Daily News from New York, New York • 208

-Section Two SUNDAY NEWS, OCTOBER 28, 1962 16 BROADWATS 90-DAY WONDER V'u An Unknown Only Three Months Ago, 23-Year-OId Actress Mclinda Dillon Shot to Stardom in Broadway Debut By ROBERT WAULS I i -I T1 1 UVO weeks ago last night Melinda Dillon, a willowy blonde who somehow manages to combine the sex appeal of a Brigitte Bardot with the emotional appeal of a Geraldine Page, celebrated her 23d birthday by making her Broadway debut. She is one of four pivotal players in Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf 7" As Honey, a child wife to an opportunistic college instructor, she faced-. demands from the playwright comparable to those Eugene O'Neill cade oa his actors in "Long Day's Journey Into Night." The play lasts three andf most young actresses if they ex pect the same. It came so fast." Siarry-Eyed We'd like to ay that Melinda Dillon is bemused by fcer oernigKt rise from obscurity to stardom in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" but this is really a scene from the play. Critics unanimously nailed her performance as superb.

Plummer. It was too early for me to act." Melinda, a graduate of Hyde Park High in Chicago, was keeping herself busy. In addition to working at Goodman, she was singing, dancing and improvising at "Second City," the night club and theatre which had already paw-red Mike Nichols, Elaine May and Barbara Harris, among others. But the next Dillon advance was already in the cards. Director Schneider, who had already given her a St.

Christopher medal for protection, arranged for her to work at Washington's Arena Stage, one of the finest training grounds in the country. There she did Brecht'a "Caucasian Chalk Circle," Kopit's "Burning opening night at the Billy 0 Rose, Melinda was at some one hair hours: the speeches are long anJ revealing. M-iir. ii opened and triumphed. Tn drama critics called her pe rma nee b.

Ji-t three mopth an sit day after she arrived from Viasfunsj-t I). C. July 7. Melinda vii a star. She had come t.j act li standby Barbara Harris i-! the Phoenix Theatre's it.

"Ort. Iad, Poor Pa i. Mama' Huns You in the what of a disadvantage. She had joined the company late in rehearsals, had worked vith Uta Hagen, Arthur Hill a i George Grizzard for only t1 ee weeks. There wa3 no out town try-out, just seven paid previews.

Coproducers Richard Barr and Clinton Wilder hai something like $12,000 in the box office to of tha Lepers and baroyan a "Time of Your Life." got her first theatrical experience in a performance of Wagner's "Die Meistersinger," currently a hit at the Metropolitan. "I remember most a huge old house, with fruit trees and a barn," she told me. "That's where 1 started my collection of china cupa. There was a German girl, Trudle Kalb (that means calf German), who lived next door. We'd tee whatever shows were sent over, such as 'Brigadoon.

When Melinda vs 18, she served notice on her family that she was tired of traveling about. She had attended three high schools before graduating from Hyde Park. The family agreed to let her stay in Chicago, where she joined the Goodman Theatre. She had a scholarship, augmented by an allowance from her stepfather, and she did odd jobs in the school office. As she gat talking at the Coffee Mill, Melinda toyed with a thin gold wedding band which she told me was a prop for the play, picked up in a novelty store.

She's afraid to take it off because she might forget to wear it when she goes on stage. insure a week run. Through another of those traditional freaks of theatre, Melinda had replaced Lane Bradbury, another 22-year-old actress, originally signed for the part. Melinda vol unknown to the public when the came to town. But the grapevine in tome theatre circles had been buzzing ever smce the scorn the junior Sarah Siddont Award in 1960 uhile ttiil a student at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.

She thinks her performance in Tennessee "Talk to Me Like the Rain" von her the award. "I had heard about Melinda from Dr. Reich, president of Goodman," Peter Witt told me. "I hear of thousands of young actors and perhaps see one in 500. I thanked him and said I wasn't interested ia a student.

"Then Alan Schneider, now the Closet and I Feel So Sad." Her had risen from $-40 a week to 0 a wwli. And tx, was important, I discovered. Finally fieaiy fa Face Her Creditors ia an 1 I met at the Coffee Mill on 5-th St. She was wearing a blue floppy hat you expect sea on Shirley th in strong sunlight. And she was in a huddle with an over a stack of unpaid bills.

