Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof (62 page)

bankrolled by a Philadelphia department store owner
Stein interview.

planted a tape recorder mic among the celery
Murray Schumach, “The Amish and Music,”
New York Times
, January 23, 1955, X1.

criticized for failing to find
See Richard P. Cooke, “The Theater: O’Casey to Music,”
Wall Street Journal
, March 11, 1959; Brooks Atkinson, “Musical ‘Juno,’”
New York Times
, March 15, 1959; Brooks Atkinson, “Theatre: A Musical ‘Juno’ Arrives,”
New York Times
, March 10, 1959.

Stein didn’t have either musical consciously in mind
Stein interview.

Harnick loved it
Interviews: Harnick-1; Stein.

“a succession of insufficiently fused fragments”
“Actors’ Odyssey Told in ‘Roaming Stars’” (no author cited),
New York Times,
January 25, 1930, 7.

But where to find the stories
Stein interview.

In March 1961, Bock, Harnick, and Stein met formally
Diary, JBP23:11.

“wrote them off”
Harnick-1 interview.

“so warm”
Harnick-1 interview.

“Over and above”
unidentified program note or newsletter article, SHP, 3:5.

“It never entered our minds”
Harnick interview.

“happened to be Jewish”
Stein interview.

“never very involved in religion”
Stein interview.

ethnic “juices”
quoted in Altman and Kaufman,
Making of a Musical
, 35.

“I’ll go through the motions”
Stein interview.

“Who would be interested”
Stein interview.

“It was pure speculation”
Stein quoted in Leonard Harris, “‘Fiddler’ on the Concourse,”
New York Herald Tribune
, December 28, 1964, 20.

“the next day they were engaged”
Sholem-Aleichem,
Tevye’s Daughters
, 37.

vital need to narrate himself through every situation
See Roskies,
Bridge of Longing
, 157ff.

“I wasn’t worried about God so much”
Sholem-Aleichem,
Tevye’s Daughters
, 160.

numbering sections with a light pencil
Stein showed me the volume during our interview.

“I’m not a stenographer”
Stein interview.

“With pogrom threatening”
Outline, “Old Country II,” n.d., SHP3:6.

even Shprintze’s suicide
variant “Old Country” outline, n.d. (in which the character based on Sholem-Aleichem’s Shprintze is called Leah), SHP3:6.

“light and humorous treatment”
“Suggestions for Chava Sequence,” JSP-W29:1.

too dark for the show
Harnick interview-3.

just “felt right”
Stein interview.

less “exotic” names like Rachel and Sarah
“Old Country” outline, n.d., JSP29:1.

“Does Tevye live in Boiberik?”
JBP21:3.

“Move! March, you foolish animal!”
Tevye
draft, October, 17, 1961, JSP26:1 and JBP21:1.

“pure, unadulterated exposition”
Bock and Harnick note to Stein, n.d., SHP3:6.

Stein’s father died
Bock diary, JBP23:11; Harry Stein interview.

“musical guesses”
Stein quoted by Lambert,
To Broadway
, 50.

“Sheldon, here’s a little gay folk thing”
London Original Cast Recording bonus track.

“let your daughter take my place, live in my house, carry my keys, wear my clothes”
Sholem-Aleichem,
Tevye’s Daughters
, 36.

Harnick quickly affixed the words
Harnick interview-1.

He “felt it was inside me”
quoted in Altman and Kaufman,
Making of a Musical
, 34.

“opportunity to now express myself”
Bock interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR’s
Fresh Air
, “Jerry Bock and Shelton Harnick Discuss Writing Music for ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’” June 21, 2004.

Bikel maintains … Bock siphoned some tunes
Bikel quoted in Margo Lemberger, “A Musical Milkman’s Multi-Culti Appeal: ‘Sunrise, Sunset’ Glows in El Paso as ‘Fiddler’ Heads Back to Broadway,”
Forward
, January 5, 2001, 17. For analytical musical comparison, see Lambert,
To Broadway
, 166–69.

“a certain Yiddish-Russian quality”
London Original Cast Recording bonus track.

Words … “crystallized” on the music
Harnick-1 interview.

