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’40s. Needless to say, this was material that a fugitive from the Minnelli Brothers Mighty Dramatic Company Under Canvas could relate to completely.
    Hammerstein would direct the book, and Minnelli would stage the musical numbers. The cast included future stars Eve Arden, June Allyson, and
Vera-Ellen. In the role of “Smoothy Watson,” a handsome young dancer named Don Loper was cast. He would become one of Vincente’s closest friends and a fixture in the Freed Unit at MGM. “Don Loper’s big claim to fame was that he danced with Ginger Rogers in Lady in the Dark ,” remembers Tucker Fleming. “In later years, he became quite a designer and he had a big house in Bel Air and he used to entertain a lot—straight parties and gay parties. Even at the gay parties everybody had to wear black tie. He was very pretentious. Wore patent leather shoes. . . . He was very social and the type of guy that would have appealed to Vincente.”

    Hiram Sherman, Grace MacDonald, and Eve Arden in Very Warm for May . Minnelli would write off the 1939 Broadway musical as “my first disaster.” In later years, Arden would refer to the show as “Very Cold for October.” PHOTO COURTESY OF PHOTOFEST
    Very Warm for May premiered at The Playhouse in Wilmington, Delaware, in October 1939. The local press was encouraging, and the audience response was equally enthusiastic. The gorgeous ballad “All the Things You Are” seemed destined for the Hit Parade. It looked as though Minnelli had another hit on his hands. Then, producer Max Gordon arrived on the scene and decided it was time to produce .
    Minnelli and choreographer Harry Losee were informed that their services were no longer required. Hassard Short (who had worked on some of Cole Porter’s musicals) and Albertina Rasch were called in to restage scenes and revise the choreography. Gordon began pressuring Hammerstein to drop the show’s gangster subplot. Although he initially resisted Gordon’s “suggestion,” Hammerstein eventually gave in. When Very Warm for May opened at the Alvin Theatre on November 17, 1939, it was a very different musical from the one audiences in Wilmington had enjoyed. Remarkably, even with a sizable
chunk of its story missing, the show was well received. “Strangely enough, on opening night we were greeted with laughter, applause, and even bravos,” remembered Eve Arden, queen of the wisecrackers. “Max Gordon, our producer, was ecstatic. I had a chilling feeling that he was being premature, knowing the unpredictability of critics, and I was right.” 7
    Out of respect for Kern and Hammerstein’s previous achievements, the critics stopped short of savaging the show—though just barely. Although Max Gordon had expected an extended run to rival the 289 performances that Rodgers and Hart’s Babes in Arms had racked up a year earlier, the Alvin’s box office remained unnervingly quiet. After a dismal 59 performances, the curtain came down on what Minnelli would dismiss as “my first disaster” and Arden would come to refer to as “Very Cold for October.” Only one element of Very Warm for May had a life beyond its final curtain call. The winsome “All the Things You Are” would be recorded by a host of popular singers, from Sinatra to Streisand.
    Just up the street from the funeral atmosphere at the Alvin, the Booth Theatre was staging an original play entitled The Time of Your Life , which had opened to rapturous reviews. Heralded as “a prose poem in ragtime,” the drama had been written by William Saroyan—a bearish, hugely talented, and more than slightly eccentric true original. Unlikely as it seems, after Saroyan and Minnelli were introduced, they became buddies, though Saroyan biographer John Leggett believes that the playwright may have harbored some ulterior motives in befriending Vincente. “Saroyan was always imagining that by getting to know some influential person, that he would advance his career,” Leggett says. “Minnelli