Misplaced Pages

#190809

105-770: Katharine Cornell (February 16, 1893 – June 9, 1974) was an American stage actress, writer, theater owner and producer. She was born in Berlin to American parents and raised in Buffalo, New York. Dubbed "The First Lady of the Theatre" by critic Alexander Woollcott , Cornell was the first performer to receive the Drama League Award , for Romeo and Juliet in 1935. Cornell is noted for her major Broadway roles in serious dramas, often directed by her husband, Guthrie McClintic . The couple formed C. & M.C. Productions, Inc.,

210-520: A 1961 Pulitzer Prize, the play was nominated for a Tony Award. A stage adaptation of James Agee 's novel A Death in the Family , it dramatizes the reactions of a Tennessee family to the father's accidental death in the summer of 1915. The play was also performed several times on television—in 1963, 1971 and 1981. In Denmark it was known as I havn and directed for Danish television by Clara Østø in 1959. The movie adaptation of All The Way Home (1963)

315-545: A bestseller. Woollcott was one of the most quoted men of his generation. Among Woollcott's classics is his description of the Los Angeles area as "Seven suburbs in search of a city"—a quip often attributed to his friend Dorothy Parker . Describing The New Yorker editor Harold Ross , he said: "He looks like a dishonest Abe Lincoln ." He claimed the Brandy Alexander cocktail was named for him. Woollcott

420-461: A company that gave them complete artistic freedom in choosing and producing plays. Their production company gave first or prominent Broadway roles to some of the more notable actors of the 20th century, including many British Shakespearean actors. Cornell is regarded as one of the great actresses of the American theatre. Her most famous role was that of English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning in

525-467: A completely new production. McClintic started over, with just a handful of the actors from the tour. Orson Welles was kept, but played Tybalt instead of Mercutio , making his Broadway debut. Brian Aherne took the part of Mercutio, Basil Rathbone played Romeo, and Edith Evans played the Nurse. McClintic's idea was to keep the play "light, gay, hot sun, spacious" with no hint of the doom that concluded

630-619: A dramatized version of Edith Wharton 's novel The Age of Innocence . Her performance received only positive reviews. After this success, Cornell was offered the lead in The Dishonored Lady . It was intended for Ethel Barrymore , who declined the role. The play is a lurid melodrama about true-life murder in Glasgow, Scotland. Walter Winchell wrote "Never in the history of the theatre has an actress of such distinction permitted such an exciting scene. She [Cornell] actually permits

735-443: A good play, she "paid it the tribute of tears...Miss Katharine Cornell is a completely lovely Elizabeth Barrett...It is little wonder that Miss Cornell is so worshipped; she has romance, or, if you like better the word of the daily-paper critics, she has glamour." The play ran for 370 performances. When it was announced that it was closing, the remaining performances sold out, and hundreds were turned away. The play's success engendered

840-605: A half-dozen other newspaper men to create the Stars and Stripes , an official newspaper to bolster troop morale. As chief reporter for the Stars and Stripes , Woollcott was a member of the team that formed its editorial board. These included Harold Ross , founder of The New Yorker magazine; Cyrus Baldridge , multifaceted illustrator, author and writer; and the future columnist and radio personality, Franklin P. Adams . Going beyond simple propaganda, Woollcott and his colleagues reported

945-522: A hit. Afterward, Cornell played in a succession of now-forgotten plays. She married McClintic on September 8, 1921, in her aunt's summer home in Cobourg, Ontario. Cornell's family spent summers there among other wealthy Americans. The couple eventually bought a townhouse at 23 Beekman Place in Manhattan. It is generally acknowledged that Cornell was a lesbian and that McClintic was gay, and their union

1050-400: A long succession of meretricious plays it introduces us to Katharine Cornell as an actress of the first order. Here the disciplined fury that she has been squandering on catch-penny plays becomes the vibrant beauty of finely wrought character.... By the crescendo of her playing, by the wild sensitivity that lurks behind her ardent gestures and her piercing stares across the footlights she charges

1155-447: A man to crack her a powerful wallop in the face!" One critic complained about the "fifth rate claptrap" of a play and chastised Cornell for selecting such lowbrow theater as a waste of her talents. Vogue wrote that Cornell does these types of plays because "she prefers...to be blunt, trash of a violent kind." Biographer and playwright Tad Mosel counters that although this is meant as a reproof, when stripped of its condescension, "it

SECTION 10

#1732794079191

1260-456: A musical revue One for the Money , which starred unknown actors who later achieved fame, including Gene Kelly , Alfred Drake , Keenan Wynn and Nancy Hamilton. Immediately after that closed, Cornell starred in her second comedy, No Time for Comedy by S.N. Behrman . McClintic cast the young Laurence Olivier in the leading role of Gaylord. During rehearsals, Cornell had a difficult time with

1365-696: A performance, and the presenting towns gained a small but welcome swell in revenues from restaurants and hotels as a result. The most famous story to arise out of the tour came when the troupe was to play Barretts on Christmas night in Seattle, McClintic's hometown. They planned to arrive in the morning, and as it normally takes six hours to set up the stage, do lighting and blocking checks and distribute costumes, they figured there would be plenty of time. However, it had been raining for 23 days, and roads and railroads were being washed out. The train moved very slowly, often stopping. The theater management telegraphed that