Negotiations … expected a contract
Bock diary, JBP23:11.

he secured exclusive rights
interviews with Nancy Perl and attorney Don Aslan; “Prospectus” for
Tevye
(as
Fiddler
was first called), which describes Perl’s prior deal, JRP15:1.

Perl’s family would maintain … Stein claimed
interviews with Nancy Perl, Rebecca Perl, Adam Perl, Stein.

8.2 percent royalty
Contract, HPP105:4.

The deal was done in July 1962
Bock diary, JBP23:11.

“What will we do when we’ve run out of Hadassah groups?”
Harnick-1 interview; also Stein interview and many public interviews the authors gave over the years; they loved to tell this story.

Tyrone Guthrie
preface to Kohansky,
Hebrew Theatre
, v.

coded Jewish sensibility
See Andrea Most’s pioneering study,
Making Americans
.

“those shows weren’t Jewish”
Harnick-2 interview.

“something overall that bothers me”
Prince letter to Bock, July 27, 1962, JBP20:11.

“as foreign to the shtetl”
Prince interview.

“being simply an ethnic folk tale”
Prince interviewed by James Cook for
Forbes
, typed transcript, November 30, 1971, kindly provided by Karen Cook; article, “Making a Business of Show Business,” appeared in
Forbes
, February 1, 1972.

“He knew Sholem-Aleichem better than we did”
Harnick-1 interview.

the film director and producer Arthur Penn
In addition to Bock’s diary note on August 8, 1962 (JBP23:11), Bock discussed his interest in Landmark symposium, 16.

“side splitting,” “uproarious,” “marvelously funny”
Howard Taubman review of
Enter Laughing
,
New York Times
, March 1, 1963.

“three snappy numbers”
“New Bil and Cora Baird Puppet Show, ‘Man in the Moon,’ offered at Biltmore Theater.”
New York Times
, April 12, 1963, 29.

“Also, have you read
Another Country
Robbins to Bernstein, July 25, 1963, JRPP72:14.

On August 15, Bock and Harnick came
Robbins 1963 appointment book, JRPP567:3.

On the twentieth, his lawyer called
message from Bill Fitelson, Robbins phone log, JRPP567:5.

“something I feel deeply related to”
Robbins to Rodgers and Leland Hayward, August 27, 1963, JRP510:25.

The next day
he
heard back
August 28, 1963, JRPP113:6.

“I’m going to do a musical”
Robbins cable to Ruth Mitchell, August 23, 1963, displayed in “New York Story: Jerome Robbins and His World” exhibit at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, curated by Lynn Garafola, March 25 to June 28, 2008.

“a musical which should really star my father”
Robbins letter to Nancy Keith, August 27, 1963, JRPP97:12.

“He becomes obsessed by his demons”
Harnick-1 interview.

“nought about the religion”
Robbins notes, JRPP23:5.

books Robbins bought
inventory, JRP5:1.

Robbins had already put in some calls
phone logs, JRPP567:5.

Hebrew Lesson
appears in the background of a portrait of Robbins at his desk, taken by Henri Cartier-Bresson for a
Queen
magazine photo essay feature, August 2, 1961, Robbins clipping file, JRP4:12.

“old wizened, decrepit”
Robbins notes for the “Poppa piece,” January 1975, JRPP107:12.

“The play must celebrate”
JRP13:10.

“our guide and our Bible”
Robbins quoted by Jerry Tallmer, “Tokyo-Bound Robbins Bones Up on Far East,”
New York Post
, December 13, 1964.

purchased at least six copies
Robbins’s assistant placed orders with the
Forward
for copies on February 3, 6, and 11, 1964, JRP16:1.

“falsifying the world of Sholem Aleichem”
Brustein,
Seasons of Discontent
, 169.

“being in love with the material”
Robbins notes, September 4, 1963, JRP13:10.

“keep the guts”
JRP13:10.

As “wonderful”
Robbins correspondence with Stravinsky quoted in Vaill,
Somewhere
, 363.

Chagall had talked
Marc Chagall, “
Mayn ershte bagegenish mit shloyme mikhoels
,”
Yidish kultur
, January 1, 1944; also Waife-Goldberg,
My Father
, 157–58.

