Here is my Freddy Rolfe as the pope with Al Hammacher as Cardinal Ragna, throne looming in the background. Boy would this be a good time for a revival of this one!

During the run, Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy were in town doing Noel Coward in Two Keys at the Fisher, and Audley Grossman had called me from the Museum of Art where I was moonlighting doing lectures on the big French show. He said that on Mondays (when the museum was closed) the Museum had a policy of opening up exhibits or halls to interested visiting celbrities so that they could enjoy their artwork without the hassle of crowds. I He told me that Hume and Jessie wanted to look over the exhibit, and asked if I would "be willing" to take my day off to show them through the exhibit. Willing!? Having raised the possibility, I'd have shot him if he asked anyone else! We spent a delightful afternoon going over the details of the huge French Revolutionary exhibit that included everything from the Louis portraits to the Delacroix Liberty Leading the People. The Cronins were insatiably curious. We talked of the content and the paint and the history of the pictures themselves. But I never got up the courage to mention that I was doing Hadrian a few blocks away. Too timid, I guess.

I do remember one matinee performance during which I had a devastating migraine headache. We had no understudies, so there was no question of my not going on. I remember that my primary motivation was to be accurate, no stint, and avoid extremes of pain. Concentration was excruciatingly difficult, but I managed to get through. I felt a little guilty about the performance that was, I thought, guarded at best. It was of course the first standing ovation of the run. Any actor who tells you they know how they're doing while they're doing it is a liar or a fool.