ZIEGFELD THEATRE

1347 SIXTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 19, N.Y. • CIRCLE 5-5200

July 2, 1953

Dear Gerry:

Thanks for the postcard. I don't know what clipping you saw, but I have released no publicity scheduling a later rehearsal date than the one initially announced. The Goetzes are getting along famously, I think, with the rewrite. (A stilted sentence if I ever read one, and I have read one.)

The casting problem not only involves a gent to play Michel; as of this writing, it also involves you. A couple of days ago, Stephen Draper - and he's one of the few charming artist's representatives I've met in 30 years - telephoned and half-heartedly passed along Charles Feldman's suggestion: Would I do THE IMMORALIST with you on a basis whereby three months after we open, he could jerk you out of it?

To be fair to Stephen, I didn't even have to tell him that the suggestion was not a practical one. It costs about 75 Grand these days - God knows why - to do a one-set show. A show with multiple sets, such as THE IMMORALIST, figures to cost substantially more. How in the name of the five Ringling Brothers does a fellow figure to even break even in three months? You, as I and the newspaper boys have said, are not just another actress. THE IMMORALIST is five times as good a part as the one you had in MIDSUMMER, and you figure to hit in it like Joe Louis used to. I'd find myself in a pretty, pretty spot if Mr. Feldman, three months after the play opened, said he had a fine part in a movie called MOTHER'S BIG BLUE NOSE and had the legal right to command you to get on a train or plane. Stephen, as I have already said, knew the answer.

Today, he read me part of a letter you wrote him, which contained your all-out holler - the one in which you said that, come Hitler, Hell or high water, you wanted to play the girl in THE IMMORALIST. I asked Stephen to send me a copy of that portion of the letter. I want to show it to the Goetzes, because, outside of the fact that you assured us you liked the play, we haven't quite known where the heck we stood - when we could figure on a rehearsal date, how long you would stay with the show if it were a success, etc. Your letter, in hot little words, now tells us where you stand. I've asked Stephen, as fast as possible, to find out where we're going with the charming Charlie.

BR:S