E. L. Doctorow Died

I think he still holds the record for the highest exploitation royalty percentage in the history of American theatre.

I think at that time they were paying everyone, and I think if they stopped paying him, he would have pulled the rights. (Unlike the typical situation, all of the contracts were directly with Livent.) As I recall, the advance he got was gargantuan, and he got not only an obscene % of the gross (as I recall, 9%), but also a percentage on the net. (I think it is more likely he was cheated on that.) But with Garth, who knows? I would bet that he was cheated in some way. (If you can cheat Mike Ovitz right under his nose, you can cheat anyone.)

I agree about the book (a monumental, important masterpiece) and also the book of the musical (McNally at his laziest and worst, at least until this year). I am very fond of a good part of the score though I think it suffers under its own weight toward the end). But that opening number and a number of the songs are just great.

"I think he still holds the record for the highest exploitation royalty percentage in the history of American theatre."

What a warm, tender thought on the day of his passing. You are a real piece of work.

R.I.P. E.L.

"The era of ragtime had run out, as if history were no more than a tune on a player piano."

If you had any respect, you would have started your post by saying the he won the National Book Award for World's Fair; the National Book Critics Circle Award three times: for Ragtime, for The March and for Billy Bathgate; the PEN/Faulkner Award twice: for Billy Bathgate and for The March; the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction, and the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction.

"If I did not respect the man, I would not have posted anything about him. I did not think a general list of his accomplishments was necessary here; I was not writing an obit for the NYTimes. This being a theatre message board, what seemed appropriate was to focus on his theatrical achievement, which is what I did. I cannot fathom how that can be viewed as tasteless. "

Really? You can't see how your opening post is disrespectful?

I thought you were smarter than that.

The Public Theater, 1978.

Mike Nichols directed Christopher Plummer and Josef Summer.

neither. My use of the word "exploitation" was simply referring to the type of agreement he entered into, and under which he was compensated. Exploitation rights meaning the right to exploit the source material (and the title), the meaning of "exploit" being "to make full use of and derive benefit from" without any negative implication. I intended to suggest that he got an impressively high percentage (i.e., that he really made Garth pay dearly for the right to use the well-known and iconic property). The price was, I would say, a measure of the importance of ELD's book to the viability of the show. (And I'd also note that McNally made extensive and direct use of that book in concocting the book of the musical.

"Exploitation rights meaning the right to exploit the source material (and the title), the meaning of "exploit" being "to make full use of and derive benefit from" without any negative implication. "

"As I recall, the advance he got was gargantuan, and he got not only an obscene % of the gross (as I recall, 9%), but also a percentage on the net."

The more commonly used and understood definition of exploit is: "to use selfishly for one's own ends" also "to use (someone or something) in a way that helps you unfairly". Your characterization of his advance as obscene would seem to make your comment about using the word "exploit" with no negative implication intended seem disingenuous at best.

Look, I know your usual technique in dealing with anyone who disagrees with you is to suffocate them with words but it's not working here. Perhaps stating that you "understand how the comment could be viewed negatively but that's not what you meant" might have allowed some room to believe you but saying "I cannot fathom how that can be viewed as tasteless." makes you either a very poor BS artist or the world's biggest tool.

Then why didn't you say something respectful? A great man died. Your post reduced his life to numbers. And you used words that you knew had derogatory connotations.

Don't defend yourself. Apologize.

And not to us--but to the memory of a writer you now CLAIM to admire.

I hope that when you go to that Great Calculator in the Sky, the first words people use to describe you are warmer than "exploitation percentage."

To be fair, the same could be said of you.