This is a machine-generated transcript. Text is unformatted and may contain errors.
It's working and you hear me. It's working. My name is Monica Logan I AM THE CLUB PRESIDENT I'd like to welcome you all here today in behalf of the Overseas Press Club to hear Mr Crow on and to help enrich our club coffers. As I guess today as you know as Mr Alexander H. call on questions to be called Alex Cohen. Showman and innovators as you know are few and far between but Mr Cowen is indeed a showman and innovator creator to take note up on Broadway he has brought to us recently Richard Burton and John deal goods production and let Italian the spectacle ruin Teano complete with the innovation of English language subtitles and the all star revival of School for Scandal as you are also doubtless aware they missed your call I mean he is. Probably creatively responsible for Baker Street Allen joining a long successful one already run on Broadway over the years he's presented to us plays with Charles boy a well pretty high white vein civil Thorndyke and many other great actors and actresses. Although you use a very young man he began his the Africa career in December nine hundred thirty one as co-producer of Angel Street which ran for three years I'm on here is productions he has sponsored over the years the US Cal her the late Louis Gallagher and King Lare Walters last act and pyro Guthrie's production of the first gentleman the revival of John the all good status of man reach of obviates one man show and I could go on and on and on a minute as many conceptions where the ideas for the so-called nine o'clock theater with which many of us are acquainted beginning in one nine hundred fifty nine with a very famous An Englishman Michael Flanders and Donald Swan And at the drop of a hat. It was followed by the brilliant comedy comedy team of Mike Nichols and Elaine May The swab Gallic charm of E.'s montage and many many others. And now Mr call would like to chat with us for some minutes and then will be very receptive to your very pointed questions gives us great pleasure at the Overseas Press Club to present Mr Alex Cohen. Thank you. I was listening to the list of credits. Reprinted from the program. Sounded something like a bitchy wary. Because of some of my some of the most of those two things and of course about the federal failures and not successes and I find that when you're introduced to a professional you always know one of the professional because you have a microphone so that when you're introduced to a professional audience. It's much more interesting to say the children. There are dozens of shows in a lot of them flops. Because out of the flops comes what you learn that has something to do with hopefully some of it hits you in. Prison I like to call up. A story which I've been telling recently because. Because I can tell it now because it's a lovely story and I hope that when dogs me I'm a son and there's one story which has to do curiously with the number of shows I presented because it's the ambition of every producer at some point in his wife to have four heads running simultaneously on Broadway. Now while we specifically have to relate to four sellers running simultaneously I don't exactly know that the figure for I don't know why anybody would would think that four was if you know why you wouldn't be happy with just darling M L with everything else. But. The one time two years ago when ratings sixty three didn't back four shows running simultaneously. On Broadway. There's only lasted until we got the point but during those two weeks I had a very interesting experience actually three of the shows were where I had some one was a factor. I had at the time the School for Scandal at the Majestic and I had missed a show by the way here in Venice has excelled. At the gold and I had a very. English import beyond the French and up the street of the Plymouth I had a show called Alfred Drake in the Wrens arm in the show it's called the Rams I went out for break was on it. And that one was the one that was a little shaky shaky was going. Sad but I have what it shows. And I got a call at your post one morning. From a man named Hill. And Mr Hill said that Mrs Tenet was in New York. And what that might be very pleased to see the School of the stamp of course we got very excited by so I did and so everybody else connected with our office so we made the. Preparation for the visit of the first lady as it was explained to us by Mr help. I should tell you that Mr Hall is the same Mr hoping. Some time later from stop on the back of that car to ours. So that you'll be able to identify it but of course we had not been faced with a national tragedy at the time that he was calling it early night in sixty three when made preparation and I got back to the apartment I keep a small company here in New York and I changed when I put on a tuxedo I think it was the first lady was going to come to see my play I could be there on the sidewalk to open the door greeter and welcome to what I thought was certain of the strike a deal and such an important occasion. I got to the theater early about a quarter of a my way to where. We put aside the course leads that we were instructed to put aside on the island to behind those four and to one front of the door. So that you actually had three hours for say two for themselves. And the presidential party is always surrounded by Secret Service and adequate