Read Alan Jay Lerner: A Lyricist's Letters for Free Online

Lane, 131 composer of the score for
Royal Wedding
, though it went unproduced. At a time when Freed was among the most powerful figures in Hollywood and only engaged the best, it is telling that Lerner was hired for or associated with all these films, in spite of barely having passed his thirtieth birthday.
         May 1950 brought Lerner back into the newspapers with the return of
Brigadoon
to New York’s City Center after its successful national tour. The reviews again gave him credit for his “constantly fascinating” book, and the show was referred to as “one of the milestones in the latter-day history of the musical stage.” 132 No wonder Lerner was determined to resume the partnership with Loewe. Returning from Hollywood to see
Brigadoon
in mid-May, he had now completed most of his work on
An American in Paris
and
Royal Wedding
and could spend the rest of the year concentrating on his next Broadway show. By the end of the month, Lerner and Loewe were happy to divulge the fact that the new production would recall “the rip-roaring days of the wild and woolly West” and announced it was to be called
Paint Your Wagon
. In the show’s announcement in the New York Times, columnist Sam Zolotow explained, “If you’re mystified by the connection between the title and the hectic Western Era, hearken to the following explanation: During the gold rush the wagons used by the pioneers carried the inscription of ‘Pike’s Peak or Bust’ lest the absent-minded lost sight of the objective. The story covers the birth, life and death of a gold mining town.” 133
         Work on the new show went slowly, presumably not helped by the fact that
Royal Wedding
was being shot until October 1950. 134
Wagon
’s book and several songs were drafted, but by January 1951 the production had been deferred to the next season, ostensibly because of the lack of availability of the intended star, veteran James Barton. 135 If the delay was also partly Lerner’s fault (as seemslikely from his busy schedule and
Paint Your Wagon
’s well-known book problems), Loewe cannot have been annoyed for long because in February the lyricist’s relationship with MGM helped him close a deal for Freed to produce the long-mooted movie version of
Brigadoon
. 136 In March,
Royal Wedding
opened to mixed reviews: in his appraisal for the
New York Times
, Bosley Crowther didn’t even mention Lerner’s name as lyricist or screenwriter. Crowther’s reference to the “spider-web story-line” was less than flattering, 137 and Lerner himself mentioned the film only with embarrassment later in his career: “Although Burton Lane wrote some spiffy songs and Fred [Astaire] danced in a way that made all superlatives inadequate, my contribution left me in such a state of cringe that I could barely straighten up.” 138 Nevertheless, the film made almost $4 million at the box office, against costs of around $1.5 million.
         It had also provided him with the opportunity to write for one of his idols, Fred Astaire, adding to the extraordinary list of stars for whom Lerner created musicals, and he must have been proud of the double feat of writing for both the major male Hollywood dancers of the Golden Age—Astaire and Kelly.
Royal Wedding
was an underwhelming screen debut for a young writer who had always loved the movies, but with the much more ambitious
An American in Paris
due to be released later in the year, plus the new contract to write the screen version of
Brigadoon
, all was not lost. 139 Freed’s confidence in him was high: $225,000 was paid for the rights to
Brigadoon
, and star names were associated with it from the start (Gene Kelly and Kathryn Grayson, 140 who was soon replaced by Cyd Charisse). 141 In turn, Lerner’s spirits were on the rise, and by June 1951
Paint Your Wagon
neared completion, with previews set to start in September. 142
         After
Brigadoon
, Lerner and Loewe were starting to be regarded as serious competition