1470-469: A provocative response to the topic. "The German people are just as responsible for Hitler as the people of Chicago are for the Chicago Tribune ", Woollcott stated emphatically. In visible distress, Woollcott commented ten minutes into the broadcast that he was feeling ill, but continued his remarks. "It's a fallacy to think that Hitler was the cause of the world's present woes", he said. "Germany

1575-468: A revival of Maugham's The Constant Wife (1951). Cornell was noted for spurning screen roles, unlike other actresses of her day. She appeared in only one Hollywood film, the World War II morale booster Stage Door Canteen , in which she played herself. She appeared in television adaptations of The Barretts of Wimpole Street and Robert E. Sherwood 's There Shall Be No Night . She also narrated

1680-485: A revival of Robert Browning's poetry, and cocker spaniels became the popular dog that year. Irving Thalberg wanted Cornell to play her part in an MGM adaptation , offering that if she was not completely satisfied with the result, the film would be destroyed. She refused. The movie that was released had most of the original cast, and Thalberg's wife, actress Norma Shearer , played the part of Elizabeth. Cornell refused to act in movies because she had seen audiences laugh at

1785-455: A seven-week tour of five major cities. In Maxwell Anderson 's The Wingless Victory , McClintic decided to avoid the so-called "star entrance," where the audience expects the star of the play to enter grandly to general applause. Instead, he had another character take the star entrance, and only then was it revealed that Cornell was onstage. The effect was startling. Opened in 1936, the play received mixed reviews, and many bad ones, but Cornell

1890-444: A similar criticism of him. Woollcott was primarily a storyteller, a retailer of anecdotes and superior gossip, as many of his personal letters reveal. His letters also reveal a warm and generous heart and a self-effacing manner distinct from his waspish public persona , and his many lasting and close friendships with the theatrical and literary elite of his day. Woollcott was friends with actress Katharine Cornell , whom he lauded as

1995-561: A special sort." Her appearances in comedy were infrequent, and praised more widely for their warmth than their wit. When she played in The Constant Wife , critic Brooks Atkinson concluded that she had changed a "hard and metallic" comedy into a romantic drama. Cornell died on June 9, 1974 in Tisbury, Massachusetts, aged 81, and she is buried at on Martha's Vineyard 's Tisbury Village Cemetery, Tisbury, Massachusetts . Cornell

2100-588: A troubled marriage, Mosel and Heckart became friends, and he wrote several scripts especially for her, including the 1953 Other People's Houses (on Goodyear Television Playhouse ) about a housekeeper caring for her senile father. In 1997, Mosel recalled: Mosel's All the Way Home premiered in New York November 30, 1960, at the Belasco Theater to critical acclaim. In addition to winning

2205-481: A woman who kills her lover. Maugham suggested Cornell for the part. Although the critics were not too excited about the play, Cornell by then had developed a loyal following. The opening night was such a sensation that the New York Sun wrote that the sidewalks were packed with people after the performance straining to catch a glimpse of her. In 1928, Cornell played the lead role of the countess Ellen Olenska in

SECTION 20

#1732794079191

2310-550: A young theater director. She made her Broadway debut in the play Nice People by Rachel Crothers , in a small part with Tallulah Bankhead . Cornell's first major Broadway role was that of Sydney Fairfield in Clemence Dane's A Bill of Divorcement (1921). The New York Times wrote "[she] has the central and significant role of the play and...gives therein a performance of memorable understanding and beauty." It played for 173 performances, well enough to be considered

2415-556: Is a simple statement of the truth. There was a part of her that indeed preferred trash of a violent kind. Her integrity as an artist was the only defense such a preference needed. Every performance had to be as much a revelation of herself as it was an interpretation of a role, and therefore her choice of roles and the way she played them offer great insights into her nature, greater perhaps than can be inferred from her gracious, smiling, always agreeable, and increasingly guarded behavior offstage. One must look at her performances as one looks at

2520-635: Is like lying in someone else's dirty bath water. And then he'd go into ecstasy about something called, Valiant Is the Word for Carrie , and I knew I had enough of the Round Table ." Wolcott Gibbs , who often edited Woollcott's work at The New Yorker , was quoted in James Thurber 's The Years with Ross on Woollcott's writing: "Shouts and Murmurs" was about the strangest copy I ever edited. You could take every other sentence out without changing

2625-407: Is then informed that Elizabeth has taken the dog with her. The play has several difficulties. The lead role of Elizabeth has to be played initially as submissive to her father, yet as the center of attention throughout. Although the ending is happy for Elizabeth and Robert, the rest of the family remains under the domination of the father, who is deranged in his obsession. Elizabeth must be played for

2730-497: Is to do away with all excesses and embellishments, to bring an interpretation to its utmost simplicity. Margot Stevenson from the original cast later said that Cornell was "just this big Italian girl in love!" Stark Young wrote in The New Republic : She makes you believe in love, that Juliet loves, and that the diapason and poetry of love are the reward for its torment. Of various [other] Juliets this must have been one of

