Well, dear readers, before we begin, may I just announce our new release – it’s rather monumental: The world premiere release of the COMPLETE soundtracks to Sun Valley Serenade and Orchestra Wives, the two Fox musical Glenn Miller classics, each movie on its own CD (a two-CD set) and each CD close to eighty minutes in length. Some of the material has been released before but all of those releases sounded pretty bad, and any bonus material floating around is worse, taken right off a film print. Here everything is off the pristine Fox vault elements and they sound as good today as they did when they were recorded. They are in mono – in the 1990s for the home video releases, they were given a synthesized stereo soundtrack, but it is fake, not real, no matter what you read. The original recordings have always been mono. Everything is included – all the great Miller tracks, all the incidental scoring, and fun bonus material, with much that has never been released before. Here are the covers.
And here are some more items from the recently unearthed Day Runners, this time from 1972 and 1973. I’ll skip most of the interviews and minor TV stuff and mention what I found interesting. January 7 – Mark Taper Forum, Jeremy Blahnik. Ms. Blahnik was the casting director at the Taper – she was a fan of mine and I’d already read for her for their production of Godspell, which I didn’t get because I would be the last person, the last kind of actor you’d ever cast in that show. So, what was this meeting about? Pippin. I sang and read for Pippin, which, at the time, was set in a – wait for it – kind of circus environment – all actors would have to learn and do acrobatics and circus stuff. That let me out and obviously the entire concept changed almost instantly, since the show the Fosse came to do opened later that year.
Doing the first production of Start at the Top I’d met a fellow named Gary Burkhart and we’d become pals. His father did airplane flying for the movies. Gary knew lots of celebrities and he began taking me to screenings all the time, and sneak previews, too. So, when I mention those things you’ll understand who I went with. For example: Friday, January 2 – see Cabaret preview. This was at the Village Theater and the film was shown in interlock – separate picture and sound, so we were the only audience that saw, or rather heard, the film in stereo. It also had an F word that was later looped to an S word. The next day it says I had an audition for Hello, Dolly – have no idea what production that might have been, nor what role I was going in on. On Sunday March 3 – What’s Up, Doc sneak preview 8:30. It was either at the Chinese or the Vogue. On March 6 I had a meeting with a person my friend Alan Abelew wanted me to meet – Mark Haggard. He’d heard about my idea for Nudie Musical and wanted in. That would begin three years of meetings about doing the movie.
Tuesday March 28, I saw The Godfather at the Village Theater. In line ahead of me – Fred Astaire. On Friday April 14 – sneak preview of Play it Again, Sam – can’t remember what theater. During the first three months of that year, I was going on interviews a lot at Universal. On April 24, a young singer named Chip Hand, a protégé of Merv Griffin, came over to hear my Start at the Top songs. He loved them. Tuesday May 2 – screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s Frenzy. Sunday May 14 – Chip came over again, and the following day we went to the Hollywood Palace and I played the songs for Merv Griffin. He loved them, too. He decided on the spot that we’d do them on the show in a couple of weeks, like a backer’s audition. I was suddenly running around getting copyright forms and having proper sheet music done and I went back to Merv on Wednesday the 17 with Valerie Gillette, who’d been in the show and who I wanted to sing her big song. He heard her, liked her, and she was in. Chip, Valerie, and I had a couple of rehearsals on our own, and on May 24 I dropped the lead sheets off at the Hollywood Palace. On May 29 I met with Mort Lindsay, who was going to orchestrate one of the songs – and I’d be singing it with his band. On Thursday June 1, we ran through the songs at four at the Hollywood Palace, and then taped at 5:45. Cousin Dee Dee was in the audience with my mother and maybe my Aunt Lily. On June 5 – take ad in Variety. I don’t know if I ever did it – certainly I have no copy of it.
What came out of the Merv show was that someone who worked on it loved the music, and decided to back a third production of the show, this time at the Stage Society Theater, and for the first time I would play the role that was based on me. In the cast of that production was a young singer/dancer/actor named Rick Mason. Three years later he’d be on Broadway in A Chorus Line. I read for and got an episode of the short-lived series, The Super, a horrible show. On Saturday August 5 I saw Follies at the Shubert Theater in Century City. Haggard and Cindy Williams were coming over regularly all summer, and I presume that was all about Nudie. On September 9 – 11:00 Bronislau Kaper’s house. I have no idea what that means – maybe to play the Nudie songs, but why his house? He was one of my favorite composers. I DO remember going to his house years later to play the songs from what was to be my second film, Sailors – he wasn’t there, but Saul Chaplin was. But this entry baffles me.
