Furman Magazine Volume 32 Article 1 Issue 1 Winter 1988 12-1-1987 Furman Magazine. Volume 32, Issue 1 - Full Issue Furman University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/furman-magazine Recommended Citation University, Furman (1987) "Furman Magazine. Volume 32, Issue 1 - Full Issue," Furman Magazine: Vol. 32 : Iss. 1 , Article 1. Available at: https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/furman-magazine/vol32/iss1/1 This Complete Volume is made available online by Journals, part of the Furman University Scholar Exchange (FUSE). It has been accepted for inclusion in Furman Magazine by an authorized FUSE administrator. For terms of use, please refer to the FUSE Institutional Repository Guidelines. For more information, please contact [email protected]. UNIVERSITY The Furman Magazine is published by WINTER 1988 Furman University, Greenville, S.C. 29613 VOLUME 32 NUMBER 1 and printed by Provence Printing, 1nc. Copyright© Furman University 1988 Editor: Marguerite Hays Contributing Writers: Vince Moore, Jim Stewart, Terry Walters Photographer: David Crosby CONTENTS Design: Beth Tankersley 2 Tankersley I Schroeder Graphic Design Managing with Love by Marguerite Hays Consultant: Tom Hays Dale Davis helps to shape the careers of her show business clients in their best interests. ALUMNI BOARD OF DIRECTORS Robert L. Thompson, Jr. '60, president; Setting the Stage for Ideas by Terry Walters 8 David G. Ellison '72, president-elect; Founder of Stages Repertory Theatre in Houston, Texas, Ted Swindley '71, Robert H. Lutz, Jr. vice-president; has received national recognition for his creative work. Robert E. Kelsey '72, secretary; Ravenel B. Curry III '63, past president; Joyce Burris The Jovial Producer by Marguerite Hays 12 '54; '59; Bagwell William L. Ballenger Jane As a Broadway producer, Karl Allison works with such celebrated actors Arnold Barnhill '72; Mary Barr Behlke '59; as Claudette Colbert, Rex Harrison, Jason Robards and Colleen Dewhurst. Gordon L. Blackwell '60; Breck S. Bolton '83; John P. Cardillo '64; Richard Cassady A Class Act by Jim Stewart 18 '62; '79; Beth Hicks Fisher Harold F. Unlike commercial theatres, the Furman Theatre Guild can afford to Gallivan III '69; Sarah W. Herring '66; present some plays that may not be box office hits. Trescott N. Hinton '38; Paul B. Nix, Jr. '77; '73; Henry L. Parr, Jr. Chartee Muckenfuss The King of Clubs by Vince Moore 22 Plyler '59; Alice Dean Pugh '60; R. O'Neil Although it took Betsy King six years to claim her first LPGA victory, Rabon, Jr. '81; Wayne D. Reid '68; Keith A. Shelton '58; Constance Snapp '71; she has won more tournaments than any other golfer since then. Linda Anthony Tuck '66; Charles F. Turner '62; Fred E. Vereen III '84; Cam COVER: Two Furman alumni have Gregory Williams '65 achieved success in the heart of the New York theatre district. Dale Davis manages '47, Ex-Officio: John E. Johns president, the professional lives of actors, writers and Furman University; Jerry E. McGee, vice­ directors, while Karl Allison produces president for development; Don Fowler, shows on and off-Broadway. One of director of development; Anne McMillan Purcell '59, director of the Loyalty Fund; Davis's clients, Elizabeth Franz, is cur­ William]. Lavery, faculty liaison; Troy rently starring in Neil Simon's Broadway Simpson '88, president, Association of Bound at the Broadhurst Theatre on West Furman Students; John Taylor '88, 44th Street. Photo by David Crosby. president, Senior Class; Michael McClamrock '87, past president, Association of Furman Students; John S. West '87, president, Senior Class Furman University offers equal opportunity in its employment, admissions and education activities in compliance with Tide IX and other civil rights laws. AGING WITH LOVE BY MARGUERITE HAYS In a business where rejection is an everyday occurrence, Dale Davis sustains her clients with advice and affection. n CBS's "Morning Show" the crowded streets of Manhattan. She last August, co-host wears her honey-colored hair in a long­ Mariette Hartley inter­ ish pageboy bob, with bangs over her 0 viewed actress Dixie forehead. As she talks, her face is Carter, one of the stars of the hit TV animated. She rolls her eyes for empha­ series "Designing Women." Hartley sis and punctuates her sentences with commented that it must have been very bursts of laughter. hard for Carter to get back into acting, From the moment you walk into her after taking eight years off to start a office, you know that her clients are family. members of a "family." One wall is It was hard, Carter said. When she covered with photographs of them, ar­ decided to go back to work, she could ranged around a picture of Davis as a not find