2835-620: The Marx Brothers ' Broadway debut, I'll Say She Is , helped the group's career inflate from mere success to superstardom and started a lifelong friendship with Harpo Marx . Two of Harpo's adopted sons, Alexander Marx and William (Bill) Woollcott Marx , were named after Woollcott. Billed as The Early Bookworm , Woollcott was first heard on CBS Radio in October 1929, reviewing books in various timeslots until 1933. His CBS show The Town Crier , which began July 21, 1933, opened with

2940-587: The Shubert theater organization for violation of the New York Civil Rights Act, but lost in the state's highest court in 1916 on the grounds that only discrimination on the basis of race, creed or color was unlawful. From 1929 to 1934, he wrote a column called "Shouts and Murmurs" for The New Yorker . His book, While Rome Burns , published by Grosset & Dunlap in 1934, was named twenty years later by critic Vincent Starrett as one of

3045-977: The USSR in the 1930s and sent his friend Harpo Marx to Moscow on a comedy tour in 1934. Yet he was attacked viciously in the left-wing press after his visit to the Soviet Union for his less than laudatory depiction of the "worker's paradise". Towards the end of Woollcott's life he semi-retired to Neshobe Island in Lake Bomoseen in Vermont , which he had purchased. Shortly before he died, Woollcott claimed, "I never had anything to say." Thurber in The Years With Ross also reports Woollcott describing himself as "the best writer in America", but with nothing in particular to say; Wolcott Gibbs made

3150-435: The "First Lady of the Theatre". He often gave extremely favorable reviews both to her and the various productions of her husband, director Guthrie McClintic . Reportedly, in his early twenties he contracted the mumps , which left him mostly, if not completely, impotent . He never married or had children, although he had some notable female friends, including Dorothy Parker and Neysa McMein , to whom he reportedly proposed

3255-570: The "brutal tyranny of passion" and "the lowest urge of the body". His smothering concern for his family—particularly for Elizabeth, who is an invalid—takes on a sinister character. Poet Robert Browning has read some of Elizabeth's poetry and comes to meet her, and they immediately are attracted to each other. When he leaves, Elizabeth struggles to her feet to watch him disappear down the lane. Elizabeth and Robert later elope, and when her father finds that she has married without his permission or knowledge, he orders that her beloved dog, Flush, be killed. He

Katharine Cornell - Misplaced Pages Continue

3360-515: The 1931 Broadway production of The Barretts of Wimpole Street . Other appearances on Broadway included in W. Somerset Maugham 's The Letter (1927), Sidney Howard 's The Alien Corn (1933), Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (1934), Maxwell Anderson 's The Wingless Victory (1936), S. N. Behrman 's No Time for Comedy (1939), a Tony Award -winning Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra (1947), and

3465-478: The 52 "Best Loved Books of the Twentieth Century". He was interested in crime writing, promoting the work of US and British mystery authors in his newspaper articles and on the radio as well as writing on true crime, and became involved in the case of Stanford University Press employee David Lamson, who was accused of murdering his wife (prosecutors eventually dropped the case). Woollcott's review of

3570-624: The American theater, Miss Katharine Cornell." The Green Hat had 231 performances in New York before going to Boston and then a cross-country tour. The play's success spawned a fashion in green hats of the type worn by Cornell in the play. Later, Tallulah Bankhead played the role of Iris March in a less successful London production, and Greta Garbo played the role in a 1928 film adaptation, A Woman of Affairs . She starred in 1927 in The Letter , by W. Somerset Maugham , as Leslie Crosbie,

3675-463: The Bell Tolls . Additionally, many of her roles in hit plays were successfully played by other great actresses, or were adapted as movies. As audiences were deserting live theater for the movies, Cornell became determined to stay in the theater in order to help keep it vibrant. After Barretts closed, Cornell played leading parts in two plays: Lucrece (1932), Thornton Wilder 's translation of

3780-511: The Bonstelle company to London to play Jo March in Buffalo play-wright Marian de Forest 's stage adaptation of Louisa May Alcott 's novel Little Women . Although the critics disparaged the play itself, they specifically noted Cornell as the one bright spot of the evening. The paper The Englishwomen wrote of Cornell: "London is unanimous in its praise, and London will flock to see her." Upon her return to New York, she met Guthrie McClintic ,

3885-806: The Buffalo Studio Club parlor theater, located at 508 Franklin Street. She loved athletics, and she was a runner-up for city championship at tennis as well as an amateur swimming champion. She attended the University of Buffalo (later the State University of New York at Buffalo).. In 1913, she joined The Garret Club, a woman's only private club in Buffalo, and participated in club theatricals. After Cornell had become famous, she often brought her productions to her native Buffalo. Although she never returned to Buffalo to live, her enthusiasm for

3990-506: The University of Berlin. Their first child, Katharine, was born there. Six months later, the family returned to Buffalo, where they lived at 174 Mariner Street. As a child, Katharine had a troubled relationship with her parents due in part to her mother's alcoholism. She play-acted in her backyard with imaginary friends. Soon, she was performing in school pageants and plays, and she watched family productions in her grandfather's attic theater, still standing at 484 Delaware Avenue. Cornell played at

