elevator to take him into the operating room, he wrote to me: ‘I suppose you’re wondering why I want to live.’ It was precisely what I was thinking and I nodded. He wrote another note and just before the nurses took him away, he tore it from the pad and stuffed it into my hand.…It read: ‘Because I want to see what happens to you.’” 50 This story is one of the most affectionate in Lerner’s autobiography, and underlines the pain he clearly still felt many years later.
Lerner tried to battle on with his portfolio of work, now turning back to
Green Mansions
. As Vincente Minnelli geared up to create a screen test for Pier Angeli 51 to play Rima the Bird Girl, Lerner wrote hurriedly to Freed to inform him that he intended to be on hand to observe Angeli’s suitability for the role (he hoped she would speak in a bird-like voice):
To Arthur Freed
August 9, 1954
Dear Arthur:
No word from Clift 52 as yet. I am also awaiting the call from Metro about the appointment with the professor at Cornell. 53 I think it’s very important that I see both of them before I come out.
I spoke to Vincente a couple of days ago, and we both thought it would be a good idea if I were on the Coast while he’s making the test of Pier Angeli. I had planned to come around the 18th, but because of some meetings that have just come up concerning my father’s estate, for which my brother is flying here next Monday, I think it will now be next weekend, or around the 21st. I hope this is satisfactory. If it isn’t, please let me know.
I’ll call you as soon as I know something about Clift.
Love,
Alan
A week later, the
New York Times
reported that the film was still on schedule to begin filming in October on location in Venezuela. The article included a couple of quotations from Lerner (flatteringly referred to as “a man of tomorrow”), 54 who said, “The idea is to photograph that lush jungle terrain at its peak; as the rains end, the dry season begins.” Of the adaptation, he commented, “The novel is an allegory, not always the easiest thing to handle, but I’ve tried to be as faithful as was humanly possible to the story, translating it into terms of pure action and understanding.” 55 Though he was confident enough to announce the project (and even draw attention to his approach), the vagueness of his words reveals his persistent struggle with this material.
The article also mentioned that Lerner was “busy collaborating with Burton Lane on the forthcoming stage musicalization of the ‘Li’l Abner’ comic strip.” Yet fate was quickly to bring this project to a final standstill. In July, Gabriel Pascal had died, and his obituary called Lerner’s attention back to the
Pygmalion
project for Broadway. It was a bittersweet decision to take on this material only a few weeks after his father’s death, since Lerner owed his love of language to his elder parent, to whom as a student he never sent a letter “that he did not return to me with notes in the margin suggesting more interesting ways of saying the same sentence”; 56 perhaps Higgins came to represent a putative father-figure for Lerner. Around a month later, probably in early September, he was reconciled with his old collaborator Fritz Loewe. It is surely no accident that the move to patch things up coincided with Lerner’s reminder of human mortality in his father’s death. They joined forces with Herman Levin, who was due to produce
Abner
but agreed to take on
Pygmalion
as well. The show was announced on October 11 and immediately incurred the wrath of The Theatre Guild, which hadbrought the
Pygmalion
project to Lerner and Loewe in 1952. Theresa Helburn and Lawrence Langner wrote to Lerner on behalf of the Guild in disgust and demanded justice, but, as Lerner reminds them in this letter, they had long relinquished their rights to the play and no “dirty trick” was
Lerner tried to battle on with his portfolio of work, now turning back to
Green Mansions
. As Vincente Minnelli geared up to create a screen test for Pier Angeli 51 to play Rima the Bird Girl, Lerner wrote hurriedly to Freed to inform him that he intended to be on hand to observe Angeli’s suitability for the role (he hoped she would speak in a bird-like voice):
To Arthur Freed
August 9, 1954
Dear Arthur:
No word from Clift 52 as yet. I am also awaiting the call from Metro about the appointment with the professor at Cornell. 53 I think it’s very important that I see both of them before I come out.
I spoke to Vincente a couple of days ago, and we both thought it would be a good idea if I were on the Coast while he’s making the test of Pier Angeli. I had planned to come around the 18th, but because of some meetings that have just come up concerning my father’s estate, for which my brother is flying here next Monday, I think it will now be next weekend, or around the 21st. I hope this is satisfactory. If it isn’t, please let me know.
I’ll call you as soon as I know something about Clift.
Love,
Alan
A week later, the
New York Times
reported that the film was still on schedule to begin filming in October on location in Venezuela. The article included a couple of quotations from Lerner (flatteringly referred to as “a man of tomorrow”), 54 who said, “The idea is to photograph that lush jungle terrain at its peak; as the rains end, the dry season begins.” Of the adaptation, he commented, “The novel is an allegory, not always the easiest thing to handle, but I’ve tried to be as faithful as was humanly possible to the story, translating it into terms of pure action and understanding.” 55 Though he was confident enough to announce the project (and even draw attention to his approach), the vagueness of his words reveals his persistent struggle with this material.
The article also mentioned that Lerner was “busy collaborating with Burton Lane on the forthcoming stage musicalization of the ‘Li’l Abner’ comic strip.” Yet fate was quickly to bring this project to a final standstill. In July, Gabriel Pascal had died, and his obituary called Lerner’s attention back to the
Pygmalion
project for Broadway. It was a bittersweet decision to take on this material only a few weeks after his father’s death, since Lerner owed his love of language to his elder parent, to whom as a student he never sent a letter “that he did not return to me with notes in the margin suggesting more interesting ways of saying the same sentence”; 56 perhaps Higgins came to represent a putative father-figure for Lerner. Around a month later, probably in early September, he was reconciled with his old collaborator Fritz Loewe. It is surely no accident that the move to patch things up coincided with Lerner’s reminder of human mortality in his father’s death. They joined forces with Herman Levin, who was due to produce
Abner
but agreed to take on
Pygmalion
as well. The show was announced on October 11 and immediately incurred the wrath of The Theatre Guild, which hadbrought the
Pygmalion
project to Lerner and Loewe in 1952. Theresa Helburn and Lawrence Langner wrote to Lerner on behalf of the Guild in disgust and demanded justice, but, as Lerner reminds them in this letter, they had long relinquished their rights to the play and no “dirty trick” was
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