Joan Kramer New York - In the company of legends

IN THE COMPANY OF LEGENDS

Joan Kramer and David Heeley

IN THE COMPANY OF LEGENDS

Copyright 2015 by Joan Kramer and David Heeley

FIRST EDITION

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Cover Design by Brian Whitehill
Interior Design by Mark Karis

Hardcover ISBN: 9780825307423

In memory of my parents, Eleanor Cohen Kramer and Milton S. Kramer, who believed that their daughter could accomplish anything.

JOAN KRAMER

To the television pioneers, who inspired me, and on whose shoulders we stand. And to all those from whom I learned along the way.

DAVID HEELEY

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

You dont spend fifty years of your life doing something you dont think highly of. Not if youre lucky, you dont. I have been able to spend fifty years of my life doing something I adored and was praised and paid. However, I did not endure fifty years of doing something stupid or dull for money. I did it because I loved it and honored it and knew its value. Joan and David are the only people Ive ever met who have memorialized this experience, who have told the stories of actors on as high a level as they deserve.

Heres a secret: People come up to an actor on the street and say, Thank you. They dont say that to their rabbis, their divorce lawyers or their neurosurgeons. They say it to actors because they are the ones who give them surcease from sorrow. I do not take lightly the compliment and I am thrilled when it happens gracefully. Joan and David have a body of work that is simplified down to the words, Thank you.

We walk around the world surrounded by loss, tragedy, anxiety, and stress. Then an actor makes you laugh or focuses you on some part of the human experience. Its known as a mitzvah. It is a gift that actors give and actors get. Joan and David are the only ones Ive ever met who understand that on the level it should be understood. So if they say theyre going to tell you some stories, pay attention.

RICHARD DREYFUSS

Beverly Sills on location in East Harlem for the Salsa! episode of Skyline with Beverly Sills . New York, 1979. Photograph by Brownie Harris.

CHAPTER ONE

Back Story

As with so many events in life, our meeting each other was a matter of chance. The fact that we then began working together was the luck of the draw.

JK David and I come from two different worlds, an ocean apart. I was a ballet dancer and assistant choreographer before starting to work in television production. From the age of seven I mingled with people from the worlds of music, dance, opera, and art, and always felt comfortable talking to anyone of any age. Part of that is due to the fact that I was an only child who was never asked to leave the room when my grandmothers and their siblings were talking. I was just part of the family discussions.

Born and raised in Chicago, I knew early on that I wanted to be a ballet dancer. But I eventually discovered that I preferred working behind-the-scenes instead of in front of the curtain, finding it more satisfying to help put the pieces together for a production than to actually perform in it.

After graduating from high school, I moved to New York to pursue a career in ballet. Within a few years, I was hired as the assistant to a choreographer, traveling to Philadelphia and San Francisco, dealing with contracts, rehearsal schedules, costume fittings, and stage props. It would all come in handy a few years later when I switched careers.

Today, getting a start in television or film seems a lot more complicated than the way I began. As a matter of fact, I was just plain lucky.

Id had a disagreement with the choreographer for whom Id been working. It happened to be when The Mary Tyler Moore Show was at the height of its popularity, and that series made an indelible impression on me, since Marys character was a single career woman, working in the traditionally male business of television news. I thought, I could do a job like hers. Its just an extension of what Ive been doing all along.

I called all three major television networks in New York, asking, Do you have any production jobs available? CBS and NBC said all their programs were produced in California. ABC told me basically the same thing, but then added, We do have one show thats done in New York, The Dick Cavett Show , and its produced for ABC by Cavetts own company, Daphne Productions . Try calling their office. Heres the number.

Cavetts secretary at the time, Doris Mikesell, was the entire personnel department, and when I was put through to her line and heard, Mr. Cavetts office, I thought, Why am I talking to the hosts assistant?

My first words were a textbook example of what not to say. You dont have any job openings, do you? I asked.

As a matter of fact, I do, said Doris. Im going on vacation at the end of next week and I need to hire a receptionist before I leave. When can you come in for an interview?

Then, as if my opening line was not bad enough, I said, What kind of receptionist? If its working a switchboard, I dont know how to do that.

No one who has ever come to work here knew how to work our old-fashioned board, but it doesnt take long to learn. So please, come in to see me on Monday.

It was as though no blunders were enough to prevent me from getting that job. I met Doris just before Christmas, and began working the first week of the new year.

The switchboard was indeed a challenge that took me some time to master and, along the way, I accidently disconnected a few very important people, including Dick Cavett, himself. Fortunately for meand everyone else who called that officeI was promoted to the position of assistant talent coordinator three months later.

It was the mid-seventies, and the Cavett Show was not just an entertainment talk show; it was a reflection of the times. More than once we had bomb scares and had to evacuate the office or the studio, usually because of controversial guests, such as Angela Davis and Philip Berrigan. Often thered be lines stretching around the block when a big star was due to appear: Bette Davis, Anthony Quinn, Paul Newman, and Joanne Woodward, Rudolf Nureyev, the Muppets, Paul Simon, Ethel Merman, Lily Tomlin, the Harlem Globetrotters, to name just a few.

It was there that I earned a reputation for booking people who were hard to get. I rarely called their agents; instead I found ways to track them down and reach them directly.

DH To this day, Joans contact book is probably worth a fortune. Shes a phone person. Im not. She can find almost anyones home number and schmooze with them. More often than not, by the end of the conversation, she has gained their trust and co-operation for the project were working on at the time. I use the telephone as a practical necessity instead of a tool for visiting with people. So my calls are usually short and to the point.

JK Ive also always been a perfectionist, even as a child. I can glom on to one tiny thing and spend hours or days fiddling with it in order to make it better. I know there are times when David feels Im actually making it worse; more than once hes told me, Youve thrown out the baby with the bath water. But he, too, is no slouch when it comes to perfectionism. Fortunately for both of us, we usually dont obsess over the same things.

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