4095-518: The Woollcott home. The six years Woollcott lived in Kansas City were transformative, and set him on the literary and theatrical path that would guide the rest of his life. His second-grade teacher, Sophie Rosenberger, who would remain a lifelong friend, considered him precocious and set him on a reading program that began with Louisa May Alcott and progressed to Charles Dickens by the time he

4200-467: The acting of old movies and did not want that to happen to her. According to biographer Tad Mosel, "she did not feel that she was acting for historians or nostalgia fans of the future but for audiences of the here and now, people who came into the theatre tonight, sat in their seats and waited for the curtain to go up. Not only were they the ones she wanted to reach, but she wanted to be there when they responded, she did not want to be off in another part of

4305-598: The attack on Pearl Harbor, Mosel dropped out of Amherst College to enlist in the Army Air Force . During World War II , he was a Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force Weather Service (1943–46) as a weather observer, including one year in the South Pacific. In the post-WWII years he finished at Amherst and did graduate studies at the Yale Drama School (BA), followed by a Master's at Columbia University. He

Katharine Cornell - Misplaced Pages Continue

4410-474: The balcony was impossible, my costumes were wrong, the lighting went haywire." Martha Graham , who choreographed the dance sequences, stepped in and fashioned a flowing robe for Juliet's balcony-scene costume shortly before curtain time. The production opened a seven-month transcontinental tour that rotated three plays: Romeo and Juliet , The Barretts of Wimpole Street , and Candida . Many theatre experts advised against such an ambitious endeavor, planned during

4515-502: The beauty of the lyric lines she speaks with a new-found lyric beauty of her own voice...To add that it is by all odds the most lovely and enchanting Juliet our present-day theatre has seen is only to toss it the kind of superlative it honestly deserves. Later, the same critic determined that this role was a turning point in Cornell's career, as it meant that she could finally leave the "trifling scripts" of her earlier career and could meet

4620-467: The caustic but charming main character in the play The Man Who Came to Dinner (1939) by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart , later made into a film in 1942. The second was the snobbish, vitriolic columnist Waldo Lydecker in the novel Laura , later made into a film in 1944. Woollcott was convinced he was the inspiration for his friend Rex Stout's brilliant, eccentric detective Nero Wolfe , an idea that Stout denied. Alexander Humphreys Woollcott

4725-436: The challenging demands of the greatest classic roles. Romeo and Juliet closed on February 23, 1935, and two nights later, the production company revived The Barretts of Wimpole Street , with Burgess Meredith in his first prominent Broadway role. Critics found that this production had grown richer and more satisfying, but it closed three weeks later because other plays were contracted. The next play, also starring Meredith,

4830-420: The city and its inhabitants was well known. Biographer Tad Mosel wrote: "To show her affection for her hometown, she always walked slowly when she left her hotel, turning her head to smile on everyone on the street, missing no one, so they could feel close to her and be able to say when they got home that night, 'Katharine Cornell smiled directly at me.'" For the rest of her career, on opening Broadway nights, she

4935-406: The comedic timing, and someone shook their head and said, "Poor old Kit!" Olivier shot back, "Poor old Kit is the most successful woman in the American theater! The richest, the most beautiful, the most sought after, the most distinguished, the most loved — Poor old Kit indeed!" Alexander Woollcott Woollcott was the inspiration for two fictional characters. The first was Sheridan Whiteside,

5040-489: The day after she had just wed her new husband, Jack Baragwanath. Woollcott once told McMein that "I'm thinking of writing the story of our life together. The title is already settled." McMein: "What is it?" Woollcott: "Under Separate Cover." Woollcott appeared on his last radio broadcast on January 23, 1943, as a participant in a Writers' War Board panel discussion on the CBS Radio program The People's Platform marking

5145-456: The documentary Helen Keller in Her Story , which won an Oscar . Primarily regarded as a tragedienne, Cornell was admired for her refined, romantic presence. One reviewer wrote "Hers is not a robust romanticism, however. It tends toward dark but delicate tints, and the emotion she conveys most aptly is that of an aspiring girlishness which has always been subject to theatrical influences of

5250-550: The drama with a meaning beyond the facts it records. Her acting is quite as remarkable for the carefulness of its design as for the fire of her presence.... The Barretts of Wimpole Street is a triumph for her and the splendid company with which she has surrounded herself. All other critics were uniform in praise of her acting: using adjectives such as superb, eloquent, exalted, dark, rhythmic, luminous, haunting, lyric, ravishing. Dorothy Parker , known for her caustic wit and unsentimental reviews, wrote that although she did not think it

5355-404: The error was corrected and the ashes were forwarded to Hamilton College, they arrived with 67¢ postage due . At the time of his death, Woollcott had completed the editorial work on his last book, As You Were , an anthology of fiction, poetry and nonfiction for members of the armed forces. The idea of creating a much-needed "knapsack book" for service members reportedly came to Woollcott while he

SECTION 50

#1732794079191

5460-455: The exception of summers and any time that he could get back to the Phalanx. With the help of a family friend, he made his way through college, graduating from Hamilton College, New York , in 1909. Despite a rather poor reputation (his nickname was "Putrid"), he founded a drama group, edited the student literary magazine, and was accepted by a fraternity ( Theta Delta Chi ). Woollcott joined

