The League of Professional Theatre Women hold evenings with prominent woman who talk about their careers, accomplishments and ambitions. I went the night Charlotte Moore held a conversation with Angela Landsbury.
After the event the whole group went over to the Rooftop of the Empire Hotel for the VIP reception and I managed to maneuver myself into a position that got me into the elevator that Ms Landsbury would get into to get to the rooftop.
The second the elevator doors closed I seized the opportunity to turn to Ms Landsbury and tell her a story I knew she would not have known, but would love hearing, how she saved my studios and business.
I told her that during the years of Run-Away Production when the studios were in negotiations with two unions and took all their productions to other states and even other countries to basically bleed the business in L.A dry and make the unions accept less desirable terms just to stay alive, there were stretches where we had no productions going on at all, as opposed to always having at least two feature films working on my stages and keeping the cash flowing. But there were a number of times when I exhausted the company’s financial reserves to keep the staff from starving, but saw no light at the end of the tunnel and that reality would creep up that we wouldn’t make payroll.
Somehow, by the grace of God, and Angela Lansbury, when we’d reach our darkest hour,
“Murder She Wrote” would book our stages, which kept us afloat.
So, I told her this in the elevator and thanked her.
She was overjoyed to hear such an unexpected and positive story and the whole tone of the group changed to one of seriousness and fatigue from the long night at Lincoln Center and the interview,
to one of energetic jubilation and laughter .
How appreciated and wonderful a belated thank you can be.
