Madeline Kahn (54 page)

11
.
Santa Fe New Mexican
, “Israeli Playwright’s All-New ‘Amerika’ Debuts Monday,” Benita Budd, August 1, 1982.

12
.
Santa Fe New Mexican
, “‘Amerika’ and Footsbarn: 2 Theaters Centuries Apart,” Benita Budd, August 8, 1982.

13
. “Madeline Kahn of Manhattan Is Now on a Santa Fe High. . . .”

14
. Associated Press,
Yellowbeard
review, Bob Thomas, found in the
Baytown (TX) Sun
, July 5, 1981.

15
. Milligan in
Group Madness
, directed by Michael Mileham and Phillip Shuman, 1983.

16
. Damski’s recollections of
Yellowbeard
can be found on his blog for the
La Conner Weekly News
, published July 4, 11, and 18, 2012, and online at
If Mel Ran the Zoo
,
http://www.ifmelranthezoo.com/?s=Yellowbeard
.

17
. “Madeline Kahn of Manhattan Is Now on a Santa Fe High. . . .”

18
.
NYT
, “‘Yellowbeard,’ a 17th-Century Treasure Hunt,” Lawrence Van Gelder, June 24, 1983.

19
. “Mel Brooks: Make a Noise.”

20
. UPI, “Madeline Kahn Moves to Tube,” found in
Logansport (IN) Pharos-Tribune
, July 31, 1983.

21
. Carsey and Werner worked with Madeline on not one but two series. Both declined to be interviewed for this book. Background information and direct quotations (except where noted) are drawn from their joint interview with the Archive of American Television, from March 10, 2003, and from their website,
carseywerner.com
.

22
. UPI, “High Points and Lows in ABC’s Fall Show,” Julianne Hastings, June 20, 1983.

23
.
Washington Post
, “Oh No! ‘Madeline’; ABC’s Throwback to Comedy of the ’50s,” Tom Shales, September 27, 1983.

24
.
Variety
, “TV Reviewed: ‘Oh Madeline,” review signed “Bok.,” dated October 5, 1983. Earley and Rothenberg quotations from
TV Time Capsule
, “‘Oh Madeline’? Oh Brother.” Found at
http://chrisbaker.typepad.com/tvtimecapsule/oh-madeline/
.
People
, “Picks and Pans Review,” unsigned, September 26, 1983.

25
. UPI wire report, Kenneth R. Clark, July 30, 1983.

26
. Ibid. See also Associated Press, “ABC Announces Fall Schedule,” May 6, 1983;
Family Weekly
magazine, “Big-Screen Stars Turn to TV,” Mark Goodman, September 25, 1983;
People
magazine, “Picks and Pans,” September 26, 1983. Davis’s health forced her to withdraw from
Hotel
after the pilot episode. Anne Baxter replaced her.

27
. Associated Press, “Oh, Madeline: Kahn’s New Series ‘Defies Description,’” uncredited, found in
New Braunfels (TX) Herald-Zeitung
, October 23, 1983.

28
. See
NYT, Périchole
review, Donal Henahan, October 31, 1983.

29
.
NYT
, “Music Notes: From Film Comedy to Offenbach,” Bernard Holland, October 2, 1983.

30
. Interview with the Kalishes, Archive of American Television, part 4 of 4, December 21, 2012. Rocky Kalish did not work on
Oh Madeline
but witnessed from the sidelines.

31
. Sloyan’s and Giambalvo’s representatives declined to respond to requests for an interview for this book. I was unable to find contact information for Jesse Welles.

32
. UPI, “Censors, Not Ratings, Concern Comic Actress,” uncredited writer, found in the
Salina (KS) Journal
, January 1, 1984.

33
. Madeline’s pride in engineering Ludlam’s television debut can be detected in her biography in the playbill for
Born Yesterday
on Broadway. Nearly two years after his death, she cites this credit along with her Tony and Oscar nominations, and at greater length than she cites most of her best-known roles.

34
. Kaufman,
Ridiculous!

35
. The scene is included in the complete episode found on the VHS copy in Madeline’s personal collection.

36
. Reynolds,
My Life
.

37
. Best known for her films
Girlfriends
(1978) and
It’s My Turn
(1980), Weill also has a long theater résumé and had staged Margulies’s previous play,
Found a Peanut
, in 1984.
What’s Wrong with This Picture?
found its way to Broadway in 1994, and in 1998, Margulies won the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

38
.
Buzzfeed
, “‘Something Terrible Has Happened Here’: The Crazy Story of How ‘Clue’ Went from Forgotten Flop to Cult Triumph,” Adam B. Vary, September 2, 2013. Found at
http://www.buzzfeed.com/adambvary/something-terrible-has-happened-here-the-crazy-story-of-how#t1jd6z
.

