Joan Collins and Anthony Quinn at the 45th Annual Tony Awards (June, 1991) / Wireimage
Barry Weissler Exclusive:
Day 13
By Barry Weissler, Spinach
Thu Jan 31, 2008
Today’s story is about spinach. Well, not exactly spinach, but spinach and Anthony Quinn and his ex-Italian wife, Jolanda.
It was a cold winter in Canada during a blizzard. We were playing Zorba in Toronto and it was a huge success. Anthony Quinn was starring in it. People were treating Tony like royalty.
One day after a show we were invited by a Greek restaurateur to eat at his restaurant in honor of Tony’s wonderful performance. I had expected that it would be a lovely evening and quiet in the company of Fran, Jolanda, Tony and the gentleman who invited us.
When we arrived at the restaurant, we were ushered to the top floor, a private dining hall that to our surprise was filled with people. Tony was tired and very unhappy about the crowd that immediately swallowed him.
After a time, we were seated at four long tables connected to make a giant hollow square. The tables were spilling over with every dish imaginable, except for spinach, Jolanda’s only request. “I want speenach!” she kept saying in her European accent. The waiters scrambled around trying to get her “speenach.”
Everyone sat there, quiet, staring at Tony, watching him chew every bite as he grew more and more annoyed. The food was practically piled to the ceiling. Jolanda again asked about her “speenach.” She only wants “speenach”. As Tony is turning red, fuming at all the people touching and picking at him, the noise and tension growing, he holds his utensils with white fists.
At that moment the owner of the restaurant jumps into the space inside the tables and begins to play spoons. At the end of the performance, the Greek man tries to give Tony a bear hug and Tony pushes him away. It turns into a shouting shoving match.
They are ready to kill each other and I can’t have my star injured, so I get between these two giants 6’6” and 6’ 4”, and I push them apart screaming. I grab Tony and Jolanda and we go downstairs. It’s still snowing so hard that we are forced to stay in the restaurant.
We retreat to a quiet table on the first floor where we order drinks. The maitre d’ comes up to the table and says, “Nice to see you again!” directly to Tony. Tony says, “I don’t know you.” The maitre d’ says, “Oh yes, don’t you remember?” Tony says “No.” The maitre d’ replies, “Oh yes, of course you do. Hold on.” The maitre d’ returns with a photo album of the restaurant and opens to a photo of Anthony Quinn, and indeed it is him. But he is not alone. He is at a table kissing Ingrid Bergman! Jolanda explodes. She pounds her fists on him as he runs out the door. She runs right after him. They take off through the blizzard with Fran and me right behind them and behind us, the small voice of the waiter shouting, “Lady! Lady! I have your speenach!”
Until tomorrow…
Broadway producers Barry & Fran Weissler are the recipients of five Tony Awards®. Their numerous Broadway credits include acclaimed productions Othello with James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer, My One and Only with Tommy Tune, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Kathleen Turner and Charles Durning, Gypsy with Tyne Daly, and the Tony Award-winning productions of Falsettos and Annie Get Your Gun with Bernadette Peters and Reba McEntire, among others. They are currently represented on Broadway – and across the globe -- with the international smash hit Chicago, which earned six 1997 Tony Awards® including Best Musical Revival, as well as countless other awards in the U.S. and abroad.