Day
, he failed to keep an appointment to meet up to discuss the project with Chanel herself, as the following two telegrams show:

    
Telegram to Coco Chanel

    
April 10, 1964

    
I AM SO VERY SORRY THAT PERSONAL PROBLEMS SUCCEEDED IN ROBBING ME OF PROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOR. THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THIS HAS EVER HAPPENED TO ME. MY DESIRE TO BRING THE SPIRIT OF YOU TO THE STAGE REMAINS AT A FEVER PITCH. UNFORTUNATELY, HOWEVER, I CANNOT COMMIT MYSELF TO ONE YEAR FROM SEPTEMBER AS FREDDIE HAS ASKED ME TO DO. ON THE OTHER HAND I CAN MOST DEFINITELY GUARANTEE 18 MONTHS TO 24 MONTHS FROM SEPTEMBER. I HAVE DISCOVERED THAT IT TAKES A MINIMUM OF A YEAR AND A HALF
TO DO A MUSICAL PLAY PROPERLY AND MY NEW PLAY WILL NOT LEAVE ME FREE TO WORK UNTIL JANUARY. I BEG YOU TO CONSIDER THIS. IF YOU ARE AT ALL INTERESTED I WILL FLY TO SEE YOU DURING APRIL.

WARMEST REGARDS ALWAYS,

ALAN JAY LERNER

    
Telegram to Frederick Brisson

    
[April 1964]

    
FREDDIE BOY,

    
PLEASE DON’T GIVE UP. I’VE BEEN SICK AS A DOG PLUS MUCH OUTSIDE TROUBLE. OUTLINE ARRIVING MONDAY NIGHT OR TUESDAY MORNING. TRYING TO COME MYSELF WEDNESDAY.

LOVE,

ALAN

By August, Lerner had achieved much less than he had hoped, but at least
Clear Day
started to come into its final form when Louis Jourdan agreed to play the lead part opposite Barbara Harris.
¹¹³
It was a common theme of Lerner’s shows to try to repeat earlier successes by casting stars with whom he had worked previously (hence the Harrison
Doctor Dolittle
, for instance), and when Richard Burton had turned down the show,
Gigi
’s Jourdan was another obvious choice.

    
October saw a return to glory for Lerner with the world premiere of the
My Fair Lady
film. A gala premiere saw Hollywood royalty in attendance, as well as the reunion of Lerner and Loewe. In gratitude, Lerner wrote to the film’s director, George Cukor, though he had private reservations about some of Cukor’s decisions:

    
To George Cukor

    
[Undated]

    
Dear, dear George

    
There’s no doubt of it, you have a future –

    
Thank you for giving me everything an author could ever want.

Devotedly,

Alan

The brevity of this note speaks volumes: when he was impressed, Lerner normally expressed himself at length, but this polite note masks his frustrations.

    
Yet the reviews were mostly excellent, and Lerner regained confidence and focus.
Clear Day
was now set for a March 19, 1965, premiere.
¹¹⁴
The lyricist was enjoying his work with Lane and gave an interview with the
New York Times
in which he explained that “I was trying to reach Burton a year ago last summer when I learned that he was on vacation in Maine. When I got him and explained my plans for a partnership, he thought I was replying to a letter he had written to me the day before [reproduced earlier in this chapter] suggesting the same thing.” Lane added: “It was then that we knew we were made for each other.”
¹¹⁵

    
It had been a frustrating period in Lerner’s career. The indomitable “Lerner and Loewe” pairing that had given birth to
My Fair Lady
and
Gigi
in the 1950s faltered through
Camelot
and faded not long afterward. His ingenious plan to team up with another celebrity composer, Rodgers, had come to nothing after more than a year of work, as had his attempt to enter the TV production industry. The Arthur Freed Unit had come to an end, and with it Freed’s fleeting plan to film
The Day before Spring
. Negotiations with Chanel had broken down. In short, five years had brought little except the troubled
Camelot
. But the year 1964 ended with promise:
My Fair Lady
won the New York Film Critics’ Award for Best Picture, and there was every indication that the next new Lerner musical could be a worthy heir to his earlier hit.
¹¹⁶