“fantasy & poetry”
Robbins draft letter to Harold Clurman, n.d., JRP16:43.

“In his fantasy atmosphere, particulars”
JRP13:10.

“We would be very honored” … “MERCI VOTRE”
JRP5:4.

The painter was not simply making an excuse … his annoyance
See letters from Chagall to Bernard and Becky Rels, October 12, 1963, describing his disappointment that he could not accept Robbins’s invitation and his irked amazement that Robbins would use Chagall’s drawings against his will, in Harshav,
Marc Chagall and His Times
, 894–95.

The fiddler sawing out a sound track
Boris Aronson notes from conversation with Robbins, October 16, 1963, BAP37:5.

Prince kept his word
contract dated October 15, 1963, HPP105:4.

Boris Aronson was waiting
interview with Lisa Aronson.

The call came
Robbins phone message log, JRP:567:3.

Aronson was born
first draft of “A Designer’s Notebook,” n.d., BAP9:1. See also Rich and Aronson,
Theater Art of Boris Aronson
, 3–30.

designers “must be reborn with each show”
“Notes on Designing Musicals,” typescript, August 16, 1974, BAP9:14.

“By the time I was fourteen”
quoted in Rich and Aronson,
Theater Art
, 5; also BAP9:1.

“home-sweet-home calendar art”
quoted in Rich and Aronson,
Theater Art of Boris Aronson
, 8.

“contemporary Jewish graphic art”
“Imaginary Interview of Aronson by Aronson,” typescript, BAP9:13.

“tonal juiciness”
typescript translation of Aronson’s monograph on Chagall, BAP9:6.

Aronson named his son Marc, after the artist
Marc Aronson interview.

“with awkward baggage, crowded emotions”
BAP9:10.

When he met the big, solemn man
Robbins appointment calendar, JRPP567:3.

Prince was unsure
Lisa Aronson interview; Harnick-3 interview.

the Storm King Art Center
the trip was described in interviews with Lisa Aronson, Hal Prince, and Frank Rich.

“a traveling circus”
Aronson notes on
J.B.
, n.d., BAP9:5.

Marxist parable at the ARTEF (Arbeter Teatr Farband),
Jim Kooperkop
See Edna Nahshon,
Yiddish Proletarian Theatre
.

But it was his design
Lisa Aronson interview. She and others remembered this set piece from
Stempenyu
, but it was a house Aronson had made for another Schwartz production,
Tenth Commandment
(1926), that had a house that opened up more like the one in
Fiddler.
Neither is listed on the Storm King program for the exhibit, which showed work from 1930 forward, but perhaps some were there or the team saw these designs at Aronson’s studio and conflated that display with the exhibit.

“to become men and women”
Manumit School early brochure, n.d.
http://manumitschool.com/ManumitDocs/Brochures/pagebrochure.htm
.

“was how to walk into a chicken house”
Rosenthal,
Magic of Light
, 12.

“used courtesy”
ibid., 34.

“
Dancers live in light”
ibid., 117.

“
the play—the playwright’s play”
ibid., 59.

Aronson, who resented her at first
ibid., 34, and Lisa Aronson interview.

“technician and dreamer”
Boris Aronson quoted in Rosenthal,
Magic of Light
, 72.

“Bring six to half, darling”
Winthrop Sargeant profile of Rosenthal, “Please, Darling, Bring Three to Seven,”
New Yorker
, February 4, 1956, 33–59.

lined her up on September 12
Robbins phone log message: “Jean Rosenthal is set—she’s delighted to do the show,” JRPP567:3.

“all black and my hair in a bun”
Ellen Lampert-Gréaux, “Patricia Zipprodt: One of Our Greatest Costume Designers, Reflects on an Astonishingly Varied Career,”
Entertainment Design
, March 1994, 30–35.

“I saw them as pure painting with fabric”
Laurel Graeber, “Stage Presence: A Costume Designer for 30 Years, Patricia Zipprodt has Moved Aggressively from One Stage to the Next. Now She has Broadway All Sewn Up,”
DNR the Magazine
, May 1986, 20.