5565-477: The far end of East 52nd Street . The members of the Algonquin Round Table had a debate as to what to call his new home. Franklin P. Adams suggested that he name it after the faux Indian word Ocowoica , meaning "The-Little-Apartment-On-The-East-River-That-It-Is-Difficult-To-Find-A-Taxicab-Near". But Dorothy Parker came up with the definitive "Wit's End". Woollcott yearned to be as creative as

5670-399: The first half lying still on a sofa wearing heavy Victorian costume, and covered with a blanket, as befitting an invalid. Many, including Lionel Barrymore , who was asked to play the part of the father, thought it was too melodramatic and past its time. The play was turned down by 27 New York producers before McClintic read it and found it so moving, he cried whenever he read it. When McClintic

5775-563: The first time, the carnal desires, the youthful romanticism, and the earthiness of language were given equal importance. The production opened in December 1934, and, as usual, the reviews were glowing. Burns Mantle called Cornell "the greatest Juliet of her time." Taking note of the freshness of approach, Richard Lockridge of the New York Sun wrote that Cornell played Juliet as "an eager child, rushing toward love with arms stretched out." Cornell herself said that her biggest secret of acting

5880-474: The height of the Great Depression . It was the first time anyone had attempted a national tour with a legitimate Broadway show, let alone a three-play repertory. The company toured to cities including Milwaukee, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, Cheyenne, San Antonio, New Orleans, Houston and Savannah, and up the east coast to New England. As movies had eclipsed

5985-587: The horrors of the Great War from the point of view of the common soldier. After the war he returned to The New York Times , then transferred to the New York Herald in 1922 and to The World in 1923. He remained there until 1928. One of New York's most prolific drama critics, he was banned for a time from reviewing certain Broadway theater shows due to his florid and often vitriolic prose. He sued

6090-485: The last things to be said." John Mason Brown wrote in the New York Post : It is not often in our lifetime that we are privileged to enjoy the pleasant sensation of feeling that the present and the future have met for a few triumphant hours...Yet it was this very sensation—this uncommon sensation of having the present and future meet; eye-witnessing the kind of event to which we will be looking back with pride in

6195-641: The longest job he'd ever held, and sent his wife Frances and their children back to the Phalanx, where Alexander went to school and spent most of the remainder of his boyhood. He occasionally lodged in homes in Germantown, Philadelphia and attended the Germantown Combined Grammar School, and then Central High School in Philadelphia. He had very few friends during this period and did not enjoy this chapter of his life, with

6300-445: The next day in every newspaper in America. Alexander Woollcott established a radio tradition on his program, The Town Crier . For years afterward, every Christmas, Woollcott told the story of the Seattle audience that waited until 1 am to see Katharine Cornell "emerge from the flood" and give the performance of her life. Although they had toured with this play, Cornell and McClintic decided to open Romeo and Juliet in New York with

6405-665: The output of a writer or a painter." Katharine Cornell is perhaps best known in her role as poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning in Rudolf Besier 's play The Barretts of Wimpole Street . The play is based on the life of the poet's family; the Barretts lived on Wimpole Street in London. The play opens with Elizabeth, the oldest child of a large and loving family. Their widowed father has become embittered and determined that none of his children should marry, lest they become slaves to

SECTION 60

#1732794079191

6510-419: The people with whom he surrounded himself. Among many other endeavors, he tried his hand at acting and co-wrote two Broadway shows with playwright George S. Kaufman , while appearing in two others. He also starred as Sheridan Whiteside, for whom he was the inspiration, in the traveling production of The Man Who Came to Dinner in 1940. He also appeared in several cameos in films in the late 1930s and 1940s. He

6615-841: The play by André Obey , and Sidney Howard 's Alien Corn (1933). Her success in Lucrece put her on the cover of Time on December 26, 1932. Cornell's next production was Romeo and Juliet , with McClintic directing. It was the first Shakespeare for them both. Romeo was performed by Basil Rathbone , who had played leading roles at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre and the Royal Court Theatre in England. The production opened in Cornell's native Buffalo on November 29, 1933. Cornell described that day as "a nightmare from start to finish. The sets wouldn't fit,

6720-481: The play's title in all future productions of the troupe. Another acting troupe, the Theatre Guild , controlled the rights to all Shaw's plays, and thereafter allowed only Cornell to play the role of Candida so long as she was alive, a role which she reprised several more times in her career. Shaw later wrote her a note stating that she had created "an ideal British Candida in my imagination." Cornell's next role

6825-484: The play. Also, he coached Cornell to read for meaning, sense and emotion, in place of the poetics of iambic pentameter. This was a great break with past productions, which up until then had relied upon Victorian prudery and notions of how a classic play should be performed. McClintic reinstated the Prologue and believed that all twenty-three scenes were necessary, cutting only the comedy of the musicians and servants. For

6930-421: The play. Biographer Tad Mosel writes: "The audience had paid the actors the supreme compliment of having the faith to wait for them, and the actors responded with the kind of performance actors wish they could give every day of their lives. When the final curtain fell at 4 am, they received more curtain calls than they ever had." Ray Henderson, the troupe's publicist and manager, managed to get this story published

