DL Book Club: "Mike Nichols: A Life," by Mark Harris

he was gay, was diane s?

Your synopsis makes me want to read this ASAP. Thanks OP!

Forgot this one:

• Leonard Bernstein and his wife held a party to show off a new portrait of Bernstein. As the guests murmured approval, Lillian Hellman said, "What the hell is everyone talking about? It makes Lennie look like a middle-aged fag." The room went dead silent and Bernstein's wife led everyone away while Hellman realized what she'd done.

OP Jack Lemon was a bigger name and had a proven track record in film comedy than Art Carney and that was the reason he was reteamed with his Fortune Cookie (1966) costar Matthau in the film version of The Odd Couple(1968) Up until that time Carney and for several years after Carney appeared in few films and was never a lead until Harry and Tonto and The Late Show in the mid 70s. It's not unusual that an actor doesn't repeat a stage role on film: Mary Martin The Sound of Music, Julie Andrews My Fair lady, Rosemary Harris, Robert Preston The Lion in Winter, Lauren Bacall Cactus Flower, Elizabeth Ashley Barefoot in the Park, Carol Lawrence West Side Story...

R4 Why are you lecturing OP? He's reporting on what he read in the book. If you haven't read it then....

Didn't he also wear fake eyebrows?

I don't know about fake eyebrows. Harris says that Nichols put up with George C. Scott's alcoholism and abusive ways until one night Scott called him in a drunken rage and demanded "Slap on your wig and get down here," and Nichols never worked with him again.

• Casting "The Fortune": Bette Midler refused to read for the female lead. Cher wanted it, but Nichols told her, "There are two kinds of women in the world — those you want to fuck and those you don't, and you're the latter." Stockard Channing only got cast because she read the part during a rehearsal for stars Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty. Nicholson and Beatty each got $1.5 million for their roles; the studio paid Channing $20,000. And she was the one who came out of it unscathed by the critics.

R5 Not a lecture at all just a more information regarding the more likely reason that Carney did not appear in the film version as the OP assumed. Carney had a nervous breakdown during the production of Odd Couple due to the collapse of his 25 year marriage with his wife filing for divorce due to long term alcohol, barbituate and benzedrine use. When he finished rehab his wife remarried him.

R5 And the OP acknowledged it was their assumption i.e. not a statement from the book. Read more carefully.

Started it, OP. Loving it. He was kind of a Jewish Holden Caulfield as a teen, huh?

R8 Interesting that Nichols cast Cher in Silkwood and that he apparently thinks that Stockyard Channing is the kind of woman you would want to fuck but, then again he married the constantly constipated looking Diane Soilyer.

R7 Gotta love George C.

"Slap on your wig" is even better than "Shit in your wig".

• Harris says Nichols thought of "Working Girl" as a satire of the grasping Reagan 1980s and intended the last shot to symbolize Melanie Griffith's character as being absorbed into the landscape of greed, but audiences found her triumph in a most unironic way. Harris also says Nichols was sympathetic to Griffith's coke habit, because at that point he'd moved from snorting coke to actually smoking crack.

R12 yeah I’m a little confused by that too. Cher would certainly be more “fuckable” than Stockyard.

Just repeating what the book says, r12 and r16. Nichols was impressed enough to cast Cher in "Silkwood." According to the book, he refused to let her get a butch haircut, saying that was too easy a way to get into her dyke character.

R16 R17 At the expense of being accused of "lecturing", I think Channing was a more appropriate casting choice for The Fortune, I can't see Cher in that role but, not because of greater or lesser fuckability.

I’ll dip a toe in the “who’s fuckable” waters:

Reread that section of the book, OP.

I think you’ll find Nichols told Cher she WAS fuckable, and that’s why he didn’t cast her.

Wasn’t that the point of “The Girl Most Likely To”? Audiences believed they might have a chance with Stockard while Cher was a powerhouse.

I'm just in the first chapters, but the author very lightly hints in a few places that women may not have been Nichols' preference. Nothing is out and out said, yet, but I'm picking up slight pings.

