Authors: Candy Spelling
I always like to do research before I get involved with a project. So before I started work on
Promises, Promises
, I watched the film,
The Apartment,
which is what the play is based on.
The Apartment
is considered one of the greatest movies of all time. It’s a romantic drama that was released in 1960 and stars Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, and Fred MacMurray. It was directed by Billy Wilder, who also directed
Some Like It Hot. The Apartment
was a huge commercial success and was also well received by critics.
New York Times
critic Bosley Crowther called it “a gleeful, tender and even sentimental film.” The movie was honored with six Academy Awards.
In 1968,
The Apartment
became the basis for the original Broadway production of
Promises, Promises
. It starred Jerry Orbach, whom most of us know
from
Law and Order,
and the lovely Jill O’Hara, who played the roommate Sheila in the original off-Broadway production of
Hair
. She went on to be nominated for a Tony Award for her performance in the original production of
Promises, Promises
. Burt Bacharach did the music, Hal David wrote the lyrics, and Neil Simon did the book. It was this production that gave birth to the classic songs “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” and “I Say A Little Prayer.” The London production followed soon thereafter and opened in 1969 starring Tony Roberts and Betty Buckley.
Once I was officially a part of the producing team, I flew to New York City for the rehearsals. I was so nervous. As I walked into the theater, I felt like it was my first day of school. I honestly didn’t know if I was allowed to talk to anyone. I was in awe when the marquee went up and there was my name in lights. I had goose bumps the whole time I stood there taking pictures of it. It was stardust, after all, and not just dust.
On the opening night of the previews, Neil Simon was sitting right behind me. I’ll never forget when he said, “Candy, you will never experience this again. The audience was so in tune with the show.”
I had worked with Aaron so much behind the scenes on the interior design and costuming of his shows. He always gave me credit, but I still felt invisible. Here was my chance to step up be recognized, and it meant even more because it was a revival of a musical on Broadway and not a revival of a show my husband had created.
Craig and Neil had updated the play so that it would be more modern. It was energetic and funny. The show went into previews at the end of March and opened on April 25, 2010. There was a lot of buzz about Katie Finneran’s portrayal of Marge. She was dubbed a “scene stealer” by
The Wall Street Journal,
and less than two months into the show, they predicted she would win a Tony Award—and she did just that.
When
Promises, Promises
took its final bow in January 2011 after 1,281 performances, I was ready for my next challenge, which happened to be another show with Craig and Neil. This time it was the 50th Anniversary of
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
Actor Daniel Radcliffe,
better known as Harry Potter, was taking on the lead role in the show as the New York City window cleaner, J. Pierrepont Finch.
The original stage production of
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
was an adaptation of the 1952 book by Shepherd Mead. The book was a satire of corporate America and became a bestseller. With the popularity of the book there was an early attempt to adapt it into a play, but it wasn’t successful, and the adaptation just languished. Years later, the creative team from
Guys and Dolls
became involved, and they retooled the adaptation to include a romance in the story. I think the love story combined with the songs of Frank Loesser must have clinched it because the show went into previews in August 1961.
Robert Morse from
Mad Men
played J. Pierrepont Finch in the original 1961 Broadway production, which also featured Charles Nelson Reilly in the role of Bud Frump. The musical was remounted in 1995 with Matthew Broderick playing Finch. In our 50th-Anniversary revival,
The New York Times
called Daniel Radcliffe “The Wizard of Corporate Climbing.”
I must have flown to New York City eighteen times that year and stayed for three-week stretches. It didn’t feel like work to me. It was a joy to be in the theater watching the rehearsals. The emotional return on my investment was already coming back to me tenfold. It was wonderful being away from Los Angeles. The hustle and bustle of Manhattan was the best vitamin injection anyone could ask for. Walking the red carpet at the Tony Awards was also very special for me because it was the first time I was photographed as myself and identified as a producer of a show. I was no longer just Aaron Spelling’s wife or Tori Spelling’s maleficent mother.