7035-407: The ringing of a bell and the cry, "Hear ye, hear ye!" followed by Woollcott's literary observations punctuated with acidic anecdotes. Sponsored by Cream of Wheat (1934–1935) and Grainger Tobacco (1937–1938), it continued until January 6, 1938. He had no reservations about using this forum to promote his own books, and the continual mentions of his book While Rome Burns (1934) probably helped make it

7140-483: The screen, necessitating adjustments so basic that she could not make them. And beyond physical equipment...it is possible that the quality she had as an individual, the unique something about her that transcended technique and craft and fifth-rate writing might not have transcended cameras; it would not have come through to an audience without her physical presence." But other sources say that Hollywood secured Broadway plays for its own actors under contract and that Cornell

7245-583: The sense a particle. Whole department, in fact, often had no more substance than a "Talk [of the Town]" anecdote. I guess he was one of the most dreadful writers who ever existed. After being kicked out of the apartment he shared with The New Yorker founders Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant , Woollcott moved first into the Hotel des Artistes on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, then to an apartment at

7350-493: The staff of The New York Times as a cub reporter in 1909. In 1914, he was named drama critic and held the post until 1922, with a break for service during World War I . In April 1917, the day after war was declared, Woollcott volunteered as a private in the medical corps. Posted overseas, Woollcott was a sergeant when the intelligence section of the American Expeditionary Forces selected him and

7455-451: The stage to a large degree, there were major areas of the U.S. closed off to the tour. Many stops at smaller cities had not seen live theater since World War I, if ever. But box office records were set in most cities and towns. In New Orleans, women rioted when they found out that tickets had sold out. Variety reported that the tour gave 225 performances and played to 500,000 people. People in less urban areas traveled from two days away to see

7560-755: The stock market crash, and the family moved to the suburbs of New York City. In 1931, George, Sr. launched a successful New York advertising company. Remembering his youth in Larchmont, New York, and New Rochelle, New York, Mosel stated: Mosel's interest in theater began in 1936 when he saw Katharine Cornell on Broadway in George Bernard Shaw 's Saint Joan . He went for one year to the Mount Hermon School in Northfield, Massachusetts, graduating from New Rochelle High School . After

7665-459: The tenth anniversary of Adolf Hitler 's rise to power, entitled "Is Germany Incurable?" Other panelists included Hunter College president George Shuster, Brooklyn College president Harry Gideonse , and novelists Rex Stout and Marcia Davenport . The program's format began as a dinner party in the studio's private dining room, with the microphones in place. Table talk would lead into a live network radio broadcast, and each panelist would begin with

7770-400: The theater. Sets and props had to be protected in the downpour. As soon as the troupe arrived, the audience streamed back into their seats. Cornell decided that the audience could watch the sets for "Barretts" be unpacked and set up, and so raised the curtain. The stage hands, sound checks, and electricians worked to accomplish in one hour what normally took six. By 1 am, they were ready to begin

7875-558: The time, the play was considered perfect for the group, as none of the characters was considered to outshine the others, because Shaw intended the play to be about ideas. Although the leading protagonist is Candida, she does not really come into her own until the third act. But, Cornell essentially re-envisioned the play. She made Candida the core of the play, a view adopted by directors and critics ever since. Reviews were ecstatic and audiences responded in kind. The Actor's Theatre changed its plans and decided that Cornell's name must appear above

7980-471: The train station, and the manager of the Metropolitan Theatre came up to Cornell and informed her that the audience was still waiting. McClintic asked, "how many?" "The entire house," was the reply, "Twelve hundred people." Cornell was shocked and asked, "Do you mean they want a performance at this hour?" "They're expecting it," the manager replied. All 55 members of the cast and crew drove to

8085-681: The triumph belonged to two maids, "the Maid of Domrémy , France, and the Maid of Buffalo, N.Y." John Anderson of the New York Journal wrote, "Before there is any haggling, let it be said that it is Shaw's greatest play and that Miss Cornell is superb in it. She is beautiful to look at and her performance is enkindled by the spiritual exaltation of a transcendent heroine." It was in this play that Cornell's real artistry became apparent. Audience members talked of having been "changed" by her performance, and "mesmerized." Writer S.N. Behrman said "it

8190-421: The venue was completely sold out for the evening performance and wanted regular updates to assure the public that the production was on its way. The troupe kept up the telegrams, but eventually these lines gave out. By that evening, the troupe was still far from the city and gave up hope of doing any performance that night. The train finally arrived in Seattle at 11:30 pm. There was a lively crowd waiting for them at

8295-481: The world while they gazed at a second-hand image on a screen. In fact, she was not sure she could give them anything to respond to without the inducement of their presence." Moreover, the largeness of her facial structure—her bone structure—were so explicit that they could be seen to the last row, but "might have been less than an asset on the screen where the camera enlarges and exaggerates. Her voice and gestures were eloquent theatre props that might have been too much for

