Michael Tolan Mary's night-school teacher & boyfriend. He also made guest appearances on such television series as "Mannix", "Kojak", "Nichols", "The Outer Limits", "McMillan and Wife", and "Law & Order". His last known television appearance was on an episode of "Murder, She Wrote" in 1994. Tolan appeared in the Bob Fosse film "All That Jazz" (1979) as lead character Joe Gideon's cardiologist, Dr. Ballinger. Tolan also helped found the American Place Theatre, of which he wrote: “We wanted to attract some of the writers who wrote fine, intelligent, deep material about American life, and see if we could interest them in writing
The Cry of Jazz of Sun Ra’s band performing the music. Alex, the film’s main character, serves as narrator during these sections. Although the film is nominally about jazz, jazz is utilized primarily as a metaphor through which to understand the African American experience. As the majority of the attendees of the jazz club leave, the crowd that remains is composed of two White men, Bruce and John, two White women, Natalie and Faye, and three Black men, Alex, Louis, and Bob. Alex overhears Bruce telling Natalie that rock and roll is jazz, which prompts a discussion about what jazz is. When Bruce asserts,