queerplaces - Milton Goldman

Queer Places:
123 Bayard St, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
45 Sutton Pl S, New York, NY 10022

Milton Goldman (August 12, 1914 - October 4, 1989) was a prominent theatrical agent. Mr. Goldman was vice president of International Creative Management, known as I.C.M., and head of its theater department. His clients at one time or another included Helen Hayes, Hildegarde, Arlene Dahl, Maureen Stapleton, Mary Martin, Christopher Plummer, Lillian Gish, Ruth Gordon and Kate Reid in the United States; and in England, John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Vanessa Redgrave, Tom Courtenay, Albert Finney, Derek Jacobi, Peggy Ashcroft, Jack Hawkins and Wendy Hiller.

Anna Sosenko, who was Hildegarde's business partner, said Goldman was ''one of the greatest theatrical agents.''

Goldman was also the president of Martha Graham's Center for Contemporary Dance and on the boards of eight other nonprofit institutions.

Goldman was born and grew up in New Brunswick, N.J., the son of Max Goldman and Dora Niederman. He was a graduate of Rutgers University in 1936. He worked 10 years in the family's gas station.

Goldman began his career at A. & S. Lyons, a theatrical agency. He founded his own company in 1955. Through an assortment of incorporations, mergers and buyouts it became I.C.M., of which Goldman was an employee. When he told the actress Tallulah Bankhead that he had been promoted to vice president, she expressed disappointment, saying, ''I thought you were president.'' Goldman replied, ''I always act as if I own the place.''

When Milton met theatrical lawyer Arnold Weissberger, a relationship began that lasted thirty years. It was a wry coincidence that Arnold’s initials spelled LAW. Arnold was in partnership (as Weissberger and Frosch) with Aaron Frosch, who was executor of Marilyn Monroe’s will. Brooklyn-born Weissberger represented artists and theatrical personalities the likes of Otto Preminger, Martha Graham, Igor Stravinsky, Helen Hayes, Ruth Gordon, Laurence Olivier, David O. Selznick, Orson Welles, Placido Domingo, Truman Capote, George Balanchine, Carol Channing and Garson Kanin. Note the intentional overlap with many of Goldman’s clients.

Arnold and Milton entertained at their apartment on East 55th Street, between First Avenue and Sutton Place, before moving to 45 Sutton Place South. It was at the latter address that their entertaining took on a two-tier style, when they began holding separate A-list and B-list parties. They also entertained at their ocean-front weekend home in Seacliff, Long Island, but they had almost daily business lunches at the Four Seasons restaurant when in residence in Manhattan. Details of a particular Weissberger-Goldman party from the 1970s: Andy Warhol picked up Bob Colacello and took a cab to 45 Sutton Place South to attend a book party for Anita Loos given by Arnold Weissberger. Warhol had forgotten his tape and camera, and there were lots of celebrities. Said Warhol, “Arnold Weissberger and Milton Goldman have the longest-running gay marriage in New York. Arnold is seventy-something, the biggest old-time show-biz lawyer and an amateur photographer. He takes pictures of everyone who comes to his house. He had a book out last year called Famous Faces, placed on the dining table at the party, and he was making the famous faces sign it next to their pictures. Milton Goldman is sixty-something and a big agent at IFA. Bob noticed that he was the only person under thirty there – barely – and I said that Arnold must be afraid to have young kids around because he might lose Milton. All the butlers and bartenders were over sixty; they brought one drink at a time, and the tray shook.”

During the summers Arnold and Milton sailed to England on the Queen Elizabeth II and always took the same suite at London’s Savoy Hotel, usually for a month. The living room, which directly overlooked the Thames, was equipped with a grand piano. Thus their penchant for hosting stellar parties continued unabated.

When Arnold Weissberger died in 1981 at age 74, three days after returning from a vacation in Acapulco with Milton, Goldman was not mentioned in his New York Times obituary. However, when Goldman died eight years later, the NYT obituary stated that, as a young man, “he worked 10 years in the family’s gas station and then met the theatrical lawyer Arnold Weissberger, and began a friendship that lasted 30 years, until Weissberger’s death.” Milton had told this story to all of his close friends: when Arnold had pulled into his father’s gas station decades before, Milton pumped the gas – and they had lived happily ever after.

Goldman died of heart failure in his sleep on October 4, 1989, in Manhattan in his Sutton Place home. He was 75 years old. Anna Sosenko, a friend of Goldman, said she had spoken to him at 12:50 A.M. by telephone, after he came home from attending the opening-night performance of the Martha Graham Dance Company and the party afterward.

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