'74 in Life Is a Dream at Cornell,

Princeton when he was 9. His formal preparation began at age 15, however, when he apprenticed him- self to the Williamstown Playhouse in Massachusetts, one of the country's top summer stock theaters. During the next two years, with the help of an under- standing headmaster, Reeve alternated between studies at Princeton Day School, a private high school, and appearances in local community theater. He also found time to be goalie for the school hockey team, work with the school orchestra, and sing in a madrigal group, but says he felt most at home with the theater: 'That's what I did best." His mother, Mrs. Barbara Johnson, explains that when it came time to choose a college, Reeve was looking for a school where he could get a good liberal arts background, yet which had a good theater department and was close enough to New York City that he could come in for auditions and work on vaca- tions. Reeve said he decided to postpone any intensive training as an actor until graduate school. The choice came down to Brown and Cornell. Reeve had friends in Providence but his grandfather, Horace Lamb '16, LLB '20, had gone to Cornell, where he was one of the first students accepted under the Telluride program. Reeve chose Cornell and Rave Reeve-views moved into University Hall 2 in the late By Edward L. Gunts '78 summer of 1970, but not before he had the experience of going on national tour Hollywood couldn't have arranged it any ship before being tapped for the much as Celeste Holm's leading man in the better on a sound set. There were black sought-after part. play The Irregular Verb To Love. ties, klieg lights, and droves of reporters Suddenly he had the ultimate credit— At Cornell, he continued to work pro- in the grand entry hall below, a star- the title role in a film some critics predict fessionally. He had an agent who set up studded cocktail party and a buffet din- will become the highest-grossing movie auditions and other meetings for Reeve ner on the rooftop terrace above. The of all time. After five gala premieres—in- around his class schedule. "Sometimes setting was Kennedy Center in Washing- cluding a command performance for the I'd have to cut classes, but that became ton, DC; the time, 7 p.m., December 10, Queen of England—the film opened last its own incentive," he said. "Somehow I 1978. In just a few moments the beautiful December in 700 theaters across the managed to balance the academic and and powerful of Washington and be- United States and Canada. Seemingly professional sides of my life." Reeve lived yond—from President Carter and the overnight, Reeve catapulted to stardom. in Risley Residential College for the Cre- Kennedy clan to newswoman Barbara Christopher Reeve was born in New ative and Performing Arts his sophomore Walters and bodybuilder Arnold Schwar- York City in 1952 to non-show-business and junior years, and was an English zenegger—would file into the Eisenhower parents who were divorced when he was major with a grade average he recalls as Theater for the " presidential premiere" young. His mother, with whom he grew "about a 3.1." of the $35 million film version of one of up in Princeton, New Jersey, is a reporter "Everything Chris did was planned to America's most enduring and durable for a weekly newspaper; his father is a enhance his ambition in the theater," his heroes—. professor at Yale; his stepfather a stock- mother says. "Even at an early age he The star of the night—and the subject broker; and his stepmother a professor at took himself very seriously. He was not of rave reviews and countless cover sto- Connecticut College. the fraternity type." His acting ability ries in the weeks to come—was an actor Reeve showed an early attraction for and his six-foot-four good looks helped whose name was until then virtually un- the stage, playing the part of the second him land roles in University Theater known to national audiences, a Cornel- guard in an amateur production of productions of Stoppard's Rosencrantz lian, Christopher Reeve '74. Though un- Cinderella at the age of 8 and that of an and Guildenstern Are Dead, Calderon's heralded and only 26, he had already extra in a repertory production of Gilbert Life Is a Dream, Brecht's Good Woman served a considerable acting apprentice- and Sullivan in the McCarter Theater in of Setzuan, and Beckett's Waiting for

