100 New Yorkers of the 1970s Part 12

I was so astonished that you could invent reality that I never recovered from it. The only thing I wanted to do in my life was to make images."

Milton and his wife, s.h.i.+rley, moved to the West Side last August. "I guess it was the opportunity to find the right physical s.p.a.ce. I like the neighborhood because of the mix of working cla.s.s, middle cla.s.s, and upper cla.s.s. ... That really is the richest thing the urban scene offers."

The number of Westside restaurants listed in _The Underground Gourmet_ has sharply increased over the years. Among his favorite dining spots of all price ranges are Ying's on Columbus Avenue (at 70th St.), the Cafe des Artistes (1 West 67th St.), and the Harbin Inn (2637 Broadway).

Look in any New York subway station and you'll see a poster advertising the School of Visual Arts. It shows two identical men in a room. One is lying on a bed and the other is floating in the air. The caption reads: "Having a talent isn't worth much unless you know what to do with it."

Milton Glaser, the designer of that poster, is a supreme example of a man with many talents who knows what to do with all of them.

WESTSIDER PAUL GOLDBERGER Architecture critic for the _New York Times_

12-3-77

"What is architecture? It's the whole built environment. It's the outside of a building, the inside, the function; it serves social needs, physical needs.

... And a building has an obligation to work well with the buildings around it -- at least in the city."

The speaker is Paul Goldberger, architecture critic for the _New York Times_. His immaculate suit and tie, refined manners, dry wit, and somewhat formal way of speaking seem to mark him a Timesman even more than the carefully researched, colorfully written articles that have poured out of his pen in the last four years.

As a critic, Goldberger is accustomed to vocalizing opinions and facts in equal measure. His open-mindedness on architectural styles is demonstrated by his apartment, a lavish, ultramodernized suite of high ceilinged rooms inside one of the oldest buildings on Central Park West.

The interview begins with a trick question: "What is the third tallest building in New York?" (Answer: the Empire State Building.) He fields it without cracking a smile.

"I guess the question is, do you consider the World Trade Center two buildings?" he says. "I guess it's like asking whether Grover Cleveland was two presidents or one because he served two non-consecutive terms.

... The World Trade Center was not necessary built functionally or very pleasing aesthetically. It was built as a kind of symbol of power by the Port Authority. I'm used to it now; human beings can adapt to anything.

I even like going to the restaurant at the top and the restaurant at the bottom. It's the floors in the middle I don't like."

He points to the new Citicorp Center on East 53rd Street as an example of modern architecture at its best, and the mosquelike Cultural Center at Columbus Circle as an example of the opposite. "It's pretty horrible,"

says the critic, agreeing with a newspaper writer who recently labeled the Cultural Center one of the 12 ugliest buildings in Manhattan. "It's a very silly building; it's so obviously dumb. But it doesn't particularly bother me. It's almost innocent, it's so silly."

Lincoln Center, too, draws his barbs. "I find it very pretentious. Rather boring, really. It's a set of imitations of cla.s.sical themes. The buildings are an unfortunate compromise because the builders were afraid to build something really modern, or to design something that really looked like a cla.s.sical building. ... There's a feeling that they sort of want to be modern and sort of want to be cla.s.sical and end up being a very unsatisfying compromise."

A New Jersey native who developed a pa.s.sion for architecture in his earliest years, Paul Goldberger attended Yale University and then worked as a general reporter for another newspaper. Several years later he became an editorial a.s.sistant for the _Times_. In 1973 there came an opening for an architectural writer, and because the _Times_ knew of his background, Goldberger was given the first shot at the job. "It was fabulous," he recalls, because it was what I always wanted to do. And it was very much a matter of luck -- of being at the right place at the right time." His articles appear most often in the daily _Times_; Louise Huxtable remains the chief architectural writer for the Sunday paper.

Why would a sophisticated Timesman choose the West Side over the East?

