Alan Jay Lerner: A Lyricist's Letters (29 page)

Yours very truly,

Alan Jay Lerner

Though unconnected to his professional activities, the letter shows how humorously Lerner chose to deal with the world in general.

    
He also received a letter from Hoagy Carmichael
⁸⁶
in early May, offering himself as a potential replacement for Loewe as Lerner’s collaborator. The proposal was a curious one, for although Carmichael was an accomplished songwriter and actor, he was not known as a Broadway composer.
⁸⁷
Evidently, he had not yet heard about the Lerner-Rodgers musical that was in the works:

    
To Hoagy Carmichael

    
May 3, 1962

    
Dear Hoagy:

    
I was so flattered to receive your note and equally sorry that I could not see you while you were in town.

        
Being one of the leading members of your legion of fans I can think of nothing that would give me greater pleasure than to work with you. For the moment, however, I am writing a show with Dick Rodgers which is scheduled for presentation some time next spring. After that I have to work on the motion picture versions of
My Fair Lady
and
Camelot
. How long all that is going to take me I haven’t the slightest idea; so for the moment I am, as they say, tied up.

        
But maybe one day when all of this is over…if you’re still interested. Let’s keep in touch.

        
Thank you again.

Sincerely,

Alan Jay Lerner

    
By this time, Lerner and Rodgers had indeed moved ahead with their new show. Instead of the Chanel musical (a project to which Lerner would later return), they decided to go with an idea that Lerner had for a story about a girl with extra-sensory perception. They signed actress Barbara Harris
⁸⁸
to the lead female role and estimated an opening date of the following March.
⁸⁹
A starry male lead of gravitas was sought to complement Harris’s comedic talent, and Lerner’s thoughts seem initially have gone to his old friend Dirk Bogarde, whom he had approached to play Gaston in
Gigi
back in 1958. Though the actor turned down the idea of performing a stage musical, he showed renewed interest in appearing in a movie musical, and Lerner wrote back to express his own keenness on this idea:

    
To Dirk Bogarde

    
June 18, 1962

    
Dearest Chum:

    
Of course, I understand completely! Naturally, I’m sorry as Hell we shan’t be working together, but I do see how you feel, and I’m deeply
touched. Perhaps when this is over, I’ll come up with the right idea for a film. We must do something together sometime. I’m still bubbling with youthful energy, but I have a feeling that any minute I’m going to be like Margot leaving Shangri-La. So we must do it quickly, before the skin starts flaking.

        
Life is excruciatingly dull in New York these days. Our house—which incidentally is simply beautiful—is all shrouded in white sheets, which protect the furniture from unwanted matter, namely me. Only my workroom, the kitchen and the library are defrocked. And what am I doing here alone? Working my ass off, for reasons I have never been able to pin down. I will get over once or twice, however, during the summer. Might you be coming down to St. Paul? We’ll be moving into our house at La Colle the beginning of July. It would be marvelous if you were going to be in the neighborhood.

        
I don’t know what to say about Rex [Harrison] and our friend Dickie [Richard Burton]. I gather Rex is charging around like Ivan the Terrible because nobody knows he’s in the picture. As for the Wild Welshman, I spoke to Binky [Beaumont] the other day and asked him if he thought Richard was going to do
Camelot
in London. He told me, quite seriously, that if he goes back to Sybill, he will, but that if he stays with Liz, he won’t. It’s like being lost at sea, except that instead of having a compass to see which way you’re going, you have Richard Burton’s cock. Hi, ho!

        
I hope the picture is going well. Give Judy [Garland] my love; but much, much more to Tony.
⁹⁰
Ask him to drop me a line if he gets a chance. It would cheer me no end. At the moment I feel a little like Anne Frank.

Devotedly,

Alan

It is intriguing to read the penultimate paragraph, which discusses the clashes between Richard Burton and Rex Harrison, the male stars of Lerner’s previous two Broadway musicals, while filming
Cleopatra
together in Rome. Especially pertinent is the idea that Burton might have played Arthur in the London
Camelot
, just as Harrison had done
Fair Lady
on both sides of the Atlantic.

