WEBVTT - Elaine Stritch 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:05.760 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing. 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:14.960 Actress Elaine Stritch has been performing for nearly seventy years. 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:18.640 No matter the medium, she brings her characters to life 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:23.040 with a playful ferocity that naturally leads to scene stealing performances. 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:27.600 Despite her enviable career in film and television, Elaine Stritch 0:00:27.680 --> 0:00:31.040 is a self professed Broadway baby. A big break came 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:34.280 in nineteen fifty when she was hired to understudy ethel 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:38.240 Merman in Irving Berlin's musical Call Me Madam. She scared 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:41.080 me to death. She's a tough When I got to 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:46.720 the end of Call Me Madam, it was mine. It 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:54.600 is not so surprising that you feel very strange. Elaine 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:57.959 Stritch remained on stage for much of the fifties and sixties, 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:01.360 playing such iconic roles is Martha and Who's Afraid of 0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:05.120 Virginia Woolf both Vera and Mame in the musical Mame 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:09.760 and Amanda in Private Lives by Noel Coward. In venties, 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:12.440 she originated what was arguably the role of her career, 0:01:12.800 --> 0:01:17.240 the acerbic Joanne in Stephen Sondheim's Company and Here's to 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:22.480 the Girl who Just Watch Aren't the Best? In a 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:26.240 TV documentary about the cast recording of that production, we 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:30.679 meet Elaine's toughest critic, herself. Here she is listening to 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:33.960 a take of that song she made famous, Ladies Who 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:46.160 Lunch Rong, And of course I'm smoking a nice cigarette 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:52.800 which helps the situation. Yeah, just to be clear, that's 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:55.960 Elaine yelling at the sound of her own voice. That 0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:59.560 was over forty years ago. But Elaine Stritch has continued 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:04.360 to hold herself to impossibly high standards, and she stayed busy, 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:08.680 at least until recently. Earlier this year, she announced that 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:11.440 she was leaving New York for her home state of Michigan. 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:16.680 In April, at Elaine Stritch performed her last cabaret show 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:22.280 at the Carlisle Hotel. About a month ago, I really said, 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:25.520 I'm I want out of here. I want out of 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:28.639 New York. I don't I shouldn't live in New York anymore. 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:32.680 It's not for me anymore. It's too fast for me. 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:35.720 Or no, it's not too fast. And I changed my 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:39.240 mind about that. It's not this. It's not that it's 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:42.880 just not for me. This is this is New York 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:48.760 Taxi low and it's dinner and tonight and tomorrow and 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:52.320 and I can't handle it anyway, because I'm not interested 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:54.880 in handling. You just don't want you could do it. 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:56.960 You just don't want to do it. Doesn't give me 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:00.840 any satisfaction. I don't go home and say, I guess 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:05.240 I told them so about a month ago. It had 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:07.720 been an idea, and then a month ago you went, 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:11.720 I'm doing it. I called up my nephew, who is 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:16.120 a great buddy of mine in Birmingham, Michigan, and I said, 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:18.880 I'm coming home. What do you think you're going to 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:22.720 do there? Oh, you have no idea. I'm just saying 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:26.600 a very active life. First of all, nothing. I'm really 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:30.240 going to do nothing. I'm gonna wake up and go 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:33.080 back to bed and go back to bed. That's exactly right. 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:35.960 I want to do it. I want to sleep a lot. 