Word: hornaday
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...huddled in orchestra seats a few yards away. Those sitting in judgment are the movie's producers, Cy Feuer and Ernest Martin, Broadway veterans whose movie version of Cabaret won eight Oscars; Director Sir Richard Attenborough, whose last film, Gandhi, also won eight Oscars; and Choreographer Jeffrey Hornaday, 27, a former dancer who staged the movement in Flashdance. Michael Bennett, who conceived Chorus Line and who was to transform it for the screen, now has no part in making the film...
...four men mutter pointedly about the performers' talent, poise and looks. "The guy in the tie-dyed shirt is technically fine," Hornaday says, "but his eyes are dead." Even the judgments that benefit auditioners could prove painful if spoken within their earshot. Says Feuer: "We need someone who looks foolish to play Greg." His colleagues nod, and one young man is in. But the triumph is temporary and perhaps hollow. At this stage, the auditioners are moving on to "call-backs," the first step in a process that will, the producers admit, stretch up to the start of production...
...stop conferring and are ready. "The boy in the green top," Hornaday calls out, and, hesitantly, the third youth in line eases to the front. "The pink tights." As the wearer of that garment comes forward, the woman next to her winces at having been passed by. After another huddle, Hornaday says, "That's all." Immediately, a silver-haired man with a clipboard steps in from the side of the stage and intones in a swift singsong, "Those in the front line, please wait on the right. For the rest, thank you very much and please leave, as quickly...
Attenborough periodically calls a break in the auditions so that he can go outside to chat encouragingly with the people waiting in line. Says Esteras: "It is so rare in this situation, his just acting like a normal human being." Indeed, Attenborough and Hornaday occasionally grant call-backs, out of compassion, to auditioners whom they have no interest in hiring. Because an eventual no is immeasurably more common than an acceptance, the call-back is a crucial symbolic reassurance that the aspirant is not in the wrong business. When the stage manager attempts to reconsider some people who have already...
DIED. Temple Hornaday Fielding, 69, guardian of American tourists for 35 years, whose opinionated Travel Guide to Europe has sold some 3 million copies since 1948 and spawned many, lesser Fielding guides; of a heart attack; in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. With help from a small staff and his wife Nancy, he meticulously updated findings that concentrated on Europe's creature comforts, not culture (he dismissed Rome's Colosseum as having "a remarkable permanency"). The hearty Fielding style was sometimes irritating, but his advice about potential surprises helped nervous travelers feel at home abroad. He was lavish with...