Waiting for The Dough...

So anyway, there I was all alone again, depressed and not to mention broke!..

Except that I forgot to tell you about the part where me and Melanie had landed hostessing jobs at the newly reopened Tavern On The Green during that very long month of waiting. Unfortunately (or I guess rather fortunately for her) she didn't have the chance to work there for very long...

From 1000 Things New York
Originally built in 1870 to house the sheep that grazed in Central Park’s Sheep Meadow, Tavern on the Green has served New Yorkers, tourists, presidents, royalty, artists and actors since 1934. Having gone through several additions and renovations, it became a New York place to be seen when Warner LeRoy acquired the lease in the 1970s. He poured $10 million into the Tavern, adding the legendary Crystal Room (seen in Ghostbusters and Arthur), stained glass, etched mirrors, 45 chandeliers along with 400,000 outdoor lights in the trees so that the Tavern always looked like it was Christmas in the Park.

LeRoy reopened the doors in 1976, and the new Tavern immediately became the most popular dining and banquet spot in the city. Flamboyantly lavish, the Tavern was a place for visitors and celebs who came to be dazzled by the glitter and extravaganza of LeRoy’s new Tavern on the Green. The waiters dressed in powder blue, the captains in tuxedos, you could dance the night away on the patio and you could arrive or depart in a horse drawn carriage at the entrance.

What a very funny job that was! And to this day it's rather hard for me to believe that I actually managed to hang onto it for a couple of months without completely losing it (literally and figuratively)! Because every single person in that entire city wanted to experience that place. And they ALL wanted to be seated in the Crystal Room!... and ALL at the very same time!

*Journal Entry from September 5th... I almost quit my job 10,000 times today! The whole afternoon was the picture of mass hysteria. Everyone yelling at me, telling me what a f*cked up place this is and I couldn't agree with them more! I'm so tired of getting it from both ends. I'm mobbed by the customer's questions and then when I try to be polite to them David tells me not to chat with the customers. What in the hell am I there for? So then I stand at the desk to seat people and he tells me I need to cue people at the door, so when I do that he yells "Jannet, I need someone here at all times to seat the guests!" I can't win! Guess I gotta stop taking it all so personally and just do it. There wasn't even a 5 minute lull today and I thought I'd absolutely die. I hate every minute of this!

But there were also couple of little perks that came along with it as well, like all those free lunches. And I got to go upstairs to the back office for a few minutes every day to copy the reservations list and sit down for a bit (and smoke!) And there were also times in between the lunch and dinner rushes where I could sometimes go out and sit on the patio and just breath in all that garden air along the beautiful Central Park vistas. And once Ted Hook invited me and a guest for a free lunch at Backstage in appreciation of my getting his group a table.

But I think one of the best memories that came out of that job (and one that I still have evidence of to this day) was the time that this gentleman came up to the hostess desk after his group was finished with lunch and asked me for my address so he could send me something. (Of course this was back in the day before you didn't share private things like that, but still...) About a week later I received this in the mail.

A leatherbound copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" with this very sweet insert.

Sometimes it's the little things... even though I'm sure that man will never know how much that little expression of kindness meant to me, but over the years, that little book has become not only one of the very few possessions I still have from that time but also one of my all time favorite novels.

And then there were those embarrassing moments as well, like the time when I had to seat Donald Sadler, the director of "Hellzappopin."

But as happens with most good things...

First, they let a bunch of people go and my hours tripled... and then my hours suddenly got cut way back. And THEN a couple of days later I went into work to find I didn't even have a job at all! I'm still not quite sure what happened there, but I suspect it had something to do with them wanting their hosts in tuxedos...

At least the Industrial Show hadn't fallen through as they'd called to let me know we should be signing our contracts sometime within the next few days... (again). And now I also had a little more time to be able to sit on my rooftop and gaze at the skyline, still not quite believing that I was living right here in the center of the center of the world!

And then... just when I thought my self-esteem couldn't take much more of a beating, they announced another set of auditions for "Hellzappopin." The pessimist side of my said "If they didn't want me the last time why would they want me now?" While the optimist side thought "Well, they wouldn't have called me back the first time if they hadn't seen something they liked!"

Also, replacement auditions for both "Pippin" and "Chicago" were announced for that very same week! Oh My Gosh, Please!!!

Fast foward to later that week...

Axed! And I couldn't believe it! I mean, all my life I'm told that ALL I need is to audition for Bob Fosse! And then he cuts me the very first time he sees me!

I fared a little better with "Hellzappopin" or at least I stuck around to the end again where they said they'd call us... But when Mel went to talk to the producer's office on my behalf, their advice for her (for me) was to go ahead and sign the "other" contract because they still didn't know who they were going to cast and were still planning on holding (yet) another audition the following week.

So later that very same day, I trekked all the way up to 74th Street to sign my very first Actors Equity Contract. And then I bawled like a baby all the way home.

This was on October 7th 1976, the week before my 22nd birthday.

The Long(acre)est Month of My Life!...

I met Melanie at the New York Telephone Industrial Show audition and then again at the non-Equity cattle call for the upcoming Broadway show "Hellzapoppin" where we both fared really, really well. We'd scored 2 of the 15 spots (out of 125 auditionees) for the industrial show with the only downside being that it was 1) for only ONE WEEK'S work, 2) still a couple of months away.. and 3) we hadn't even signed our contracts yet!