    
In July, Burton was unexpectedly pronounced to be the likely male lead for the new Rodgers-Lerner show. The composer commented that Burton “loves the idea” and “wants to do it” but confessed “we haven’t talked money.”
⁹¹
By August, it seemed likely that screen commitments would probably prevent the actor from
taking part, but Gower Champion, the director-choreographer of
Bye Bye Birdie
and
Carnival
, was signed on to head the production team.
⁹²
In an interview on August 12, Lerner confided that “Many songs and the whole musical treatment have become clear in our minds, which, in a way, is half the battle. Actually, only one song has been finished.” He also commented on working methods: “There will be many places where I will do the lyrics first and many places where Dick will write the music first.” Rodgers added: “We have no fixed procedures.…He’s very flexible, and so am I.”
⁹³
Considering very little literature has been devoted to the Lerner-Rodgers association, it is fascinating to see how closely—and, apparently, productively—they appear to have worked throughout this period.

    
September saw
My Fair Lady
finally close on Broadway, after 2,717 performances and a total box office of over $20 million.
⁹⁴
Reporting on the event, the
New York Times
noted: “At the final curtain, just before the singing of ‘Auld Lang Syne’—smiling, no tears—co-author Alan Jay Lerner remarked that among all the credits for the success of the show, one had been pretty much overlooked—the audience. He had a point and we accept it with deep gratitude. The street where the theatre lives does have two sides, and both were at their best with ‘My Fair Lady.’ It was our show.”
⁹⁵
These comments signify just how intensely personal the musical had been for New York theatergoers during the late ’50s and early ’60s, and the idea that it was “our show” has certainly been perpetuated during its many tours, revivals, and film adaptation.
⁹⁶

    
Another Lerner milestone in this month was Robert Goulet’s final performance as Lancelot in
Camelot
. The actor was the last of the original leads to leave the show, and Lerner was unable to attend due to his hard work on the Rodgers project:

    
To Robert Goulet

    
October 6, 1962

    
Dear, dear Bobby:

    
In a way I’m glad that work on my new show prevents me from being at your last night. To see the last of the great triumvirate play his final performance would be a sad occasion for me.

        
Anyhow, old boy. I’m grateful for the time you were there and I cannot help but look upon your extraordinary and well deserved success (in and out of the play) with kind of a vested personal interest and pride.

        
You’re off to a great career! Bless you—enjoy it—and don’t let anybody ever talk you into being different from the wonderful fellow you are now.

Thanks for everything! I’ll miss you. And “Bon Voyage” —

Alan

    
By the end of October, the new Rodgers-Lerner show’s title was announced:
I Picked a Daisy
. “The subject is extrasensory perception in a contemporary New York setting,” the writers confided, and Robert Horton
⁹⁷
was now signed on as Barbara Harris’s leading man.
⁹⁸
But soon after, Lerner became intensely dissatisfied with his script for the show—a problem that would plague it up to and beyond its Broadway premiere, which was still more than two years away—and rehearsals were postponed in January 1963 to the end of that year.
⁹⁹
Family illness also contributed to the delay, as did preparations for the screen adaptation of
My Fair Lady
. Lerner mentions both in the following telegram to Jack Warner, in which he also apologizes for his late departure for Hollywood to work on the film:

    
Telegram to Jack Warner

    
January 14, 1963

    
DEAR JACK

    
I AM SO SORRY ABOUT THE DELAY IN MY ARRIVAL, BUT AS CUKOR PROBABLY TOLD YOU MY LITTLE BOY HAS HAD PNEUMONIA AND MY WIFE HAS BEEN IN THE HOSPITAL. HOWEVER, THE CRISES ARE FINALLY PASSING AND I GIVE YOU MY SOLEMN WORD YOU SHALL BE GAZING AT MY ENCHANTING FACE NEXT WEEK. IN THE MEANTIME I AM HERE IN NEW YORK AND AVAILABLE FOR ANY PHONE CONVERSATIONS.