26 • CORNELL ALUMNI NEWS Reeve had accepted a role in the daytime Reeve bridges a gap as Superman. Prof. James Clancy, theater arts, TV serial Love of Life. His character, emeritus, Reeve's undergraduate adviser who had money and no scruples, was with his ability to show two distinctly dif- and director in Good Woman ofSetzuan, married to two women at once, one preg- ferent personalities—Superman and his says he remembers Reeve as "an inter- nant. He recalls vividly that one day in a other manifestation, the mild-mannered esting young actor—bright, talented, and New Hampshire restaurant a woman reporter, Clark Kent. Reeve got the job. handsome." As to how much Reeve's recognized him for his TV part and Preparing for the part required six Cornell experience helped him later on, whacked him over the head with her months of body building—road work Clancy isn't sure. "Let's say it didn't handbag, shouting, "How dare you treat and exercise—to add muscle and bulk to hurt. We've had several recent students your pregnant wife that way?" his slender body. who were trained here and got work, but For the next two-and-a-half years he , who plays the film's just as many who didn't. Others worked had roles in television, a movie, and live upbeat, liberated Lois Lane, puts in a for a few years and then ended up as shoe theater, before auditioning for the Super- good word for her leading man. "In the clerks. It's a tough field to break into and man role. He worked on Broadway and beginning," she said in an interview on stay in." on tour with Katharine Hepburn in A opening day, "our approaches to acting Reeve says today he was "delighted" Matter of Gravity and was performing were totally different. Chris was disci- with Cornell's willingness to encourage off-Broadway in late 1976 when sum- plined, dedicated. He gets into character students who want to pursue acting moned to England, where most of Super- and ignores what goes on around him. I careers and grateful for its policy of man was to be shot, to test for the title like laughter on the set, looseness. He's granting credit for in-absentia study. He role. intellectual. I'm impulsive. But it all received credit one semester for partici- The movie's executive producer, Ilya worked out in the end. Now he's like my pating in San Diego's Shakespeare Fes- Salkind, has said since, "The first temp- brother." tival and again for a trip to England to tation was to go with the biggest star "No one else could have brought it off study British repertory theater—at the name we could find. We approached or the way Chris did," director Richard end of which he worked at the Old Vic in were approached by just about every Donner added. "He's a terrific actor." London. leading man in Hollywood and abroad. Reeve considered the biggest challenge The College of Arts and Sciences also But if we had cast a well-known star, as to be putting together the characters of allowed him to take his senior year at the he soared over the city of Metropolis, you Kent and Superman. With Kent he Julliard School of Drama in New York would never have been able to forget his played the absent minded, clumsy clown where he was one of three undergraduate star personality. It would always have to the hilt and takes pride in the fact that students admitted to the advanced pro- been the star up there—not Superman." he added humor to the part. As Super- gram under Academy Award winning Of his audition Reeve says, "I look at man, he said, he tried to make the card- actor John Houseman. In August 1974 he tests as a work session rather than an board superhero "more human" than was graduated from Cornell with a bach- audition. I go in thoroughly prepared, he's been in an earlier movie and a tele- elor's degree. because that's a big step toward having vision series. Reeve said the most diffi- To finance the year's study at Julliard confidence." Producers were impressed cult part of the role was the physical

MARCH 1979 • 27 strain it required, especially in filming Ms. Haarstick said she was glad to see the flying sequences. For these, he was that "he still cares about his friends, even suspended on a system of wires, at times though he's at a point where he could as much as 200 feet above ground and in have forgotten about them. I don't think icy temperatures. he's ready to live the life of a Hollywood Though experienced as an actor, movie star. He still likes to be able to see Reeve said he was not ready to handle movies or play tennis or go gliding with- fame as a sex symbol—the "sexy, savvy out drawing a big crowd. He wants to Superman" of the '70s, as one magazine retain his privacy." billed him. "I didn't do this role just to His college adviser, Professor Clancy, get mobbed at the airport." Reeve said says he doesn't think being cast in one he thought no amount of education can role has made Reeve a star. "Not yet. He prepare a person for the consequences of just got a good job. He's getting a lot of being famous. attention. In a way, though, Reeve was groomed "Reeve was in the right place at the for the limelight. He tells the story of a right time. His particular good looks, director in Princeton who warned him which are reminiscent of the '20s and when he was 14, "Chris, you better decide '30s," are now in vogue, Clancy said, what you want, because you're going to since there has been a shift away from get it." "I always knew I'd be a success the "let's-be-tough-and-ride-motorcycles one day," he says without self-conscious- look. But if Reeve got the job because of ness. his looks, he's a good enough actor to Reeve returned to Ithaca briefly last hang on." fall to visit old friends. While in town, he Throughout his two years of work on dropped in on a run-through of a Cornell the production, Reeve made every effort production, Keep Your Eye on Emily, to distinguish himself from the Super- and met with theater students in the man persona while off-screen. He said he master's program. is determined to avoid any typecasting Jennifer Haarstick '72, a lecturer in problems which may have plagued actors the theater arts department, said she like Sean Connery, Troy Donahue, or his Reeve as the shy reporter Clark Kent, didn't think Reeve had changed much own predecessor as Superman in the and, above, asPozzo in a 1971 University from the way she knew him as an under- movies, George Reeves. He doesn't see Theater production of Samuel Beckett's graduate, "except that he has more con- himself as a commercial product to be Waiting for Godot. fidence." She said she thought returning marketed and he doesn't want others to to Cornell gave him a chance to go back see him that way either. into the past, to see who he was and get At the Washington premiere, Reeve his bearings before becoming caught up was reluctant even to be photographed in all the hoopla surrounding the open- next to the life-sized Superman posters ing of the movie. displayed around the building. He had