    
1
Sam Zolotow, “‘Fair Lady’ Team Seeks New Show,”
New York Times
, February 5, 1959, 25
.

    
2
Alan Jay Lerner,
The Street Where I Live
(London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1978), 190.

    
3
Laurence Harvey (1928–73) appeared in numerous films, including
Romeo and Juliet
(1954),
I Am a Camera
(1955),
Expresso Bongo
(1960), and
The Manchurian Candidate
(1962).

    
4
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (1915–2006) was one of the greatest sopranos of the twentieth century, specializing in Mozart and Strauss.

    
5
Lewis Funke, “Rialto Gossip,”
New York Times
, March 8, 1959, X1
.

    
6
Robert Goulet (1933–2007) was a singer and actor who launched his career with
Camelot
. Later in his career, he played the role of King Arthur in the show.

    
7
Lerner,
Street
, 197–198.

    
8
Gilbert Adrian (1901–59) was one of the most prolific designers of the early days of Hollywood, with credits including
The Wizard of Oz
(1939),
Ziegfeld Girl
(1941), and
Lovely to Look At
(1952).

    
9
Sam Zolotow, “Williams’ Drama Attracts Throng,”
New York Times
, March 12, 1959, 26
.

    
10
Louis Calta, “Stage Investors to Produce Play,”
New York Times
, April 1, 1959, 42
.

    
11
“Melbourne Goes for ‘Fair Lady,’”
New York Times
, January 27, 1959, 26.

    
12
Sam Zolotow, “‘Lute Song’ of ’46 May Be Revived,”
New York Times
, February 6, 1959, 22
.

    
13
Lewis Nichols, “Birthday of the Fairest Lady,”
New York Times
, March 15, 1959, SM16
.

    
14
Paul P. Kennedy, “‘Mi Bella Dama’ Is No Fair Lady to First-Nighters in Mexico City,”
New York Times
, April 4, 1959, 12
.

    
15
“Hollywood Likes Its Oscar Show,”
New York Times
, April 8, 1959, 42.

    
16
Philip Benjamin, “‘Fair Lady’ Faces Russian Pirating: Translator Says It Would Be Loverly to Get Score Free,”
New York Times
, May 1, 1959, 1
.

    
17
Unknown, “Russian Adamant on ‘Fair Lady,’”
New York Times
, May 5, 1959, 35
.

    
18
Richard Burton (1925–84) was one of the biggest movie stars of the 1960s and was nominated for seven Academy Awards.

    
19
Sam Zolotow, “Stage Bid Made to Miss Truman,”
New York Times
, July 9, 1959, 23
.

    
20
Unknown, “Moss Hart to Fly to London,”
New York Times
, July 31, 1959, 11
.

    
21
Lerner,
Street
, 199.

    
22
Sam Zolotow, “Lerner Discusses ‘Fair Lady’ Tour,”
New York Times
, November 24, 1959, 44
.

    
23
Mulhare and Evans were the two actors currently playing the part of Higgins on Broadway and on tour.

    
24
Lerner,
Street
, 202.

    
25
Moss Hart had brought out an autobiographical volume,
Act One
, in 1959.

    
26
A reference to Freddy’s song “On the Street Where You Live” from
My Fair Lady
.

    
27
The passenger ship
SS Andrea Doria
sank in 1956.

    
28
Actress Janet Gaynor (1906–84) appeared in numerous films of the 1920s and ’30s, including
Seventh Heaven
(1927) and
A Star Is Born
(1937).

    
29
Lerner,
Street
, 202.

    
30
Lerner,
Street
, 194.

    
31
Lerner,
Street
, 195.