Frank Goodman, one of the last of the old-time Broadway press agents, a star handler and headline hustler, died on Friday [Feb. 3, 2006] at the Tisch Hospital of the New York University Medical Center. He was 89 and lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
The cause was congestive heart failure, said his daughter Karen Goodman.
In an era when movies like "Sweet Smell of Success" made Broadway seem like the most glamorous and gritty terrain in entertainment, Mr. Goodman was as reliable a presence as broken hearts and dreams come true.
From 1939, when he started his career, to 1961, Mr. Goodman represented more than 50 Broadway productions, including eight shows in 1960 alone. Over the years, Mr. Goodman would act as a booster and sometimes as a baby sitter for every type of show person and show personality, from the volatile genius (Jerome Robbins of "Gypsy") to the delicate ingénue (Audrey Hepburn in "Gigi" in 1951) to the predictably haunted playwrights (William Inge and Clifford Odets, among others).
A short, feisty man, Mr. Goodman used the time-honored tools of his trade — cajoling, coddling and candor — on both critics and creative types, and had the war stories to prove it. In his early days as a publicist, he worked with John Houseman and Orson Welles at the Mercury Theater, a place that he said ran on "minimum cash and maximum genius." He worked with Ethel Merman on "Gypsy" and Mary Martin on "The Sound of Music," and swore that the producer David Merrick once fired him from three shows at once for taking a rival's account.
The child of an immigrant couple from Austria — his mother was a housekeeper, his father died when he was 2 — Mr. Goodman was introduced to theater in the 1930's when he worked for the Federal Theater Project under the Works Projects Administration, helping to bring students to the theater in New York. It was on one of these trips, to Hunter College, that he met Arlene Wolfe, whom he would woo — with a show, naturally — and wed in 1937. They were married nearly 70 years and worked together for many of those. In addition to his daughter Karen, of Manhattan, Mr. Goodman is survived by another daughter, Andrea Brin of Shavertown, Pa.; Mrs. Goodman; and three grandchildren.
Summing up his career in his unpublished memoir, Mr. Goodman started with an adage about the publicity game: "You don't get paid for the work you do; you get paid for the grief you take." Mr. Goodman seemed to believe that, but only to a point.
"Still and all," he wrote, "there's worse ways to make a living."
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
Playbill, Monday, Feb. 6, 2006--
Frank Goodman, Press Agent
During Broadway’s Golden Age, Dies at 89
By Robert Simonson
February 6, 2006
Frank Goodman, the Broadway press agent who created fanfare for Gypsy, Irma La Douce, The Night of the Iguana and many shows by Rodgers and Hammerstein over a five-decade career, died at the NYU Medical Center on Feb. 3, his daughter Barbara Goodman said. He was 89.Mr. Goodman began his career with the Federal Theatre Project in the 1930s, working with Orson Welles and John Housman. He later worked under Richard Maney, the publicist famed for his independent nature, flair for the dramatic and the literary bent of his press releases. With Maney, he chased publicity for such shows as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Come Back, Little Sheba.
He struck out on his own in the late '50s and handled press for such shows as The World of Suzie Wong, The Andersonville Trial, Luv, Do I Hear a Waltz?, The Lion in Winter, The Impossible Years, George M!, Funny Girl and Two by Two.
For his final Broadway show, Broadway, in 1987, he also took on the role of producer. The revival of the old Philip Dunning play lasted only seven performances. The legendary George Abbott directed.
A steady client was Richard Rodgers. The composer hired Mr. Goodman for The Sound of Music, No Strings, Two by Two and Do I Hear a Waltz?
A short, energetic man, Mr. Goodman was known for his somewhat bombastic personality and his habit of conducting business at the top of his lungs. These qualities frequently led to speedy turnover at the Goodman office.
"He was hugely creative," remembered one-time associate Susan L. Schulman. "He always had the fire in the belly and could come up with clever angles."
He is also survived by his wife Arlene Wolf.
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