Fosse (82 page)

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   “was very sophisticated”: Beth Kellough Vandenboom, interview with the author, January 5, 2013.

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   “But I like those sequins”: Williamson, “All That Fosse.”

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   “Whenever I get close”: Hodgson, “When Bob Fosse’s Art Imitates Life.”

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   “Chairman of senior class”: “Nominate Star Seniors at Six N. Side Highs: Tribune Will Query Class Choices,”
Chicago Daily Tribune,
December 31, 1944.

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   The students elected him: “Star Seniors Lay Plans, But Put War First: Several Interested in Journalism,”
Chicago Daily Tribune,
January 14, 1945.

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   Consisting mostly of sketches and songs: Gottfried,
All His Jazz,
30.

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   “I think they didn’t believe”: Charles Grass, interview with the author, September 4, 2012.

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   took his baby brother: Ibid.

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   “No, no”: Ibid.

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   Fosse’s brothers had all served in the war: “Star Seniors Lay Plans.”

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   “wrote to the Great Lakes”: Charles Grass, interview with the author, September 4, 2012.

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   Disguised as an ordinary high-school student: “6 N. Side Highs Will Graduate 1,240 Seniors: Lane Technical Tops List With 313,”
Chicago Daily Tribune,
January 21, 1945.

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   “You want to come with me?”: Charles Grass, interview with the author, September 4, 2012.

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   Now that he had gotten a deferral from the war: Gottfried,
All His Jazz,
36.

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   “I hate show business”: Bernard Drew, “Life as a Long Rehearsal,”
American Film,
November 1979.

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   In the summer of 1945: Charles Grass, interview with the author, September 4, 2012.

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   “a kind of audition”: Ibid.

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   “That might have saved Bob’s life”: Ibid.

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   “It was songs and sketches”: Buzz Halliday, interview with the author, November 3, 2011.

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   “very thin, Irish-looking kid”: Kenneth Turan,
Free for All: Joe Papp, the Public, and the Greatest Theater Story Ever Told
(New York: Doubleday, 2009), 28.

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   At twenty-five, Papirofsky, with his streetwise: Ibid.

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   “I saw at once that he was footjoy”: John T. McQuiston, “A Veteran at 13,”
New York Times,
September 24, 1987.

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   “I thought plays were effete”: Turan,
Free for All,
27.

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   “that overbite”: Kenneth Turan/Bob Fosse unpublished interview, February 19, 1987.

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   Papp and Bill Quillin: Gottfried,
All His Jazz,
40.

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   “I heard about it later”: Charles Grass, interview with the author, September 4, 2012.

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   The woman told Mrs. Fosse: Ibid.

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   “I want you to know”: Ibid.

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   Fosse toured
Tough Situation:
Gottfried,
All His Jazz
, 42.

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   Dancing alone in the forest: Gwen Verdon interview,
Dance in America,
WNET archives, September 6, 1989.

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   By the time
Tough Situation:
Gottfried,
All His Jazz
, 41.

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   “That was the first time”: Pete Hamill, “Fosse,”
Piecework
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1996), 348.

FORTY-ONE YEARS

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   Discharged from service in August 1946: Military service papers, LOC, box 52B.

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   mongrel work in progress: The brief illustration of post–World War II New York as a vaudeville town comes from dozens of primary-source interviews.

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   “In a great musical”: Richard Rodgers,
Musical Stages: An Autobiography
(New York: Random House, 1975), 227.

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   “Many a somber problem play”: John Martin, “The Dance: De Mille’s ‘Oklahoma!,’”
New York Times
, May 9, 1943.

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   “When he talked to you”: Lynne Carrow, interview with the author, December 10, 2010.

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   “I had always wondered why”: Robert Greenhut, interview with the author, August 31, 2010.

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   “I think everyone was attracted to him”: Christopher Newman, interview with the author, September 10, 2010.

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   “It was like you were in a tunnel”: Trudy Ship, interview with the author, January 21, 2011.

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   Fosse’s bed at the YMCA: George Chauncey,
Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and The Making of the Gay Male World 1890–1940
(New York: Basic Books, 1994), 155–57.

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   “Sing first”: Sheila John Daly, “Cross-Country Potpourri of Teen Doings,”
Chicago
Tribune,
June 21, 1947.