Over the years I had learned it takes hundreds of crew members to create a show or a production. Even producers have their respective areas of expertise. Some are great at working with writers while others handle heavy-duty decision-making. Craig and Neil and I were all on the same page when it came to my role as co-producer. We all felt handling the merchandising for the show would be my strong suit. I was extremely confident in my knowledge of merchandising. Going all the way back to
The Mod Squad
, Aaron’s shows spurred
lunch boxes, gum, trading cards, and of course T-shirts and posters. By the time Aaron was making
90210
and its spin-off,
Melrose Place
, his production company had a partnership with a merchandising company called Worldvision.
What always started out as Aaron asking my opinion about merchandise for a specific show ended up with me assuming responsibility for creating the merchandise.
90210
presented us with a whole variety of youth market options including nail polish, backpacks, jewelry boxes, messenger bags, and of course T-shirts, sweatshirts, and baseball caps. We also made a line of dolls based on the characters with Mattel.
Melrose Place
had many of the same items, but because the cast was a group of twentysomethings who hung out at
Shooters,
we also made souvenir shot glasses and T-shirts from the fictitious bar.
My cumulative experience at Jax, Lehr & Spelling, QVC, and of course all of Aaron’s shows gave me an exceptional base of knowledge.
I started by sending inquiries to probably a dozen merchandising companies. Some of them specialized in Broadway shows and others handled concerts and live events but were willing to accommodate our needs. The bids came in, and it turned out to be better to go with a vendor who specialized in Broadway shows. At the end of the day, we produced T-shirts and hats fashioned to fit the style of the show. And of course we had to have the signature bow tie worn by J. Pierrepont Finch. We also had books, scores, and CDs, all of which sold in the kiosk at the theater.
I was very proud of our merchandising sales. The theatergoers went mad for the merchandise. As reported by
Playbill
, we had record-breaking ticket sales the week of Daniel’s final performance.
That week may have been the last for Daniel, but it was just the beginning for me. I had found the niche I was looking for. When another company offered me the opportunity to be involved with
Nice Work If You Can Get It
, I was thrilled to jump on board. This show was described to me as “Gershwin, girls, and glamour.” They had me at Gershwin. The show, which takes its name from the Gershwin song, is set in the 1920s Prohibition era. It is filled with the most captivating music and dance numbers. Matthew Broderick, who played the
lead role of Jimmy Winter, was just fabulous, and the director Kathleen Marshall honestly just astounded me with her talent.
The show just had its final performance in June 2013. It was nominated for and won several Tony Awards as well as Drama Desk Awards and Drama League Awards. It was nice work for someone who just a couple of years ago was doing some serious soul searching, and now everything was falling into place.
Last year, I had remarkably good fortune once again when I was introduced to Scott Sanders, an Emmy–and Tony Award–winning theater, film, and television producer whose earlier shows included
The Color Purple
and
Evita.
He was well on his way to putting together another musical with a brilliant creative team that included Warren Carlyle, Daryl Waters, Isabel Toledo, and Wynton Marsalis’s the Jazz at Lincoln Center All-Stars. He asked me to join as a producer, and it was thrilling to be there for the first preview and see the crowd up on their feet dancing and swaying to the big-band songs of Duke Ellington. Even more exciting was opening night and the rave reviews that followed proclaiming
After Midnight
a “must-see” for all.
24
Sex and the City of Angels
Somewhere between my writing the book, producing plays on Broadway, and selling The Manor, my girlfriends decided that I needed to start dating. They reminded me that it was one thing to have found my career-woman self, but now I needed to get back to dating so I could have balance.
Saying that my core group of girlfriends urged me to date is an understatement. Forced me is more like it, really. Now in order for me to talk about dating, I need to change the names of the innocent. Just like in
Dragnet
, “Ladies and Gentlemen, the story you are about to hear is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.” In this case the names have been changed to protect the guilty as well.
