Martin shares an unscripted moment at the mic and recalls his early days in New York in 1959 where he found acting work at the Living Theater for $5 a week, free meals at the Catholic Worker and a place to stay with whoever would take him in. Years later he returned to the city to perform with his friend and idol, George C. Scott in the play “Death of a Salesman” and he recounts extraordinary memories from both on and off stage. The episode then culminates with poems and works by various artists that highlight the beauty, hardship and wonder of big city life.
Martin shares an unscripted moment at the mic and recalls his early days in New York in 1959 where he found acting work at the Living Theater for $5 a week, free meals at the Catholic Worker and a place to stay with whoever would take him in. Years later he returned to the city to perform with his friend and idol, George C. Scott in the play “Death of a Salesman” and he recounts extraordinary memories from both on and off stage.
The episode then culminates with poems and works by various artists that highlight the beauty, hardship and wonder of big city life.
A complete list of the writers and poets from Episode 8
“On Broadway” Claude McKay
Consider This Frank Capra “A hunch is creativity…”
“Because Somewhere There’s Simplicity & Light” Anna Akhmatova
“Blessed Among Us: Dorothy Day” Robert Ellsberg
“London” William Blake
“Where the Mind is Without Fear” Rabindranath Tagore
Transcript S4 Ep#8 The Heart of the City
Network Sting: MSW Media
Martin: Hello and welcome to the fourth season of The Martin Sheen Podcast with yours truly, Martin Sheen, of course. And I'm delighted to be back hosting this podcast pilgrimage where the destination is still and always will be the journey itself. Along the way, I plan to share stories and personal memories of some of the many people, places, and events that have helped to shape my lifelong happy and continuing struggle as an artist and a man to unite the will of the spirit with the work of the flesh. I also hope to explore poetry as a powerful form of expression and communication by proxy, as it were, and how poetry is such a vital and necessary component of our spirituality and our public discourse. And from time to time, I'll invite friends, fellow actors, poets, scholars and family members to join our pilgrimage and discuss what inspires their artistic journey. And so, friends, let us continue.
Martin: I recently found myself at the mic sharing impromptu stories with my producer and sound engineer about my days in New York and what a huge influence that city had on my life; the early years when I first arrived there to pursue an acting career as well as returning many years later to play onstage once again with my friend and idol, George C. Scott.
It’s funny how you don’t realize how much you remember till you start talking about what you do remember.
Martin: I came to the living theater in 1959, in December. And we've only had $5 a week to pay, but, mind you, I was worth every penny. And I was told they had a friend who had a breadline nearby down on Christie Street. And so one of the people from the Living Theater took me down there, and I had a wonderful meal. And it was the only meal you could get in New York without paying or listening to a sermon. And so I did. Yeah, she was on Christie Street at that time. She started on Mott street, down, in Chinatown earlier. But, by the time, I became aware of the Catholic Worker and Dorothy day was in 1959, and I went there almost every night for six, eight months. I mean, it was the main source of my nutrition. And one day I asked them, you know, you, guys are so good and I'd like to help out if I can in any way. Oh, they said, sure. Come on Saturday and help us fold the paper. I said, you guys got a paper? Oh, yes. It was the Catholic Worker. It was sold for a penny a copy. And they sold it mostly on 14th Street. So, yeah, I got very familiar and I may have met her, actually.
Renee: I was just gonna ask you.
Martin: And one time –
Renee: You met her?
Martin: Yeah. And there was a show and I think it was. It was a local show on CBS at the time. and they did stories on various religions throughout the community. And they landed on Dorothy Day one time and they came down to film, and I was there. I think I'm in that documentary. Yeah.
Renee: And do you think, was she still ministering at the time?
Martin: Oh, yeah.
Renee: Like, very actively on the line.
Martin: Yeah. Ah, they moved, from Christie Street to First Avenue and First Street, I think. And then they had another home. There was St. Mary's Home and St. Joseph Home on near Second Avenue and Second Street and they're still there.
Renee: Ah. And where were you living at the time in New York?
Martin: Everywhere. And nowhere.
Renee: Any place. You didn't, no permanent address?
Martin: Yeah, no. I was literally homeless and going from friend's house to friend's house. And finally I landed with Jimmy Teroff on 14th Street. He was married. He had two little children, and they let me stay in the back room in exchange for babysitting. He was a Renaissance Lunatic. He was an actor and a writer and a painter.
Renee: But didn't he pawn you off on mom eventually when he got sick of you sleeping on his couch?
Martin: Exactly. He was trying to get rid of me. I was gonna say-
Bruce: He's gonna introduce you to Janet. Right?
