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November 15, 1950
RCA GIVES RADIO, THEATRE TRADE THE HORSELAUGH OVER "MADAM"
by Robert D. Heinl
When the word seeped through the theatrical district that the Radio Corporation was going to stick its neck out as the $200,000 angel for a Broadway musical play "Call Me Madam", there was utter amazement. This quickly gave way to raucous laughter when it was learned that the purpose of the venture was to secure the radio, television and album recording rights. Well, those might be the most expensive rights the RCA ever secured.
To begin with, who could tell despite the fact that it was one of the most brilliant production staffs ever assembled, that it might not be a flop* "Too many cooks." And exactly that thing nearly happened. In the beginning the people so famous for past performances fairly outdid themselves in the effort to silence the critics.
Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse had a terrible time with the book. Irving Berlin, never satisfied, wrote and rewrote the music and lyrics, lost 5 pounds and had to go to a hospital to rest up.
Ethel Merman had the disappointment of her life when she learned that the State Department had become fussy and refused to allow Mrs. Perle Mesta, American Minister to Luxembourg, whose career had inspired the musical, to attend the opening performance. The Department’s attitude was that this would not be a dignified thing for her to do. This xtfas quite a blow because, though Mrs. Mesta had been in Washington a few months before, she had made a special trip back to attend the premiere.
This situation was happily cleared up at a later perform¬ ance when Mrs. Mesta not only attended but brought Mrs. Truman and Margaret with her.
Added to the birthpains of the new play, those who thought it was going to flop said, was the effort of such an amateur in the show business as the RCA in trying to put it on. They neglected to recall the fact that John Royal, now NBC vice president, and Frank M. Folsom, now President of RCA, who began his climb to high places by working backstage in his hometown of Portland, Ore., theatre, were again behind the scenes.
Skeptics, however, were thrown back on their heels by "Madam's" $1,000,000 advance sale, a new mark for the theatrical world to shoot at.
And then came the show itself with such press notices as this one In Variety :
"With its record-breaking advance sale of over $1,000,000 (without theatre parties), ®Call Me Madam' was an almost certain boxoffice success even before the opening. But on the strength of a^ heroic job of tryout doctoring by composer Irving Berlin, librettists Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse and stager George Abbott, and with
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