She live in the E. 70s and she hai come a )n from her one-rm apartment over a "broiler" r.e means boiler) tj face her financial facts. has been ln sin re I opened the bill box except tv peek at them," she explained, delicately placing one palm on her tummy. I tried pay the most urg-t. like tha rent.

Most of the time I otvenei. peeked and alappei the lid back on." Chances are Melinda will never r. aTa to hi le from the bill collator ajain. has happened her is a one in a million sn -t paying off the first time oat in the theatre." says her agent. Peter Witt.

a disaster for Already Melinda was a long way from Hope, where she was born because "daddy knew a doctor there and mother had lost one baby." Her father, Fred Cardy, was an oil company representative, working out of Cullman, where her mother ran a beauty shop. They were divorced when Melinda was 5 and her mother, Noreen, married an Army man. A Little Uncertain As to His Rank "1 used to say he was a lieutenant colonel in the Army," Melinda said. "But mother cleared that up recently. He's a provost marshal in the military police and in line for a promotion.

"Although I was brought tip using my stepfather's name, Dillon, my mother kept her word to my real father that I would not be adopted. I guess that makes my real name still Cardy." Melinda and her mother and later her half sister, who is now 13 traveled wherever the Army sent her stepfather. From 1948 until 1951, the family lived in Nurnberg, Germany, where ahe inda. pwMa mutt be perceptive because I really didn't want to ttart out in musical comedy. My idol was ttill Geraldine Page an an acfre." "Melinda called me from Washington and told me of the Merrick offer," agent Witt said.

"Tha pressure of an offer can be very great on a young actress, and she was tempted. I had already flown down to see her work in 'Chalk Circle' and was impressed. "I asked her what ahe really wanted to do. When ahe said she wasn't ready, that she wanted to finish her year in Washington, I told her I would protect her. I wanted to hear her say she would study a little longer at Arena." The interest in this young actress was phenomenal, according to another source.

Sidney Kingsley met her and for 10 days couldn't make up his mind whether or not to rewrite the role of the cafe singer in his new play, "Night Life," for her. Carol Lawrence is now playing the part on Broadway. However, Melinda obviously made a better deal in "Who's Afraid." An Off-Broadway Chance as Standby It was arranged that Melinda should come here in July to work in "Oh Dad, Poor Dad" as standby for Barbara Harris. Actually, Melinda played the pari dozen times when Barbara was ill, her only Manhattan appearance before the Albee play opened. By now she had signed with Witt.) When It became apparent that Lane Bradbury was having difficulty learning her part quickly, Melinda.

auditioned for playwright Albee, who merely said, "Thank you very much, that's alL" Later, producer Richard Barr had a dozen young actresses to his apartment; apparently all were candidates for the part of Honey. Of course, "Albee was there. "It was a very nice social evening," Melmda recalled, "and I enjoyed talking to Mr. Albee. But I had a feeling I was behaving oh, a little too enthusiastically, or maybe a little desperately.

wasn't desperate. I knew Lane had the part, but they were still looking." Nothing earns of the evening, but Melinda, wot invited to. attend an end the summer Actors Studio get-togetheri There was Albee again. He reportedly director of hos Afraid? went to Chicago and directed Melinda in a production of 'Uncle He told me aha was'a rare talent who needed work and I kept the name in mind. After all.

I hare made mistakes with Kim Stanley, Geraldine Page and Christopher wmwmm uhmujiji Minium mmwmMimJ v. "I'm not married, although I was engaged last year to an actor, Richard Idbertini, who was playing in Thornton Wilder'a bill at the Circle in the Square," she said. "He's now in California doing television. We were both too busy to marry, we are still good friends. "I'm treated quite differently now that I'm wearing a wedding band," she noted laughingly.

"Maybe I really do want to get married, but I can't pressure myself into it. Things are so interesting in the theatre." Jlf ELTNDA'S stay In Washing. ton, after her two years with the Goodman Theatre and "Second City," increased her reputation by word of mouth. It was almost time for her to have an agent, something every young actress prays for. Then David Merrick wanted her to come New York, expenses paid, to audition for his new musical, "I Can Get It for You Wholesale." The role was that of Miss Marmelstein, for which Barbra Streisand was ultimately signed.

did go for an audition, but I didn't go back," admitted Mel- V- -vi-r-' ni'v, 8 if. HTi, tZ- 1 Her Melinda and Arthur Hill play a tens scene ia "Who's Afraid?" a play of great dramatic power. J' t- prvym.