TV Radio Mirror (Jan - Jun 1963)

Record Details:

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continued the Canadian Expeditionary Force supporting the White Russians against the Bolsheviks, after the Armistice. "Everyone forgot about us," he recalls. "We were rotting." There was no U.S.O., no Bob Hope, no visiting entertainers. The commanding general— having heard that Massey had put on a skit on the boat coming over ("I liked to show off," Massey admits) — called in the young lieutenant and snapped, "I want you to put on a show for the troops in two weeks. That's an order!" And, two weeks later to the day, Canadian, American, English, Japanese and Czech soldiers packed the officers' ness hall to see the minstrel show Massey had assembled. "There were songs, tap dances and skits. Lots of corn, and all pretty raw. The language barrier didn't matter. Most of what we did was visual, and dirty jokes are the same in any language." Raw — crude — dirty: It didn't matter. The soldiers, starved for entertainment, gorged themselves and then yelled for more. "The bug really bit ne then," Massey confesses. And. this time, he never really recovered. But his father also saw ghosts on the itage — most unwelcome ones! "We were very Methodist and my uncle was a bishop." Ray says. His father was haunted by the firm belief that there was something irreligious about actors and acting, but finally gave his reluctant consent — so long as Ray "didn't rehearse on the Sabbath." Massey's romantic ideas about show business were soon shattered. He went to England and applied for work at twenty-eight stage doors, and twentyeight stage doors were slammed shut in his face. Then stage door twentynine opened for him. The play was Eugene O'Neill's "In the Zone," and Massey's American accent made him a natural. There followed ten years of steady theatrical employment as actor, director and manager. All the ghosts seemed laid to rest — particularly, on that night in 1924 when he opened in the world premiere of George Bernard Shaw's "Saint Joan." As he took curtain call after curtain call, there in the audience — applauding along with the others — was his father! It was playwright Robert Sherwood who introduced Ray to his longest-lived ghost when he brought him to Broadday for the title role of his play, "Abe Lincoln in Illinois." As one writer recorded it, "Raymond Massey took the face of Lincoln off the penny and put it into the hearts of millions of Americans." He played the Lincoln role on Broadway for two seasons, starred in the national tour and repeated the part in the film version. From then on, millions of people were sure that Raymond Massey was Abraham Lincoln. He couldn't order a drink in a bar without inviting a superpatriotic admonition that "Lincoln wouldn't do that." He couldn't walk down the street without someone coming up to him and saying, "Stay away from Ford's Theater." or "Don't sit in a box tonight!" i-o The question now became: What will they let you do, after the public insists you're Abe Lincoln? Or, as Massey himself said some years back, "Once you've trod the boards in Lincoln's shoes, you cannot abdicate so easily." Massey could joke about his identification with Lincoln, he could try to walk away from the image the public had of him as Lincoln, but the shadow of Lincoln stuck close to his heels. Oh, he worked all right, but the ghost of Honest Abe diminished the number — and the importance — of the roles he was called upon to play. The low point in Massey's career came about four or five years ago. "That's when there were more dull patches than bright spots," he confesses. "Life is like a fever chart, and the reading on mine was subnormal. Every actor, no matter how old he is, is convinced that his present job will be his last one. But I was sure of it. My age made me difficult to cast — it's a myth that there are lots of juicy roles for older men. Besides, they had to pay me more." But the fever chart was rising again — he was in constant demand for TV guest shots — when Norman Felton, executive producer, and David Victor, producer, of "Dr. Kildare," contacted him and offered him the role of Leonard Gillespie, senior staff physician of Blair General Hospital. He wasn't sure that he should accept: He'd have to make the public forget Lionel Barrymore, who had played the same part in thirteen "Kildare" movies; he'd have to breathe new life into the stereotyped role of the gruff old doctor; he'd have to cut out almost all other work. But the factors that finally made him say "yes" were his realization that "you don't get many chances to do nice, intelligently conceived characters at my age" and his delight over working with Dick Chamberlain again: "I'd done a Hitchcock with Dick and was very impressed." Impressed by Dick's ability as a performer, impressed by the fact that Dick wasn't a method actor. "Give me someone I can play scenes with!" After accepting the part, he still had a problem. "I needed some basis for the character I was to play," Massey says, "some pattern that would give Gillespie constancy and continuity. A model, if you will. So I looked into my own life and discovered one." His model was a woman, Dr. Sara Jordan of the Lahey Clinic in Boston, whom he'd consulted when he suffered from gall-bladder trouble in the '30s. "When they wheeled me into that xray room in Boston, I was scared. There I was, upside down in a vague red darkness, wondering if they'd catch me if I jumped up and bolted down the hall, when suddenly this beautifullydressed queen wearing big rubber gloves came in and smiled at me. A delicate, gray-haired queen with a reassuring smile. That was Dr. Jordan. "Yes, Sara's been quite an inspiration to me, though her death was tragic. She diagnosed herself too late. Cancer. She was just too busy taking care of and healing others." The other inspiration in Massey's life is his wife for the past twenty-three years, Dorothy Ludington Whitney Massey, a former corporation lawyer. (He was previously married to Peggy Fremantle and to English actress Adrianne Allen, and he is the father of two sons and one daughter.) "My wife knows more about my business than I do. She's the smartest woman in the world, and that makes her the smartest human being in the world. All women are smarter than men. "How is she smart? Well, she was smart enough to ask me to get her some chicken at a cocktail party — that's when we first met. 'Are you going to come back?' she asked me. 'Yes,' I answered. I guess the fact that I did bring it back sort of helped our romance." On the set, Ray does some haunting of his own — as a practical joker. In one scene, Dick Chamberlain was seen in a showdown confrontation with veteran actor George Voskovec. As Massey explains it, "I had just done a little bit of Lincoln in MGM's 'How the West Was Won' and had come over to the 'Kildare' set while Dick and George were playing their big, four-and-a-half minute scene. "I ducked in back of some scenery and then, just as Dick and George were going at it hot and heavy, I entered the back of the lab and walked slowly towards them — or, rather, Abe (I had on my Lincoln wig and full makeup) walked towards them. "Voskovec looked up, saw me, but didn't bat an eye. And he didn't drop a line. But Dick thought he'd seen a ghost and blew higher than a kite!" Jokes or no jokes, patience or no patience, smile or no smile, Massey will continue to be identified with the parts he plays. That's the penalty he pays for never giving a bad performance. So long as Dr. Gillespie keeps operating on the TV screen, people will be coming up to Raymond Massey on the street and begging him, "Doctor, I know you can help me — even if those other doctors have the nerve to tell me nothing's wrong!" It's long been said that the surest best-seller in the world would be titled "Lincoln's Doctor's Dog," because people worship Lincoln, idolize doctors and love dogs. Well, Ray has played both Lincoln and Dr. Gillespie and — since he couldn't be bad if he tried — he could undoubtedly play a dog so convincingly that people would stop on the street to pat his head and give him a biscuit! One indication of what could happen has already taken nlace in Hollywood. In "Dr. Kildare," Massey keeps a photo of his wife and dog on his desk. And recently, when the actor was taking the dog for a walk, a woman ran up, knelt down and oohed, "Why . . . why . . . you're Dr. Gillespie's dog!" Then, looking up at the tall-tall man who hovered over them, she squealed, "And you must be Dr. Gillespiel" — Jae Lyle "Dr. Kildare" is seen over NBC-TV, Thurs.. from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m.. est.