On Stage (1950)

[music] [music] Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Come juke sharpen pens for me and talk high treason. It amuses me. >> God keep all here. Among all the swift-paced diversions of modern life, the flesh and blood theater, which has stirred and delighted mankind since civilization was young, still remains uniquely fascinating to thousands of playgoers. [music] In New York City, hub of the American theater, natives and out of town visitors angle season after season for hard to get tickets to the newest smash hits. >> [music] >> And the Manhattan Theater District, a few Grammy side streets [music] off Broadway from 40th to 59th, is still the glamorous goal of all stage struck young Americans who feel they are born actors and actresses. >> So after I read the line for three different people, Mosheart finally tells me I'm not the type for the part. Says I'm not sophisticated enough. Can you imagine me not sophisticated enough? I hear Garson Kanan starts casting Friday. >> Garson Kanan, Friday at 10:00. >> One among thousands [music] of ambitious young actresses is Margaret Garland. Maggie Garland lives in a cold water tenement in the East70s, which [music] she rents for $22 a month and has furnished from secondhand stores. She is deadly serious about her career and has been since she played the lead in her high school class playback in Oklahoma City. From that day on, no other career was even a possibility for her. Like most [music] young actresses, Maggie keeps a close check on living expenses, which she shares with her roommate. A sizable part of her budget and her time is spent on her wardrobe. For without smartlooking clothes, no aspiring actress can get far. But Maggie's future depends on her persistence in making the rounds in search of a job. [music] Sorry, no casting today. [music] >> Sorry, no casting. [music] No casting. Sorry, no casting. >> Sorry. Sorry. [music] [music] >> [music] >> However few the paying jobs, there are hundreds of dramatic schools in the country. Each one full of young hopefuls who are confident that they will [music] make the grade. >> Now remember please the throat should be open and there must be perfect synchronization between the upward movement of the air current and smooth vocal cord action. Now again please. >> B I B A B A B R A. >> Good. >> Students who want to learn how to act can find schools teaching anything from oldtime elecution to the more esoteric art theater methods. >> Mr. Duncan, let me see how you would portray the character of a chair. A ordinary straight back chair. That will be all right. Oh no. Simplicity. Whatever the technique studied, the aspirant's dream [music] is the same. To achieve the dizzy heights of theatrical greatness to rank someday with the immortals of the American stage. [music] The rich traditions of the theater recorded in the theatrical collection of the Museum of the City of New York have inspired many unknown hopefuls [music] who later became stars in their own right. [music] Whatever the degree of success they [music] have won, all actors, stars, and bit players alike are today members of a labor union called Actors Equity Association, which in the past 35 years has greatly improved working [music] conditions that were intolerably bad. Clarence Derwent, Equity's president, and Angus Duncan, its acting executive secretary, are busy these days with the problem of unemployment in the theater. In 20 years, the number of theaters operating in New York has decreased by more than half from 81 to 38. In the same period, the number of shows produced has dwindled even more alarmingly from 293 to 84. >> [music] >> Although it is not an employment agency, Equity keeps its members informed of job openings in the theater world. But actors are not the only ones whose livelihood is the theater. Also vital to Broadway are its technicians who have a similar employment problem, a grave concern to Richard Walsh, able president of the IATSE, an alliance of theatrical craft unions. The number of stage hands, musicians, ushers, dorman, ticket takers, treasures, and managers add up to a lot more than the number of actors or actresses in the play. These behind the scenes workers make the theater just as much a part of their career as the star whose name appears in the lights out front. [music] Technicians jobs while less glamorous than the actors call for fast and accurate [music] execution and in many cases for a degree of skill and experience of which the average theatergoer is seldom aware. Taking steps to relieve the unemployment problem by [music] stimulating new theatrical production is the theat's factf finding committee. This informally organized group representing every union and show business smooths the way for worthy enterprises with short bankrolls. Such cooperation extending to other cities is helping to make possible the establishment of new permanent theaters outside New York. A movement as beneficial to theatergoers throughout America as it is to young performers. One of the most successful of these is Margot Jones's Dallas Theater in the Round, where the players are surrounded by the audience. In the establishment of such theaters, many see the best hope of a countrywide renaissance of the legitimate stage. [music] But Broadway will always be the heart of the American theater. for a successful New York run and a good production still carry such prestige that world famous movie actors like Charles Boyier will forego profitable screen jobs in order to perform before an audience and to work under the provocative direction of such necromancers of the theater as Jed Harris >> from Glass. >> Mhm. >> And you will turn up stage. >> All right. Yeah. Fine. Yeah. Fine. All right. I am not qualified to accept. I must consult others. >> Now look, if you give me your acceptance today, I'll talk to the cameras of my party tomorrow. >> No, Perrick, you're not making a deal with these men. You're making a deal with my father. They're my father's creatures. >> Is your highness, accept my apologies for this most unfortunate interruption. But >> don't be swave, murderer. Tell him the truth. Let them take it back to my father and throw it in his teeth. Tell him the party will never support a program like this party. Oh, try to control yourself. Don't come near me. Don't touch me. >> What's the matter? >> What