FONDLY,

ALAN

    
Once in Hollywood, Lerner started a new draft of his script for
Daisy
and began revising the
Fair Lady
screenplay (at least eight versions of the screenplay
exist in the University of Southern California’s Warner Bros. Archives, mostly dating from 1963). Little correspondence from this period has survived, perhaps because Lerner was so absorbed in these two large projects, but the following letter shows a comical interaction between Lerner and his namesake, journalist Max Lerner (1902–92):

    
To Max Lerner

    
February 12, 1963

    
Dear Max Lerner,

    
I am enclosing a letter from one of your French fans which came to me by mistake. It is, however, a mistake that has cleared up a great mystery for me.

        
I have not received any royalties from France for years and I assumed it was due to the fundamental French belief that one only takes money from Americans but never gives them any. Now I understand thoroughly what has happened. Obviously your books are being published under my name, and my songs and plays under yours. So would you please be a good fellow and send me all those royalties you have been pocketing for all these years?

        
If you’re a little short I will be happy to wait until the newspaper strike is over.

        
Good try, old man.

Sincerely,

Alan

Again, we can see that the theme of Lerner’s lack of acceptance by the French public is the subject of his sense of humor.

    
Another note of interest shows that Lerner approached Random House with the idea of having the scripts of the Lerner-Loewe musicals published in a single volume, rather like the same publisher’s edition of the first six stage musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein:

    
To Bennett Cerf
[of Random House, Inc.]

    
March 22, 1963

    
Dear Bennett:

    
I happened to glance at the best seller list the other day and I see that you are making so much money that it seemed to me you might be
interested in a tax loss: namely the one-volume edition of Fritz’ and my musicals. It occurs to me this is the sort of thing you should do or the government is liable to get after you for Article II, Section B, which has to do with best seller monopolies.

        
The reason for this volume goes way beyond the theatre and American culture in general. Its purpose, as I see it, is simply this: it would make me happy. Not only that, but I have some book shelves to fill and how many sets of Samuel Pepys can you have?

        
I write you during the Lenten period hoping that you are in an appropriate and benevolent mood. If you are at all interested I would love to have lunch with you and discuss it further. If you are not, this is

Goodbye.

Alan Jay Lerner

He also found time to send a brief telegram to his old classmate, now President Kennedy, on the occasion of the foundation of a Council for Arts:

    
Telegram to President John F. Kennedy

    
April 1, 1963

    
DEAR MR. PRESIDENT,

    
THE DRAMATISTS GUILD APPLAUDS YOUR DECISION TO APPOINT A COUNCIL FOR ARTS AND WISHES TO EXPRESS TO YOU ITS DEEP GRATITUDE FOR YOUR COURAGEOUS LEADERSHIP AND CONTINUING INTEREST IN OUR COUNTRY’S CULTURAL AFFAIRS.

RESPECTFULLY,

ALAN JAY LERNER

PRESIDENT, THE DRAMATISTS GUILD OF AMERICA

    
After several months of work on
Daisy
, Lerner was happy to announce to the world in May that he had “finally completed the book to his satisfaction” and was “well along on the lyrics.” Likewise, Rodgers had “composed some of the music.”
¹⁰⁰
Their relationship had grown, and a day after this announcement, Lerner published an article in honor of the twentieth anniversary of
Oklahoma!
, called “Oh, What a Beautiful Musical.”
¹⁰¹
“This was not an operetta, nor a musical comedy,” he wrote. “This was a musical play, in which play, music, lyrics and dancing were fused into one living experience. In short, it was a milestone.”
Seemingly, nothing could go wrong between Lerner and Rodgers, and with the book for their new show now finished the lyricist started to deal with other projects. On May 23, he produced and directed a fundraising birthday celebration for President Kennedy at the Waldorf-Astoria, with performances by Carol Channing, Ann-Margret, Jimmy Durante, Peter Lawford, Robert Preston, Donald O’Connor, Ed Sullivan, Louis Armstrong, and numerous others. Audrey Hepburn, who was about to start shooting the movie version of
Fair Lady
, sang “Happy Birthday” to the president at the evening’s climax.
¹⁰²