After Aaron died I wasn’t ready to date or even think about dating for quite awhile. To be honest, it was the furthest thing from my mind. After about a year, my friends kept saying that I needed to get out there and do whatever. It was the “whatever” part that made it all so difficult for me. It was daunting to think about. I hadn’t done any dating since I was nineteen years old and started dating
Aaron. Except for one or two dates during our breakups before we were married, Aaron was it. How was it possible that I was going to start dating again and at my age? From what I could tell, “dating” had an entirely different connotation than it had more than three decades ago. In my day, a date was dinner and a movie, or if you were feeling ambitious, dinner, a movie, and dancing.
As I mulled it over, I could hear the trumpets from
The Dating Game
television show with Jim Lange. I tried to picture myself on that high stool, asking questions of three eligible bachelors on the other side of the partition.
The bottom line when it came to the topic of dating was the fact that it simply wasn’t easy coming to terms with the idea that I was no longer a married woman. I’d worn a wedding band for thirty-eight years of my married life and kept it on for a year after Aaron passed away. Even then I didn’t keep it off all of the time. To this day, I still wear my wedding band when I go out if I am so inclined. I wear it with one of the other rings that Aaron gave me over the years. He never gave me an engagement ring, but as time went on, he more than made up for it.
I went online and read that there was a significant increase in baby boomers dating online. There were several sites for my age group, and they all touted their success stories. AARP had their own site called perfectmatch.com. There was also seniorpeoplemeet.com. I certainly wasn’t going to register on highlifeadventures.com since hang gliding and rock climbing are not my kind of thing. I also found ourtime.com and olderdatingonline.com. There were some cougar websites, but I wasn’t interested in younger men. I wanted someone age appropriate. The only site I even considered registering for was youmustlovedogs.com.
I finally agreed to take the leap of faith when a good friend of mine fixed me up on a blind date. Suffice it to say that as the date became closer to a reality, I grew more than a little nervous. Finally the day arrived. I was a nervous wreck. I pulled myself together and dressed in something simple but elegant. I put on my face and made sure to draw on a smile.
The date was supposed to be drinks and dinner, but I ended the evening after just half a glass of wine. Here’s where the protection of the guilty begins. Let’s call him “Oscar” because he was like an octopus and that is a good name for an octopus. Oscar just couldn’t keep his hands off of me. Oh my god. It was
so horrible. Really, it was as though he had eight pairs of hands. After what felt like a very long forty-five minutes, when I finally realized that Oscar was too affectionate for me, I finally pushed my chair back from the table.
“I’m sorry, but you know what? This really isn’t going to work for me.” I stood up, smoothed out my blouse, which looked like it had been man-handled, and then I left the restaurant. He was a doctor, so it made sense that being out with him was practically like undergoing an examination.
Okay, so it wasn’t beginner’s luck, but at least I was out there. Another one of my girlfriends became my cheerleader and refused to allow my blind date with Oscar derail me. She fixed me with up with “Larry.” Larry actually sounded very good. He was seventy, educated, and a professional. Like me he had also lost a spouse. I happen to have a friend who’s in the FBI, so I asked him to do a background check on Larry. After Oscar, I figured I couldn’t be too careful. It was my version of Googling someone. It turns out Larry was really seventy-five. I wondered why a man would lie about his age. Could I trust a man who lied about his age? I guess we’re all entitled to shave off a few years when we get to a certain age, and, I have to say, Larry looked good for seventy. He looked even better for seventy-five.
We went to dinner, and even though it was our very first date, I could tell that he was very into me. In fact, I had a sneaking suspicion that he could see me as his next wife. My womanly instincts told me Larry was the kind of guy who wanted to be married. He wasn’t dating to date. He was looking for a wife to share his golden years with. I knew from experience that widowed men don’t do as well alone as widowed women. It was sweet. Then again it also made me uncomfortable because I just wanted to date.