One part I noticed was how enthralled Nichols was with Brando in the stage production of Streetcar. I think it's clear that Brando's raw, animal sexuality was one of the main reasons Nichols was so taken with him, and the show. But again, it's not actually said.

It's weird to think of Nichols as being gay. He wasn't attractive at all, must have been rough for him. I guess maybe that's why he became a director, otherwise he never would've gotten laid.

Mike Nichols wore fake eyebrows. Mike Nichols and Richard Avedon were longtime lovers.

Mark Harris has an interesting Twitter, for sure.

Have this on hold at my library. Looking forward to reading it.

OP, I hope you can answer this if it is explained in the book.

After I read that this book was coming out, I pulled up the ship manifest record of Nichols coming from Europe to the US as a boy.

I was surprised to find that both his parents were both already in the US and that he and his brother, both just boys, were listed together on the manifest but there did not appear to be other relatives traveling with them. It seemed unusual to have 2 children traveling alone.

Was this covered in the book? Inquiring minds want to know.

There is an interesting documentary on HBO towards the end of his life. He had some pretty good trivia about The Graduate and WAOVW.

Did George make that rude comment before or after the filming of "Day of the Dolphin" (1973)?

R25, Yes it was common for children to travel to America alone or in pairs without adult supervision, if there wasn't an sensible alternative. My grandmother at age 9 came from Russia with her slightly older sister. Both went right to work making shoes, lying about their ages and standing on chairs since they were so short.

Usually parents could only afford passage for a few family members and young children were seen to be at high risk. Boys could be corralled into the army, girls from poor families accosted. America meant opportunities to start a new life.

R25, Common for children to be viewed as small adults expected to contribute economically or at least to raise their younger siblings. Travelling long distances alone was the norm, they had far more responsibility than future generations.

Goodreads offers an extensive preview.

I wonder which funeral he chose.

I wonder if Nichols got a go at Harrison Ford during "Working Girl"?

Jack Lemmon admitted to his own drinking problem before he died. It couldn't have been that bad. He had a terrific career. He was good in almost everything he did. And directors seemed to love working with him.

R27 I suspect that incident occurred during a 1973 Broadway production of Uncle Vanya starring George C. Scott and Julie Christie which was directed by Nichols. And Trish wasn't your hubby offended because Nichols requested that you shave you armpits during the production of The Day of the Dolphin?

Mrs. Lemmon...

Never realized Walter was so difficult. Jane Curtin said he was the worst guest host she worked with on SNL.

Supposedly Nichols didn't care for the film version of Virginia Woolf as he felt he was too young when he made it and he could have done it much better when he was older as he had more grasp on George and Martha. He wanted to do a remake for HBO with Marlo Thomas, who played Martha in a production in the early 90's.

R36. Only if Ted Bessel had played George.

And Miss Carol Ann Daniels as Honey!

R28, R29

I've been doing genealogy research for many years and have viewed countless ship manifest pages.

If you have a manifest page showing your grandmother traveling alone at age 9 to the US with a slightly older sister, I'd love to see it. Such cases would have been stopped at Ellis Island until the travelers could be released upon relatives in the US affirming responsibility for the children. Otherwise, the country would have been flooded with orphan children from other countries with no support in the US. There would have been additional paperwork showing the disposition of such people arriving.

I am reminded of one case I researched of a 14 year old boy (obviously not a small child) orphan who was held up at Ellis Island with separate documentation for any people on board a ship who were not initially admitted. Some of those people were sent back. The boy I was researching was expected by his uncle in Pennsylvania and was released and traveled on and lived with his uncle and other family members. All this was documented.

In Nichols case, he immigrated right before the start of WWII, arriving in the port of New York aboard the Bremen on May 4, 1939. They were in tourist class.

This book sure is getting a TON of publicity. I would’ve thought it was more of a niche title. Looking forward to reading Pictures of a Revolution as well.

[quote] If you have a manifest page showing your grandmother traveling alone at age 9 to the US with a slightly older sister, I'd love to see it. Such cases would have been stopped at Ellis Island until the travelers could be released upon relatives in the US affirming responsibility for the children.