security then I didn't double the problem for the closer except for just a scanner. And I waited till about five minutes after eleven. And. She didn't come. And I went back to the bomb and I was a little boy I mean I was distraught but them I was a little a little confused and disappointed and I turned on the. Q X R A midnight and I heard that and by Mrs Kennedy and her party just got to the theater that night. They saw a funny thing happened on the way to the forum. Which I didn't put in the same category as the school for Samurai. But I was a little now I was a little messed up I went to bed and I managed to sleep. And the next morning I got a call from Sister Helen. Well there I said I get it wrong I said I bet that there's a tonight or did I do something that was. He said Well in fact Mr countering that data in the first candidate discovered that our guests. Had seen the school discount or that that one of the C. A Funny Thing Happened on the way the forum is that you just what's the point of what I do. He said was the very last minute we had a lot of difficulties I'm terribly sorry that I didn't call the servants where I stand. So however he said the Mrs Kennedy was very much like a spammer we should balance performance this evening at the end so we. Went through this whole thing again. And we were ready and I went back and I put on my tuxedo over the back to the theater and I'm stood out on the sidewalk in front of the was expelled and. We had a nine o'clock curtain up there with the Shabak a way that the I could get used to this by the never disappoint me or whether to the clock I decided to go home and I said Well. Still like it was not for real the all day but America has been courting the young the experiment some are facing forward on one with the bat the next morning I get a call very apologetic call from them this term euro works playing to maybe that she was Mrs Kennedy secretary and the first lady getting back at a very severe cold and careful plans to go to the last minute. Boys said I was too bad and I hoped that she would be better so. The next day Thursday I got a call from a pal of mine that got to leave us on the home some of the you know and he's with Columbia Records is the president from Iraq and he said that. He said listen they survive I want to ask a big favor. I need. Eight seats for me on the fringe for Saturday Night. So I said what God. It's for be on the fringe I might be able to get you up here I mean how seats are very difficult to share with Brad and I would have been open about two or three months. And it was a Saturday night the demands of the press one thing and of my colleagues and associates from a. Friend so I told him so. He said what you get. And there was something in the tone in which he said well you better get. And the fact that it was a treat. That I said ever so let me ask you a question I said the guy said Who are these four and they said well I'm not allowed to as I said I'm not perfectly ridiculous I said of the power I'M NOT GOING ON THE PRESIDENT The are. Where he said well he said in fact it is not only for her once that the president is coming to New York on Saturday afternoon. To be at the Carlisle just overnight he has a breakfast that Sunday morning and he has asked Mrs Kennedy not to see friends tonight but to wait for him until Saturday night I said I didn't know she isn't going to come tonight at least I avoided that the so he said well he said the president wants to see it and if I were you I would get cracking same so we did and we got eight seats for the on the fringe and in the meantime Hill had call again the and he confirmed that they were in fact coming. I knew they were coming in reality when they started to put these special telephones in the box office you may have heard about this ladies and gentlemen probably write a great deal about and cover presidential affairs but they do in fact come along and put telephones in each location where the president is going to spend any time away from the White House and that evening from the Carlisle hotels which boy they had to install the telephone of a restaurant that because we called the Carousel which is very good and also the Adams Dalton phones one red and one black in the box office of the gold was in the. So I knew he was coming. In and out of based on that I had my touch to go from the all right and the hell beat my wife and I my wife was an actress named Jose parks and we had a commitment that night to go to the opening of a play called Aunt Dora. Which was going up at seven thirty and we figured it all out that we would go there and we would get out about a quarter of ten and we hotfoot it down to the golden in time for the at a mission to be on the French and we would be able to grip the president in the first ten or so. And two. Cut short everything that happened. We did that we went to the opening left we arrived at the forty first Street at about ten minutes or ten million my tuxedo. Down from the opening in the block was just last year with police barriers with more action than I've ever seen in forty first Street on a Saturday night and of course obviously the president was there. Inside and I got through the police lines and I got through very easily nobody said a word to me because I was all dressed up and I guess they figured I belong there when I walked into the theater. And nobody stopped me and as I stood and