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:38.200 What's wrong with us? I would like to wake up 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:41.200 and have my oat meal and read the paper and 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:44.280 go right back to you, right back to be until 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:47.200 about noon. So you're gonna go there and do nothing? 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:54.320 And I like to go to dinner. I like to 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:59.080 meet my nieces, my nephew's, my cousin's, my you know 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:03.040 your relations there by way of who you're two sisters? 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:06.520 Your two sisters I had two sisters, were three sisters. 0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:12.760 I was the baby and they kids in bedroom Detroit. 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:14.960 You were in like what Bloomfield Hills or yeah, yeah, 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:17.800 yeah yeah your dad. But your dad was someone not 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:21.120 in the car business. Daddy was, well, yes he was. 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:24.960 He was the BF good ridch rubber. He was in 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:27.600 the time. My mother called it the g DBF good 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:31.760 Rich Rubber. You got it. What are your two sisters? 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:34.240 What kind of lives did they have? No show business? 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:41.200 Very very chic, very normal. Normal. Georgine had four kids 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:46.920 and Sally had three seven seven guys running around and 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:49.880 they're all crazy about me. Why shouldn't I go home? 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:54.240 There's nothing to tie me here. It's not the same 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:59.080 My career tied me here. I talk career, I talk 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:02.840 I part and play and plan and plan and make plan. 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:04.719 What am I doing next? What am I going next? 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:08.680 And when you get off that merry ground, it gets 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:11.760 you get a different stop. What to stop? It is 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:14.880 the merry go around broke down? Why do you say 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:20.960 that you could keep working but you don't want to? No, 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:23.680 I don't want to find parts and look for him, 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:28.480 and and and I said the other night, when is 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:34.920 pretend going to end? Right? Slowly but surely, alex Is 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:38.480 I'm starting to say I don't want to pretend anymore. 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:40.400 I want to get up in the morning and I 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:43.400 want it to be real. I don't want to I 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:46.640 can't believe you're saying this, because it's so I am. 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:50.080 It's so much. Maybe as a result of my getting older. 0:05:50.120 --> 0:05:53.120 I turned fifty a couple of weeks ago, and my 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:55.680 wife I got married again, and my wife we're having 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:58.640 a baby. And because of all this stuff, I realized 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:01.880 I want to be me for change. I want to 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:03.719 wake up and I want to say my words and 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:06.760 have my thought or not say anything. It's such a 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:11.320 self involvement. This, it is. It is. Why do you 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:14.800 think you've lasted this long? You know what talent is? 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:17.880 Why have you lasted all this time because you're talented? 0:06:18.120 --> 0:06:20.800 Certainly isn't because people think you're an easy time of it? 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:25.440 Because I have to accomplish something in that department almost 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:27.719 every day of my life. I have to You've never 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:31.920 stopped trying to prove yourself. That's the key, isn't it. No, 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:35.200 I got to go and do that part in that soap, 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:40.159 in that smoke, I don't care what it is. Or 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:43.960 I'm with an old coward on the West End, or 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:48.839 I'm with how Prince on Broadway. I'm with all the big, big, big, 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:53.400 big shots, and they're directing me well and guiding me well. 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:56.880 And I'm I'm. You would approve you belong there with them, yes, 0:06:56.960 --> 0:07:01.279 And I'm being directed in the way of the big shots, 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:05.920 and I'm doing fine. I'm doing fine. I'm I'm, I'm 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:08.680 doing fine. But you but there's a point, I'm assuming 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:10.640 when did you feel that you're in the room and 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:12.640 all of a sudden it's like, I don't need anybody's advice. 