28 • CORNELL ALUMNI NEWS lost half of the forty pounds that he'd experience. There's a sense of quality to at least as far as the public is concerned. gained for the role, and had taken a theater life. Everyone wants to be the new And even he admits as much when he winter hiatus from his strenuous exercis- Olivier," she said. allows himself to lapse—if only jok- ing regimen. So far, he says, he's been Of course, had it not been for the ingly—into Superman talk: "It takes able to sort out who he is from who the Superman role, Reeve might not be con- twenty years to make an actor, and Γm Superman character is. But, the maga- templating a return to live theater; he halfway there now. But who knows? zine covers still picture him as Super- might never have left it. Try as he might Maybe some day I'll end up going to a man, not Christopher Reeve. to separate himself from the part that is home for old Supermen and playing "I'm not kidding myself," he said. "To giving him so much publicity, he'll prob- shuffleboard." the public I'll be Superman until proven ably never be able to do so completely— otherwise. To me, I'm not. And Γm pleased that the scripts Γm getting, from all studios, are offers for me as an actor, not a symbol." Reeve is scheduled for ten to twelve more weeks of filming for Superman II, which may be released by next Christ- mas. Producers Ilya Salkind and say they have plans for up to Enter Hamlet five "Supermovies" and would like Reeve to be in all of them. So far, however, he By Ann E. Bernitz '79 has not committed himself beyond the first two. In its almost one-hundred-year old his- experimental productions. The Dramatic "We'll have to see how it goes," Reeve tory, theater at Cornell has never offered Club was organized in 1909 through the said. "If they come up with good scripts a production of Hamlet. Why? What efforts of Prof. James A. Winans, chair- and Γm available, we might work some- could possibly keep connoisseurs and man of public speaking. The club's first thing out. But with two pictures—the scholars of the dramatic arts from indul- accomplishment was Henrik Ibsen's current one and the sequel—I think I've ging in a performance of one of theater's Enemy of the People. about done it. Superman has given me a greatest tragedies? At Cornell the rea- A few years later, in 1912, Alexander fantastic opportunity if I treat it as just sons are twofold. First, the popular ex- Drummond became director of public that—not a lifetime in the same costume planation is that a production of Hamlet speaking and Cornell theater began its and cape." on the university level anywhere is a seri- real growth spurt. Drummond was ex- Upstairs at the Kennedy Center on ous undertaking. "It is a deeply complex tremely active in the department and was opening night, Reeve's mother was wait- play which requires a lead actor of famous both inside and outside the walls ing for him to finish his marathon of amazing ability and strength," com- of Cornell for his contributions to the interviews. It had been one of many long ments Prof. Richard Shank, chairman, performing arts. In 1917, Drummond days for him. In the morning he had met theater arts. These actors are not avail- revamped Goldwin Smith B, a common with East Coast movie critics at the Fair- able in great multitudes. Second, Cornell lecture hall, into a theater. It wasn't fax Hotel. A limousine ride to the Water- theater in particular has shied away from optimum, but at least the club had a gate to get dressed for the premiere. the classics in favor of contemporary, place of its own. Then after the show, another round of experimental, or avant garde theater. Finally, in 1925 a great thing came to interviews for radio and television. This trend was especially true in the time pass for the Cornell dramatic arts. The "Chris's grandmother was thinking of when Prof. Alexander Drummond, Grad first central student union, Willard subscribing to a clipping service for him Ό9-Ί5, chaired the Department of Straight Hall, opened, complete with a as a Christmas present," Mrs. Johnson Speech and Drama. real theater. An information booklet said, "but she decided against it. There The "pre-Drummond" Cornell theater claimed the theater to be "one of the probably wouldn't have been room to lacked cohesiveness. It consisted of a most modern amateur theaters in our store all the clippings." series of drama clubs, each of which fiz- Eastern colleges." The theater was chris- At 1 in the morning Reeve was still zled out when a more popular one was tened on November 26, 1925 with a pro- on his feet, talking about the movie— formed. The first of these clubs was the duction of The Contrast by Royall Tyler, "where every day on the set was like Cascadilla Dramatic Association, which the first social comedy written and pro- opening night on Broadway.... I've been was organized in 1880. The only theater duced in America. very lucky in my early career," he said, at that time was in what is now Casca- The little theater was a definite im- "to have worked with stars like dilla Hall, and was established and provement over the previous makeshift Katharine Hepburn, Charleton Heston, funded by Goldwin Smith. She Stoops to establishments of the Dramatic Club. It and ." Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith, per- was luxuriously equipped with a scene After the Superman sequel, Reeve formed in the same year, was Cornell's shop, makeup and dressing rooms, and said, he will consider other movie first theatrical production. soft seats for the audience. The walls offers—but would also like to return to The next theatrical organization was were elegantly decorated by J. Monroe Broadway or regional theater. His desire The Masque, which was founded in 1890 Hewlitt with murals of the Greek trage- to go back to live theater—despite the and had a relatively long life. It lasted dies on the left wall and scenes from success of his first major movie—is per- until 1926 when it surrendered gallantly Shakespearean plays on the right. Inter- fectly understandable, according to to the rising Cornell Dramatic Club by estingly enough, one of the Shakespear- theater instructor Haarstick. "To an bequeathing $5,500 to the advancement ean murals was, and is, of Act I, Scene 5 actor," she says, "being on stage before a of the dramatic arts, with special atten- in Hamlet when the Ghost says to live audience is the quintessential tion to be paid to playwrighting and Hamlet, "Know, thou noble youth, the

MARCH 1979 • 29