Alan Alda at Bay Street Theatre

by Justina Fargiano

-Local film director, actor and writer Alan Alda is very involved in the Hamptons year-round community. Perhaps best known for his role as sensitive surgeon Hawkeye Pierce on the 1970s hit television show “M*A*S*H,” Alda has achieved a great deal of success and has won many awards in his lifetime, including five Emmy Awards for his part on M*A*S*H (and an amazing 28 nominations), two Writers’ Guild Awards, three Directors’ Guild Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, and seven People’s Choice Awards. At nearly seventy-one years of age, he is the only person to be honored with Emmy Awards for directing, acting and writing.

Alda was born on January 28, 1936 to actor Robert Alda and former Miss New York, Joan Brown. The surname Alda was composed from parts of his father’s birth name, Alphonso Giuseppe Giovanni Roberto D’Abruzzo – the “Al” in Alphonso and the “Da” in D’Abruzzo – creating a last name much easier to remember and pronounce.

When he was only seven years old, he contracted a serious case of polio. At one point, he only had use of his left arm and remained bed-ridden for nearly two years while he received treatments. Once he recuperated, he often traveled with his father on the vaudeville circuit and began performing by himself during his teenage years. During his junior year at Fordham University, Alda studied abroad in Europe and performed on stage in Rome and on television in Amsterdam with his father. After graduating college, Alda performed at the Cleveland Playhouse and in shows on and off-Broadway and on television. His background in social and political improvisational acting landed him a regular role on the series That Was The Week That Was, and he soon found fame on “M*A*S*H.”

Originally, Alda did not want to be part of the comedy series, which was set in the 1950s during the Korean War and filmed during the Vietnam War, because he did not want to closely link war with “lighthearted high jinks…… [he] wanted to show that the war was a bad place to be.” He did not accept the role until a mere six hours before filming began on the pilot episode and commuted from his home in New Jersey to Hollywood every week as he did not want to uproot his family. The show was an immediate hit and Alda commuted cross-country for the next eleven years.

In the midst of becoming a well-known actor, Alda married and had three daughters, Eve, Elizabeth, and Beatrice. Beatrice helped found the Children’s Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton. CMEE was designed to provide children with the means to explore their imaginations and foster their curiosity. In this fast moving world, CMEE provides a setting where families can share and enjoy their children’s youth together and help them grow into well-rounded adults. The non-profit organization offers numerous programs for children of all ages. Beatrice remains on the museum’s board today.

One of the many programs offered at CMEE is Stories, Puppets, and Art where Alda and his second wife, Arlene, read children’s books they wrote together to groups of children. Some of their well-known books include Never Have Your Dog Stuffed and Other Things I’ve Learned and Classic Feynman: All the Adventures of a Curious Character.

After the conclusion of the comedy series “M*A*S*H,” Alda tried his hand more seriously at writing and directing films. Over the years, he helped write many episodes of “M*A*S*H” and after the show’s conclusion, dedicated more of his time to scriptwriting. He produced and often starred in many well-known films including The Seduction of Joe Tynan, The Four Seasons, A New Life, and Betsy’s Wedding, though Sweet Liberty is the motion picture most prominently known in the Hamptons.

In Sweet Liberty, written and directed in 1986, Alda stars as a college history professor whose novel was bought by a Hollywood studio to make a movie based on it. The Hollywood movie company arrives in the small, southeastern college town to make a movie about the Revolutionary War. The film’s two stars, Elliot James (Michael Caine) and Faith Healy (Michelle Pfeiffer), seem narcissistic and naïvely flirtatious, respectively. When Alda’s character, Professor Michael Burgess, sells his book to the Hollywood company, he doesn’t expect them to make a historical documentary, but is appalled to learn they are turning his story into a tale of lust and betrayal. As James ignores the fact that he is married and makes a move on every female in the dusty little town, Burgess works with the screenwriter to make necessary changes to various plotlines.

Sweet Liberty is a mildly satirical take on Hollywood as Alda views it. As writer, director, and star, the film reflects his opinions from every angle. The gentle comedy follows the professor as he becomes increasingly frustrated with the screenwriter and director of the motion picture as they mutilate his non-fiction novel.

Born and raised in New York, Alda returned to the Hamptons to film Sweet Liberty in Sag Harbor and Southampton, as well as the Adventureland Amusement Park in Farmingdale. The motion picture is often shown at Dan’s Papers’ Annual Film Festival and will be introduced by Alda himself at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor on February 3.

The February 3 screening of Sweet Liberty at the Bay Street Theatre begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are five dollars each and can be purchased an hour prior to the start of the movie at the box office or by calling (631) 725-9500.