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:14.640 I know what I want to do. Here's what I do. 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:17.320 Was there a time you remember in your life when 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:24.360 that changed? I got self satisfied about the parts that 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:29.640 I played. For example, well, like I was the I 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:35.400 was the funny, kind of offbeat girl. I wasn't. I 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:39.760 was never the romantic lead. I wasn't good that kind 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:43.120 of looking girl in the movies. I couldn't be that 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:46.840 kind of looking girl I was. Well, you could, you 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:48.480 could have been look spised, but you just don't want 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:51.720 to play it becauseose we're dull parts. Well, yeah, they 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:55.280 weren't as good at parts, But I you're a sassier woman, 0:07:56.360 --> 0:07:59.680 and you played those parts. But I didn't want to 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:03.000 be eve Arden. I really didn't. Okay, Okay, that's a 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:05.960 good point. Why. Well, because I don't want to be 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:11.640 a funny girl that's just cracking wise cracks, or staying 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:15.480 up with the you know, with the rollers in her hair, 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:18.400 or driving the car while the two leaves make out 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:23.000 in the back of the car. You don't want to 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:26.120 be that. No, what did you? What did you? I 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:29.360 don't want them to make up in the right? What 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:32.120 did you sprinkle on top of what might have been 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:34.400 eve Arden for you, which it very easily could have been. 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:36.120 What did you sprinkle on top of that to make 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:37.800 sure that it wasn't eve Arden? What do you do 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:42.920 that Eve Arden didn't do. I get dramatic or frightened 0:08:43.240 --> 0:08:49.079 or reel about something or pain. Yeah, there's a pain. 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:54.440 It's not in Arden's work. Something dramatic happens to me 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:58.920 in the course of a comedy, right, I don't know. 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:03.120 But were always that way? What was I always? What way? 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:07.319 Complicating things with the pain of your existence? This thing 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:09.360 you tap into. Did you do when you were very young? 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:12.280 I think so. I think I did. Were you the 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:18.920 complicated one? Oh? I think so. I mean there's very 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:21.640 often I would hear around our house where is he lane? 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:26.160 And then my mother was and they say oh, and 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:29.840 I'd say right here. They were worried about you. Yeah, 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:33.640 everybody was worried about me, because when I wasn't accountable, 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:37.120 I was. I scared him and I didn't mean to. 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:40.720 When did performing begin? For he was a were performer 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:45.880 As a child, I was laughing. I was born laughing. 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:49.800 And you were funny. Oh god, I was funny. I 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:53.880 really was funny, and I made everybody laugh and I 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:57.720 wasn't conscious of it. I want to tell you something. 0:09:57.840 --> 0:10:02.240 I'd love to tell you a line from my life 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:06.360 to see if you get this, and I'm going to 0:10:06.520 --> 0:10:13.120 tell it to you. My mother and dad, as a 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:18.320 present to me when I was six years old, took 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:22.240 me to Niagara Falls, which was very close to Birmingham, Michigan. 