By Barry Damsky
(Published in the May 21, 2008 Utica, NY, Observer Dispatch)
Suh, Suh, Suh, Sal, Is That
Really You?
The headline in the April 28, 2008 Utica Observer Dispatch
poked at me.
It read, “Ex-convicts stage play.”
The article was about a play that recently opened in New York
about four ex-convicts who act out their respective true – life stor-
ries: one, who was arrested 67 times, and another, who killed a
man when 17, spending 30 years in jail.
The four actors are members of an organization founded by
theatrical agent and producer David Rothenberg. That organi-
zation helps ex-convicts rejoin the world. It went on to say that
David Rothenberg produced the play Fortune and Men’s Eyes in
The late 60’s.
That definitely got me.
In the late ‘60’s, while living in New York attempting to be a
working actor, I read about that Fortune and Men’s Eyes audition
in one of the show business trade papers.
I had gone to acting school the previous year.
I was cleaning a bar seven days a week. I also had my Utica
high school skill of being able to type, supplementing my income
with any number of temporary employment agencies who offered
me jobs doing that.
With that lifestyle, I was able to take acting auditions as they
came up.
Mentioned in that long ago Fortune and Men’s Eyes audition
in the show business trade paper, was the director, Sal Mineo. I
had seen Sal, along with James Dean in the classic movie Rebel
Without a Cause, at the elegant Stanley Theatre in Utica. Sal was
nominated for Best Supporting Actor for that film.
When I arrived at the theatre where the audition for Fortune
and Men’s Eyes took place, it wasn’t long before my number was
called.
I walked down the long aisle of that dark theatre and was in-
structed by the man who sat on the lip of the stage, to sit in the first
seat in the first row.
After sitting down and looking up at him, only then did I
realize it was Sal Mineo. It was just him and me. I could hardly
believe it.
The James Dean film Sal was in was about the general rebel-
lion of youth I so related to and had such an effect on me, that
seeing Sal one-on-one like that, well – it was as if I were in an-
other world. Here I was actually talking to a famous actor like him
to begin with, and more importantly, talking with someone who
had personally known the great James Dean!
Sal asked me my background. I told him I was doing the me-
nial jobs to be able to take auditions such as his.
I then got brave and asked him what James Dean was really
like.
In a sincere and easy-going manner, Sal explained how James
was an unusually sensitive human being who, in the time he had
known him, was a true friend.
I didn’t get the part Sal was looking for.
But I never forgot meeting him, a friend of James Dean, one
of the greatest acting legends of the twentieth century…whose
tragic death at the age of 24 included just three film masterpieces,
Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden and Giant.
Sal went on to direct and star in the play, Fortune and Men’s
Eyes in New York and Los Angeles.
I never earned a paying acting role.
I was cast in an off-off Broadway, non-paying original play in
the East Village of New York. I was subsequently cast for a non-
paying acting role in a comedic play for a prestigious New York
theatre organization I was most excited about, figuring my break
had finally come. It wasn’t long after that they called and told me
they were abandoning the play.
But I’d like to think I grew as a human being from that entire
acting effort such as it was; that included the rejection I had come
to know only too well.
They say, “No pain, no gain.”
Hopefully so.
To connect with Barry Damsky, visit barrydamsky.com
The Peas Were Cold
Stories of real life about the dedication it takes to pursue a dream and learning to deal with disappointment when one’s desires seem out of reach.
