By Sidney Lumet Page #5

about kid actors. There's nothing wrong with

being exposed to creativity as soon as possible. My father, he taught me

about work-- you work-- and the discipline

of work and the lack of self-indulgence in work,

also the preparation for trouble in show business. Yes, maybe life overdid

the lesson for me. I made the dollar worth too

much and that mistake ruined my career as a fine actor. I've never admitted this

to anyone before, lad, but tonight I'm so heartsick, I

feel at the end of everything, and what's the use of

fake pride and pretense? That goddamn play,

I bought for a song and made such a

great success in, a great money success, it

ruined me with its promise of an easy fortune. The sight of my

father in the instances where he had rented the theater

himself-- which took a money upfront deposit,

non-returnable-- and would look out, and if the

house wasn't good, to now have to go through the show knowing

that he wouldn't even make the rent back, much less the

salaries for the other actors who were performing. It had a sense of

catastrophe about it, really. "Long Day's Journey

into Night" is the story of a family, four people. [music playing] The father is a

steady, steady drinker, but at least has

worked in his lifetime. And the father has a

wonderful, wonderful, sad, heartbreaking problem. By the time I

woke up to the fact that I'd become a

slave to the damn thing and did try other

plays, it was too late. They'd identified me

with that one part and didn't want me

in anything else. They were right, too. I'd lost the great talent

I once had several years of easy repetition, never

learning a new part, never really working hard. $35,000 to $40,000

net profit a season, like snapping your fingers. Yet before I bought

the damn thing, I was considered one of the

three or four young actors with the greatest artistic

promise in America. At that time, one of the big

metro stars was a wonderful kid actor by the name of Freddie

Bartholomew, English, did a lot of good movies. They were having trouble with

him because his contract was up and they were in the midst

of a difficult negotiation. I was appearing in a play and

had gotten wonderful reviews and I was summoned. Mr. Mayer wanted to meet me. He was in New York. And I went up and

met the great man. How do you do? How do you do? Sidney, I saw you

in the play last and you were

marvelous, on and on. And they offered me

a contract, the point of the contract being to keep a

threat to Freddie Bartholomew. The contract was crazy. Over the seven year period, you

got graduated raises until you were earning $750 a week. My father kept upping it. Whenever they offered a

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