After listening to a witty radio interview featuring Harold Krentz—a blind man mistakenly classified as "1-A" by his local draft board—screenwriter Leonard Gershe (the 1958 Oscar winner for 'Funny Face') was inspired to write 'Butterflies Are Free', a play about a young blind man who moves from Scarsdale to Greenwich Village to get away from his overprotective mother and establish his independence. Opening at the Booth Theatre on W. 45th Street on Oct. 21, 1969, 'Butterflies' starred Keir Dullea ('2001, A Space Odyssey') as Don Baker, the blind protagonist; Eileen Heckart as Baker's mother; Blythe Danner as Jill Tanner, Baker's next-door neighbor and love interest; and Paul Michael Glaser as Ralph Austin, a friend of Jill's. A surprise hit, the play ran for nearly three years (1,128 performances) and earned Danner a 1970 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. In March 1970 producer Mike Frankovich ('Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice') paid Gershe $300,000 and a percentage of the film's future earnings for the screen rights to his play. Frankovich also hired Gershe to adapt his play to the screen and the play's director, Milton Katselas, to direct the film. Of the original cast, Eileen Heckart and Paul Michael Glaser were tapped to reprise their Broadway roles but television's favorite blonde hippie chick, Goldie Hawn ("Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In"), replaced the then relatively unknown Blythe Danner and 20-year-old Eddie Albert, Jr. supplanted 35-year-old Keir Dullea in an obvious bid to lend the film greater youth appeal. Likewise, the setting was switched from New York City to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, to marinade the story in hippie counterculture ambiance. Viewed now, decades after its initial release, 'Butterflies Are Free' can be regarded as a time capsule of a short-lived Aquarian Age, or more cynically, as a transparently slick exercise in sentimentality dressed up in hippie garb. Eileen Heckart's turn as Mrs. Baker earned her the 1973 Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. A final irony: although the title sounds like the quintessence of hippie philosophy, it was actually derived from Charles Dickens' 1853 novel, 'Bleak House'! VHS (1996) and DVD (2002).
Review of Butterflies Are Free
