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45-618: Not wanting to take up his incomplete first novel, Summer Crossing , Capote began writing The Grass Harp in June 1950 and completed it on May 27, 1951. The novel was inspired by memories of his childhood in Monroeville, Alabama , particularly of a treehouse constructed in the 1930s in a large walnut tree in his cousin Jenny's backyard. This large tree house, accessible by an antique spiral staircase , featured cypress wood construction and

90-587: A CBS television Sunday morning talk-interview show, presenting several of the musical numbers with Richardson at the grand piano, during the musical's preview week and opening night performances. In 1995, Stirling Silliphant and Kirk Ellis adapted the novel for a feature film directed by Charles Matthau . The cast included Matthau's father Walter , Piper Laurie , Sissy Spacek , Edward Furlong , Nell Carter , Jack Lemmon , Mary Steenburgen , Sean Patrick Flanery , Joe Don Baker , Bonnie Bartlett and Charles Durning . Summer Crossing Summer Crossing

135-406: A Communist. She was victimized by association and didn't work for three decades. When I met her, she was eighty-four and had battled a brain tumor and also had arthritis. I stared at her slender arms and gnarled hands. It looked like she had pushed her kid's arms and legs down for years. I liked her. I couldn't get her insured, but I didn't care. Neither did she. She wanted to do it. To me, that’s what

180-496: A Salesman , Nelson turned it down as she did most acting offers at this time to stay in Los Angeles and support Cromwell. Nelson had not made a Hollywood film for nearly 30 years when she appeared with her husband in 1977's 3 Women , directed by Robert Altman , and The Late Show , a film Robert Benton wrote and directed that Altman produced. The following year, she played Aunt Beatrice Sloan Cory and Cromwell portrayed

225-479: A covert romance with Clyde Manzer, a Jewish parking lot attendant, whom she had noticed several months earlier. Grady spends time with Clyde and meets some of his friends, and in turn the couple visits the Central Park Zoo together. There, Clyde mentions his brother's bar mitzvah as a way of introducing the fact that he is Jewish. As the summer heats up, so does Grady's and Clyde's romance. The couple

270-707: A draft of the play in a year's time. He was personally involved in the selection of a production team. Capote's stage adaptation of his novel, produced by Saint Subber , directed by Robert Lewis , opened on March 27, 1952 at Broadway 's Martin Beck Theatre , where it ran for 36 performances. The cast included Mildred Natwick as Dolly Talbo, Ruth Nelson as Verena Talbo, Jonathan Harris as Dr. Morris Ritz, Sterling Holloway as The Barber, Gertrude Flynn as The Baker's Wife, Val Dufour as The Sheriff, Jane Lawrence as The Choir Mistress, Lenka Peterson as Maude Riordan, and Alice Pearce as Miss Baby Love Dallas. Music

315-489: A man of her social stature who is romantically interested in her. Eventually Grady's sister, Apple, confronts her about her relationship with Clyde. In an abrupt ending, Grady aims her speeding Buick with passengers Peter, Clyde, and Clyde's friend Gump so it will crash off the Queensboro Bridge , killing everyone. Plans for a film adaptation of Summer Crossing were announced 2013. Playwright Tristine Skyler

360-480: A tender laughter, charming human warmth, [and] a feeling for the positive quality of life." The Atlantic Monthly commented that " The Grass Harp charms you into sharing the author's feeling that there is a special poetry - a spontaneity and wonder and delight - in lives untarnished by conformity and common sense." Sales of The Grass Harp reached 13,500, more than double those of either A Tree of Night or Local Color , two of Capote's prior works. The Grass Harp

405-504: A tin roof, and was furnished with a rattan sofa. Capote spent time in this tree house with his cousin Sook or other childhood friends such as Harper Lee . The novel was additionally inspired by his cousin Sook's dropsy medicine, which she made yearly until the age of 62. She took the recipe for it to the grave, despite Jenny's wanting first to patent the recipe and then to sell it to a manufacturer. Capote completed The Grass Harp while he