are you afraid of? >> I warn you heard. >> My god, it reminds me of my father's palace. >> Helping to maintain the theater at its high professional level are such lucky dramaturists as Lindsay and Krauss, who wrote the record-breaking Life with Father and its sequel, Life with Mother. Lawrence Langanger and Terresa Hellburn, directors of the theater guild, which produced the fabulous Oklahoma, Leland Hayward, who brought Henry Fonda back to the stage, and the smashingly successful Mr. Roberts [music] and the playwrights company whose board of directors consists of eminent and wellestablished dramatists Robert [music] Sherwood, Elma Rice, and the prolific Maxwell Anderson, attorney John Wharton, and composer Court Vile. Hayward and the playwrights opened their season with Anderson's Anne of a Thousand [music] Days, a play about Henry VIII and his second wife. Max, do you think the play's in good enough shape so we can start casting? >> I'll try to be ready by the middle of the week. >> All right. What do you say we start seeing actors on Monday? >> Good. >> All right. [music] >> In any play produced by such craftsmen, competition for parts is especially keen. Of the hundreds who applied, Margaret Garland was one of the few to be picked by director HC Potter for a reading. >> All right, Miss Garland. I thought you read that very nicely, but I think you're turning down the cane a little too flatly. Just Try it again and be a little more polite about it. [clears throat] >> Is this a purse of gold? >> I think it is, mistress. >> I would not have the king think me ungrateful, but I have no need of gold and no wish for it. >> Okay, Miss Garland, we'll let you know. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. [music] The part Maggie landed consisted of one [music] line, but it was in a play by a successful dramatist, and its two stars, Joyce Redmond and Rex Harrison, were internationally known. >> Okay, let's take it to the top. >> What beautiful little hand. What a beautiful face. >> Hold it, Miss Garland. uh although it's a lovely little baby and the uh it's to be the future Queen Elizabeth still uh what the king wanted more than anything else in the world was his son and so it's tragedy to these people so the line should carry a undercard of deep tragedy >> I see her >> what beautiful little hand what a beautiful face >> I Will the king be here soon? >> Stage decor may contribute greatly to the mood of a play. And for Anne of a Thousand Days, a unit set was designed by Joe Melena as a background to its many scenes. The publicity campaign was launched by the press agents [music] and business manager weeks before the opening. >> [music] >> Finally, as the opening draws near, scenery is delivered to the theater. The last step before the crucial dress rehearsal. [music] Now the whole show comes together for the first time in all its promise and all its imperfection. >> But when I no longer hated him, he began to hate me. Except for that one day. One day out of the years. >> Quick changes often cause trouble the first time through. >> Oh, wait a minute. >> What went wrong with your >> I'm sorry, Hank. It was my fault. I was late. But it'll be all right. >> All right. Go right ahead. >> What beautiful little hands. What a beautiful face. Will the king be here soon? >> He's changing his coat. I think he rode through miles of mud between Greenwich and here. >> The king loves you a great deal, my dear. >> The king's at the door now, my lord. >> Let me see if all's in order here. >> It seems all's ready, Majesty. >> Yes, Henry. >> Do I come too soon? Will it tire to speak? No, Henry, I'm glad to see you. >> I just want to look at you two. My queen and my my prince. Then after all the planning and rehearsing comes the opening night in New York, the premiere, which can make or break the show. >> Yeah, that's Mary Martin. I got her already. >> Brooks Atkinson, she's a critic for heaven's sake. Oh, look, Gloria. It's Cornell Wild. Mr. Please >> 5 minutes please. >> Yes. Five minutes please. Thank you. My coke had me. Oh dear. [sighs] >> Now what's the matter? I'm >> nervous. >> You ready, Miss Redmond? >> All right, Bonnie. >> Take out your house lights. Your curtain lights. Curtain. >> [applause] >> If I were to die now. But I must not die yet. Not yet. It's been too brief. A few weeks and days. How many that first time I >> Good luck, Maggie. Do it the way you did in dress rehearsal. Thank you, Monica. Same to you. for English kings. A lucky name and a great name. All my life as a king, I've asked only one thing of heaven, that he grant me a son to carry on what I leave. And now heaven's given me more than I've asked. For this is a handsome, bold boy's face. Already there's wit behind those eyes. >> My lord, we have a daughter and her name's to be Elizabeth. Why did no one tell me? >> They're all afraid of you, my lord. Wrong. Never wrong. Whatever happens, we must to look our hat in the face. [applause] [applause] Except for the critics, the reaction of the opening night audience may mean comparatively little to the success of the play. For such audiences are made up mostly of blasé first nighters and the overly enthusiastic friends of the cast. >> Hello Maggie was swell was swell. >> It ought to run at least a year. >> Oh, do you really think so? >> Can you costume? >> Do you like it? Really? [music] >> After the play, Maggie and her friends begin their long wait for the reviews to come out. For the fate of any play is largely determined by what the Metropolitan newspaper critics say about it. [music] >> [music] >> By 2:00 a.m., when the late city editions of the morning papers reach the news stands, the verdict has been rendered. One from which there is no appeal. >> Here they are. >> Give me the times. Quick times. >> Oh dear. I never find the page when I want it. >> 47. >> Atinson likes it. So does Barnes. He loves it. Listen to this. The grand and horrifying saga of two persons of fierce pride who made the world pay for their love. Oh, it's a smash. I'll be working this season. >> Thus, as one more hit is born, the whole theater finds renewal. And so year after year, the fabulous invalid, always ailing and never dying, continues to work the old slight of hand, the well-loved magic which for thousands of years has wrought it enchantment. [music] Time marches on. [music] >> [music]