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:26.440 And I kept hearing about this, and I was going 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:29.800 to wear my new pink coat and hat and I 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:33.960 was going to Niagara Falls. And I kept hearing it, 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:37.120 and you know Christmas morning, Christmas morning, whatever it was, 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:42.240 and and I never said a word. I just sat 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:47.160 in the backseat and I just waited. They pulled up 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:52.439 Alec to the parking lot in Niagara Falls, and here 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:56.200 we are. We're here, Landy, We're here, Come on, get out. 0:10:56.360 --> 0:10:58.680 And it was just me, Mom and dad. So the 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:01.760 two sisters, the old your sisters, you know, the hell 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:11.640 with them. And I got very teary eyed and pulled 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:17.720 my mother back from the car and said, Mama, what 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:22.440 what We're going to go see Niagara Fall? And I 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:28.880 asked her if Niagara Falls had a baby? And to 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:32.120 me and to my mother and my father, it was 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:36.640 one of the most extraordinary dramatic lines of all time. 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:42.679 All I was interested in is did this woman Niagara 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:48.199 Falls have a baby? Because then I could play with her. 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:53.600 And it was the I think, an absolute proof of 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:57.400 how lonely and sad I was as a kid. I 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:00.760 didn't know what the hell artistic was all out. I 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:05.280 really didn't. I knew I had to express myself. I 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:07.600 knew I had to express myself, and that's all there 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:10.640 was to it. So when you left Michigan, when you 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:13.040 left home, you lived at home in Michigan. Your family 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:15.079 lived in Michigan until you left home. Did you go 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:17.600 to college? No, I didn't go to college, which I 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:22.080 graduated from high school where Sacred Heart Convent. You went 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:25.040 to a convent. I went to a convent the soccerquer 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:30.840 highly educational, big scholastic, scooby doo. You went there for 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:34.280 what twelve years? That was your high school? When you 0:12:34.400 --> 0:12:39.080 left there? Where'd you go to Deshen Residents which was 0:12:39.240 --> 0:12:44.320 also the soccer cur but it was a residence finishing 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:49.600 school for what it was like, um after school stuff, 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:52.079 you know, Like I'm trying to think of one of 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:56.400 the courses that we took, current events, isn't that? I 0:12:56.480 --> 0:12:59.800 guess how long were you there? Uh? Two years? Two 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:02.800 years after and I went out and majored in dramatics 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:07.079 at the new school in Greenwich Village. The finishing school 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:09.720 was in the city when you were back in Michigan, 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:13.319 Greenwich Village. Slim in New York and you went to 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:17.600 finish your school in New York absolutely on ninety one 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:21.920 and fifth Avenue. Oh my god, yeah, and I uh, 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:25.280 I took these three courses at the school, which is fine. 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:29.679 I had a roommate from Chicago who was majoring in journalism, 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:33.560 and we were all very sophisticated broads. You went to 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:36.400 New School for drama. That was your first acting exposure. 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:39.800 What do you think about it when you first I 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:43.959 loved it. I sat next to Marlon Brando. That was 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:47.320 didn't hurt at all. I don't get you through class. Yeah, 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:51.120 Walter Mattha was on the other side of me at 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:55.440 the New School. Yeah, we had a very stellar cast. 0:13:56.559 --> 0:13:59.080 I was getting along fine and having the most fun 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:01.120 I've ever had in my what's the first job you 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:04.880 ever got? Well, first of all, I was at the 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:08.040 studio theater at the New School and we had our 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:14.360 own theater and Piscatter directed and Stella Adler directed, and 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:20.880 we had all those Stanislavski people. We had more fun, Alex. 