450-440: A well-received performance as Mary Tyrone in a regional production of O'Neill 's Long Day's Journey Into Night ; reprising the role she'd first played on Broadway in 1957, initially as Florence Eldridge 's understudy, and then as the permanent replacement for an ailing Fay Bainter during the show's national tour. Both critic Claudia Cassidy and director—and Group Theatre co-founder— Robert Lewis judged Nelson's Mary Tyrone

495-651: Is as rare in art as in life) she reveals a human being under the Mother. Miss Nelson misses no nuance or reality that the part offers, and in one moment—when she mourns her murdered son—she touches true elegy. Nelson's final feature film appearance was in 1990's Awakenings ; her performance—as the mother of a hospital patient played by Robert De Niro (a role which—in a widely disseminated contemporaneous story published by Premiere Magazine —was erroneously reported as having gone to an Oscar -flaunting Shelley Winters ) —was singled out for praise by several critics, including

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540-512: Is soon wed in Red Bank, New Jersey . Once married, Grady meets Clyde's middle-class family in Brooklyn , and only then is the couple truly faced with the stark reality of the cultural divide between her family and his. Grady then realizes at her sister Apple's home that she is six weeks pregnant. Grady has passed over a couple of opportunities to spend time with the handsome young Peter Bell,

585-517: Is the second novel written by American author Truman Capote . He started the novel in about 1943 and worked on it intermittently for several years before putting it aside. Capote's manuscript came to light almost 20 years after Capote's death and the novel published in 2005. The novel tells the story of an independent-minded young socialite whose romantic dalliances grow increasingly serious when her parents leave her alone in New York City for

630-502: The Wall Street Journal 's Julie Salamon : "Nelson achieves a wrenching beauty that stands out even among these exceptional actors doing exceptional things." In her 2012 memoir, the film's director, Penny Marshall , recalls: Ruth was a great lady. She was a New York stage actress in the 1930s who transitioned to movies but was blacklisted in the 1950s when her second husband was among those Senator Joseph McCarthy labeled

675-582: The Chappell Music Publishing sheet music cover art, replaced the original Brainard vinyl record "Grass Harp" cover art work when the Painted Smiles audio CD was issued. Initially, criticism of the show's sound system caused problems, with Truman Capote declaring "mike it". The producers could not afford to "mike" each member of the ensemble. The Grass Harp production was the last musical presented on Broadway without mikes for

720-414: The "Heavenly Pride and Joy", Christine Stabile as Maude Riordan, and Harvey Vernon as Sheriff Amos Legrand. The musical previewed and opened during a major New York City newspaper strike preventing advertising and reviews, with no advance theater party ticket sales guarantee. Richard Barr, Charles Woodward, Michael Harvey, and Michael Kasden gave the company the option of maintaining three more weeks for

765-665: The Laboratory Theatre under Boleslawski's direction, portraying the title character in Jean-Jacques Bernard 's Martine . Over the next two seasons, Nelson made two more appearances—in Checkhov 's The Seagull and Vladimir Kirshon 's Red Rust —prior to becoming, in 1931, a charter member of the newly formed theatre collective, The Group Theatre , with whom she remained throughout its run from 1931 to 1941, receiving particular praise for her performance as

810-731: The Michigan University Professional Theatre Program presented The Grass Harp musical with the university's music and drama departments supplying musicians and performers. Initially as an evaluation by the Broadway producers Richard Barr , Charles Woodward, Michael Harvey, and Associate Producer Michael Kasden. Celeste Holm , a close friend of Claibe Richardson , appeared in the Michigan University Professional Program's production as "Miss Baby Love". She

855-578: The befuddled Bishop Martin in A Wedding , a comedy directed by Altman. In 1980, stepson James Cromwell appeared with Nelson in John Korty 's made-for-TV movie A Christmas Without Snow ; two years later, they appeared onstage together in the Public Theater 's production of Botho Strauss 's Three Acts of Recognition , staged by Richard Foreman . Moreover, as early as 1968, Nelson had performed onstage under her stepson's direction, giving