There was just a Finding Your Roots about this......I think it was Tony Shalboub's story. His ancestors lost their parents and the older girl, who was like 15 or 16, told the immigration officers at Ellis Island that she was 28 so they would let her in and let the minor children with her remain in her care.

Was he gay or not? This is all I want to know.

I finished the book last week, it's terrific. All of Mark Harris's books are. For those of you really into Nichols, don't miss this oral history from last year, which is also magnificent. And it confirms that he glued on his eyebrows. He had horrible wigs glued on with smelly apoxy until Elizabeth Taylor asked her hair man from "Cleopatra" to get Nichols some better wigs. And he never looked back!

The book offers a footnote about Nichols' supposed bisexuality. Harris says he never got firm proof of it, but was not pressured to leave it out. So he acknowledges the "rumors" of bisexuality that followed Nichols his entire life, but that's about it. He does say that the Avedon book from a few years ago asserted that Avedon and Nichols had a long-running affair. Again, Harris found no concrete evidence of this.

R40, the book is Pictures at a Revolution and it's terrific. I think I learned about it here at DL a few years ago, then I borrowed it from my local library system.

Per the publishers description:

[quote]"Pictures..." explores the epic human drama behind the making of the five movies nominated for Best Picture in 1967 - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Graduate, In the Heat of the Night, Doctor Doolittle, and Bonnie and Clyde - and through them, the larger story of the cultural revolution that transformed Hollywood, and America, forever.

A must-read, really fascinating.

Nichols cited his aversion to Ross Hunter, as mentioned by OP, as one of his strokes of good luck. He told his agent he couldn't work with RH, which freed him to make a pitch for WAOVW. Whatever Nichols's later perfectionist reservations, it was quite the debut.

[quote]He wanted to do a remake for HBO with Marlo Thomas, who played Martha in a production in the early 90's.

Can you imagine Marlo and her majordomo Desmond in Virginia Woolf?

Harris offers a lengthy footnote about Nichols' alleged longtime fling with Richard Avedon. He says that in all his research he found zero actual evidence of the affair, and he makes a point of adding that no one pressured him to cover anything up. Make of it what you will.

R39, My family never saw a copy of my grandmother's ship manifest. Just have an excellent recall of her many stories of early life in the US. She was always an extremely strong, self-reliant, independent woman.

Likely she hated the freezing cold Russian winters as well as having to hide with her family in the basement when the very drunk Russian cossacks were raging thru the town. Young girls weren't safe in those times.

No other family members ever came to America. An acquaintance from their village had a rooming house and connections to a shoe factory. Schooling and religion were for the rich who had leisure time. Grandma stood on a stool to make shoes and worked faster than men 3 times her age. Soon she was the floor supervisor.

R41, Wouldn't be surprised if my grandmother and her older sister lied to immigration officials at Ellis Island. This is a woman who went on to have 4 children, and 4 abortions of which 2 were illegal.

How she talked Los Angeles doctors into giving her 2 legal abortions was one story she never fully revealed. "Papa wouldn't wear a rubber" and they were thick as lambskin was all she'd say. Los Angels (POP) was a totally corrupt city anyway.

Looking at Hunter's films for 1965-66 I can't imagine which film Nichols might have been interested in or considered for:

Madame X with Lana Turner The Art of Love with James Garner & Dick Van Dyke - a Norman Jewison film MAYBE The Pad and How to Use It - with Brian Bedford based on a one act play by Peter Schaffer.....

I am intrigued.....also I would also have ripped all the bows of Doris' dress if it was Send Me No Flowers.

of = off

I think it's absolutely reasonable to be skeptical about Harris's take on Nichols's bisexuality. It deserves more than a lengthy footnote and the fact that Sawyer and the three Nichols children declined to be interviewed leaves a huge gap in the book regarding his personal life. Besides, Harris and hubby Tony Kushner had a professional and social relationship with Mike and Diane that make me question Harris and his objectivity in covering this sensitive topic.

Still, I agree that the book is chock full of interesting tidbits and I couldn't put it down. And I agree that Pictures at a Revolution is a wonderful book.

