A Propos of Nothing in Particular

jmage at panix.com jmage at panix.com
Tue Feb 9 18:55:56 PST 1999


Pseudolus (Zero Mostel) lived in my apartment house when I was a kid. He had an amazing collection of walking sticks, and a couple of times said stuff to me (it wasn't "hello" - it was more like he made strange loud noises at me a couple of times).

He was unemployed, indeed unemployable; blacklisted. Most of the time he painted, said our neighbors the Hunters, who (also blacklisted) hung out with him. Elia Kazan had given him his last work as an actor but then Kazan testified to HUAC naming some of Zero's best friends, and Zero couldn't work again. At least that's how Ian and Alice Hunter explained it to me.

When I was in high school he finally got an off-Broadway job, playing Ionesco's Rhinoceros. He did a totally amazing job of turning into a rhinoceros. Zero's first Broadway role after some ten years blacklisted was Pseudolus. FREE

It would be wonderful if Kazan's triumph were to be disrupted.

John Mage



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list