900-508: The cast included Barbara Baxley as Dolly Heart Talbo, Carol Brice as the black maid Catherine Creek, Carol Bruce as Verena Talbo, Elaine Stritch as the evangelist Baby Love. After the Providence tryout, Larry Fineberg optioned the property for Broadway, casting Mama Cass as the evangelist Miss Baby Love. However, Fineberg was unable to raise capital funds, and the producing rights were optioned by Richard Barr . In October 1971,

945-399: The cast. The scenic designer had incorporated "burlap fabric" in the production's wing and border designs, causing the deadening of the performer's vocal projections. This poor choice of stage material in the set's design with the absence of microphones for each cast member, especially the children, was the one major technical problem for the producers. Barbara Cook and the cast appeared on

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990-489: The charitable trust established by Capote's will, made the decision to publish Summer Crossing after consultations to assess its quality and significance. He concluded: "While not a polished work, it fully reflects the emergence of an original voice and a surprisingly proficient writer of prose." The novel appeared in 2005. The first edition was set from Capote's original manuscript, which was written in four school notebooks accompanied by 62 supplemental notes. An excerpt from

1035-694: The chief striker's wife in Clifford Odets ' play, Waiting for Lefty . After the Group Theatre ended in 1941, Nelson relocated to Hollywood. Throughout the 1940s, she made a number of movies for 20th Century Fox and other Hollywood studios. One of these was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), directed by fellow Group Theatre member Elia Kazan . She also appeared in Kazan's film The Sea of Grass in 1947. As her career began to take off, she

1080-533: The ending, and Capote made some changes in it, but he did not completely rewrite it. Truman Capote initially wanted to title the novel Music of the Sawgrass . It was Bob Linscott who gave it the title The Grass Harp. The story begins with Collin Fenwick losing his mother, and then his father, and moving into his aunts' (Dolly and Verena) house. Catherine, the servant, also lives in the house and gets along, for

1125-415: The finest they'd ever seen. Reviewing the 1966 revival of Thornton Wilder 's The Skin of Our Teeth staged by Douglas Campbell at Minnesota's Guthrie Theatre , critic Stanley Kauffmann writes: He [Campbell] has helped Ruth Nelson to a performance of Mrs. Antrobus that is very easily the best of the three I have seen (two of them on Broadway). She is matriarchal without being maudlin, and (which

1170-531: The high reserve price that was set and because those responsible for Capote's estate had, with Sotheby's assistance, asserted their claim that ownership of the physical papers did not confer publication rights, which were held by the Truman Capote Literary Trust . The New York Public Library reached an agreement to buy the papers and archived them in its permanent Truman Capote Collection. Capote's lawyer, Alan U. Schwartz, as trustee for

1215-416: The most part, only with Dolly. Dolly is famous for her medicine, which she makes by going out into the woods with Catherine and Collin and randomly picking plants. They then go to an old treehouse, which is propped up in a Chinaberry tree . One day, after Dolly has an argument with Verena (Verena wants to mass-produce Dolly's medicine), Dolly, Collin, and Catherine leave their home and start walking. They go to

1260-560: The movie was about. Nelson was married twice. She wed actor William Challee on August 2, 1931. They divorced in 1937. In 1947, Nelson married actor/director John Cromwell , whom she had first met two years before on the set of Anna and the King of Siam . The marriage lasted 32 years until Cromwell's death in 1979 from a pulmonary embolism . She was the stepmother of actor James Cromwell . Nelson died on September 12, 1992, at her home in New York City from brain cancer complicated by

1305-635: The musical's closing date. Because of timing, one musical number was forced off the vinyl, but added when the Painted Smiles Grass Harp audio CD was released. The Grass Harp album cover art was designed by Kenward Elmslie's fine artist-painter friend Joe Brainard . Claibe Richardson's Advertising Agency Art director-designer friend Jim Pearsal designed the Chappell Music Publishing's sheet music design-cover art work. Pearsal's twisted chinaberry tree house design,

1350-669: The productions' performance schedule, or closing after only seven performances, using the show's banked funds to produce a Broadway cast album. The musical orchestration was recorded in Cologne, Germany , with the Cologne Symphonic Orchestra ensemble. Returning to the States, the original cast was recorded in New York City, with the Painted Smiles Grass Harp vinyl album released a year after

