Word: cullman
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Cullman began angeling six years ago, with a show that ran for three performances and cost him $22,500-the most he has ever invested in a play. His second show was Life With Father, which so far (and the end, he feels sure, is generations off) has brought him $150,000 for $5,000.* He has backed 45 shows in all; nine have been flops, five near-flops...
...Setup. Cullman's first, unvarying rule in picking scripts: "They must hold my interest." His second, almost unvarying one: "There must be a movie in them." Hollywood insurance has more than once compensated him for Broadway injuries. But partly because it was adapted from a show whose movie rights had been sold, Cullman made his worst blunder, turned down Oklahoma...
Before backing a play, Cullman goes carefully into both its financial setup and its production plans. But once in, "I never interfere-if the people don't know more than I do, then I don't want to be in on the show. I've never suggested a star, walk-on or cashier-fortunately, none of my relatives ever hankered to be any of the three." Nearest Cullman comes to being a nuisance is in phoning theater people early in the morning. "Listen, Cullman!" Russel Crouse once screamed into the receiver, "I got into this show business...
...angel as busy as Cullman has to get up in the morning. Besides being vice president of Cullman Brothers Inc. which owns Benson & Hedges (Parliament, Virginia Rounds), he is vice chairman of the Port of New York Authority, president of Beekman Hospital, chairman of the Program Committee of the New York City Center. He writes hundreds of letters, makes hundreds of phone calls a day, never slowing up for a second. "He wants everything done yesterday," a Port Authority associate once said...
...Walkout. Cullman has dabbled in stage doings since prepping at Phillips Exeter Academy, where he took part in French plays "which neither the cast nor the audience understood." At Yale, trying to become drama editor of the Yale Courant, he wangled an interview with Sarah Bernhardt. When he asked her, "Do your love affairs help you to understand the parts you are playing?" she walked...