Monday, September 14, 2015

THE MALE ANIMAL January 1957

My battered pink paperback of the Thurber-Nugent comedy  bought from the Banner Play Bureau, Inc, on Post Street in San Francisco.

In ink: Rehearsal Schedule:
Tuesday 8 pm   29
Thurs     8 pm   31
Mon        "         4
Thurs      "         7
Fri          "          8

Internet Perpetual Calendar verifies that this is 1957, not very late 1956. Ah, the tiny ragged perpetual calendar Jay Leyda carried was a horror. Mark Niemeyer found me a 10 or 12 full page beauty that got me through the work on the LOG and the 2-volume Melville biography.  Now, type in "perpetual calendar 1957" and there you are.

In Richmond I tottered down the hill with a belly full of air (weekly pneumo-peritoneum shot in belly with a 6 inch long horse needle) and bought seasons tickets and was allowed to watch a rehearsal of THE FRONT PAGE from the back of the auditorium. Someone came back and asked if I could memorize. I said I knew all the poetical parts of MACBETH by heart. Fine, he said, you can have the lead in THE MALE ANIMAL. I had to lie down during the intermissions to let the air settle back around, but I got through it.


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