Watch My Line

Before Sophia Loren agreed to make El Cid in Spain, she demanded everything from a $200-a-week hairdresser to a $200,000 salary for ten weeks' work. Producer Samuel Bronston obliged. But Sophia has now filed furious suit against Bronston Productions Inc. in New York State's Supreme Court, charging a grievous breach of contract. On a 600-sq.-ft. billboard facing south over Manhattan's Times Square, Sophia Loren's name appears in illuminated letters that could be read from an incoming liner, but--Mamma mia!--that name is below Charlton Heston's.

In the language of the complaint: "If the defendants are permitted to place deponent's name below that of Charlton Heston, then it will appear that deponent's status is considered to be inferior to that of Charlton Heston ... It is impossible to determine or even to estimate the extent of the damages which the plaintiff will suffer."

Short of Murder. No show business professional was in the least surprised that Sophia should consider the matter important enough to bring before the Supreme Court of the State of New York. As Broadway Pressagent Richard Maney summarizes the whole matter in his book Fanfare: "Billing is the ne plus ultra, the be-all and end-all of the theater's children. To achieve it they will sacrifice their young, slash their salaries, forage for food and sleep in the subway. To maintain or enhance it, they'll stop at nothing short of murder.''

The hotly disputed matter of billings has long contributed some of the most colorful items in the lore of show business. When Can-Can opened in 1953, Actor Hans Conried showed up on the sidewalk outside the theater with a stepladder, climbed to the marquee with a tape measure, and determined precisely the altitude of the letters that spelled his name. When 20th Century-Fox's Cleopatra (now in production) is finally released, Richard Burton will be listed above Rex Harrison. If, however, Harrison should be knighted before then, his name will go above Burton's--but only in Great Britain. Elizabeth Taylor, needless to say, will top them both. But in the past she has made concessions for private reasons. In Butterfield 8, she permitted Eddie Fisher almost equal billing, perhaps to prove that she does not wear all the pants in the Fisher closet.

Divers & Sidewinders. Worked out with the intricacy of calculus, billings follow some general patterns and are described with bewildering terminology. The best possible position is "sole star billing" or "100% alone above.'' This describes a name so momentous that it appears alone above the title of the production in characters 100% as large as the title itself. The next trench is "star billing''--above the title, with other names underneath, and so on down to all the tricky below-decks devices, such as names in boxes (a favorite for musical directors and choreographers). Then there is the "as" line for disgruntled second fiddles and for stars who take a quick look at the competition, then dive strategically for last place. Thus, by contractual agreement, ads for Bronston's King of Kings must end with the words "and ROBERT RYAN as John the Baptist."

Some stars are sidewinders. From his mighty altitude in North by Northwest, Cary Grant looked down and imagined the longer name of Eva Marie Saint reaching toward the right-hand margin. In all billings, C a r y G r a n t was stretched out to cover the difference. Others are spacemen. For The Brothers Karamazov, Yul Brynner insisted that his name be followed by a few acres of white space to set it off. When Mary, Mary opened on Broadway last spring, Actor Michael Rennie brooded over his tertiary position after Barbara Bel Geddes and Barry Nelson, finally demanded that if his name was to be printed below theirs, it must begin to the right of the s in Geddes and left of the B in Barry, with nothing but heaven above. "I'd rather pay people off in star billing than in money," shrugs Broadway Producer Hal Prince, "and some people are dumb enough to accept this."

Enter Grace. Once every few years, grace enters the scene. Charles Boyer, gentleman first and actor second, insisted that Claudette Colbert's name be listed before his in The Marriage-Go-Round. Fredric March asked that co-star billing in Gideon be given to Douglas Campbell, who plays the title role. With proper respect for the acting ability of Spencer Tracy, Frank Sinatra acknowledged that Tracy should come first in the billings for Columbia's current The Devil at Four O'Clock.

Nonetheless, some of the most important writing that goes into a Broadway production, a television show or a Hollywood movie will always be done by agents, lawyers and producers who stay up half the night over mugs of cold coffee, plucking crows and picking bones, cutting, revising, editing, fighting, bargaining, compromising, threatening, sulking, foaming at the mouth--working out the billings.

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