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   “The Farting Contest”: Frankie Man, interview with the author, July 20, 2010.

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   “He was always there early”: Carl Reiner, interview with the author, September 14, 2010.

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   “At the end of that number”: Jeanna Belkin, interview with the author, May 8, 2011.

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   “We had a pretty crazy company”: Carl Reiner, interview with the author, September 14, 2010.

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   They called her Spooky: Jeanna Belkin, interview with the author, May 8, 2011.

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   “Marian was a spitfire”: Harvey Evans, interview with the author, January 28, 2011.

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   “I wanted to walk behind her”: Margery Beddow,
In the Company of Friends: Dancers Talking to Dancers II, the Women of Fosse,
videotaped at the New Dance Group, New York, on October 7, 2007.

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   “Spooky was a wonderful tap dancer”: Jeanna Belkin, interview with the author, May 8, 2011.

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   “Bobby liked beauty but he loved talent”: Deborah Geffner, interview with the author, October 1, 2010.

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   “No matter where the show took us”: Jeanna Belkin, interview with the author, May 8, 2011.

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   “Limehouse Blues”: Ronna Elaine Sloan, “Bob Fosse: An Analytic-Critical Study” (University Microfilms International, 1983), 67.

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   “She was a not too educated girl”: Jeanna Belkin, interview with the author, May 8, 2011.

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   She “had a lot of clarity”: Kevin Boyd Grubb,
Razzle Dazzle: The Life and Work of Bob Fosse
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989), 19.

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   The weekend the Ice Capades came: “Bob Fosse,”
E! True Hollywood Story,
February 3, 1999.

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   “Could you imagine”: Ibid.

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   Late in the evening: Martin Gottfried,
All His Jazz
(Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 1998; first published by Bantam in 1990), 44. Citations refer to the Da Capo edition.

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   “We all knew about Bobby”: Jeanna Belkin, interview with the author, May 8, 2011.

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   Backstage, Fosse pouffed his ascot: Gottfried,
All His Jazz
, 48.

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   “She was just a very sweet girl”: Carl Reiner, interview with the author, September 14, 2010.

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   “Mr. Weaver was a hundred percent against marriage”: Charles Grass, interview with the author, September 4, 2012.

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   “He was very, very nervous”: Gottfried,
All His Jazz
, 48.

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   There was a reception that afternoon: Ibid.

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   Fosse posted his final review in the scrapbook: Bob Fosse black embossed scrapbook with Dutch boy and girl cover, LOC, box 55A.

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   “Bob likened show business to boxing”: Ann Reinking, interview with the author, November 15, 2010.

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   “He had a drug problem”: Charles Grass, interview with the author, September 4, 2012.

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   The maestro put tens and twenties: Ibid.

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   sensed that Fosse watched them with: Ibid.

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   “I always thought I’d be dead by twenty-five”: Barry Rehfeld, “Bob Fosse’s Follies,”
Rolling Stone,
January 19, 1984.

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   “the most promising young dancers”: Mark Newton, “The Clubs . . . After Dark,”
Montreal Standard,
March 28, 1948.

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   “When we got off the floor someone said”: “The Real Chorus Line,”
The David Susskind Show,
WNTA-TV, October 18, 1981.

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   “They would do their nightclub act somewhere”: Eileen Casey, interview with the author, January 31, 2011.

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   “I get terribly involved in my work”: Jan Hodenfield, “Bob Fosse Feet First,”
New York Post,
April 21, 1973.

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   “He thought he was the best and”: Ann Reinking, interview with the author, November 15, 2010.

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   they arrived early: Frank Farrell, “Reds Never Rest,”
New York World Telegram,
December 8, 1948.

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   “You’ve heard of Marge and Gower Champion?”: Gottfried,
All His Jazz,
56.

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   “If they looked good they didn’t have”: Bill Smith, “Cotillion Room, Hotel Pierre, New York,”
Billboard,
December 18, 1948.

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   “What faith a wife must have”: Norman Clark, “Bert Lahr Leads Buoyant Musical On Stage at Ford’s,”
Baltimore News Post,
February 15, 1949.

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   “There were about fifteen of us”: Phyllis Sherwood, interview with the author, December 12, 2010.