an agent because she had not little girl. The other walls are decorated worked for so long. "One person­ with framed posters of shows her clients only one person-her name is Dale have starred in. Davis and she had faith in me." "Dale exists for us," says Gene "So at 35 you felt archaic?" asked Lindsey, who acted regularly in soap Hartley. operas for several years and has per­ "Well, I didn't exactly because, as I formed in a number of shows on and said, I met this fantastic woman who Some days Davis spends three-fourths of off-Broadway. "She does everything thought I was good and got me back in her time on the telephone, talking with from babysit to let us change clothes in the business ...." clients, producers, directors and agents. her office. It's the perfect business for Dixie Carter is one of a group of her. She loves doing it, and our rela­ actors whose lives have been changed tenth floor of a building in the heart of tionship is wonderful. The whole pack­ by Dale Davis. A 1963 Furman grad­ the theatre district. Like her apartment, age that goes with it-Dale, her uate, Davis manages the professional her two-room office is spacious mother, her friends and relatives-are lives of 24 actors, writers and directors. perhaps only by New York standards. wonderful." The actors she represents perform on Her assistant's desk, file cabinets and The letterhead of her stationery says, and off-Broadway, in regional, reper­ shelves loaded with scripts and video­ "Dale Davis and Company-Personal tory and stock theatre, in movies and tapes occupy the room opening off the Management," and that is what she television. The writers are mostly play­ hallway, while Davis's desk, several provides for her clients. The difference wrights, who write for stage and televi­ chairs and a small refrigerator fill the between theatrical agents and managers sion, and some also work as actors and second room. Behind her desk a large lies mainly in the "personal" nature of directors. The only full-time director window looks out over Broadway and she represents, Thomas Gruenewald, 51st Street. has directed hundreds of plays, as well Scarcely more than fi ve feet tall, One of the fortunate few who live dose to as a dozen operas. Davis generally wears loose-fitting their work in Manhattan, Davis welcomes Davis's office is located only three dresses and low-heeled shoes that are a constant stream of out-of-town friends to blocks from her apartment, on the suitable for walking long distances on her mid-town apartme.nt. Photo2raohs bv David Crosbv managers' services. Agents are fran­ After the audition, she calls the cast­ simple one-and-a-half page contract chised by the unions to find jobs for ing director to find out what happened. that briefly describes her services and actors, writers and directors, while If the actor did not get the part, she the terms for her payment. there is no legal definition of a manager. tries to find out why. Then she relays When Davis thinks about her career, Agents generally represent many more this information to her client in the she seems surprised at the turn her life people than do managers. Small agen­ most positive way possible. has taken. "I always meant to teach cies may have 50 to 75 clients, while "If it's just a bad situation, I never English," she explains. "l have loved large agencies, such as William Morris lie to my clients. They're too good, too literature since I learned to read ...since and ICM, may represent more than professional for me to lie to them. But my grandmother used to read to me." 700 clients. I try to protect them from the ugly part Davis grew up in Greenville and "Managers are career builders. Agents of the business. I try to put myself be­ Decatur, Ga. She entered Furman in are job-getters, although some people tween them and the producers and di­ 1957, but was forced to drop out jump over the border lines," explains rectors to make it easier for them to be during her sophomore year due to the Harris Spylios, Davis's former partner, artists." illness of her fa ther. At that time she who has also owned an agency. "When began a series of jobs that would bring a client is offered a job, a manager must her into contact with a great many peo­ be concerned with where the job will ple, many of whom remain her friends. place his or her client two years from She worked first as head of the elec­ now. Agents tend to get the biggest deal Davis provides trocardiagram basal metabolism depart­ in the shortest possible time." ment at Greenville General Hospital Some of Davis's clients, like many the personal services and then at Leslie Advertising Agency. people in the theatre, have both agents She worked in Washington for a year and managers.