39
. For more on Brennan’s accident, see
People
magazine, April 22, 1985.

40
.
Chicago Sun-Times, Clue
review, Roger Ebert, December 12, 1985.

41
.
NYT
, “Screen: ‘Clue,’ from Game to Film,” Janet Maslin, December 13, 1985.

42
. “Madeline Kahn Steals the Show from the Rest of the Cast,”
Altoona (PA) Mirror
, April 2, 1987; “The film’s brief high points are those featuring the character of Gussie Mausheimer, whose voice is provided by Madeline Kahn repeating the Marlene Dietrich accent she used in
Blazing Saddles
, and Tiger, New York’s only good cat [voiced by Dom DeLuise],” Vincent Canby,
NYT
, November 21, 1986. As for
My Little Pony
, Caryn James noted, “Madeline Kahn, Rhea Perlman, and Cloris Leachman bring some life to the clumsy witch daughters and their sinister mother,”
NYT
, June 26, 1986.

43
. We who have worked in television news refer to employees who conduct off-camera investigations as “producers,” but the script for
Chameleon
doesn’t go that far.

44
. Draft letter of complaint, undated, found in MK personal files.

45
. Both programs were broadcast on PBS, the Berlin on May 27, 1988, the Gershwin on November 27, 1987.

46
.
NYT
, “How Madeline Kahn Works for Laughs,” William H. Honan, January 29, 1989.

47
. Ibid.

48
. AADA speech.

49
.
NYT
, “Stage View: Somebody Up There Likes Billie and Heidi,” Walter Kerr, February 19, 1989. In the same essay, Kerr discusses Wendy Wasserstein’s
The Heidi Chronicles
.

50
.
Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph
, “Kahn, Asner play to Comedic Perfection,” Gilbert R. Johns, November 21, 1988.

51
.
New Yorker
, “Yesterday Revisited,” Mimi Kramer, February 13, 1989.

52
. “On the Road Back to Broadway.”

53
.
Interview
, “Preview: Madeline Kahn,” Hal Rubenstein, undated clipping from MK scrapbook.

54
. Ibid.

55
. “How Madeline Kahn Works for Laughs.”

56
.
Washington Post
, “‘Born Yesterday’: The Kahn Festival,” David Richards, October 28, 1988.

57
. “On the Road Back to Broadway.”

58
. Garson Kanin,
Born Yesterday
(Dramatists Play Service, New York, reissued 2002).

59
.
Ryan’s Hope
was also James Sloyan’s best-known credit before
Oh Madeline
.

60
.
Village Voice
, Bell column.

61
. MK personal notebook.

1
. “Wasted here are the inimitable Madeline Kahn. . . .”
Los Angeles Times
, “Alan Alda’s Talents Spread Too Thin in ‘Betsy’s Wedding,’” Sheila Benson, June 22, 1990.

2
. Alda declined to be interviewed for this book.

3
.
Toronto Star
, “Love Letters a Triumph in a Vacuum,” Henry Mietkiewicz, June 21, 1990. A year later, Madeline performed
Love Letters
again, in Beverly Hills opposite Dabney Coleman.

4
.
NYT
, “About Long Island: The Limelight Shines Brightly on the East Coast,” Diane Ketcham, February 3, 1991.

5
. Gleason confirms that, apart from Lemmon, the cast was not present for Madeline’s scenes. The two actresses were friends, and Gleason is now married to
Marco Polo
co-star Chris Sarandon.

6
.
Los Angeles Times
, “Lemmon Vehicle Seeks Laughs in the Streets,” Chris Willman, February 29, 1992.

7
.
Lucky Luke
was one of several Italian productions shooting in America at the time, when costs (outside Hollywood) were lower than in Europe. Hill is quoted in
NYT
, “In the U.S., Silenzio on the Set,” Andy Meisler, August 2, 1992.

8
.
Los Angeles Times
, “A Look Inside Vonnegut’s ‘Monkey House,’” John N. Goudas, February 21, 1993.

9
.
Theater Week
, “Kahn’s Way,” Mervyn Rothstein, March 8, 1993.

10
. Skipper is compiling an oral history of
Dolly
, containing interviews with virtually everyone who has ever worked on the show.