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:25.080 You couldn't believe it. It was Stella like as a director, 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:32.480 heaven she was what made her so very insight, all 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:39.560 this kind of dramatics, you know, Laine and Malon and 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:45.840 Wolf and you do it. She screamed her head off 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:52.200 at us. She was crazy woman, absolutely divine. And when 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:54.760 you left that program, what was your first job? Job? 0:14:55.440 --> 0:15:01.360 Summer stock, Westport, Connecticut, Do you remember what you did? Yeah, um, 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:07.040 Craig's wife. I think I did. And people let me say, 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:09.240 years ago, they go, what show did you too? And 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:10.840 your name a show people have just never heard of. 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:15.720 They go, Craig Craig's wife, would you play the saucy nurse? 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:19.400 Would you play? I played the aunt, the ant that 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:22.840 visited and told craig wife she was full of ship. 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:24.960 You started as an aunt, and you're going to finish 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:27.120 as an ant. That you're going Now you're an aunt. 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:29.240 That's your next that's your that's your role. Now you're 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:32.360 an aunt. They're not allowed to call me in because 0:15:32.400 --> 0:15:36.080 it's so boring. They call me Toddlane because my mother 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:39.080 is French. I think they were going to call you 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:43.400 lady stretch. I would have them call you her highness. 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:49.120 But I just had the most wonderful time in dramatic school. 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:52.200 And then what about your first job, Douglas? I did 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:57.760 my first play with Kirk Douglas Craig's Um. Wait a minute, 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:01.720 wait a minute, I'll tell you in a minute. You 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:04.160 and Kirk Douglas, you're on a stage in New York. 0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:11.160 And also, where is my black bag? Alec Hunter? I 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:15.400 need I need orange juice. Hunter, come in place. Can 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:19.080 we send Hunter in here plays with the provisions. Hunter 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:22.960 Ryan Herdlika, who accompanied Elaine to the studio, came through 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:27.960 the door juice in hand. I need some orange juice. 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:33.000 Beanies is kicking up, Hunter, My good man, hunters here. 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:39.560 All's right with the world. Okay, Well, how about a glass. Yes, 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:43.280 that's a clean water. We'll get him a clean we'll go, 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:45.280 We'll go get a clean all right, it's all right 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:48.960 if you just empty that glass, it's heaven. I need 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:52.320 some orange juice. You know that I'm diabetic. Yes, of 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:54.640 course I need. The world knows by now, the world. 0:16:56.320 --> 0:17:00.600 It's okay. You know what I cooded other day. The 0:17:00.760 --> 0:17:04.480 line of my father's it really is so naughty and 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:08.040 just so much fun. Here's looking up your old address. 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:12.359 Isn't it a great line? And he said it with 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:16.479 no he used that was it. That's right? All right, 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:18.359 I'm going to drink this being the oranges now, so 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:22.800 we don't have some event here. That's cool, okay, alright, 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:25.400 So now that you've had your orange juice and your 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:28.840 brain freezes over, Kirk Douglas, what was the show? Do 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:34.919 you remember? Now? Woman bites dog that orange juice it's 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:37.440 a miracle. Elck, sir, I want to be a case 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:41.960 of that orange juice. It's dog, woman bites dog. What 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:44.680 did you play in that? If you say his girlfriend 0:17:44.800 --> 0:17:48.439 but he lived with I didn't even know what that 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:52.600 phrase meant. You were a floozy? Well, no, I wasn't. 0:17:52.960 --> 0:17:55.760 I just but I lived with him and I wasn't 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:58.480 married to him. I didn't know what that meant. What 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:01.440 do you remember about Kirk Douglas. Oh my god, I 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:05.439 loved him, Oh god, I loved him. And what an actor. 