I had back-to-back shoots for my third Partridge Family and then Ghost Story. And then went right into rehearsals for my musical version of The Comedy of Errors. Moving into 1973 I see I had an interview with Jackie Cooper – whatever it was for I got, since I have a check referenced from his company – but I have no idea what it was for. But two days later I began work on a late-night comedy program called Honeymoon Suite at Warner Bros. Oh, on January 11 I was rehearsing Honeymoon Suite and also something called Lilly at NBC – that would have been the Jackie Cooper thing. I have no idea what Lilly was. Actually, I just searched Jackie Cooper and found Lily – it starred Eileen Heckart and Brenda Vacarro. I have a teeny-tiny memory now of meeting Miss Heckart, but virtually no memory at all of what I might have done in the show. It is a mystery unless I somehow had to drop out of it because of Honeymoon Suite. Who knows? I also did my fourth Partridge Family in there somewhere.
Did several other TV things in January and February and became friends with Peter Kastner – us dining at his place, and he at ours. In February there were several meetings with Mark Haggard’s “people.” I have no idea who those people might have been. In March there begins a series of one-word entries that would continue until August – Hospital. That was my mother, who was dying of Hodgkins Disease. I don’t like hospitals and am surprised that I apparently went about five times. On March 21 – interview at The Taper – Ms. Blahnik would not give up on me – she really wanted me to do a show there. I was given a script and she told me how right I was for the role. The following Monday I read for the director, Arvin Brown. I REALLY wanted the part and to do the show. Nearly three weeks later I was sure I wasn’t even getting a call back, when I got a call back for the show at the Taper. That was on Tuesday April 17. I heard nothing. On Friday April 20 I had another call back – this time they wanted me to read for the bigger young person’s role – I liked that part, but REALLY liked the one I’d been reading for. I thought I’d lost both roles and was very depressed that they could not make a decision, but a week later they did and I had my part and began rehearsals the following day.
On May 19 we began previews. On May 20 cousin Alan married Dee Dee. We continued previews while rehearsing during the days and we opened on May 31, doing eight shows a week. On July 2 I went to see Two Gentlemen of Verona at the Ahmanson – their cast and ours had become very friendly. And the following day I saw a run-through of Gigi at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Our show closed on July 14 and two days later I apparently drove Bud Cort to the airport. Then it was lots of appointments but not booking anything. On Friday August 4 I met Cindy’s manager, Pat McQueeney. I’m not sure how long it took, but she became my manager, too. On August 9 a single word entry – Funeral. My mother had died the day before.
The day after was another Taper interview – no idea for what. And I had a meeting with the Bressler agency – while they would eventually become my agents I don’t know why I was meeting with them in 1973. I was also getting together every now and then with Ray Henderson and Elsa Lanchester.
On September 11 I left on a cruise to Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta and Acapulco. In Acapulco, the cast and crew of The Partridge Family came on board and we shot what would be my final episode on the way back home. When I returned home I had yet another interview at The Taper – don’t know what for. Then we did my musical Feast. The producers and cast of Partridge came to see it and loved it. They wanted to write me another episode, incorporating some elements from Feast – and they did. William Bickley wrote it and I have the script. But alas, the show went off the air and it never happened. In November I signed with a commercial agent and met again with the Bressler agency. I then began going on commercial auditions, having two or three a day. And I booked my first spot – a national that would run for three solid years – How Mr. Whipple met his wife. We’ll continue in tomorrow’s notes because things get really interesting in 1974 and 1975.
Happily, not much to write about yesterday. I can do it in just a few lines. Got eight hours of sleep. Cast another person for the Kritzerland show. Did some work on the LA show. Had a breakfast burrito for my meal o’ the day. Came home. Had a long conversation with Lanny – something weird happened to his Finale file on the seven-minute song and so we had to fix several things. My PDF is correct and I suspect the problems happened when he changed the key by a step – I think the file just got weird. But he had the PDF so he just compared each bar and fixed what he had to. Then I spent a really long time on the phone doing fixes on the three charts I’d gotten on Friday. We got through everything and that ate up most of the night. And that was Sunday.
Today, I have a meet and greet for the cast of the LA show and just prior to that I’ll see a model of the set, which I’m very excited about. After the meet and greet, I’ll record the voices of our cast, then head on home. I’ll eat at some point, and hopefully pick up some packages.
The rest of the week is meetings and meals, casting the two other people we need for Kritzerland, working on the LA show, a production meeting for the LA show, booking the signing at Mystery and Imagination, and other stuff.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a meet and greet, eat, work, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Are you enjoying the Day Runner palaver – I don’t want to continue if it’s boring at all. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, getting a continued kick while The Day Runner Strikes Back.