But we were also lucky enough to be among the chosen few from the Open Call of "Hellzapoppin" who had been asked to return for the final callback on the 17th of September (almost exactly a month away!) The audition had been amazing!

*Journal entry from August 20th... "What a thrill to be dancing alone on the stage of the Winter Garden Theatre! One of the highest feelings I've had in a very long time. I mean, for a few moments there I was doing exactly what I wanted to be doing for the rest of my life!!!"

Meanwhile... Mel and her 12 bags moved into Doug's 4th floor walk up studio apartment with me.

And then, the hardest part about the rest of that long, hot August was just waiting for September!

Mel and me waiting for that phone to ring!

Me, writing in my journal...

*Journal entry from August 25th... So we went downtown to the DMV today to get our New York ID's. Never been put through more sh*t in my life!!! It cost me $10!... and with all the rude people I came out of there with tears just running down my face! Then we had no money to get home!...so we started panhandling until a cop came up and asked us if we were "soliciting!" So then of course I started crying again and he let us ride the subway for free."

Anyway, FINALLY, we heard that we had both definitely been cast in the Industrial Show... but that it had NOW been postponed until October! And so with the little time we had remaining at Doug's quickly running out we figured it was probably a good time to start looking for an apartment of our own.

*Note: Looking for an apartment with $24 to your name is pretty silly!

So after about a week of having our dreams of finding a sublet or an apartment completely DASHED we finally settled on The Longacre House - A Women's Hotel on West 45th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues, right in the heart of the Theatre District.

We each had our own room, which consisted of four walls (each), a bed, a chair, a desk and a dresser, with a communal bathroom down the hall as well as a small alcove which contained a shared sink and stove. I believe the rent was like $36 a week or something like that or at least that's what sticks in my memory. And I remember that number quite vividly, because I always had to come up with it! Fortunately, in the beginning, the refunded airline ticket really ended up coming in handy. (And yes that was back in the day when you were actually able to get one!)

Anyway, as odd as it sounds Women'a Residences were quite popular back in the day for both young theatricals and young professionals.

Who am I kidding? Melanie and I were definitely the only young "anythings" in that entire place! All the old ladies roaming the halls and peaking out of their doors really freaked me out at first, but after a while it was home. Of course it did take a couple of months to be able to afford to decorate it enough to make it comfortable, but once I had the wicker coffee table, the plants, the bamboo shade, new bedstuff, the mini fridge and the 12" TV... the place became totally mine and I loved it! (Just wish I'd ever gotten a picture of it!)

And I mean, really... Where else for less than $150 a month could one climb the stairs up to the rooftop and grab a view like this anytime they wanted?

But I'm getting WAY ahead of myself here...

One of our favorite hangouts was Joe Allen's on West 46th Street.

From Melanie's room, right across the hall, you could look out her window down onto the courtyard that backed the restaurant so it was just a quick little jaunt around the block for us. There we would sit for hours contemplating our futures. As part of the official "restaurant row" Joe Allen's has always been a very popular pre-show dinner option and an after-show gathering place for performers so we never failed to run into many of the folks we aspired to be. And with those brick walls lined with every Broadway show poster imaginable it wasn't very hard to get lost in the daydreaming.

The routine fare for us was the black bean soup WITH LOTS OF BREAD AND BUTTER (followed occassionally by a hot fudge eclair). Right? It was the cheapest thing on the menu, went down really easy and kept us full for a long time. And it really beat out the other option of heating up canned soup back in the communal kitchenette.

Another fun thing to do was to wander around inside the "Triton Gallery" right next door, where we could fill our imaginations with dreams of all the theatrical posters we hoped to be able to afford some day.

And ocassionally we'd get invited over to a friends place who actually lived in a real live apartment for dinner or something! (To be honest, we hung out with a LOT of people but mostly Mel's friends because she knew everybody!)

Vamping it up, somewhere on the Upper West Side...

In the meantime, my main priority was trying to get a song, a monologue and a headshot pulled together for the callback. I settled on "Don't Tell Mama" from "Cabaret" for my song. Can't even remember what I chose for my monologue. But I DO have this very painful reminder of my first headshot photoshoot.

What was I thinking?

Anyway...September 17th 1976 turned out to be one of the WORST days of my life up to that point (with current perspective being everything...)

I didn't get the show!

Being a tall dancer had always been a challenge for me and yet this show had specifically called for tall girls! But as it turned out "tall" in this case meant more like 5'6" to 5"8" and not 5'10"like I was. Still, Melanie, who stood inches above me, made it!

*Journal entry from September 17th... "It's hard to be happy for someone when you're feeling so very miserable at the same time. I felt so choked up as I left the theatre after watching everyone hugging and congratulating each other and talking about out of town runs. God I wanted that job so much! And it hurts because I know I did so well and was truly better than some of the girls that got it and I was just THIS CLOSE! And I know I can't blame Melanie for being so ecstatic, and I am so truly happy for her!... but would give anything to be in that position again. I just wish that somebody thought I was good besides me."
^^^Pity Party to the Max!^^^

So anyway, there I was all alone again, depressed and not to mention broke!..

But Autumn time in New York is equisite!

And for the very first September of my entire life I wasn't headed back to school!

This here was school enough for me!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Meanwhile... here are a couple of pics of Melanie with Jerry Lewis during the out of town tryouts of "Hellzapoppin" that Fall...

The Girl From Venus

Star Material Fo Sho!