best12, the national tour ended with a three-week engagement at the theater where I worked in Fort Lauderdale. Jean Simmons (lovely as Desiree) and Hermione Gingold were slated to open the London production a few weeks later.
So the tour abandoned Miss Hamilton in snowy Boston and brought in Gingold to play the last three weeks to reacquaint herself with the role.
Opening night, a lengthy telegram appeared on the board backstage: it was from the snowbound Miss Hamilton, wishing everyone a brilliant engagement and including a special note of good wishes to Gingold.
Very much a classy move by the Wicked Witch of the West, if you ask me.
(I had loved Gingold in movies, but in those days before everyone was individually miked, one really couldn't understand a word she said or sang on stage. I wish I could have seen Hamilton in the role.)
When I spoke with her son a few years ago, he said she absolutely loved playing Madame Armfeldt. In a career filled with maids and witches and hags and busybody neighbors ... she finally got to play the "glamorous" part, the "princess," the "prize." It took her a lifetime to get there, but it was a true career highlight for her.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22