Post by peter gross on Aug 27, 2010 6:42:25 GMT -5
I was very sad to hear that Nancy Dolman, the wife of comedian Martin Short died on the weekend. I had a couple of degrees of involvement with Nancy.
She was two years younger than me and we both attended York Mills C.I. As a teenager, she was a stunning young woman, often the subject of admiration among the young males in the school.
She became an actress and singer and in 1972, while in the production of Godspell, she met Short and they married in 1980. My understanding is that it was a fruitful, loving and successful marriage until the end. She was diagnosed with cancer about three years ago.
In the mid 80s, I was employed at CITY-TV and somewhere along the line, I submitted a very mediocre film scrip to Moses Znaimer. But timing is everything, and, as I recall, Moses wanted to branch out and make movies, so he told me to rewrite my script. It was called Butterbump in the Eighth and was a half hour little story and Moses decided that CITY would produce it.
Marcia Martin, a CITY TV producer was in charge of the production. Her sister Andrea, the great comic actress was married to Bob Dolman, Nancy’s brother. Marcia decided from the start that Nancy would get the role of Audrey. I was friends with actor Jonathan Welsh and persuaded Andrea that he should have the lead role of Stewart.
The plot, what there was of it, concerned an inveterate cabdriver horseplayer, who meets a beautiful woman at the track, falls for her while pursuing a big ‘tip’ and right after he scores a big win, she rips him off for the proceeds.
The third lead role was that of a 12 year-old boy – a track rat – who perhaps latched on to the Jonathan Welsh character as a father figure. We spent a lot of time casting for the right kid and I remember distinctly when Sean Roberge came in to read. He was so smooth and natural that I simply blurted out,
“You’re the one! You got the part.”
Shooting Butterbump in the Eighth (the cabdriver gets a tip on Butterbump in the Eighth, get it?) was a great experience. Woodbine pretty well gave us carte blanche to shoot anywhere we wanted. It is certainly not a terrific film by any measurement, but I am proud of the race sequences. Unlike Seabiscuit, we could not create races – we had to shoot the real ones and sew them together to suit our purposes.
There was one scene between Welsh and Dolman that was intriguing to film. Basically he seduces her with the idea that he has a big tip that is going to render a lot of cash. We shot it in a hotel room and it was the first and only time in my life in which I had to direct actors to kiss each other. I think every guy in the room was jealous of Welsh that night. Nancy looked gorgeous.
We shot Butterbump in 1985. By then, Martin Short was very much a rising star. His work in the SCTV series was hilarious and brilliant. One day he showed up at Woodbine to watch us shoot a scene with his wife. He had the couple’s first child in a stroller and was perfectly content to play the abiding father on the sidelines, while mom got all the attention. One scene involved Stewart leaving the track after a losing day and handing off his racing form to someone coming in. I asked Martin if he would be the guy coming in.
Then I could brag that I directed Martin Short in my movie.
Marty was more than happy to do it. The problem was, each time he took the form, he had to do a piece of business, a pratfall, a head splat into a garbage can, whatever. He had us in stitches.
I’d like to say you can see this scene on YouTube or that the movie is available at Blockbuster, but I don’t even have a copy myself. Maybe Marcia Martin does. Someone ask her.
Nancy Dolman was terrific in a poorly written part. At no point do we really figure out what makes her tick and that was my fault as the writer.
There is a very weird sidebar to this. Sean Roberge, the gifted kid who played the 12 year-old went on to do some very fine work. Among his roles was an ongoing part as the sidekick in the revamped Tarzan series. Sadly, Roberge was killed in a car accident in 1996.
Welsh acted in a number of excellent Canadian series. He was the fastidious bureau manager in Adderly and played the gay story editor in the E.N.G. series. Jonathan died in 2005 and sadly, he passed with virtually no fanfare. I can’t even tell you what he died of.
So the three leads in a mediocre horse racing movie that I wrote and directed have all died.
There was a brief moment in my life that I was involved with Nancy Dolman. She was a beautiful woman, who at all times conducted herself with grace, skill and humour.
Like many others, I extend my sympathies to Martin Short and his children.