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   “Unless he knew everything perfect”: Ibid.

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   “Little bit of comedy in ‘showoff’ stint”:
Variety,
July 13, 1949.

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   in the audience: Robert Wahls, “Gwen Verdon, the Eternal Gypsy,”
New York Sunday News,
June 1, 1975.

THIRTY-SEVEN YEARS

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   with Poe’s “Annabel Lee”: Lisa Jo Sagolla,
The Girl Who Fell Down
(Lebanon, NH: Northeastern University Press, 2003), 62.

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   “Her eyes, in particular, often looked”: Ibid., 26.

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   “practically a musical comedy in herself”: Sam Zolotow, “Feigay-Smith Show Will Open Tonight,”
New York Times,
December 22, 1945.

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   “There are lots of ballerinas”: Sagolla,
The Girl Who Fell Down,
66.

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   resembled piano legs: Ibid., 20.

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   “McCracken was exactly the right kind”: Ibid., 71.

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   As one of the original members of the Actors Studio: Ibid., 6.

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   “I can fall down and make it”:
New York Sunday News,
May 7, 1953.

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   “You could have sopped the audience up”: Sagolla,
The Girl Who Fell Down,
75.

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   “He would give her a flower”: Ibid., 180.

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   To Mary-Ann, Fosse gave a new: Eileen Casey, interview with the author, January 31, 2011.

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   But feeling sorry for herself: Ibid.

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   Ol’ Spooky (she wanted them to say): Jeanna Belkin, interview with the author, May 8, 2011.

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   choreographer, Robert Sidney, seemed to give her: Sagolla,
The Girl Who Fell Down,
181.

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   styles not necessarily to his taste: George Goldberg, “Bob Fosse, Not an Ordinary Man,”
Faces International,
Summer 1985.

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   “Interviewers would say”: “Bob Fosse: Steam Heat,”
Great Performances: Dance in America,
PBS; first aired February 23, 1990.

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   “Take care of myself?”: Lionel Chetwynd, “Except for Bob Fosse,”
Penthouse,
January 1974.

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   “Since last caught”: Bill Smith, “Night Club–Vaude Reviews: Cotillion Room, Hotel Pierre, New York,”
Billboard,
January 20, 1951.

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   The place was so full, chairs had to be: Ibid.

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   “There wasn’t much choreography”: George Marcy, interview with the author, February 8, 2011.

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   “We’re all here to woo you”: Michael Blowen, “Will Gritty ‘Star 80’ Glitter at the Box Office?,”
Boston Globe,
November 6, 1983.

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   Proser swapped: “Café Theater, N.Y.,”
Variety,
April 4, 1951.

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   Fosse would lead: George Marcy, interview with the author, February 8, 2011.

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   “I remember going there”: Ibid.

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   “Jesus, she was so in love”: Ibid.

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   “She’s the one who encouraged me”: Chris Chase, “Fosse, from Tony to Oscar to Emmy,”
New York Times,
April 29, 1973.

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   Fosse thought of choreography as: “Is the Director-Choreographer Taking Over?” Roundtable discussion broadcast by radio station WEVD, New York, March 30, 1966.

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“Joan was the biggest influence”: Bernard Drew, “Life as a Long Rehearsal,”
American Film,
November 1979.

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   Joan bloomed with the scent of cypress: Sagolla,
The Girl Who Fell Down
, 164.

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   she spoke French: Ibid.

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   she knew about wine: Ibid.

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   she advised Fosse to enroll in: “Bob Fosse,”
The Dick Cavett Show,
PBS, July 8, 1980.

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   “I was always very bad in class”: Richard Philip, “Bob Fosse’s ‘Chicago’: Roxie’s Razzle Dazzle and All That Jazz,”
Dance Magazine,
November 1975.

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   Room 3B at the Neighborhood Playhouse: Sanford Meisner and Dennis Longwell,
Sanford Meisner on Acting
(New York: Random House, 1987), 3.

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   Gloria Vanderbilt, Farley Granger: Farley Granger and Robert Calhoun,
Include Me Out
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2007), 186.

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   If you do something, you really do it: Meisner and Longwell,
Sanford Meisner on Acting,
17.