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:09.240 And he's one of the few men who was as 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:12.760 great an actor as he was a star. He was 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:15.040 a great actor. He was a great actor. He was 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:17.920 a great actor. I loved him, and he loved me. 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:22.399 He flipped over me. I've known him for years, and 0:18:22.480 --> 0:18:25.760 he took me halfway away for the weekend, and then 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:30.520 I discovered that I shouldn't go. He took you half 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:32.960 way away to Palm Springs and then I said I 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:38.600 shouldn't be going. So what did you hit like? I 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:43.040 don't know. We were halfway to Palm Beach, Palm Springs things. 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:47.360 So you're driving east, we were driving for the weekend, 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:50.200 and you decide you didn't want to. Well, I said, 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:53.359 I'm getting nervous, because what do you want me to 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:58.120 do when we get up here? Oh, Elaine? He knew 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:00.680 I was a virgin, so he was ing with that. 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:04.400 So what was the first leading role you had on Broadway? 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:08.359 Big roll? Take more orangs you so you can remember 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:19.439 the big part, big big part I had was Angel 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:22.600 the Wings, which was a review, hardest thing in the 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:26.440 world to do a review, and that kind of review, 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:31.400 like New Faces, was like Leonard Sulman's sketches, And I 0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:35.960 was the big busted you know, girl in the in 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:40.240 the bedroom. I was the I was the piece on 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:44.040 the side. Yeah, where are you? Isn't amazing you with 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:47.280 this virginal You went to suck or cur and you 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:50.440 went to finishing school, and as soon as you're out, 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:54.160 God is just tempting you. He's taking Marlon Brando on 0:19:54.160 --> 0:19:56.719 one side of you, and Kirk Douglas is reven up 0:19:56.720 --> 0:19:59.520 the convertable to take you to Palm Springs, and you're 0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:01.800 the flu he here and the piece on the side, 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:05.320 the bust defend the towel. But what I was really 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:11.480 doing is learning my lines to the play or to 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:17.640 the television or to the I was really loving acting. 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:22.680 I loved it. I loved pretending. I just loved it. 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:28.360 Was being somebody other than I was was my idea 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:30.879 of a good time? Was part of that process for you? 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:33.199 Learning from people you work with, it you admire. Did 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:35.560 you look at other people and say, because I've had that, 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:37.639 I mean, I'm not going to say I had it 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:40.119 well like Merman? When you worked with Merman, did you 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:42.800 learn from Merman? Did you did you know you didn't? 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:47.320 I did her part right. I did her There's no 0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:54.680 question everybody loved everybody, but I know how to do that. 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:59.439 And I was so frightened and so terrified, and I 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:02.399 was so good in it. Did you feel that she 0:21:02.520 --> 0:21:05.199 was of that type where just Mermin as Mermaid, she 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:08.399 goes out into stuff. She made, you know so long. 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:12.000 She'd say goodbye to me from the wings on my 0:21:12.160 --> 0:21:14.560 opening night and then go sit in the first row. 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:19.480 She scared me to death. When I got to the 0:21:19.600 --> 0:21:23.880 end of call Me Madam, it was mine? You felt that? Well? 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:29.080 When do you think you became you? The moment I 0:21:29.160 --> 0:21:33.880 started to rehearse Mermaid's part, I was doing the new Mermaid, 0:21:34.040 --> 0:21:39.440 the new everything. That's when you became you. So doing 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:42.800 the piece doing Call Me Madam is when you felt 0:21:42.800 --> 0:21:46.040 things changed for you, You felt you were You're not 0:21:46.080 --> 0:21:51.919 necessarily now everything I did, everything I did was you know. 