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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Michael Jackson, Kirk Douglas, Mary Tyler Moore, Tennessee Williams, Rocky Graziano, Joan Baez, Tony Bennett, Michael Caine, Mario Puzo and many others recall their initial encounters with the acting legend.
Jul 2, 2004 | Harold Norse, poet
"Shy and tense"
"... the summer was spent on the beach and attending parties, at one of which I met Marlon Brando. At eighteen he was indescribably attractive, but shy and tense. Two years later we met again at a party of Tennessee's [Williams] in a ballroom on Irving Place in New York, just before Marlon got the role of Stanley Kowalski in 'A Streetcar Named Desire.' Hundreds of people milled about or danced to the all-black jazz band. I was standing alone when Marlon approached. 'Don't I know you from somewhere?' he drawled, sizing me up with intense interest.
"'Yeah,' I said with a grin. 'Provincetown. We met once.'" (1942)
[from "Memoirs of a Bastard Angel: A Fifty-Year Literary and Erotic Odyssey," by Harold Norse (William Morrow, 1989)]
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Maureen Stapleton, actor
"Wallowing in women"
"Janice Mars and I rented an apartment at 37 West 52nd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues ...
"One of our more frequent guests was a young actor who was making his mark in the theater and soon would answer the call of Hollywood. His nickname was 'Bud' and Bud had made a splash in 'I Remember Mama.' He'd go on to do 'Candida' with Katharine Cornell and in 1947 would hit the jackpot playing Stanley Kowalski in 'A Streetcar Named Desire.' Marlon Brando was a great actor and a charter member of the 37 West 52nd Street regulars. Marlon was an original golden boy and you knew he was going to be big time just by the way he looked. Dames chased him and more often than not he'd let himself be caught. He was always wallowing in women. He'd drop by with his girl of the moment, and then go off and leave her with us. We were supposed to pick up the pieces. I spent hours -- days!-- listening to those poor girls sighing over Bud. Janice and I became professionals at doling out tea and sympathy to Marlon's exes. Believe me, they needed plenty of tea and plenty of sympathy -- he was something to sigh about.
"Not only did Bud hang around the apartment, he'd sleep there too. He kept his drums in the closet and would haul them out and start banging away when the mood suited him. Eventually he rented a second-floor apartment in our brownstone ... (New York, 1945)
[from "A Hell of a Life: An Autobiography," by Maureen Stapleton with Jane Scovell (Simon & Schuster, 1995)]
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Irving (Swifty) Lazar, literary and show business agent
"An agent's instinct"
"In addition to helping Broadway actors make a painless transition to film, I was taking on such challenges as negotiating a raise for the likes of Marlon Brando, who was then making his Broadway debut in 'I Remember Mama.' Marlon was having a rough time getting by on sixty-five dollars a week. The extra ten I got him made a difference.
"Even if I had only gotten him five dollars more, I suspect that Brando would have kept coming to my office with his girlfriend, Blossom Plumb. The two of them would arrive -- Brando in an old trench coat -- and take chairs in opposite corners of the room. They wouldn't speak, just listen to me making deals on the phone. After a few hours, they'd leave. Next day, same routine. It definitely gave me the idea that Brando was taking notes on my 'character.' Although he did, in later years, develop an agent's instinct for getting his money first and fast, he fortunately never got a part that enabled him to use whatever he learned from me. (New York, 1945)"
[from "Swifty: My Life and Good Times," by Irving Lazar with Annette Tapert (Simon & Schuster, 1995)]
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