8400-416: The years to come—that forced its warming way, I suspect, into the consciousness of many of us last night as we sat spellbound. Miss Cornell's Juliet is luscious and charming. It finds her at her mellowest and most glamorous. It burns with the intensity Miss Cornell brings to all her acting. It moves gracefully and lightly; it is endlessly haunting in its pictorial qualities; and reveals a Miss Cornell who equals

8505-621: Was Flowers of the Forest , an anti-war play by John van Druten that lasted only 40 performances and counts among Cornell's greatest failures. For the next season, Cornell and her husband decided to do St. Joan by George Bernard Shaw. McClintic cast Maurice Evans as the Dauphin, Brian Aherne as Warwick, Tyrone Power as Bertrand de Poulengey, and Arthur Byron as the Inquisitor. The play opened on March 9, 1936, and Burns Mantle wrote that

8610-467: Was 8 years old. It was also in Kansas City that he experienced his first theatrical performance, Sinbad the Sailor . He was accompanied by his neighbor, Kansas City Times columnist Roswell Field, brother of famed author Eugene Field . When young Aleck discovered that journalists could get free tickets to theatrical events he decided that he, too would become a newspaper man In 1895 Walter Woollcott lost

8715-404: Was Cornell, who sent "tiny bells up and down my unpurchasable vertebrae." Most other critics panned the play itself, but nonetheless found it irresistible because of Cornell's ability to mesmerise, despite the garish dialogue. Critic George Jean Nathan wrote that the play was "superbly acted in its leading role by that one young woman who stands head and shoulders above all the other young women of

8820-532: Was a lavender marriage . She was a member of the " sewing circles " in New York, and had relationships with Nancy Hamilton , Tallulah Bankhead , Mercedes de Acosta , and others. In 1924, Cornell and McClintic were part of The Actor's Theatre, a successor to the Washington Square Players. This was a group of actors that sought to be a democracy without any stars. As their first production, they selected Candida by George Bernard Shaw . At

8925-495: Was an American playwright and one of the leading dramatists of hour-long teleplay genre for live television during the 1950s. He received the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play All the Way Home . Mosel was born George Ault Mosel, Jr. in Steubenville, Ohio, to George Ault Mosel, Sr. and Margaret Norman. Raised as a Presbyterian, he was eight years old when his father's wholesale grocery business failed following

9030-400: Was born into a prominent, wealthy family distantly related to Ezra Cornell , founder of Cornell University. Her great-grandfather Samuel Garretson Cornell, a descendant of pioneer ancestor Thomas Cornell , came to Buffalo in the 1850s, and founded Cornell Lead Works. One of his grandsons, Peter, married Alice Gardner Plimpton. The young couple lived in Berlin when Peter was studying medicine at

9135-664: Was caricatured twice in Warner Brothers cartoons in 1937: as "Owl Kott" in The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos , and as the town crier in Have You Got Any Castles? , playing almost identical roles in each. Politically, Woollcott called for normalization of U.S.–Soviet relations . He was a friend of reporter Walter Duranty , even though he described him as a "man from Mars". As a friend of Soviet foreign minister Maxim Litvinov , he traveled to

9240-602: Was filmed in the same Knoxville, Tennessee neighborhood where Agee was raised. Directed by Alex Segal , it starred Robert Preston , Jean Simmons and Pat Hingle . Mosel wrote screenplays for the films Dear Heart , starring Glenn Ford and Geraldine Page , with Mosel seen in a cameo appearance as the Man in Lobby, and the popular Up the Down Staircase , based on the novel by Bel Kaufman and starring Sandy Dennis . He

9345-616: Was greeted backstage by family and friends from Buffalo. Many of her productions were performed at the Erlanger Theater on Delaware Avenue, across from the Statler Hotel . The Erlanger was demolished in 2007. In 1915, Cornell's mother died, leaving her enough money to be independent. The young woman moved to New York City to pursue her acting career. There she joined the Washington Square Players and

9450-471: Was hailed as one of the most promising actresses of the season. After just two seasons, she joined Jessie Bonstelle 's company, a leading New York repertory company that divided its summers between Detroit and Buffalo. Now aged 25, Cornell was consistently receiving glowing reviews. Cornell joined various theater companies, including the Bonstelle, that toured around the East Coast. In 1919, she went with

9555-415: Was in London, he was able to secure Brian Aherne to play the part of Robert Browning. Afterwards, McClintic immediately went to a London jewelry store and bought a necklace, two bracelets and a garnet ring, all at least 100 years old. For every single performance that Cornell gave as Elizabeth Barrett, she wore this jewelry in the last act, when she leaves the family home for the last time. Katharine Hepburn

9660-533: Was never considered for the roles she originated on stage. Additionally, Cornell had apparently written to film director George Cukor , suggesting that she would consider a film if he would direct her. Nothing came of this effort. She declined many movie roles that earned Academy Awards wins and nominations for the actresses who did play those parts, such as Olan in The Good Earth and Pilar in For Whom

9765-531: Was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series for an episode of The Adams Chronicles , a PBS drama series based on the lives of presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams and their families. Many of Mosel's plays for television are available for viewing at The Paley Center for Media in New York City and Los Angeles. Mosel's death at age 86 of esophageal cancer came after 18 years of residency at Havenwood-Heritage Heights,