11
. In fact, the amphitheater seats eleven thousand.

12
. Clips of both performances can be found on YouTube.

13
. Wendy Wasserstein,
The Sisters Rosensweig
(Harvest Books/Harcourt, San Diego, 1993).

14
. Julie Salamon,
Wendy and the Lost Boys: The Uncommon Life of Wendy Wasserstein
(Penguin Press, New York, 2011).

15
. Roy Harris,
Conversations in the Wings: Talking about Acting
.

16
.
NYT
, “At Home with Madeline Kahn: Funny? Yes, but Someone’s Got to Be,” Michael Specter, April 8, 1993.

17
. Wasserstein was the first woman to earn that double distinction in a single year.

18
. “At Home with Madeline Kahn.”

19
. Wasserstein’s script contains a lagniappe for Madeline, a malicious anecdote about Danny Kaye, told by Geoffrey while Gorgeous is onstage. Yes, Madeline laughed.

20
.
Newsweek
, “You Gotta Have Heart,” Jack Kroll, November 1, 1992;
Variety
, “The Sisters Rosensweig,” Jeremy Gerard, October 23, 1992.

21
.
NYT
, “Wasserstein: Comedy, Character, Reflection,” Mel Gussow, October 23, 1992.

22
.
Time
, “Reborn with Relevance,” William A. Henry III, November 2, 1992.

23
. “At Home With: Madeline Kahn.”

24
. Confusion about categories extended to Robert Klein, too. Although Mervyn is the principal male role in
Sisters Rosensweig
, he received a featured actor nomination at the Drama Desk Awards and lost to Spinella and Joe Mantello for
Angels in America
(David Marshall Grant was also nominated for his role in
Angels
). At the Outer Critics Circle Awards,
Angels
didn’t compete that year, and there was no featured actor category, but with a nomination for best actor, Klein won.

25
.
Conversations in the Wings
.

26
. MK personal notebook.

27
. Ibid.

28
. Ibid.

29
. Ibid.

30
.
Entertainment Weekly
, “New York News,” Ken Tucker, October 6, 1995;
NYT
, “Television Review: Mary, Mary, You’re Turning Into Quite a Lou Grant,” John J. O’Connor, September 28, 1995.

31
.
San Francisco Chronicle
, “News Isn’t Good for ‘New York,’” John Carman, September 28, 1995.

32
.
Washington Post
, “Moore Not Merrier in Gloomy ‘N.Y. News,’” Tom Shales, September 28, 1995.

33
.
Ogden (UT) Standard-Examiner, New York News
preview, Donald Porter, 1995. Found at
http://theoccasionalcritic.blogspot.com/2012/11/mary-tyler-moore-new-york-news-1995.html
.

34
. MK personal notebook.

35
. Because of the cancellation of
New York News
, guest appearances by Austin Pendleton, Julie Dretzin, and (in a three-episode arc) George C. Scott were never broadcast. Pendleton remembers no details about his time on the set.

36
.
Live from New York
.

37
.
San Francisco Chronicle
, “Stone’s ‘Nixon’—The Final Daze,” Mick LaSalle, December 20, 1995. Joan Allen, star of Wasserstein’s
Heidi Chronicles
, played Pat Nixon, earning an Oscar nomination, but LaSalle mentions her only in passing.

38
. In case there’s any doubt whose side we’re on, Ivana Trump makes a cameo appearance.

39
.
Variety
, “Ivana Trump’s For Love Alone,” Lisa D. Horowitz, January 5, 1996.

40
.
Charlie Rose
, PBS, date unavailable, 1996, transcribed by the author. Cosby alludes to the pilot episode.

41
.
NYT
, “New York Re-enters the Sitcom Universe, Wryly,” Lawrie Mifflin, September 5, 1996.

42
.
Washington Post
, “The Non-Perils of Playing Pauline; She’s the Counterpoint on ‘Cosby,’” Simi Horwitz, December 21, 1997.

43
. See, for example,
Chicago Daily Herald
, “Cosby, Perlman take us back to the ’70s,” Ted Cox, September 16, 1996. Discussing
Cosby
and the Rhea Perlman sitcom
Pearl
, Cox wrote, “The written humor might be sparse, but Cosby himself seems to recognize that, so he takes up the slack in other ways.
Cosby
lets the star shine as a physical comedian; its best gags are slapstick. And when he and Kahn come up with a nice running joke about how they say goodbye to one another, it’s icing on the cake.”