Well, dear readers, the title of today’s notes is not about me – I, of course, do not drink. No, the title of today’s notes is in honor of the wonderful, caustic, unique Elaine Stritch, who passed away yesterday at eighty-nine years of age, a long, amazing and pretty wonderful life, filled with iconic performances, outrageous behavior and her own singular outlook on life. My first exposure to her was on the short-lived CBS sitcom based on My Sister Eileen – I watched every episode until it went off the air after one season of twenty-six episodes. I loved her wry and dry delivery of the dialogue and the entire series just tickled me – and what a cast of regulars it was, with Shirley Bonne as Eileen, and featuring Jack Weston, Stubby Kaye and Rose Marie. I guess my next Elaine experience was the cast album of Sail Away, which I bought when it came out. But it was my next Elaine experience that would make me a fan for life, and I’m one of only a handful of people who saw it – the tryout of a Peter Barnes play called Time of the Barracuda, which played only LA and San Francisco before it shuttered for good. I really knew nothing about the play, but when I saw it was Laurence Harvey and Elaine Stritch, I just had to go. And I loved the play and their two performances were absolutely fantastic star turns – they played two professional killers who marry wealthy people and kill them – a dark comedy obviously. They meet at a funeral and each wants to get involved, thinking they’ll kill the other for the money. At the end of act one, in a great act one curtain line, Laurence Harvey finds out she’s got the same profession as he does and blurts out, “Good God, a competitor.” But they marry and act two is them trying to off each other and it was absolutely hilarious. In the end, their love conquers all.
Apparently, this was during Miss Stritch’s serious drinking days, and that’s one of the reasons the play closed out of town. It went through two directors, had incidental music by Gil Evans, played by Miles Davis and it was just an incredible afternoon of theater. After that, it would be another five years or so before having my next Elaine experience and this one, of course, was her brilliant performance as Joanne in Company, which she did here at the Ahmanson with most of the original cast. After that, I saw here and there in various shows and always enjoyed her.
And then we did our Drat! The Cat! studio cast album. I think the idea of using her was mine, but I can’t remember how we got put in touch, but one day there I was having a telephonic conversation with that wonderful, raspy voice. She wasted no time at all and immediately asked what the money was. I explained to her that it was just one song, and we did favored nations based on AFTRA per song scale, which, at that time, was around $170. As soon as I said that figure, she bellowed the number followed by, “I can’t leave my apartment for less than five hundred dollars!” I agreed we could give her the balance as a stipend, so as not to create havoc with our favored nations, and that made her happy – I made her even happier when I told her we’d send a car to get her and to take her home.
So, we prepped and rehearsed the album and one day I met our musical director, Todd Ellison, at the Carlyle, where Miss Stritch lived. They played through the number for me, and her co-star in the song, Jonathan Freeman, was also there. She made all kinds of weird and wacky suggestions. I sat, I listened, and I said, “Try it,” knowing that none of the suggestions worked for the material and knowing that Ira Levin would not want any changes to his material. After they tried her ideas, I gently said that we had to respect the material as this was the only recording the show was going to get and the authors wanted it as written. But I also explained why doing that stuff didn’t work for the character. That she liked and she said, “You’re a director, yes? You’ve directed before.” I told her I had and the fact that she knew that and respected it made me very happy.
We recorded the band tracks and several of the lead vocals in LA. Then we sent her the track to work with and she and the other NY vocalists showed up to do their vocal tracks. She came in when we were finishing the last of the other people. Jonathan Freeman had, by that time, done a bunch of albums for us and he knew how to work with the track and keep it all fresh and organic. Even though Miss Stritch had had the track for two weeks, when we began recording she could not stay with the band and she got frustrated and began bellowing, “I can’t record like this – I need the orchestra.” Todd and I calmed her down, I reminded her that she’d done her perfect performance of The Ladies Who Lunch to a playback track, and she got through it just fine. We played it back for her and she was very happy with it. She wrote down my address and said she’d send me a supply of Bay’s English muffins (the company her deceased husband had owned). They never did come, but I do treasure that experience because I just adored her. I’m sure she’ll be having a grand old time wherever her soul has got to.
