Mark Hellinger Theatre.
Our (the musicians') contracts were identically signed by the Shumlins for Hurok Concerts. On the drive back to Boston, Don said on the "QT" that if the critics in the New York papers didn't like the show then Hurok would only run it for a week and send everybody back to London. The opening night party was held after the show at either the Carnegie Hall rooftop restaurant or its equivalent at Madison Square Garden, I can't remember which. Anyway, word spread that the NY Times had badmouthed the show together with another critic.
The next day we called our friends at the local Musician's Union and they showed up at the theatre the next night: two burly individuals in heavy camel hair overcoats directly off the Godfather movie. When we, together with the Union Officials, read the cancellation notice on the Green Room Bulletin Board, and showed them our signed agreements that we were legally contracted by Hurok from Saturday, July 13th 1974 to January 11th, 1975, they both agreed that one way or another, Hurok would pay us through the contract. Then when the Shumlins arrived, they collared hold of Diane Shumlin and pulled her into an enclosed part of the backstage. After their tete-a-tete, she disappeared and they told us the gist of their conversation. She argued that Hurok was under no obligation to pay us through the contract and they pointed out to her that one of the clauses in the contract invoked the rules and policies of the American Federation of Musicians, which meant that if we return to London without signing off on the contract by being paid and file a complaint with the British MU, then the American Federation of Musicians will reciprocate with its British counterpart and withhold the services of all American musicians from the forthcoming 1975 tour of the Bolshoi Ballet until such time as Hurok pays us. They had already formed an opinion of this woman when we recounted the financial scam she'd perpetrated on us, one that the San Francisco local union office had remedied. Apparently, their parting shot was this: " it's Hurok's choice, Diane, take it or leave it."
The next night, Hurok's president, Sheldon Gold, showed up back stage and presented an illogical argument that they'd lost a lot of money on the show etc. etc. and that we were morally wrong to insist on payment. I told him we wanted the money in full and without taxes being subtracted and he argued that was illegal. I argued that we were self-employed musicians and not subject to taxes. Evidently he bought my argument because the next day we were summoned to the Hurok office separately and given checks with no taxes subtracted. I never find out what happened to the actors and their pay problems. I do know that before any of them left the country, they needed to see the IRS in New York to get clearance to return to London.
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Due to the NY Times' Clive Barnes article on a "drab" show, Hurok truncated the run to one week only. The musicians had contracts for another month or more (or less, for which they, Hurok, didn't want to pay). This impasse entailed the entry of the local branch of American Federation of Musicians, a rather amusing occasion when two individuals in heavy camel hair overcoats showed up back stage to discuss the Hurok/Shumlin scam. I am reminded that it was very cold in December in New York. I'd filled my Ford Fairlane's radiator with anti-freeze. I was heading out to California when this dispute was settled. However, we were never more pleased than when the AFof M took an interest in our financial problems with Hurok's CEO.