backed up with it was a dreadful performance because you're very patient with the story it was a dreadful performance because instead of listening to be on the fringe everybody was relating only to whether Mr Kennedy was going to laugh or. Quite seriously because if you recall the review had an enormous political connotations and social frame of reference point of view and everybody was just looking directly down to the fourth row on the aisle to see if he laughed and if he did that was fine and everybody else laughed and it was like you're in an echo chamber because everything was like six seconds delay this performance but there he was you say and a man came over to me introduced himself as Clint Hill who later turned out to be one hell of a guy. And I said what why do we said well he said. So I understand your managers have put on champagne back there he said why don't you ask them the president if he and Mrs Kennedy would like to go back and meet the members of the company during the mission. Comes down at the end of Act one which if you remember French goal was the first world war called aftermath of war and the audience applauded very politely but rather tepidly because they were very busy. I would be just that busy if I had been able to there that night so I didn't go down to the president who said well what like to get outside and Mrs Kennedy one of the cigarettes and they passed in the aisle as they were going to the side door and the president stuck his hand out. And he said I'm Jack Kennedy. Was almost bowled over he said you know Mr Slater where you work much I've seen with pictures and he said I just want to tell you given me many poor slaves at war most dissolved there. And I went out and I then asked the president whether he would care to come upstairs and meet the boys and he said yes and we took President and Mrs Kennedy and Prince and Princess rads and well who were with them that evening upstairs to dress and. Spent her time talking with the president and the prince and I was talking with Mrs Kennedy and the princess and sister. And finally I got around to what I said you know. Mrs Kennedy I said you really gave me. This week. I said she said. She talks that way like on the record that's you know. I don't mean that disrespectfully but I'm interested in the context of are saying to me comes. We couldn't get to School for Scandal on Monday night because the people that we were with Wanted To See A Funny Thing Happened on the way home anyway she said I'm coming to the opening in Washington with my next Freidman. Though I had only recently decided to play the shell in Washington and I had no idea who Max Friedman was I mean I know that makes me sounds fairly accurate but I honestly did not know next Ritalin was. So I said oh the school well I just bought and I said Now what about should I get the next night because I was going to stop now the station so I didn't have a cold she said but I would very much like to come and see Chabad yet another to. So we took them back to their seats and we waited a little four months was over and we said goodnight to them and nobody had had a very interesting conversation with the president and I had a very interesting conversation with Mrs Kennedy Hildy had told the president that we were going to go to Puerto Rico. And when we got to Puerto Rico I might tell you that there were flowers at the grass to her kind of mind this man had for the small things in the world. And. But later on I. Just couldn't stand there was not a triumph by all who Max Freedman launches am and whether in fact they work really got to come to the opening of scaling Washington with Mexico. So I told Washington I call the National Theater I talked to Scott Parker prickles a manager of a theater and I said Listen who's Max Friedman is that you're joking I said No sounds like he said Max Friedman is the White House correspondent for the Manchester Guardian. And I somehow because I didn't know I had no idea that I really did not know. And I said well how could he have what check up for the school scandal if I don't have any. And he said no he doesn't you know. I said though he said because he has four seats for every opening it's automatic This is all of the time it comes along with the president. So I figure well this is also for real I have been then he went Rome to supervise the translation of a musical called Reagan to know and I left word with my secretary that if in fact they started to install the telephone I don't want any other kind another the if they started to install the telephones I wanted to know about it Roma my was hot for the back of the opening the scandal in Washington and I'm sure the they put the phones in on Friday and I got the wire and I took T.W.A. which. Lou went direct from Rome to Washington. And I got in on Sunday night and us the rest of the tuxedo press and the next night Monday night was the opening of scandal and I'm I have read here is early in the morning's paper what the president's schedule was for the week and I noticed in that schedule. That it did say that on Monday night he was going to theater and accept that on Tuesday he would be receiving and reading for the first time a fellow named Harold Wilson. Who was due to have his appointment at the White House at ten thirty in the morning and I can I don't know why that but I know why it stayed with me because I had a reservation the Wilson for the