Renee: Exactly. Yeah. He had an ulterior motive.
Martin: He was studying painting at the New School for Social Research, and Janet was there on a scholarship. And he said to me, have I got a girl for you? You know, and he took me to meet her, and that was that. And he gladly got rid of me, and she gladly accepted me.
Renee: But I just find it fascinating that, what would have happened to you in New York, I mean, you found your way to these places but to find your way there and find something that was like, you know, nourishing.
Martin: Oh, unbelievable. And, you know, and I'm still connected to the Catholic Worker here in Los Angeles. They're very powerful, very inspirational, community. You know, Catholic Worker is not just the newspaper, it's, it's hospitality houses and. And they have a soup kitchen here in Los Angeles and they serve skid row. And they've been doing it for well over 50 years now.
Renee: The other day somebody said to me they felt like the only story that interested you was the underdog story. It was the downtrodden. You were not interested in the comfortably housed, well fed.
Martin: Well, no, that Dorothy Day actually framed that phrase that we are committed to comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.
Martin: I love that. I absolutely love that.
(record scratch sounds)
Martin: Yeah. Ah, you know, it's like, well, I was in New York in 1976 doing Death of a Salesman with George C. Scott. Oh, gosh, it was, jesus, I thought no one should ever play that role again that saw him do it, you know.
Renee: Really?
Martin: Oh, God, it was just definitive. And I think it was the 50th anniversary of the play. And we did it uptown at the Circle in the Square. And George directed it as well.
Renee: Well, he had a, he played Willy Loman or he played-
Martin: Willy Loman in the revival of the Death of a Salesman. I played Hap just the last four weeks of the run. It was a limited run. And the Circle in the Square uptown. Circle in the Square used to be down in the Village and they moved it up to Uptown. That performance, George C. Scott's performance. And I was on stage with him. And they wanted to review it again for the papers, and the producers wanted the papers to come again. And, and George said we've already done this. And Arthur Miller was for doing a new review of it with all the New York press. He said it was a different show. Oh, God. Yeah. Well, I'm not bragging but I had a sense that you don't compete with George. You let him lead you into battle, as he did as George Patton. If you saw George Scott play Patton, if you ever played with him again and you were lucky enough to do so, you would just follow him, you know? You didn't compete with him. No. And I -
Renee: No. He was terrifying.
Martin: Yeah. And the direction he gave me, because I only had one rehearsal before I opened, and I played Hap, which is the smallest part in the play, or one of them, the younger brother, you know. And George said to me one thing. He said, why did they call him Hap? His nickname was Happy, which he was not. So it was all put on, you know, and it was the only direction he gave. And the other direction, because the stage at the Circle Uptown, it was a square, you know, the audience was three sides and the set was downstage and he had a second story for the first scene of the boys. And so, Jimmy Ferrantino and I, he was the original one with George and I replaced, Harvey.
Renee: Harvey Keitel?
Martin: Yeah. Harvey was playing the part and he went to do a movie and they called me and said, would you replace Harvey? I will, I said. And I went in just for the last four weeks. And during that run your mother and I were in New York and because the show came down late, you know, on nights, and we would go to dinner, and one night we challenged each other to go to the Russian Tea Room, which we'd never been to, and it was hoity toity, right next to, you know, Carnegie hall and so forth. And it was, you know, a big celebrity restaurant. And so we got in, but barely. The only seat was right near the door. And it was a very hot August night. And so whenever anyone came in the door the dirt from the street and the heat just poured in over that table where Janet and I were. And one night, well, the only night we were there, the door opened and Peter Boyle came in with a guy, a friend of his, and he saw us at the table and he came over and he said, oh, he said, you're Martin Sheen. I am. He said, I'm a great friend of Terry Malick and we love you in Badlands. And I said, he said, oh, say hello to my friend John Lennon. I swear to God.
Bruce: John Lennon? A guy.
Renee: Did you dive under the table and try to hide?
Martin: No, but I can't remember what I said to him. We just, but he was just so sweet. And the two of them said, well, all the best. And he walked back into the restaurant, you know. And we just sat there in silence, for a long time until someone came in the door and the dirt from the street and the wind and the heat came in. Between shows on Saturday, we would do a Saturday afternoon and a Saturday evening. And, between shows, George Scott would take the whole cast to this wonderful steak restaurant right on Broadway, Upper Broadway. And he would get a table, and all the cast wasn't that big a cast. Maybe there were eight or nine of us with a few tech people. And we would all have dinner with him between shows. And one day we were sitting there, and in the middle of the meal, this guy came up, and he was kind of staring at George, waiting to get his attention. And George finally looked at him and the guy said, I don't want to bother you Mr. M. Scott. I'm just a great, great fan of yours. And I just want to tell you how much I admire you and thank you for your work and you're just a great inspiration. And George, oh, well, thanks so much. All the best. And the guy left. And we were staring at the guy and realized then that George didn't know who he was. And so after the guy left, one of the lads said, George, do you know who that man was? And he said, no, some fan. He said, Joe. That was Joe DiMaggio. And George said, oh, my God. Oh, my God. And he started running for the door. And I went to the door with him, and he's running down Broadway. And he caught him down the street. I saw him in the crowd. He stopped Joe DiMaggio. And you could see him bowing and scraping. Yeah, Joe DiMaggio.
