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Moe FonerMoe Foner
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Session:         Page of 592

Q:

You've told this story.

Foner:

It's on tape?

Q:

Yes, we've got it.

Foner:

So that's part of Bread and Roses. Now you had the thing with Sam Levenson in the hospitals, in the aging homes.

We now are getting close to “Take Care,” and I don't know if I've done anything on “Take Care.”

Q:

Not a word, except that once Belafonte came while you were --

Foner:

Okay, no. The idea, what was written in to proposals, was that one of the programs that would be done in the hospitals would be a musical revue, and it was left that way. A musical revue. My idea for a musical revue was a musical revue. “We'll get songs and sketches written by different people, and we'll put it together. It will be performed, and that's it.”

Q:

Where did you have the idea for any musical revue at all?

Foner:

Why? Because you have to have a musical revue! [laughs]

Q:

Just because you had done “Thursdays Til' Nine.”

Foner:

Yes. If we're going to be doing performances with professional companies, might as well do something topical, a musical revue. But it was that vague -- it was very very vague. “The musical revue would contain songs and sketches about hospital workers.” It was written very very good.

I remember raising it with the task force. Early on it was a musical revue, and then one day I called Eve Merriam and Micki Grant and Ossie to a meeting. They were the subcommittee on the musical revue. We sat down and we talked about a musical revue. They said, “It's a good idea.” Then Eve Merriam said, “Look, I have an idea for a musical.” She came prepared. “I have an idea. These are the only conditions under which I'll work with it. I don't want to work with a review of song sketches. But I would be interested in a musical review that would be based upon the workers, that would be where the material” -- and she outlined pretty much what was going to happen. The material would be obtained from the workers in workshops, and you produce that. “Let me hear more.” We would discuss what issues they were to discuss in workshops. “We'll discuss who should lead the workshops. Then the material that comes from the workshop should





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