opening scandal to open and he was coming with the lady bones the cold. You know that New York paper yeah Mrs Reagan. And you know I got to the theater and Hill was there and the phones were there and everything was very busy and very active and sure enough at about eight twenty eight around that square in Washington comes a police motorcade in the big black limo in back they pull up to the front door and out gets him and the prince and the princess and then the brigade only person and then it got out of the custom and then Mrs Kennedy and that was all because nobody else would buy it. Because I should remember that there are others that they're aware as they present because of the news of the president has a problem. And there's a little flare up you remember and then proceed in October twenty second it was then there was a little problem in Cuba and there was a little flare up later in March which was on this particular day. And they said but you had a wife that you sit down with the party he said you know Mr and Mrs witness and you've met the press princess and you're now met Mrs Kennedy you sit in the president's speech on the hour I will come down when the press. The riders because you're coming late tap you on the shoulder and then you come up the aisle and you greet him and you show him to the street I suppose for the very nice you know so I went down sat down next to. The first lady and she was very kind to me and we made some intelligent I hope conversation. And I weighed in there when the show started Ralph Richardson was showing scenery like no actor in the in the history of the world I never saw a performance like that in my life one of the great actors of our time and he was literally biting on the scenery back I didn't couldn't imagine what it was accepted because everybody was terribly nervous to be playing in front of so distinguished an audience and including the president who wasn't there and I was the in and his seat on the other end of the aisle was how it was so when they had a mission I got up and I went over and I introduced myself to Mr Paulson announced and whether he would come back after the performance to meet his countryman as bloggers to hear from him and he said yes he would like to introduce me to Mrs Ray. No I then went back to where Mrs Kennedy and her party had retired from the end of the will be in a small corridor chamber talked for a while chatted about many things and. I was introduced to Max Friedman the fact that I showed them back to the single man sat down again on the aisle and I set the colors of what about that he said well he said I haven't got anything yet he had a walkie talkie that fit in his pocket like that but I haven't got anything yet but the minute I do I'll let you know he said but he is coming here to be here about twenty or thirty minutes. So I during that time got probably nervous like in the step of the aisle with me on the shoulder what do I say to the president I say good evening Mr President. Welcome May I show you your sea ice in the water he won't know who I am I was a dream and Mr President I'm Alex Cohen and NOW show us the dozen that makes me so mad and I share the good work cursing to myself. I said dreaming Mr President I'm Alex Cohen welcome to the National Theatre Mashonas Oh my God is that it all sounded so complicated and as I sat there. Rehearsing he tapped me on the shoulder and I went up the arm of the state of semi hysteria I went out on the street the car was coming and zooming around the thing and pulls up screech of the door flies open I stuck my hand out I said Good evening I'm the president and. The Romans at the tower a funny name Henry Grossman that this picture which is my treasure in. The president put his arm around my shoulder that's the picture that I have of. Him and his business who got me in my tuxedo the day. And he said Hello Alex how are you. And I later figured out that bad where they have walkie talkies and there's a certain amount of protocol involved in these things and Mr Hill probably said to the man with a walkie talkie in the car this idiot was standing on the spring the group his name is Alex Cohen and you met him before because that's the way they handle these things and that's when I was underestimating the president of the United States he said. Mrs Kennedy's seat and I said yes most of the second act was on a nice plane I took them down put them in the city. After the performance curiously when the president came backstage with the first lady. And Wilson came backstage as they approached each other I remembered that they'd never met and that they were about to meet the next morning at eleven o'clock so one of the treasures of my life time was that I introduced our Wilson to the president of the United States. In the presence of the company about us that they both come back to greet and this came for Circle curiously. Three months ago. When sure that it was back in New York at the album. I got a call not from Mr Hill but from Mrs Kennedy and she said well she said I'd like to. Take that rain check tonight Come and See sure that which she did three months ago when she came in the theater again with the prince and princess she said to me on the way and so well. And that was my story I'm afraid that it's a long one. But I thought you might enjoy it you know. I don't want to take it you know you're very busy people but. I think that. There isn't