[quote]Harris and hubby Tony Kushner had a professional and social relationship with Mike and Diane that make me question Harris and his objectivity

R52 In the same way Nichols told Bernstein, regarding the making of "Heartburn", (paraphrasing) "Someone's going to make this movie. Wouldn't you prefer me, your friend, to do it instead of someone else?", Harris probably said, "Diane, someone's going to write this book...."

Some of Mike Nichols' movies in the 80s are like slightly better Nancy Meyers movies (HEARTBURN, WORKING GIRL, etc).

Reading the book made me want to give Heartburn another try. I had only seen it once, when it came out in 1986, and wasn’t impressed with it. I could only make it half an hour before I turned it off. There are people who think Heartburn was unfairly criticized by male critics. No, it’s just not a good movie.

HEARTBURN on second viewing last month did reveal a lot of weaknesses, but it was fun to watch the supporting cast made up of so many soon-to-be- famous actors: Joanna Gleason, Stockard Channing, Jeff Daniels, Mercedes Ruehl, an almost unrecognizable Catherine O'Hara—and Kevin Spacey as a tough guy robber.

Mandy Patinkin was fired from Heartburn after he gave Meryl Streep acting tips on the set

Yes, Nichols and his brother came on the ship to America alone. They were placed in the care of a steward .

They were remarkably lucky — because the father was from Russia they weren’t considered German citizens, so they were able to get papers more easily and escaped Germany when it was already too late for most Jews. Their mother was somehow able to come in 1940, which is even more unbelievable.

Nichols’ mother’s sister spent the whole of WWII being hidden in someone’s cabin, then came to America in 1946 and got hit and killed by a bus right after she arrived.

The quote about fuckability is:

[quote] Cher, at the time still a variety show star, was interested, but Nichols told her, “There are two kinds of girls in the world, the kind you want to fuck and the kind you don’t,” then explained that she was the former and the character was the latter.

I have this on hold as an ebook. Not buying that one but will read.

[quote]Mandy Patinkin was fired from Heartburn after he gave Meryl Streep acting tips on the set

My hero.

Just finished reading.

FABULOUS book

R14 I cackled when I read that line. CACKLED! But apparently Nichols held a grudge against Scott over that.

They really only hint at Nichols being gay and/or bisexual in two spots. Of course we would have wanted more dirt. Mark Harris must have been betweem a rock and hard place - so much access to so many, but also having his own relationship with Nichols and the story he was telling (since he's married to Kushner), so there was never going to be the discovery of some young twink telling all about their steamy affair.

Nichols seem to fall in love with people - Elaine May, Streep, Emma Thompson and Natalie Portman, to name a few women. I could see him being the same with Richard Avedon and perhaps other men in his life - that kind of love/crush where the lines between where you end and they begin get very blurry.

*seemed

Scott comes off very badly in this book, as does Walter Matthau, although he and Nichols seem to have reconciled over Matthau's deplorable behavior onstage in Odd Couple.

I am STILL laughing at "slap on your wig!"

I'm about halfway through the book (got it from the library's wait list) and am GLUED to it. The recounting of the "Nichols and May" history is terrific, and there's a GREAT chapter on the making of THE GRADUATE, with all kinds of interesting details, like how cinematographer Robert Surtees was able to get so many shoots through glass without any glare - and how the casting of Dustin Hoffman was "a doppelganger who solved the riddle of a character and a movie while at the same time inflaming every private insecurity Nichols had--about his personality, about his physical appearance, about his place in the world." And later: "It had not even occurred to him to examine the resonance of his decision to make a romantic comedy that culminated with the hero seeing his first love slip just out of his reach as he shouts, "Elaine! Elaine! Elaine!"

THE GRADUATE is one of my favorite films and I have probably seen it 20 times, but so help me God, I never made the connection between Elaine May and Elaine Robinson either!

Why did Diane Sawyer and the children not agree to be interviewed for the book?

A very good question, but a smart guess is that they want to keep his private life private. Haven't seen a single interview with Sawyer about Nichols after his death and never seen one with any of the children. Leaves an important gap in the book for me, especially about his rumored bisexuality.

And why didn't Whoopi cooperate?