9870-688: Was published by the Viking Press in March 1943. Woollcott was portrayed by the actor Earl Montgomery in the 1962 film Act One , by the actor Jock Livingston in the 1968 musical film Star! , by the actor Tom Clancy in the 1979 NBC TV miniseries Backstairs at the White House , and by the actor Tom McGowan in the 1994 film Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle . Tad Mosel Tad Mosel (May 1, 1922 – August 24, 2008)

9975-445: Was renowned for his savage tongue. He dismissed Oscar Levant , the notable wit and pianist, by observing, "There is absolutely nothing wrong with Oscar Levant that a miracle can't fix." He often greeted friends with "Hello, Repulsive." When a waiter asked him to repeat his order, he demanded " muffins filled with pus ." His judgments were frequently eccentric. Dorothy Parker once said: "I remember hearing Woollcott say reading Proust

10080-529: Was respected for taking any role and twisting it to make it her own. Gently disparaging the play itself, Brooks Atkinson wrote that Cornell is "our queen of tragedy, a thoughtful actress and a great one." Alternating with Victory , Cornell revived Candida with Mildred Natwick as Prossy. After the conclusion, she took a year off and wrote her memoir (with the help of Ruth Woodbury Sedgewick), titled I Wanted to Be an Actress and published by Random House in 1939. Cornell's general manager Gertrude Macy produced

10185-531: Was selected for the part of Henrietta, but because she was going to play in a summer stock company a few months later, she could not be signed to a contract. Casting the dog was troublesome because it had to lie still in its basket on stage for a great length of time, and then exit when called. McClintic selected an eight-month-old cocker spaniel, which played the role for the full run and many others afterward, to tremendous applause. Cornell bought The Barretts of Wimpole Street for McClintic in December 1930. The play

10290-402: Was something essential in herself, as a person, that the audiences sensed and reached out to." Another said that she was like "radium, flashing its healing rays," while others used an older phrase, "magnetic influence." The play closed in the spring of 1936 only because the production company had already contracted to produce Maxwell Anderson 's The Wingless Victory . Saint Joan finished with

10395-566: Was staying at the White House in November 1942. An experienced anthologist, he drew on the knowledge of soldiers' reading preferences he gained while he was editor of Stars and Stripes during World War I, and also asked for nominations from friends including Stephen Vincent Benét , Carl Sandburg and Mark Van Doren . Like his final radio broadcast, As You Were was a contribution to the war for which Woollcott waived all royalties and planned to donate profits to welfare organizations. The book

10500-478: Was taken over by and became the family seat of the Bucklin family, Woollcott's maternal grandparents. In 1889 the itinerant and often absentee Walter Woollcott moved his family to Kansas City, Missouri . The Woollcotts lived in an upscale neighborhood where, at the age of four, Alexander portrayed the character of Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream in a tableau vivant before an audience of more than 100 at

10605-580: Was the cause of Hitler." He said nothing further, but reportedly took a notepad and wrote the words, "I am sick." The radio audience remained unaware that Woollcott had suffered a heart attack and died at New York's Roosevelt Hospital , aged 56, of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was buried in Clinton, New York , at his alma mater, Hamilton College, but not without some confusion. By mistake, his ashes were sent to Colgate University in Hamilton, New York . When

10710-616: Was the first production of the Cornell-McClintic Corporation (C. & M. C. Productions, Inc.), formed January 5, 1931, with Cornell its producer-manager and McClintic its director. McClintic directed the three-hour play with a meticulous attention to period detail. The play opened first in Cleveland, then played in Buffalo before reaching New York in January 1931. Brooks Atkinson wrote of opening night: After

10815-543: Was the youngest of five children of William and Frances Bucklin Woollcott, born on January 19, 1887. The family lived in an 85-room house, a vast ramshackle building in Colts Neck Township, New Jersey known as "the North American Phalanx ," which had once been a commune where many social experiments were carried out in the mid-19th century. When the Phalanx fell apart after a fire in 1854, it

10920-789: Was to play Iris March in The Green Hat (1925), a romance by Michael Arlen . The play had themes of syphilis and loose morals, and Iris March was a strong sexual creature. Leslie Howard played the role of Napier. While the play was still in Chicago, it became an international hit, known all over the US and Europe. Ashton Stevens , senior drama critic in Chicago, wrote that The Green Hat "should die at every performance of its melodramatics, its rouge and rhinestones, its preposterous third act.... Already, I am beginning to forget its imperfections and remember only its charms." Its chief charm, he conceded,

11025-814: Was writing plays while auditioning as an actor, and in 1949 he was on Broadway in the scene-stealing, non-speaking role of a confused private in the farce At War with the Army . His first teleplay was performed on Chevrolet Tele-Theater in 1949. During the early 1950s, he became a leading scriptwriter for live television dramas, contributing six teleplays to Goodyear Television Playhouse (in 1953-1954), two to Medallion Theatre (1953–1954) and four to Playhouse 90 (1957–1959). He also wrote for The Philco Television Playhouse (1954), Producers' Showcase and Studio One . After Eileen Heckart appeared in The Haven (on Philco Television Playhouse ), his 1953 play about

#190809