Macauley John C Wilson - Noel, Tallulah, Cole and Me A Memoir of Broadways Golden Age

Noel, Tallulah, Cole, and Me

Noel, Tallulah, Cole, and Me

A Memoir of Broadways Golden Age

John C. Wilson with Thomas S. Hischak and Jack Macauley

Rowman & Littlefield

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wilson, John C., approximately 18991961.

Noel, Tallulah, Cole, and me : a memoir of Broadways golden age / John C. Wilson ; with Thomas S. Hischak and Jack Macauley.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4422-5572-2 (hardback : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4422-5573-9 (ebook) 1. Wilson, John C., approximately 18991961. 2. Theatrical producers and directorsNew York (State)New YorkBiography. I. Hischak, Thomas S., editor. II. Macauley, Jack. III. Title.

PN2287.W485A3 2015

792.02'32092dc23

[B]

2015018414

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

To my wife

and

to Noel Coward,

who not only instigated, but also shaped and guided

my theatrical career for many years

Preface

We were always in the first or second row, peering down at the orchestra, close enough to smell the greasepaint. There were such hits as Camelot , Gypsy , and Bye, Bye Birdie , and they were tough tickets to getbut not for us. It was as if we knew Robert Goulet or Ethel Merman personally. Thats what I remember about attending my first Broadway shows in the late 1950s and early 1960s with my parents.

The reason we had those great seats was because Moms unclemy great-unclewas Broadway producer and director John C. Jack Wilson. Neither Gypsy nor Camelot were his shows, but that didnt matter. Landing front-row seats from Uncle Jack was never an issue. It seemed he knew everyone who had anything to do with Broadway and that everyone knew him. For me, that experience proved short-lived. Uncle Jack died in 1961, at the age of sixty-two. I was nine.

Thanks to his long-standing business and personal relationship with Noel Coward and Uncle Jacks major hits, including Kiss Me, Kate and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes , he really did know just about every famous actor, producer, director, playwright, composer, lyricist, and set and costume designer during Broadways golden age. The modern-day equivalentin 2015of a typical weekend gathering at Jack and Aunt Natashas Connecticut estate would be an invitation to join George Clooney, Taylor Swift, Bradley Cooper, Tory Burch, and Lady Gaga for cocktailsand having them all actually show up (refer to appendix B and youll see what I mean). And did I mention that Jacks wife Natasha was first cousin to the last czar of Russiaa bona fide Romanovand a Vogue model?

The original manuscript for this book was an autobiography completed by Jack Wilson in 1958, near the end of his career. For nearly fifty years, it sat gathering dust in my mothers closet, along with other amazing memorabilia from his career, and then it arrived at my house after my mother passed away a few years ago. The question for me was whether to bring this work to life. I knew next to nothing about publishing a book and little about theater. We had heard the family stories about him for yearsmost of them more than oncebut would anyone else be interested?

As I thought about this, I recalled one evening in the mid-1990s, when my wife Molly and I met Carol Channing at Radio City Music Hall in New York. We were attending a Liza Minnelli concert, and there was Miss Channing seated a couple of rows away. At intermission I approached her and introduced myself as Jack Wilsons great-nephew. Amazingly, she knew everyone on the Wilson side of my family by name and credited Uncle Jack with having launched her career when she was cast in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes .

I was also aware of Uncle Jacks influence at the Westport Country Playhouse, still active today in Connecticut. Wilson had been a pioneer at Westport, bringing big-name stars to summer stock and running a highly successful internship program, which provided its own launchpad for hundreds of teenagers interested in theatrical careers. But despite his professional accomplishments, the public record on Uncle Jacks influence was limited.

Throughout the years there have been numerous books, films, and television programs about Jack Wilsons close friends Noel Coward and Cole Porter, their star power and lifestyles. Most of these only mention Wilson in passingsometimes with inaccuracy. Yet, I know from Jacks original correspondence, scrapbooks, and documents, which few have seen, he had an important, positive impact on the lives of such figures as Coward and Porter, as well as the lives of so many others. Why this discrepancy? Because Jack Wilson wasnt around for authors or screenwriters to interview. He never got to tell his story. The story was sitting in Moms closet.

My colleague in this effort, Professor Thomas S. Hischak, explains in his introduction how we decided to respect Wilsons original draft and approach this fascinating project. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as we were excited to work on it.

In addition to Tom Hischak, who is an unbelievable resource on the history of theater and a joy to work with, I would like to thank the individuals who inspired and supported me during the early days of this project, especially Amber Edwards, Hank Scherer, David Charles Abell, Phil Furia, Robert Kimball, and, at Yale, Suzanne Lovejoy and Melissa Barton. For providing additional family facts and memories of their Uncle Jack, special thanks go to Theodore W. Cart and Jim Wilson. At home, thank you Molly for your love and never-ending support. I dedicate having this work come alive to the life of Jack Wilson and the memory of my mother, Barbara Cart Macauley.

Jack Macauley

Acknowledgments

Unless otherwise noted, photographs appearing in this book are part of the John C. Wilson Archive, the entirety of which has remained in John C. Wilsons family since the death of Natalie Paley Wilson in December 1981. The family reserves all rights for any further use of these photographs. The editors wish to thank Photographic Solutions, LLC, in Norwalk, Connecticut, for its highly professional restoration and copying of these photos, some of which were more than 100 years old at the time of publication.

Introduction

John C. Wilson is... a man with his head in the clouds and his feet planted squarely in the box office.

Noel Coward

I was aware of John C. Wilson as just a name in a lot of theater books, the producer and/or director of many plays by Noel Coward and others, and the man who staged the original Broadway productions of Kiss Me, Kate and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes . Aside from the fact that he worked with most of the top playwrights, performers, and other artists during a golden era of the American and British theater, I knew little else about him. In the summer of 2013, Wilsons grand-nephew, Jack Macauley (no relation to the hoofer Jack McCauley who appeared as Gus the Button King in the original Gentlemen Prefer Blondes ), contacted me and said that he had inherited some family memorabilia, including an unpublished autobiography by Wilson, and was wondering if I would be interested in reading it. I immediately thought to myself, A memoir by a man who was the business manager and romantic partner of Noel Coward? A man who frequently worked with Katharine Cornell, Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Gertrude Lawrence, and others? A man who married a Russian princess and was part of Cole Porters international set? Certainly I would be interested in reading it!