This article explores the lives and careers of two notable figures: Allan Carr, a prominent American producer and manager of stage and screen, and Chad Alan Carr, a dedicated individual involved in community theatre and local politics.
Allan Carr: From Chicago to Hollywood Impresario
Allan Carr (né Solomon; May 27, 1937 - June 29, 1999) was an American producer and manager of stage and screen. Carr was born Allan Solomon in Chicago, Illinois, to an American Jewish family. He attended Lake Forest College and Northwestern University, but his interest was always in show business. While at Northwestern, he invested $750 in the Broadway musical Ziegfeld Follies starring Tallulah Bankhead.
In Chicago in the 1960s, he opened the Civic Theater and financed The World of Carl Sandburg starring Bette Davis and Gary Merrill, as well as Eva Le Gallienne in Mary Stuart, directed by Tyrone Guthrie, and Tennessee Williams's Garden District, featuring Cathleen Nesbitt and Diana Barrymore. Through the years, he became known as a great planner of promotional events and parties.
In 1966, Carr founded the talent agency Allan Carr Enterprises, managing the actors Tony Curtis, Peter Sellers, Rosalind Russell, Dyan Cannon, Melina Mercouri, and Marlo Thomas. Carr was responsible for the invention of the false and much-derided story that Cass Elliot died by choking on a ham sandwich. Producer Robert Stigwood hired him in 1975 as marketing and promotion consultant, with his first project being for the film version of the rock opera Tommy. The film was a hit and he expanded his involvement for his next film, re-editing and overdubbing a low-budget foreign film about a real-life disaster. The result was Survive! The surprise box office success of Survive!
In 1977, Stigwood asked him to produce the ad campaign for Saturday Night Fever, and he turned the film's premiere into a star-studded television special. It worked so well that Stigwood gave him Grease (1978). Carr not only helmed the ad campaign and produced the premiere party and television special for Grease, but also co-produced the film for six million dollars, casting his then client Olivia Newton-John. It became the highest-grossing film of the year, and one of the highest-grossing films up until that time, at just under $100 million. The film was nominated for five Golden Globe Awards and won two People's Choice Awards, for Best Picture and Best Musical Picture. That year he even appeared in a role on the final season of the Angie Dickinson television series Police Woman.
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The following year, 1979, he produced the Village People film musical Can't Stop The Music, a production which, while campy, steered clear of addressing the band members' presumed homosexuality in the script. Again he orchestrated a lavish series of premieres and a television special that co-starred his friends Hefner and Cher. But the film was released in 1980, after the crash of the disco craze, and as a result, it was a major flop. Because of this, Carr "won" the first annual Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture in 1981.
When Carr was in Paris for the premiere of Grease, a friend took him to see a play about a gay couple, La Cage aux Folles. By this time in his career, Carr was ready to face the gay theme head on. Returning to Broadway he produced a musical version of the 1973 play, which had since been made into a French film, and would later be remade as an American film called The Birdcage. With a book by Harvey Fierstein and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, the show opened in 1983 and was a huge success, running for five years and 1,761 performances.
LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, Full Production, Jerry Herman
Carr's reputation for hosting expensive and lavish parties and creating spectacular production numbers led AMPAS to hire him to produce the 61st Academy Awards on March 29, 1989. Carr made a promise to shift the show from its perceived dry and dull stature to something different, one that would be inspired by Beach Blanket Babylon (created by Steve Silver), the musical revue show featuring Snow White during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Three time Academy Award winner Marvin Hamlisch was brought in as conductor.
With the promise of being "the antithesis of tacky," for which the ceremony would have no host, as it would rotate actors and actresses instead generally put in pairs as part of Carr's theme of "couples, companions, costars, and compadres", with the most notable pair being Bob Hope and Lucille Ball (in her final public appearance before her death just a few weeks later). The criticism for the ceremony stemmed mostly from the musical numbers that attempted to cross both Old and New Hollywood together.
It began with a booming voice stating that the "star of all time" would arrive soon, which came in the form of Snow White, played by Eileen Bowman (Lorna Luft declined, much to her subsequent relief), who proceeded to try and shake the hands of stars in the audience in the theater (much to the embarrassment of nominated actress Michelle Pfeiffer). Merv Griffin started the show with his 1950 hit “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts!”, complete with a re-creation of the Cocoanut Grove nightclub that featured a collection of established stars such as Vincent Price, Alice Faye, and Roy Rogers.
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An open letter was released on April 7, featuring 17 figures of Hollywood (such as former Academy president Gregory Peck) that called the ceremony an embarrassment to the Academy and the industry. The ratings for the show were marginally better than the previous ceremony, as over 42 million viewers in 26 million homes saw the ceremony in the United States.
The choice of no host for the ceremony would be replicated for the 2019 ceremony. Carr's decision to change the announcement from "And the winner is..." to "And the Oscar goes to.." has been utilized for each Academy ceremony since. Carr elected to have retailer Fred Hayman get designers to dress the stars for arrival on the red carpet, which became its own segment of focus in later years. Comedian Bruce Vilanch, hired as a writer for the show, would work on the show for the next two decades, which included a promotion to head writer.
That same year Carr helmed the project Goya: A Life in Song with Freddie Gershon and CBS Records, a concept album and, later, an off-Broadway musical theater production written by Maury Yeston (Nine) and featuring Plácido Domingo as artist Francisco Goya.
C.C. Carr died from liver cancer on June 29, 1999, in Beverly Hills, California. His ashes were scattered in front of his former Diamond Head house on Oahu by Ann-Margret, her husband Roger Smith, and Martin Menard. In 2017, a documentary about Carr's life was released entitled The Fabulous Allan Carr. The film's director, Jeffrey Schwarz, said, "Although it was no secret that Allan Carr was gay, he never formally acknowledged it publicly.
Chad Alan Carr: A Champion for Gettysburg
Chad-Alan Carr is the Founding Executive/Artistic Director for the Gettysburg Community Theatre which opened in 2009, creating a safe space for educational, volunteer, and performance opportunities for all ages and abilities. In 2011, he chartered the International Thespian Society Troupe at Gettysburg Area High School, and in 2014, he brought the Eastern States Regional Premiere of The Penguin Project Foundation-a theatre program for youth with special needs and their peer mentors-to Gettysburg. In 2017, Chad-Alan organized the inaugural Gettysburg Pride Fest, which he continues to chair annually.
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Chad-Alan has also been honored to speak on campus at Gettysburg College for the Department of Theatre, Public Policy, and Women & Gender Studies. Chad-Alan has facilitated educational trips for Gettysburg students to visit NYC where youth were able to meet professional actors, playwrights, and directors. Another milestone came in 2019 when he helped host the AACT National Festival in Gettysburg, bringing hundreds of community theatre artists to the town.
A strong advocate for equality and inclusion, Chad-Alan introduced the concept of a Non-Discrimination Ordinance to the Borough of Gettysburg Council in 2019 to ensure fair treatment for all residents. After a year of work, the Council voted unanimously to adopt and enact it. In 2020, Chad-Alan was awarded the Peacemaker of the Year Award from the Interfaith Center for Peace and Justice. In 2021, Chad-Alan was elected Council Member At Large for the Borough of Gettysburg where he has had a strong voting record of supporting the Police Department and Public Works.
“Since moving here 17 years ago, I have worked to bring people together to share peace, love, happiness, and equality in Gettysburg," says Carr. “I am grateful for the support I have received from this community, and I feel I can give back even more as a champion for Gettysburg as its next Mayor." One of the most impressive aspects of this performance of Cabaret is the choreography, designed by Chad-Alan Carr with assistant choreographer Debbie Williams.
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