• The comedy team of Bobby Clark and Paul McCullough is little remembered today, but they were big on Broadway in the 1920s and 1930s. In an interview in Variety, Mr. Clark once said, “A great many people think it is strange that McCullough and I have been together so long. It is not strange at all. We are doing fine; we get along together fine. We don’t have fights; we don’t have arguments. If a question arises as to how a certain piece of business should be done or how some certain gag should be put over, we don’t talk and argue about it like so many people; we sit down quietly and talk it over pro and con. I listen to McCullough’s version, and he listens to mine, and then I go out on the stage and do it my way.”
• Sam Norkin was a famous artist whose caricatures of plays appeared in newspapers and magazines around the country. While growing up, he attended high school with a couple of friends who later became actors. One of his indulgences at work was to put the faces of his friends in one of his caricatures whenever possible. Sometimes, this can be difficult. When his friend Salem Ludwig was performing a bit part in An Enemy of the People, he appeared in only one scene: a town meeting that featured the entire cast. In order to get Salem into his caricature, Mr. Norton drew the town meeting and included all the members of the cast. (He featured his friend prominently in the foreground.)
• Representative Bella Abzug, a Democrat from New York, was sometimes the victim of inaccurate reporting in the media. Once, a story appeared that she had tried to wear a hat on the floor of the House of Representatives, but that the official doorkeeper, a man named Fishbait Miller, had told her she couldn’t — and she had told him what he could do. Shortly after this inaccurate story appeared on a wire service, a very short man came over to Representative Abzug, stood on the tips of his toes, and kissed her. She responded, “Whoever you are, I think this is an over-response.” The man replied, “I’m Fishbait Miller, and I just wanted to meet you.” The two became friends.
• Reginald Bosanquet, a British television newsreader and writer, was dining in an Italian restaurant when someone walked in whose face he knew but whose name he had forgotten, so he sent a waiter over to inquire — discreetly — who the man was. A few minutes later, he received a note from the man: “Dear Reggie, I alwaysremember your name. — David Twigg.” Mr. Bosanquet, of course, went over to Mr. Twigg’s table, apologized for forgetting his name, then asked what the waiter had said to him. Mr. Twigg replied, “He said, ‘Mr. Bosanquet say you his besta friend but he forgetta your name.’”
• Diana Rigg and Patrick Macnee starred together for two years in The Avengers, but only Mr. Macnee went on to star in The New Avengersa few years later. An American friend of Ms. Rigg’s asked what he was doing professionally, and Mr. Macnee explained that he would soon be starring in The New Avengers. The American friend asked, “With Diana, of course?” Mr. Macnee was forced to answer, No. The American friend, who was not known for her tact, said, “Then it’s not worth doing, is it?” This made Ms. Rigg smile.
• Noël Coward frequently got into arguments with the actors and actresses in his plays, but the arguments were always sorted out later. Once, he and Gertie Lawrence were having a loud argument in a dressing room when a woman in the cast ran into the dressing room and told them, “You must stop this. I love you both and you can’t go on like this.” Mr. Coward told her, “How dare you interfere when I’m talking with my friend!”
• George Balanchine seldom used modern dance choreographers at the New York City Ballet. Although Martha Graham worked there in 1959, and Merce Cunningham worked there in 1966, Mr. Balanchine explained that they were there because they were “friends of Lincoln’s” — that is, friends of Lincoln Kirstein, who originally proposed to Mr. Balanchine that he come to the United States and establish ballet here.
• Robert Benchley met Donald Ogden Stewart on a rainy night as they were both coming out of a restaurant. Mr. Stewart saw a passerby with a large umbrella, pretended the passerby was a taxi, and took his arm and said, “Yale Club, please.” Mr. Benchley then took Mr. Stewart’s arm and said, “Can you drop me off at my place? It’s on the way.”
• During the first season of Gilligan’s Island, Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells weren’t mentioned in the TV series’ theme song — they were merely referred to as “the rest.” After the series was over, Mr. Johnson and Ms. Wells remained friends, and Ms. Wells signs her letters and cards to him with “Love, the rest.”
• Loïe Fuller (1862-1928), an American dancer who took Paris by storm, once wrote the Curies, Marie and Pierre, for a sample of radium she could include in a dance. Madame Curie wrote back, explaining both the dangers and the cost of such a venture. The letter resulted in a friendship.
• Once, a Jew complained to Rabbi Isaac Meir that in all the world, he didn’t have a friend. Rabbi Isaac replied, “Surely you have aGemarain your house?” (A Gemarais a part of the Talmud and consists of commentary on the Mishnah.)
• Oscar Levant was friends with George Gershwin for many years. In fact, a chapter in Mr. Levant’s book A Smattering of Ignoranceis titled “My Life, or the Story of George Gershwin.”
• The people of Poland hated their rulers in the USSR. A sign in Poland once bore the slogan, “A Month of Soviet-Polish Friendship.” Underneath was handwritten the message, “Agreed. But not one day longer.”
• Warren G. Harding once told William A. White: “I have no trouble with my enemies. But my goddamn friends, White, they are the ones that keep me walking the floor nights.”
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Copyright by Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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