much to be said about the object of a theatre. In New York today. The conventional levels of a recent at least there isn't much for me to say about the legitimate conventional levels because I cannot tell you. How I got to be a producer I don't remember has had a run of bad luck anyway and that's where I wound up. My current server conventional questions in terms of my views about other people's plays because that's and that tasted like hate them all anyway. But I thought. That I think the people in my field of endeavor up of responsibility. Which I suppose. Major degree I would also have to concede we do not really live up to. Them what I mean by this is that. People love the theater I suppose people in all walks of life. Are not in fact assuming. The responsibility that they should be assuming as individuals. And I think that it's particularly obvious and in my own family. Where public figures people who involved himself in the entertainment industry in this country which other people sometimes refer to laughingly as the arts. But people who put themselves before the public on any level of. Pretension. Or even. Levels of pure commerce should accept the fact that as public figures they have a degree of responsibility and I am very critical of the fact that I don't believe that the majority of people concerned with our industry today except the responsibility are understand they have. Demonstrated I suppose to some degree of this week. And it's very close to me because I'm very close to the cause involved which is because of the free stuff in theater and the free Southern theater is giving a holding a benefit next Sunday night at The Mint National Maritime Union Building. On thirteenth Street and that's since I'm selling tickets you see on the co-host of this affair with Miss Diana CERN's. And I have to try and help make ten thousand dollars in one night for the continuance and further insult this company which has been giving performances in the South free of charge for audiences which have been integrated and you probably remember that these people work place on the civil unrest. Have enormous difficulties and we need money for legal fees. It's very hard to get support in that course because the same night we're giving ourselves those Tony Awards and the Astro telling everybody is getting up and getting an award for something or rather And if any of you are free to come along and we'll find a reason to give. You want to order. And that to me somehow the fine is. The difference between the two currents of my in this. That are functioning in the fear that today. Is the one group which is a need for their own personal self aggrandizement at the expense of anything in any body on the face of the earth. And then there was another small. Group I'm sorry to say. Which is in some way listed in their moral responsibility and their responsibility to the community and their responsibility to the theatre. And I don't say as a producer of players he's known for the shall we say noisy way in which he promotes his own attractions. That you have to lemonade all the celebrations and all the what giving you no self aggrandizement But I say that along with that goes a larger responsibility and in talking to people love the press. Writers I often feel that I'm saying something that you have said a lot for me. I've read so much of what has been written in terms of the society in which we are living in the and that portion or area of society in which I work and I don't come here to preach. But I wonder how many of you would have thought of writing for the theatre. And I wonder how many of you would have wondered about themes for the theater. And I didn't come here to get some scripts in there I mean I'm not soliciting. We do not read on solicited manuscripts It says that right on the door in my office. And I didn't come here for a specific purpose. Except that I was kindly invited. But. I wonder if there are among you or among your friends or among the people you know people who write players. Which have a point of view. Because the theater not only desperately needs to develop its own point of view about its own social responsibility but as you probably are aware from the plays that have been presented in the last five years but also need some playwrights with a point of view before it starts to death figuratively and literally. Because the theater today is only in desperate shape on one level. I mean you hear about how terrible things are. And you know that people live in regulating the industry and there are tech of scandals and there are here and it's endless You hear all of us have to harass and business to be yet another that has any validity at all so I Nonsense The only trouble with the fair as we run into a bad run of luck for five years we haven't developed any playwrights in this country and the only one we get about that I can thank God I want to do his place is because I don't want to sleep with them now. They they're after wire you get into on your own level as writers. A very interesting. Situation developing in this country there are no writers but the theater after mother was the last gullible really stepped out and wrote for the Fed and he's been testifying about it at the census. So for those of you who have a liberal born of the project but those with you who don't can write. I suggest that there are many many important opportunities. For the man