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:58.280 But when you do a show Elaine Stretch at Liberty, 0:21:58.640 --> 0:22:01.199 when you do a show that as a memoir of 0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:06.200 your career, oh yeah, and it is enormously successful, When 0:22:06.240 --> 0:22:08.440 did you think in your life, when did you reach 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:10.919 a point in your life that you felt you were 0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:13.760 someone who could write a memoir about your life, that 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:16.240 you thought it was interesting enough. When did you cross 0:22:16.280 --> 0:22:19.880 the line and say, yeah, I was convinced by this 0:22:19.960 --> 0:22:24.600 producer who said, who saw me perform at a Judy 0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:29.919 Garland special at Carnegie Hall? And what I did was 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:33.119 tells Judy Garland stories And I told her was a 0:22:33.240 --> 0:22:39.600 tribute to Judy. She's gone by this, yeah, and oh boy, 0:22:39.880 --> 0:22:42.600 I really did know her very well. From where did 0:22:42.600 --> 0:22:46.840 you first meet her? Party? At a party someplace I 0:22:46.880 --> 0:22:51.440 don't know. And I loved her. So when I tried 0:22:51.520 --> 0:22:54.280 out one of my stories on Judy Garland, I mean 0:22:54.400 --> 0:22:58.000 she tried out one of hers, I said, Judy, I've 0:22:58.040 --> 0:23:01.120 got an idea, and I sincerely did. I said, I've 0:23:01.160 --> 0:23:08.800 got a great idea. Why don't we tour Maime, I 0:23:08.880 --> 0:23:14.040 said to Judy Ghan and she SAIDs divine. She said 0:23:14.080 --> 0:23:19.359 that sounds great. I said, but here's the good idea, Judy. 0:23:20.640 --> 0:23:26.560 When I do meme, I go to bed early, and 0:23:26.600 --> 0:23:29.880 when you do me, you go to bed early, and 0:23:29.920 --> 0:23:35.240 then the other one does vera. She wan to switch 0:23:35.320 --> 0:23:39.960 on and off. She bought that idea. She's listening now 0:23:40.320 --> 0:23:47.320 and she's saying okay, okay, okay, and she's counting up 0:23:47.320 --> 0:23:52.359 the songs, what songs she has? What you know? And 0:23:52.440 --> 0:23:54.840 after this long pause she looks at me and said, 0:23:55.119 --> 0:23:59.800 what about Matteni's And I thought it was one of 0:23:59.840 --> 0:24:02.480 the on these things I ever heard in my whole life. 0:24:03.400 --> 0:24:08.000 That Judy Garland wanted to know what about mannis? That's 0:24:08.040 --> 0:24:12.840 how she carefully. She wanted her her career planned so 0:24:12.920 --> 0:24:16.119 she could be able to get loaded when she wanted to. 0:24:16.359 --> 0:24:20.760 And you know it was her way of treating a 0:24:20.920 --> 0:24:23.680 very serious discuss. So you did a tribute thing where 0:24:23.720 --> 0:24:27.040 you told stories about her. And that's when someone pitched 0:24:27.040 --> 0:24:29.439 the idea to you of doing a memoir of your career. 0:24:29.600 --> 0:24:33.040 That's right, what vaguely said, you tell a story to 0:24:33.119 --> 0:24:35.480 an audience the like of which I have never heard. 0:24:35.640 --> 0:24:38.520 That's true. I was that the opening night at the Public, 0:24:38.520 --> 0:24:41.520 when that Liberty opened at the Public, and everyone who 0:24:41.640 --> 0:24:44.000 was had a pulse in New York. Everyone who was 0:24:44.040 --> 0:24:46.520 alive that night came to that opening at the Public. 0:24:46.880 --> 0:24:50.159 Everybody in the theater came. They went crazy, They went crazy. 0:24:50.440 --> 0:24:54.720 It's lovely, God, it's lovely. Success is lovely. It's so hard, 0:24:54.840 --> 0:24:58.800 and it's such hard work, but it's so gratifying. What's 0:24:58.840 --> 0:25:00.440 the hardest thing about it for you? What's been the 0:25:00.480 --> 0:25:04.639 hardest thing? Do you find it hard to fear? The 0:25:04.680 --> 0:25:06.320 fear of what that you won't be able to perform, 0:25:06.400 --> 0:25:09.240 the fear that I'm just going to forget and I'm 0:25:09.280 --> 0:25:13.439 gonna not not so much forget. But it's the fear. 0:25:13.720 --> 0:25:17.600 It's the fear. And that was when I was not 0:25:17.680 --> 0:25:21.359 drinking at all, and I didn't drink anything to get 0:25:21.400 --> 0:25:25.159 my talent out, but all my life I had. Have 0:25:25.280 --> 0:25:28.160 you ever done a show, I'm sure you've done countless shows. 0:25:28.200 --> 0:25:30.040 You ever done a show where you're sitting backstage thinking 0:25:30.080 --> 0:25:32.399 what am I doing here? How did I get myself 0:25:32.400 --> 0:25:34.800 into this? Or were you always engaged by what you 0:25:34.840 --> 0:25:39.560 were doing. I was always engaged always. You never took 0:25:39.680 --> 0:25:42.919 I was leading up to it or coming down, you know, 0:25:43.000 --> 0:25:46.720 I I was trying to get it behind. You never 0:25:46.720 --> 0:25:52.199 regretted doing anything? Never? No, Wow, that's incredible. No, I 0:25:52.280 --> 0:25:56.840 never never regretted doing anything on the stage. You never 0:25:58.000 --> 0:26:01.480 How was that possible? Because I just one every time 0:26:01.520 --> 0:26:05.560 I walked out there, you know, that old expression of 0:26:05.600 --> 0:26:13.240 that I own the stage. Elaine Stritch has never regretted 0:26:13.280 --> 0:26:16.080 anything she's done on stage, but there are many who 0:26:16.080 --> 0:26:19.760 regret not seeing her one woman show, Elaine Stretch at 0:26:19.800 --> 0:26:23.960 Liberty on Broadway in two thousand two. News Week called 0:26:23.960 --> 0:26:28.280 it abiding hilarious, even touching tour de force tour of 0:26:28.320 --> 0:26:32.119 Stritch's career and life. In a minute, Stretch tells me 0:26:32.200 --> 0:26:35.120