November 11, 1992
Page 5
Alumnus awards visit
Producer’s art career goes beyond Silence
A legendary career in the performing arts got its roots
fifty years ago performing Othello with his English class
at Elon College. Oscar-winning producer of Silence of the
Lambs Kenneth Utt graduated from Elon in the Class of
‘42 as a voice music major and student body president.
Utt’s credentials read like a Who’s Who of show business;
attended Julliard Graduate School, performed on Broadway,
worked alongside journalistic giant Edward R. Murrow and
produced acclaimed films such as The French Connection,
Midnight Cowboy and his crowning achievement.
Silence of the Lambs.
Utt returned to his alma mater this weekend to accept
the Elon College Distinguished Alumnus Award. He spoke
with the Dean of Fine Arts and Humanities, Clair Myers,
during the talk show Arts in Alamance. Here are some
excerpts of their conversation.
Myers: While you were here you did some theau-e, I
understand.
Utt: Yes, I did. My wife Angie Henry and 1 did
Othello. I played Othello and she played Desdemona. That
was our claim to fame here.
Myers: You went on from here to Julliard.
Utt: I went to Julliard, almost finished the first year
and went into the Air Force. I went to Miami Beach for
basic training and was picked for \h&Winged Victory
show, which happened about six months after that
Myers: Tell us a little about what Winged Victory
was.
Utt: They somehow managed to corral all the people
in the Air Force that had had some kind of professional
experience. We had a wonderful cast. I was in chorus - we
had forty men in chorus. We had pet^le like Mariel Lansa,
Eugene Connelly. Actors, we had John Forsyth and
Anthony Ross. Dr. Martin Ritt from Elon College was in
that cast.
Myers: At the end of the war, did you stay in New
York?
Utt: I went back to the Julliard.
Myers: Did you finish your degree there?
Utt: No, I didn’t. I was in the graduate school and a
degree was not offered. Some people were sent to Europe,
paid for by the Julliard to get experience with European
opera companies and that sort of thing... I got pushed out
before I finished my second year. What happened was Jerry
White, who was the stage manager for Winged Victory
and for Rodgers and Hammerstein before the war, called me
and asked me to replace Mervin Vye who was playing the
villain in Carousel. I, of course, accepted it and that was
the end of my classic training at the Julliard.
Myers: If you had stayed at Julliard, would you have
gone to a classical opera?
Utt: Probably. I don’t know where it would have
ended. That’s what got me interested in the backstage. I had
a good association with the stagehands. I played poker with
them down in the basement of the theatre and all that.
When we were on the road... I helped them load in and
hang the show. One week I’d be in electric, one week I’d be
with the flyman, one week I’d hang these gels.
Myers: So you had these dual roles. Did you move
Over from acting to stage manager then?
Utt: I never made the decision to give up anything.
When the assistant stage manager left the company, I took
that job... Then Angie and I decided it was time for us to
Kenneth Utt. producer of Silence of the Lambs
think about raising a family because by that time we were
getting along a little. We decided to leave the show and go
back to New York.
Myers: What shows did you do?
Utt: I had Gene Arthur and Boris Karloff in Peter
Pan, a great big flop with Burgess Meredith..., and then
my best love, Shirley Booth, and George Abbott directed
Three Girls in -Brooklyn. That was my last Broadway
show.
Myers: That was the Golden Age of American
theatre.
Utt: Really, really teriffic. After Three closed, CBS
asked me to come over to set up a musical that was going
to star Bert Parks, who used to do the beauty pageants.
They invited me to stay and they offered me Studio One...
The other show (I worked on) was Ed Sullivan. It was
called Toast of the Town then. I was there with Betty
Furness the historic time the refrigerator wouldn’t open.
That’s a classic now. I was there ten years.
Myers: Did you do any acting?
Utt: Yes, I did. That was part of my deal... 1 did a
lead twice...I did a couple of other things, one accidental.
There was a Chrysler Medallion Theatre, starring Charleton
Heston and it was a western up on the fifth floor of
VandCTbilt Avenue off of 42nd Street in New York and we
had three horses in that studio. They somehow got up
there. During their dress rehearsal, Charleton Heston and
Martin Brooks had a fight staged so that they rolled
underneath one of the horses during the fight scene. The
horse became excited, stepped on Brook’s hand and he was
sent to the hospital. I knew all the moves because 1 was a
stage manager and I’d been in rehearsal all week, so we
decided I’d take a crack at it. All of the stage hands had the
complete script on cue cards beside every camera.
Everywhere I looked there was the script and that’s how we
did that show. It went on to win a Christopher Award.
That’s what happened in live TV.
Myers: You worked with Edward R. Murrow during
ihatume. | ' ' ^
Utt: He did Person to Person and I worked on that
series. It was fortunate for me that he was one of the finest
men I ever knew in my life. He was just the best. He didn’i
particularly like doing this kind of show, being a hard-
nosed newsman. He was a wonderfully warm, bright,
bright man who smoked too much.
Myers: The integrity of television news at that time
is something that people always point to.
Utt: We were very proud in those days of CBS.
because it was a classy, classy network. It was a pleasure
to go to work... because you knew that you were going ic
do the best that could be done in those days.
Myers: Let’s talk about what it means to be an
associate producer.
Utt: A funny thing that has happened to me is that
I’ve been doing almost the same job all of these years,
even with Silence of the Lambs. We keep changing
titles... but it’s basically the same thing. Our job is
coordinating. We hire the crews, help with the casting and
with whatever is needed. I’m doing my sixth picture with
Jonathan Demme now so we have a family. We don’t even
have to tell each other what each other is gonna do. We
just do it... I’m almost 72 years old and I’ve decided that
I’m not going to anymore except with the Demme group.
We hopefully are going to do a sequel to Silence of the
Lambs one of these days. The book is being written.
Myers: How much did that film cost to produce?
Utt: Silence of the Lambs cost a very reasonable
amount of money for this time, a little over $19 million.
For the picture we’re doing now in Philadelphia, we have a
budget of $25 million... But you go back and Midnight
Cowboy cost a little over $3 million.
Myers: Which is what Dustin Hoffman would ask
to do a fihn.
Utt: More. Oh my goodness, about double that. John
Voigt for that movie made less than the teamster captain in
charge of all the trucks and all the equipment. The French
Connection cost less than $3 million, with all those
chases in the subway and all that. Gene Hackman received
$75,000 for that movie and won the Academy Award.
Myers: It was a good investment on his part... What
is the name of your new film? ^
Utt: Right now, it’s Philadelphia. It’s the first major
film on AIDS and we think we’re going to be very proud.
We have Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Joanne
Woodward, Jason Robards... It was the story of a young
lawyer in Philadelphia at a major firm who gets AIDS and
is fired by the company. Washington plays the fellow who
defends him. It takes him a long time to decide he wants to
do it because he’s very fearful of AIDS. We think we’re
telling it all about AIDS education.
Myers: This sounds like part of your own personal
integrity.
Utt: That’s one of the reasons I’m with Demme is
that he has one of the best hearts I’ve ever known... He’s a
remaikable man.
Myers: What are you going to do when Philadelphia
is over?
Utt: I’m coming back to North Carolina to play
some golf. I’m not terrific but when I break 90, it’s a
celebration. I have no plans to retire. As long as I have my
health. I’ll keep going.
' " " ^ ^' Coniplled by bileDeeCarvwan