Life 1957-1959

In the fall of 1955 JC meets Burt Lane (a graduate of Gena Rowlands' AADA class and father of actress Diane Lane), they re-establish the relationship. Lane is about to give up acting.
In early 1956 they rent a room on an upper floor of the Variety Arts Building at 225 W 45th St and invite friend to read. They move to a vacant room on the ground floor for around $800 a month. This amateur adventure takes the official name of "The Cassavetes-Lane Drama Workshop". Class are held a few nights at week and divided based on the experience (Cassavetes take the advanced students). Charge are two dollars a head. In this Workshop, where Hug Hurd, Tony Ray and Lelia Goldoni were students, lie the roots of Shadows.
The Workshop is created in very contrast with the Actor's Studio. JC was refused to enter the Studio, but now that he's famous, they invite him for an audition. He decides to go with Lane and they improvise along the way. Strasberg is impress by the piece and doesn't recognize the prank.
In January 1957, JC makes a special Sunday session at the Workshop and invites some students to join him. He describes a scene in details and the actors have to imagine and improvise (the scene is the post-coital sequence between Tony and Lelia and Hugh).
They think of turning the improvisation into a movie. All he needs are $7500 and a cameraman.
The cameraman turns to be Erick Kollmar. To get the money he pays visit to Jean Shepard's Night People, declaring that if people want a movie about people they have to pay for it. And so they do - $2500 in cash and checks.
The movie is not intended for public distribution so the cast&crew are not paid for the job.
The shooting lasts more than ten weeks, from end of February till May 1957.
The relationship with Lane becomes tense because JC didn't include Lane in the project and because once the movie has began the school is practically taken over by the troupe.
JC has a deadline: in the spring of 1957 he has to play in Saddle the Wind and Virgin Island.
By the beginning of May the shooting is finished. Editing starts. It'll take more than 18 months. The problems run from too much footage to edit, the poor quality of much of the sound and wide inexperience (just to mention few reasons, the rest are listed in the Movie Section).
For the soundtrack the first choice is Miles Davis, but he's turned down after his contract with Columbia Records. Then comes Charles Mingus, but after the first session he composes only two minutes of music. To finish the score JC asks Shafi.
In February of 1958, JC's brother Nick dies.
The movie is finished and ready to screen in late November 1958. It costed $25000.
Premiere at Paris Theater in New York.
The movie need some reshoots. JC does them in the spring of 1959. Re-editing in summer of 1959, leaving only twenty-five minutes of the original footage.
The new version (35mm) is shown on 11 November 1958 at 7.15 and 9.30 p.m. at Amos Vogel's program "The Cinema of Improvisation". A success. Except for Jonas Mekas (who was very happy with the first release). Ben Carruthers and Erik Kollmar advocate Mekas' complains.
JC is going to through a difficult time: he is broke, he has to borrow money everywhere, GR is pregnant and can't work and he's never at home. To pay the debts (and to finish the re-editing of Shadows - because the offer comes eight months before the finish of it) he accept an offer to direct and star in a TV series, Johnny Staccato.
Nicholas David Rowlands Cassavetes was born on 21 May 1959. Just before going to Hollywood to start the six months shooting of Staccato.
The pilot, The Naked Truth, air on NBC on Thursday evening on 10 September 1959. It's not a success, either with the public and the critics.
He directs five episodes and co-wrote one. JC begins to be unhappy with the program, mostly because the "politically correctness" imposes rules he doesn't like. Some letters arrive at the studio complaining about specific episodes and the references to religion and sex. When an episode about drug addiction is held, it's the last straw.
JC begins a series of attacks and force the production to break his contract. Johnny Staccato ends on 24 March 1960 after 27 of the scheduled 39 episodes.
JC waits for a distributor for Shadows, but after the fuss about the two versions and the cut and thrust on The Village Voice, nobody comes. Nobody wants to deal with a "difficult" actor after the Johnny Staccato brouhaha.
JC goes to Dublin to shot a trash called The Webster Boy. The movie is no history, but the writer is Ted Allan. The friendship will last till JC's death. Another good outcome will be a distributor for Shadows. At the Vogel's show there was the San Francisco Film Festival programmer and writer for Film Quarterly, Albert Johnson. He loved Shadows and wrote great review.
After The Webster Boy, JC and Seymour Cassel go to London just to discover that Shadows is the talk of the town (greatly thanks to Johnson). Shadows is shown at The Beat, Square and Cool Festival. A smash.
JC takes Jo Lustig as his British agent and after the success of Shadow at the Venice Film Festival (25 August 1960) where it won the Critic Award, Lustig has a deal with British Lion (UK distribution) and Europa Films (Scandinavian distribution). Show for the first time at Academy Cinema in the West End on 14 October 1960, it grosses $11.000 the first week (and stays there for six months). The major magazine and newspaper have good reviews and the major film magazine, Sight&Sound dedicates a special in its Autumn/Winter 1960/1961 and Winter 1961 issues.
With the $28.000 from the distribution deal, the big money from the UK showing and the 70-30 split in favor of the production, JC is able to recover more than half of the expenses (and debt).
On 15 November JC signs a US distribution with British Lion. The American release is greatly disappointed, with two only significant bookings in march 1961, even if the releases is timed with the buzz surrounding JC and his first Hollywood movie, Too Late Blues.
With Shadows JC gains more or less $40000.
Hollywood takes note and it'll soon dial JC number.