with a point of view of the woman with a point of you know who are right for the theater I mean also is a lot of money yes but that is a really I suppose to some to some a secondary and to some it's primary. But I would never I would try and and through your good invitation had a hope that you might be able to reach people who do want to write for the fair there is a need and there are responsible producers who would like to present the work of responsible writers. And while I am not one to not. My buddy Mike Nichols of my first presented in the set or I might tell you that it is just not true that you have to write the odd couple and Baffert in the park and never too late. And the last time in order to exist in the set up today there is room for a serious play there is room for the serious writer there is a crying desperate need and a legitimate fear in this country all over this country for a fresh point of view and for fresh minds and. You know on that level. I would I would answer any questions that you might have on that subject or on any other subject as I have gone public so long in a way yes I'm. Well I've made fleeting reference to all of me but I guess. I'm not I'm not his great admirer hype on the level of the plays that he's written for the theatre I don't see how I missed a great hope that would help. Thank you. I'm sorry I think I misunderstood I did not produce and direct I've no idea when to the opening of that Don but I. But it was a very interesting play. When you know it's a there are there's just a I do that because I have legal advice that says I should. Actually read every play which comes to us from a recognised agent. Because we feel that they have since they are people of repute they will protect us in the theater from what normally happens to us every time we have a success with a contemporary play which is the next morning we have twelve suits for plagiarism and if we get the play from someone with whom we've done business over the years and they have made warranties to us about the originality of the play then we know that we're in good hands and also quite frankly with we have found over a period of time for what help us to those who might consider this field. But it's a great way of weeding out because if you if you tried to read every play that came to your attention you'd never be able to produce any so there has to be some way of weeding out of the best way is through the reputable agencies and the reputable agents that are in the business. You're. Like. Oh. Well I don't explain it because I don't know I really don't know the answers I happened to my tastes some of yours about that when I thought that slogan and so on a killing ground was an important introduction of a new playwright I think that would be toast was somewhat less successful but when talking about degrees. I have no explanation for it except to say that if you want to put out an important start and slow down it's not a killing ground that might still be here. But the public is a of the star. And they they fight their way into two or three shows in this town and they come out and say gee it wasn't much good was it but I saw it and it's a status symbol as one important musical which I don't think I should go into a great length since I didn't produce such I've never met anybody that writes it but you can't get a seat to it because it's a status symbol to be there. And that's on the on fortunate nature of of the legitimate that of the functioning in today which is an expense account theatre when you're getting ten bucks a seat you're appealing to a certain audience it's not the audience I necessarily want to appeal to their mind or why I like making a living I mean it's very important that I should my wife thinks it's important my children think it's important. So I also went in this track to a degree I hope that the plays that I preserve the Rev a higher level but every once in a while I get fooled into saying my God I've got to meet the overhead with something or home I'm going to pay for the things I want to. But it's an expense a kind of theater it's a ten twenty thirty dollars theater. Way. Way. Way. Or it's. Not paid television I don't think in my own view I experimented with. A company in the presentation of Hamlet on film after week after Britain finished the Broadway run of her mother when released a version of what you know a film in process known as an electronic version. The idea was unfortunately the people involved in the electronic version company one lots of sun. And that's one understatement but. The idea. Is an important idea and there is now in the process of development in the R.C.A. laboratories electronic equipment which can pick up an existing candle power that is the existing lighting in a few other shows which can then be beamed out. Two of the theaters and shown on a large screen. Well I am I not Guy I agree with you it isn't fair I don't think I paid much of dollars but I'm answering the question. You went to see a lot. Did you enjoy. The show the risk but most. Or you talk about the share of that you trust that. Now we don't have an agreement I promise you that that there aren't enough of us of this business talking to each other to get together with the World with me that's. Now I think the answer to that is that the people who produce on the mob commercial Broadway which is not in doubt which is not under. Which is not subsidized