arts & life

depar tment

Master Of

All Trades

COURTESY OF THE NICHOLS FAMILY

Get to know the late
artistic trailblazer
Mike Nichols in a new
American Masters
documentary.

Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer

Mike Nichols, around
age 7, and his mother

J

details

American Masters —
Mike Nichols debuts at
10 p.m. Friday, Jan. 29, on
WTVS-Detroit Public Television.

34 January 21 • 2016

ulian Schlossberg wants the
public to know about his late
friend of 40 years — comedi-
an-turned-director Mike Nichols.
As producers do, he found a way of
communicating from behind the
scenes.
Schlossberg, who had inter-
viewed Nichols on a radio program
and privately videotaped additional
comments, showed his material
to representatives of the American
Masters series on PBS and sug-
gested adding the impressions of
other show-business notables for a
documentary.

The idea was readily accepted,
and the program airs at 10 p.m.
Friday, Jan. 29 (kicking off the
series’ 30th-anniversary season),
with segments featuring Meryl
Streep, Steven Spielberg, Tom
Hanks, Dustin Hoffman, Alec
Baldwin, Paul Simon, Matthew
Broderick, Nathan Lane and many
other luminaries opening up about
their recollections.
“I had a wonderful time inter-
viewing Mike,” Schlossberg says in
a phone conversation from his New
York office. “I watch it over and
over and wish he was still here.

“In this country, we know movie
stars. We don’t know writers, and
we certainly don’t know producers.
Unless you’re Alfred Hitchcock or
maybe Steven Spielberg, we don’t
know directors either. What I was
hoping to show, what I think Mike
managed to show, is who he was.”
Schlossberg, whose friendship
with Nichols was based on mesh-
ing careers, draws out Nichols’
thoughts as the winner of an Oscar,
Grammy, four Emmys, nine Tonys,
three BAFTAs (British Academy
of Film and Television Arts) and
many other awards for directing,

Nichols in a
theater in 1965

acting, writing, producing and pre-
senting comedy.
Schlossberg stays away from
family except for explaining that
the 7-year-old Nichols escaped
Nazi Germany as his family sought
refuge and opportunities in the
United States.
Nichols was born Mikhail Igor
Peschowsky in Berlin; his mother,
Brigitte Landauer, was the daughter
of anarchist Gustav Landauer and
his father, Pavel Peschkowsky, was
a doctor — it was he who changed
the family’s names.
“I didn’t feel marriages or chil-
dren were germane when doing a
program about someone’s work,”
explains Schlossberg, who knows
Diane Sawyer, Nichols’ fourth wife,
and two of three children from
previous marriages. “American
Masters should really be about
the work; that’s why it’s called
American Masters.”
Schlossberg, who had produced
an earlier American Masters epi-
sode (Nichols & May: Take Two)
about the comedy team also
headlining Elaine May, secured
her acceptance as director of this
program.
May, whose father had writ-
ten and performed for a traveling
Jewish theatrical company, met
Nichols while attending the
University of Chicago. They
formed an improv team working
together at a Chicago nightclub and
took their satiric show on the road,