can * nois * seur ( kan' us sur' ), n. one competent to render critical judgement on the qualities and merits of Cannabis.




Broadway and Beyond


A Passage To India was as English as high tea. In fact shortly after joining the cast i was invited to tea with some of the star actors including Eric Portman, Noel Davis and the Indian/British stars Zia Mohveddin and Saeed Jaffrey. There i learned some of the traditions of old school British theatre including the expression "corpse ". (An actor who forgot his lines was said to have "corpsed") Everything was extremely proper and Zia proved to be a most suave gent.
He mentioned he had "rented furniture" for his New york digs, a concept that had never occurred to me. They were all very polite which might sum up the general vibe of the show, being on one level, a drama of manners.
Both Eric Portman and Gladys Cooper had deep roots as stage and film stars which went back to the Golden Age of English Theatre with all its pomp and circumstance.


Meanwhile back on the Lower East Side we were living in a newly plastered and painted studio. After a week of rehearsal and anxious waiting to sign the contract which entitled me to that most precious Actors Equity card...it happened. i was officially a Broadway actor. But lest my tiny role inflate my ego all need do was go to the sidewalk in front of the Ambassador Theatre where my show was running--and look up.
For there, on the marquee of the theatre across the street, was Faye Dunaway, her name in lights. The Boston U student i had met some six months earlier was now a Broadway star. And Equity card or no, i was a contract extra.
Working in a play, doing 8 shows a week, one develops a nice routine. You don't have to check in until six, leaving a nice chunk of afternoon to visit museums, hang out in cafes, take a great New York walk, see a classic movie at the Thalia, get high.


Usually we would eat something at a burger joint across the street from the theatre then go in and start getting ready. In our case it required makeup and costume. Lots of make up, exotic costumes. i became quite adept at the art of tying a turban ( taught to me by Santha Rama Rau herself).
After the show we would have a late snack at either The Turf Deli uptown or Ratner's downtown.
Sometimes the great character actor Leonardo Cimino would join us at Ratner's and bequile us with theatre stories. On our way home we would pick up hot Bialys (the real deal) at a local Kosher bakery, get high, listen to music, sleep.
For the first time i had a proper pot connection...The Twins.


Double Trouble
I met Ann (1/2 of The Twins ) during a wild party at my Symphony Road flat in Boston. We got it on and Ann decided to hang out a few days before returning to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Ann was a free spirit and regaled us with tales of the "naked parties" they threw on campus. One fabled participant in these revelries was the famed Jazz drummer Omar Clay, who later played with Sarah Vaughn at the White House as well as Horace Silver, Mingus, Coltrane and many others. It was said that they would pass the chicks beneath him one after another during these sessions. Damn...talk about legendary.
Ann was the intellectual of the pair, her sister Betty was physical and confrontational. Both were intent on their mission, which was to have sex with every Jazz musician in New York, Paris and Stockholm. And by the time they were finished a good chunk of their work had been completed.
They were feisty Jewish girls from New Jersey and totally into the Black/Bop scene from language to lifestyle. These same values were seeping into other areas of American culture including the folk scene which was as white as a square dance.
The Twins liked their boo and were well placed to act as connections.
Being married and working 8 shows, my contact with the Twins was limited to Saturday nights. We would drop in, get high and listen to the latest Jazz records. The Twins were funny and lively and always had great gossip about their latest conquests among which were Charles Lloyd and Herbie Hancock.
My own experience with the Folk scene back in Boston stirred little interest but i too was heavily into Jazz, so i let it flow. Anyway there was still much to learn about Broadway...

Backstage Follies

There a few things better than arriving backstage at a Broadway theatre and getting ready for your performance. i always arrived early, put on my make up and hung out while the rest of the cast arrived. Mine was the extras' dressing room but as a contract player i had my own vanity, mirror and chair. Next door was the featured actors' room which housed Leonardo Cimino and James Coco among others.
After the first month we enrolled in acting class at the Irene Dailey studio. Irene (who was musical-movie-star Dan Dailey's sister ) later went on to acclaim as the star of A Roomful Of Roses.
James and Leonardo viewed all this with some bemusement born of long experience. and would often ask me what we did in class. One evening i told them we had animal exercises. "What the hell is that?" asked James.
i explained we were instructed to get on the floor and...
James raised his hand, brows lifted in mock horror. "Whenever they tell you to get on the floor." he warned, "you get right out of there!"
The entire dressing room fell out laughing.
Still, i was learning how to get the most from my little third-act bit of getting tossed by mistake, and when the audience laughed i was as big as anybody.
During the run of the show the actress Julie Harris put out a call for volunteers to protest nuclear war. With Ralph Pine i had already done Ban The Bomb at the state house in Boston and we were glad to join. There weren't many of us standing in the triangle of Times Square with our peace signs, but it was a start...

Another of James Coco's suggestions was the backstage poker game. James loved to play and sat in on a weekly game with Neil Simon and pals. i had a long wait between my token appearance at the beginning of the second act and my bit in the third act as did many of the extras and a few
actors. There were perhaps six in the game. If i played carefully i was able to make from 5 to $12 a night which effectively doubled my meagre salary. Fortunately Joan was also earning a small but adequate sum. ( in those days most of America made less than $100 dollars a week).
Anyway money was never in any conversation. In fact it was considered crass and a sign of bad character. In hip circles that is.
But money was soon to loom larger. After less than six months-the time required to qualify for unemployment-the show was closing.
It was sad. First many of the extra extras were let go amid gloomy rumours, then the notice went up. Meanwhile across the street Faye Dunaway was doing just fine.
Closing night, the stately English star Eric Portman had a party in his dressing room. It was crowded, a bit raucous. i was wearing a sharp blue suit in the mode later adopted by Mods and Beatles ( call me a fashion savant ) and spied a pair of white gloves on the dressing room table. Playfully i tried them on. They looked surreal. "Take them," Eric Portman said grandly, "they don't fit me."
So, still wearing a dark blue suit, white gloves and shades, i arrived at a party given by The Twins, where a group of "hip new people" were supposedly on the set. When the door opened and Ann saw me she wigged out laughing, but not for the reason i expected. Upon entering i realized everyone was wearing a sign around their neck! On the sign was their name, address and the name of the substance they had ingested.
There was a choice of three: LSD, Mescaline or Psylocibine. i chose the latter, interested in its alleged telepathic qualities...

Next: Beyond

Suggested Reading: The White Negro by Norman Mailer.

Suggested Listening: ESP by Miles Davis