charge as much as they can get. And I think that's the answer the answer is how much can we get for this product and I think that if they thought they could get eight ninety instead of a. Six million to you Kate but they are governed by and a lot of producers pick themselves after an opening and say look we only charge six mind the announcer a big heads up which I take might be that they that to buy. All right. But price reduction after an open it has always proven to be a papal plane of that curiously every time you say to the public we have been playing this play for six dollars and ninety cents we just slashed the price one Shell said that this here is a play I can talk about because it's closing this week on the value or was a musical comedy that open government and. While they're still laughing but they're hauling a mousepad of it's Anyway the guy. He he he offered his shell a million dollars and sixty cents and didn't get it so he advertised the gypsy white sale. Well as I said a little vulgar but then there are others who are going to and then he cut the price to six million then they didn't get a visa and if you've got something the public doesn't want you can cut the form binding and you won't get it and three million you won't get it and to nine million you won't get it now this is true and if you've got to play one. Of say you've got a funny girl you've got the odd couple charging one hundred ten miles an hour less than ninety twelve ninety they'll pay it and that's a problem because the public will pay less for their tests yes they will know that doing this they've done it and mostly that expense account but you have to realize that we're not in the control field again we're not subsidize these about those independent entrepreneurs of put the shows on and they want as much for as they can get. The commercial business. Sir. I'm sorry. Which places the devil the devil as the next buyer knowing goes in rehearsal on September the seventh it's the May directed by Michael talking about US It costars Jason robots and them by process and that will open in New York and I don't know the fate of yet I hope till this week but it will open in New York the During the first week of November and they will play us. Hopefully until July I'd like to just jotted down two more questions that we are running from like when I became vice president. Or. One of those there are repertory that is in this country notably in Stratford Connecticut in New York City and Seattle Washington and Minneapolis Minnesota and San Francisco which have developed and which have charged. A price which is much less than Broadway but they have developed with the aid of foundations subsidies and downs and union. Cooperation. So there is this possible for them to go along for a year at Lincoln Center on a budget which allocates to them three or four hundred thousand dollars to lose in a specific series of. Stratford Ontario. Which Guthrie stuff seven or eight years ago was a losing proposition up until three years ago. The A.P.A. at the Phoenix here in New York which as I said to me the most impressive operation of repertory theater and the most dedicated operation of Repertory Theater in this country in this century manages to dig out a season and lose twenty to fifty thousand dollars. But we can't compete but I would can't compete for for the simplest reasons in the world of our. I live on one shelf at the moment when Beta script closes you have to consider this you see everybody has the impression that if you're at the apple producer means I don't know right I think it's the old Ziegfeld image but if you're a theatrical producing You're right of a successful and consequently rich now if you look at it on a much more realistic level I'm a fellow who has a show and Topic A straight I don't always have four shows I'm lucky sometimes when I have one show. And I'm thinking of the next show how would you like to be employed on a newspaper this week and know that you're engaged been terminated on the thirtieth of the month and which paper would you be with on the first of the month and do that twice a year all your life or maybe three times a year. So I there's no control that I have about a minute and the business as a matter of fact I'm always tempted to say all right but by process of robots or I've got Richard Burton right I've got below that I guess I better get twelve bucks or so because I'm. Never make it again is my temptation and I have no one down the rabbit to make the money to make a living that I happen personally to believe if you believe me that there's an error social responsibility is my own personal feeling I can tell you that I'm the most alone but there are three or four other people in this business who have a conscience and I didn't come here to be heroes. I don't know of three or four people in show business who wouldn't raise their prices if they thought they could get it today. Thank you when if you're wrong I'll call you a liar that I think is as apt then but I know as we could find to you and Donna. Thank you very much Mr Braun coming here today I think you are right. I noted that some of you still had your hands raised when we had to cut us off the measure of your interest in this that we have run twenty minutes longer than we usually do if any of you have additional questions I'm sure the Mr grown up here would be happy to answer them or just my bank account.