Renee: He didn't recognize Joltin’Joe DiMaggio standing at the side of his table?
Martin: No. And he came back in the restaurant all, you know, welled up and sweated. And he, my God, can you imagine that? Can you imagine who that was? You know, it was just unbelievable. Yeah, that was quite a time doing that play. Yeah. And because the stage was, a square, you know, three squared, you know, audience on both sides and at the front, the stage was, we were, had a bedroom on the top. That was the only second part of the second floor of the house. And he would come in, he opens the scene. Is that you, Willie? I said, yes, me. It's me. And, the first night I was up there, I started laughing hysterically, covering my face in the bed up there because he was so funny. And he goes in the toilet on the bottom floor. And he' talking to, his wife, and she's saying this and that. How'd it go? And this and that. And he's brushing his teeth. And this was his choice as an actor to do in that opening sequence. And he's talking through the brushing of the teeth. So he had all this foam and toothpaste in his mouth, and he, and then he goes back in the toilet and he comes back out and he says, and those boys, they're magnificent. I mean, you know, he's talking about the lads, but he was bitching about something And seconds later he's praising them. But it was so funny. He did it with this brushing his teeth. And I never forgot. So every night I would hold myself, please don't make him so funny tonight, dear Lord. But he was even funnier because I was anticipating it and the bed was rocking. I was laughing so hard. And because it was built high up, part of the audience couldn't see us up there until we stood up, you know. And so he wanted a way, he said, you've got to find a way to get down front so that the audience can see you. And so I wore, what we call a wife killer –
Renee & Bruce: Wife beater.
Martin: A white beater shirt. And I was young and somewhat muscular at that time. So I walked down to the edge of the platform in the upper room as if I was looking in a mirror and going from side to side and taunting my muscles and just talking over my shoulder to the other brother, looking at myself and my hair. And so, I had some magnificent hair.
Renee: You still do.
Martin: And I was doing all this stuff. And the audience starts laughing because they got it. George was so pleased because they could finally see the actor up there, you know, and all I needed was a mirror, an imaginary mirror. But he was magnificent, and I adored him. He was one of my great friends and died very unexpectedly. He was very, anxious to see the premiere of the West Wing.
Renee: Oh, wow.
Martin: And, yeah, and we premiered in the fall of 1999. And the night we opened is the night he passed away. Yeah.
Renee: You mean the night the show, the night the show went on went on the air?
Martin: Yeah. Ah, he passed away. Yeah. Yeah, there you go. So this is outrageous. You got me talking now like a windbag.
Renee: Should we get to…
Martin: On Broadway by Claude McKay 1922.
About me young and careless feet
Linger along this garish street;
Above, a hundred shouting signs
Shed down their bright fantastic glow
Upon the merry crowd and lines
Of moving carriages below.
Oh wonderful is Broadway—only
My heart, my heart is lonely.
Desire naked, linked with Passion,
Goes strutting by in brazen fashion;
From playhouse, cabaret and inn
The rainbow lights (of Broadway) ablaze
All gay without, all glad within;
As in a dream I stand and gaze
At Broadway, shining Broadway—only
My heart, my heart is lonely.
Claude McKay, originally named Festus Claudius McKay, was born on Sept 15, 1890 in Jamacia.
He attended both the Kansas State College and the Tuskegee Institute before moving to New York City in 1914.
In 1928 McKay won the Harmon Gold Award for his novel “Home to Harlem” and was a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance while his poetry both challenged white authority while celebrating Jamaican culture.
He died May 22, 1948 in Chicago.
Claude McKay was 57 years old.
Martin: Consider This from legendary film director Frank Capra
“A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.”
Martin: Because Somewhere There's Simplicity and Light by Anna Akhmatova.
Because somewhere there's simplicity and light,
Transparent, warm and joyous…
There a neighbor talks with a girl at twilight,
Over the fence, and only the bees hear,
The most tender of murmurings.