"There are many more wonderful buildings on the West Side," says Goldberger. Unfortunately not many of the buildings on the West Side have been kept up as well as the East Side. ... In terms of apartment house architecture, Central Park West is probably the best street in New York. It has all the grandeur and beauty and monumentality of Fifth Avenue and it also has the relaxed atmosphere."

There's not one West Side," he continues. "There's at least 10. Around here is one neighborhood. Riverside Drive is another. Up by Columbia is another. ... One of the reasons I like my own neighborhood is because though it is very much West Side, it's handy to the East Side and midtown. I walk through the park all the time."

Any chance that Manhattan's skysc.r.a.pers will eventually weigh down the island? "No," replies the critic emphatically. "First, the island is very, very solid rock and nothing could cause it to sink. The other factor, especially today, is that buildings are not all that heavy, because they're being built with lighter materials and more modern engineering methods.

So a huge new building like the Citicorp, which is 900 feet high, is not any heavier than a building 500 feet high built 30 years ago. And since we don't have earthquakes, this is probably the safest environment in the world to build a skysc.r.a.per."

Although studying and writing about architecture is "more than a full-time job," Goldberger manages to keep abreast of the legal aspects of buildings as well, including tenants' rights, rent control, zoning laws and redlining.

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission is another of his interests. "I think landmarking is crucial to the city," he testifies. "A city exists in time as much as s.p.a.ce. It's the mixture of new and old buildings that gives the city life and vitality."

EASTSIDER MILTON GOLDMAN Broadway's super agent

4-14-79

"Pardon me -- just one more call to make," said Milton Goldman, pus.h.i.+ng the b.u.t.tons on his nearest desk phone. "Go on, you can ask me questions at the same time," he added, holding the receiver to his ear.

"Are you the biggest theatrical agent in the world?" I said. He returned my gaze evenly.

"Others have said it. It would be immodest for me to say it -- but I probably am," said Goldman, who by this time had reached his party and was inviting the young actress on the other end to a Broadway opening that night. He chatted with her for several minutes, his Jack Bennyish voice breaking occasionally into rich laughter.

Sitting upright behind a desk-sized table covered with papers, folders, notebooks and play scripts, the ruddy-complexioned, jacketless Goldman looked far more relaxed that I had expected of a man who, in his 32 years as an agent, has handled the careers of close to 5,000 actors and actresses.

Among those he has helped "discover" are Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Grace Kelly, Lee Marvin, Charlton Heston and Faye Dunaway.

And though Goldman has become a celebrity in his own right, he still exudes the low-keyed charm of a friendly neighbor talking over a fence.

The appearance is no deception: he owes his success not to high-pressure tactics, but to an encyclopedic knowledge of the theatre on both sides of the Atlantic, a keen judgment of which shows are best for his clients, and a long-proven record for trustworthiness. By t.i.tle, he is vice president in charge of the theatrical division of International Creative Management, which is matched in size only by the William Morris Agency.

Unofficially, he serves as father confessor, rabbi, psychiatrist, and best friend to many of the top stars he represents. Attending the theatre up to five times a week, he is always on the lookout for new clients. His weekends are devoted to reading and casting new plays.

"I can't resist talent, and when I see a talented young actor or actress, I want very much to help realize their potential by opening as many doors as I can for them," he explained, gripping the arms of his chair. "I don't think of my job as work. For me, it's fun. And I never know where the one begins and the other ends. Because I'm that lucky individual whose private life and public life are one and the same thing."

Every year he takes a vacation to Europe on the Queen Elizabeth II. "I'm in Paris for a week and London for about three weeks." In slow, carefully chosen sentences, he stated, "I represent many English clients because my knowledge of the English theatre is probably better than anyone else in the American theatre. Every year in London, I get the same suite in the Savoy Hotel and give great parties. I go to at least eight plays a week -- sometimes as many as 10. So I get to see all the plays in London. And I know all the English actors and they know me." Among his British clients: Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir Ralph Richardson and Sir John Gielgud.

"American performers excel in the musical comedy theatre, where dancers and singers also very often are fine actors. This is not true in England.

