Celebrities, Hmmm . . .
Most fun: Elaine Stritch, Jim Dale, Stockard Channing, Stephen Sondheim, Jerry Herman, Ilka Chase, Twiggy
Not fun: Kiri Te Kanawa, F. Murray Abraham
You didn't like Murray Abraham?
I met him when he was playing Al Capone in the film I wrote. He seemed like a nice guy. We spoke on the phone a few times after that.
Awful man. He was either rude and insulting to the Drama Book Shop employees or overly nice. So were Tom Hulce, Jeff Daniels and Fran Liebowitz. Tovah Feldshuh could be unpleasant at Barnes & Noble.
Also fun: Madeleine Kahn, Ann Meara, Jerry Stiller, Hume Cronyn, Lynn Redgrave, Milton Berle, and composer Johnny Green, whom I loved.
I knew Johnny Green through my client, Paul Francis Webster, who wrote the lyrics for the title song of RAINTREE COUNTY. I also found him to be very pleasant.
I met Milton Berle when I accompanied client Abe Vigoda to a Friar's Club roast. He was..."Milton Berle".
With regard to Murray Abraham, I certainly don't know what was going on at the time, but I can understand how somebody might lose their patience with a bookstore clerk.
The fact that somebody works in a bookstore does not mean they are well read.
I didn't lose my temper and wasn't rude, but I recall two different instances where I was in a bookstore, asked the clerk for a title, and they replied: "Do you have an author?"
The books were
DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE and
OTHELLO.
I guess they don't teach basic literature in school any longer. They just teach to the test.