While we live with ceremony, difficulty,
Honouring the rites of our bitter meetings,
Where a sudden reckless gust
Breaks off the sentence begun –
But we'd not exchange for anything
This granite city of fame and misfortune,
The wide rivers of shining ice,
The sunless, gloomy gardens,
The barely audible voice of the Muse.
Anna Akhmatoeva was a Russian poet nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1965 & 1966. With a strong and clear leading female voice she struck a chord in Russian literature. Her style is characterized by its economy and emotional restraint while her themes focused on time and memory and the difficulties of living and writing in the shadow of Stalinism.
She was born June 23, 1889 in Odessa, Russia Empire, now the Ukraine. And she died March 5, 1966 in Moscow, Soviet Union.
Anna Akhmatova was 76 years old.
Martin: The following is a selection from the book “Blessed Among Us” by Robert Ellsberg. It is filled with daily reflections that explore the lives of saints as well as ordinary men and woman with stories of extraordinary courage and spiritual awakening.
Servant of God Dorothy Day. Dorothy Day was widely regarded as the radical conscience of the American Catholic Church. A convert to Catholicism, she had spent her youth engaged in the struggle for social change and a restless search for love and community. The great turning point in her life came in 1926, as she was living on Staten Island with a man she deeply loved, when she discovered she was pregnant. Her daughter's birth was the catalyst for a profound conversion. She decided to have her child, Tamara baptized - a step she took in 1927, though it meant a painful separation from the father of her child, Forster Batterham, who would have nothing to do with marriage or religion.
In 1932, after meeting a Frenchman, Peter Maurin, she found a way to integrate her faith with her passion for justice and the cause of the poor. Together they launched The Catholic Worker, a paper that promoted the social justice message of the
Gospel. This gave birth to a lay movement, combining voluntary poverty, hospitality, and the works of corporal mercy. While offering a prophetic witness for peace and nonviolence, Day and her companions were repeatedly arrested for acts of civil disobedience. All the while her activism was rooted in a disciplined life of prayer and sacrament.
Her cause for canonization was initiated in the year 2000, and she was named a Servant of God. In his speech before a joint session of Congress in 2015, Pope Francis, citing her among four “great Americans” who “offer us a way of seeing and interpreting reality,” he praised her commitment to justice and the cause of the oppressed.
Dorothy Day's quote: “But there was another question. Why was so much done in remedying the evil instead of avoiding it in the first place?... Where were the Saints to try to change the social order, not just to minister to the slaves but to do away with slavery?” Dorothy day died on Nov. 29 1980 in NYC. She was 83 years old.
Martin: Robert Ellsberg is an American publisher specializing in religious and spiritual exploration. He is editor-in-chief and publisher of Orbis Books. He lives and works in upstate New York with his wife.
Martin: London by William Blake.
I wander through each chartered street,
Near where the chartered Thames does flow,
A mark in every face I meet,
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every cry of every man,
In every infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forged manacles I hear:
How the chimney-sweeper's cry
Every blackening church appals,
And the hapless soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down palace-walls.
But most, through midnight streets I hear
How the youthful harlot's curse
Blasts the new-born infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the marriage hearse.
Martin: William Blake was a poet, painter and printmaker.
His more notable works were “Songs of Innocence and of Experience.
Blake’s work was largely unrecognized during his life. But highly regarded later by critics and readers for his expressiveness and creativity and for the philosophical and mystical undercurrents within his work.
He was born on November 28th, 1757 in London England and died there August 12th, 1827.
William Blake was 69 years old.
Martin: I invite you to delve further into the works of the poets I shared with you, and I hope you seek out writers and poets whose work speaks to your hearts and minds with the power to inspire your life. If you've enjoyed what you've heard here, please subscribe to my podcast, The Martin Sheen Podcast, with your host, yours truly, Martin Sheen, of course, wherever you find your podcasts. Yeah, I still have to say that.
You can find a complete list of the poets and titles of their poems that I've chosen at our website, themartinsheenpodcast.com.
I want to thank the people who make this podcast possible. Our producer and research assistant, Renee Estevez, whose explanation of the Internet really gets me thinking, “What's for lunch?” And our sound engineer and editor, Bruce Greenspan, the man behind these rich and seamless recordings with the much-deserved nickname the Sound Surgeon. And I especially want to thank you, our listeners, for joining me.
And so, friends, we part with the prayer from Tagore.
Where the heart is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action—
into that heaven of freedom (my Father) let our country awake. Amen
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Renee: “Blessed Among Us: Dorothy Day” by Robert Ellsberg is included here by granted copyright permission and we thank the author for this opportunity to share his work.