Peter Masterson (1934-2018)

Actor, writer and director Peter Masterson has died. A versatile and talented man, Masterson had roles in The Stepford Wives, The Exorcist and directed The Trip to Bountiful. He was married to Tony Award-winning actress Carlin Glynn and was father to actress Mary Stuart Masterson. Despite that grand track record, he's probably best known for co-writing and co-directing a little musical play by the name of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

Masterson was very generous with his time as far as I was concerned. I reached out to him via mutual acquaintances when I first started researching Inside the Texas Chicken Ranch and had several conversations with him via phone from his home in Kinderhook, NY, in 2010. He was friendly and forthcoming, and supportive of my project. He gave me a lot of good material, including some entertaining stories about Miss Edna's brief stint as a Broadway performer. One quote from him stood out for me, and I used it to close chapter 14, encapsulating how a strange, regional story blew up and became an international sensation:

"One of the things when we made the show, a number of people--including Universal Pictures--wanted us to change the title because they wouldn't take out ads at first, the newspapers and television. On buses in New York. They wouldn't put out ads in the tube stations in London," Masterson said. "I said, 'That's a deal-breaker. I'm going to make whorehouse a household word.'

"And we kinda have."

Peter Masterson was one of the Good Guys. He will be missed.

Now Playing: Original Broadway Cast Recording The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas
Chicken Ranch Central

Talkin' with Pete Masterson

So I finally got to interview Pete Masterson today for the Chicken Ranch book. Masterson, you may or may not know, is an actor/director/writer with a long and productive career on stage and screen. What he's probably best-know for, though, is the fact that he co-wrote the book for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas with Larry L. King.

I'd been trying to arrange an interview with him for several months, but every time we got something set up, conflicts arose either on his end or mine and we ended up canceling. Until today, at least, when we finally connected. He's a nice guy, and was willing to talk to me as long as I needed. Nothing earth-shaking came out of the conversation, but he did confirm many of the events King recounted in his excellent book, The Whorehouse Papers. Masterson had several amusing stories, chief of which was the fact that it was his idea to bring in Edna Milton, the last madam at the Chicken Ranch, to be part of the Broadway production in a non-speaking role. During rehearsals, Masterson said, Milton would sometimes lean over and suggest lines for the actresses portraying the prostitutes to say. He nearly fell over, he recalled. Edna, apparently, had quite a mouth on her...

Now Playing: Peter Gabriel US