Dancers are especially hard to cast in London, though I think that is changing now. ... It's sad that the American theatre can't support serious plays. They're either musicals or they're comedies. I think a healthy theatre should be able to support the works of serious playwrights. This season, we happen to have on Broadway an important play by an American playwright -- Arthur Kopit's _Wings_, which stars our client Constance c.u.mmings, who is an American actress who went to England and made her reputation abroad, and has now returned here to great acclaim."

A native of New Brunswick, New Jersey, Goldman witnessed his first Broadway show in the summer of 1929, and from that day forward, the theatre was his pa.s.sion. For 10 years he worked as a tire salesman at a family-owned business. Then, through his friend Arnold Weissberger, a noted lawyer, Goldman was offered a job as a theatrical agent at no base salary, but with a $25 weekly expense account and a 25 percent interest in any clients he signed up. Success came to him almost at once.

A lifelong bachelor, Goldman today shares an apartment with Weissberger on the Upper East Side. His favorite local restaurant is the Four Seasons.

"I go there all the time for lunch; that's my main meal of the day. I think it's the best restaurant in the world."

The actor's life, he believes, "is a sad and a difficult one. Every time you get a good part, the next part has to be bigger -- more money. As you reach the top, it becomes tougher and tougher to get those parts."

Nevertheless, Goldman does not find his own job at all frustrating.

"Pressures? Yes, there are many pressures. But I have said this before: there are so many rewards for me when I see a client in whom I believe get a great break in the theatre or films of television. It's a source of great satisfaction. And with the number of clients I represent, each day brings some rewards. That's why I've often said to clients: 'I have many lives to live.'"

EASTSIDER TAMMY GRIMES Star of _Father's Day_ at the American Place Theatre

6-23-79

Tammy Grimes is one of the few Broadway stars to have received Tony Awards in two categories -- for best Musical Comedy Actress in _The Unsinkable Molly Brown_ (1961), and for Best Dramatic Actress in Noel Coward's _Private Lives_ (1969). In a sense, she is Molly Brown personified -- a powerful stage presence whose charm, beauty, and pure talent make her s.h.i.+ne in every production she takes part in, regardless of the overall merit of the show itself.

Her disappointments have been, at times, as spectacular as her triumphs.

For example, there was her shot at network television in the early 1960s, _The Tammy Grimes Show_, which lasted only 11 episodes because, she says, "the writing, the concept, and the talent never really got together.

And I blame myself for that. Because if your name's up there, you are responsible for the product."

Her marriage to actor Christopher Plummer ended in divorce after four years, but had the happy result of producing a daughter, Amanda Plummer, who is now a successful actress herself.

Tammy played Molly Brown on Broadway for the show's entire two-year run, but the movie role went to Debbie Reynolds. She got some rave reviews for her acting in a Broadway thriller named _Trick_ this year, but the show closed within weeks. When that happened, she quickly started working on a new show, _Father's Day_ by Oliver Hailey, that is scheduled to open on June 21 at the American Place Theatre on West 46th Street.

"It's about three women who get together on Father's Day," says Miss Grimes in an interview at her Upper East Side apartment. "They live in the same building, and they're divorced. It shows how the three of them are coping with the situation. My feeling is that they don't want to be divorced. It's a very well-written play -- a comedy. ... It's at the same theatre where _In Cold Storage_ started."

The interview takes place in her softly decorated bedroom looking out on a garden. Tammy is propped up on pillows beneath the covers, smoking a cigarette and sipping a bottle of Tab as she apologizes for her condition.

"It may have been the caviar I had last night," she says, cheerful in spite of her discomfort. Her pixyish features expand easily into a grin, and at 45 she has lost none of the childlike playfulness that first propelled her to stardom. But the most surprising quality about Tammy Grimes is her throaty British accent. Although she has done little work in England, her normal speaking voice is far more British than American -- a fact which, for some reason, she strenuously denies. "I spent a lot of time doing British comedy," she explains, "but I don't sound Britis.h.!.+"