Yesterday was a day in which I did not get enough sleep – about six hours. I stayed in bed for a while, then answered e-mails, had some telephonic calls, did some work on the computer, and then moseyed on over to Jerry’s Deli for lunch with Kay Cole and her ever-lovin’ Michael Lamont. We had a grand time – I ate a chili, cheese and onion omelet and this time there was actually cheese in it – what a concept. After that, I went and picked up one package, after which I came home. Once home, I downloaded one of our new masters and got it into iTunes, and then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I finished watching a documentary on Netflix entitled Girl Model. It’s about a model scout who finds young Russian teens and takes them to Japan with the promise of a modeling contract and money. The film follows one such thirteen-year-old girl. The film is creepy, disturbing and depressing. The scout is just the weirdest woman ever – she was a former teen model – and she’s the really disturbing part of the film. The depressing part is the teen girl in Japan – no one meets her at the airport, she doesn’t really speak English, but thankfully she obviously had the filmmakers there. She’s put in a tiny little apartment, basically a room and a bathroom. She’s trotted out to “casting” sessions, books one tiny job that they don’t pay her for, and has a contract that enables the agency to fire her if she gains a centimeter of weight. She has another model in the tiny apartment, too – they both are in frequent tears, the other model gets fired for gaining two centimeters (which she did on purpose because she really just wanted out), and the other girl eventually goes home $2,000 in debt to the agency. In a postscript, we’re told she dropped out of ninth grade and went back to Japan and that she’s been modeling in China.
There seems to be some questions raised whether she was manipulated by the filmmakers – apparently there was a video posted on You Tube (since taken down) where she said the filmmakers totally misrepresented everything, were sexual predators, and edited the film to their ends. Folks who saw the video were convinced she was reading from a paper and was basically doing the video at the behest of the agency. Who knows, who cares? It’s still what it is.
Then I watched a motion picture entitled Centennial Summer, starring Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, Cornel Wilde and William Eythe, along with a fun supporting cast including Walter Brennan and Dorothy Gish. It’s a musical film along the lines of Meet Me in St. Louis – it was unfavorably compared to that film back when it came out, but watching it now it doesn’t have that baggage and I found the film quite entertaining. It was Jerome Kern’s final score before his untimely death at 60 years of age. While the songs aren’t quite up to his classics, they’re still very wonderful, the film looks gorgeous (classic Technicolor) and Otto Preminger’s direction is stylish and simple. All the actors are good, but I was especially taken with Mr. Brennan and Miss Gish, along with the wonderful Constance Bennett.
After that, I listened to the master I’d put in iTunes and approved that. Then I had to listen to another master, which was great, and I approved that. Then I buckled down, Winsocki and finished the set of liner notes and got that to the designer. So, a rather busy evening of work, but I got it all done and out of the way, and that packaging will go in for approval today.
Today, I shall begin writing my Kritzerland commentary for the August show, and I’ll be spending quality time with the And the World Goes Round mixes – the ones I can approve will go into mastering, and the ones I want to have another go at we’ll do on Tuesday night. I’ll also eat, hopefully pick up some packages, and watch a motion picture or two in the evening.
The weekend will be all about the And the World Goes Round mixes and finishing the commentary. Next week we’ll wrap up the album, I have an important meeting, I’m seeing a couple of shows, and getting everything ready for the August Kritzerland show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, write, eat, hopefully pick up some packages, listen to mixes and take notes, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray player? I’ll start – a new box set of Philippe Entremont recordings – his entire output for Columbia Records, all newly remastered. Blu and Ray – the rest of the new Twilight Time titles and two movies called Red, one with Bruce Willis and one with Brian Cox. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, after which I shall say, “Does anyone hear wear a hat” and “I’ll drink to that.”