1395-454: The story was also published in the October 24, 2005, issue of The New Yorker . The story takes place in New York City over the course of the hot summer of 1945. Grady McNeil, a 17-year-old upper class Protestant débutante , steadfastly refuses to accompany her parents on their usual summer ritual of travel, in this case to France. Left in the city for the summer by herself, she pursues

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1440-461: The summer while they travel to Europe. Capote started writing Summer Crossing in 1943 when he was working for The New Yorker . After taking an evening walk in Monroeville, Alabama , and being inspired to write his first published novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms , he set aside the manuscript. On August 30, 1949, while vacationing in North Africa, Capote informed his publisher that he

1485-410: The tree house leads to Riley getting shot in the shoulder. After Judge Cool discusses the situation, everyone agrees that it was a pointless struggle, and old relationships are invigorated once again. Many people leave as friends. The story ends with how a "grass harp, gathering, telling, a harp of voices remembering a story." The New York Herald Tribune lauded the novel as "Remarkable...infused with

1530-515: The treehouse in the Chinaberry tree, and decide to camp out there. Verena, meanwhile, informs the sheriff of her sister's disappearance; the Sheriff organizes a search party, and eventually arrests Catherine. During the course of the novel, others come to live in the treehouse, such as Judge Cool and Riley Henderson. In a climactic event, a confrontation among the search party and the residents of

1575-805: The unpolished manuscript, along with several other notebooks of prose, in a fit of harsh self-criticism. When Capote left a basement apartment he had been renting in Brooklyn Heights around 1950, he instructed his landlord to trash anything he had left. The next occupant of the apartment, described as a "house sitter", nevertheless rescued materials that appeared valuable and held them until his death fifty years later. His nephew and heir came into possession of these materials and identified and arranged with Sotheby's to auction these materials in 2004. Included were manuscripts of works both published and unpublished, drafts, notes, photographs, and correspondence. The collection received no bids at auction because of

1620-482: Was Truman Capote's favorite personal work, despite its being criticized as overly sentimental. The Grass Harp was favorably reviewed when it was published, and it attracted the interest of the Broadway producer Saint Subber , who traveled to Taormina to urge Capote to write a stage adaption of the work; his offer opened up new possibilities for income at a time when Capote was still struggling to make his way. Working with intense concentration, Capote managed to complete

1665-504: Was approximately two-thirds through his first draft of Summer Crossing . He optimistically spoke of finalizing the manuscript by the end of the year, even making a vow that he would not return to the United States until he did, but he never submitted more than a first draft to his publisher. Capote had been making minor edits to the work over a period of approximately 10 years. Robert Linscott, Capote's senior editor at Random House,

1710-496: Was by Virgil Thomson and scenery and costumes were by Cecil Beaton . In the late 1960s the novel was adapted into a musical. The book and lyrics were by Kenward Elmslie and the music by Claibe Richardson . The initial 1967 tryout of the musical was performed by Trinity Square Repertory Company at the Rhode Island School of Design auditorium, in Providence, Rhode Island. Directed and staged by Adrian Hall ,

1755-504: Was compelled to put things on hold when her husband, the director John Cromwell , a leading Roosevelt Democrat in the film industry, was falsely accused of Communism by actor Adolphe Menjou in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings on Hollywood in 1951 and his career went on to be blacklisted . While offered a New York stage role as a wife in what turned out to be Death of

1800-596: Was musical director, musical arrangements were by J (Billy) Van Planck, and dance and incidental music was by John Berkman. The cast featured Barbara Cook as Dolly Talbo, Carol Brice as Catherine Creek, Karen Morrow as evangelist Miss Baby Love, Ruth Ford as Verena Talbo, Russ Thacker as Colin Talbo, Max Showalter as Dr. Morris Ritz, John Baragrey as Judge Cool, Kelley Boa, Trudy Bordoff, Colin Duffy, Eva Grant, and David Craig Moskin as Miss Baby Love's orphans, known as

1845-529: Was replaced with Karen Morrow for the Broadway production. The musical adaptation opened on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on November 2, 1971, after previews from October 26, 1971, and closed on November 6, 1971. Directed by Ellis Rabb , the choreography was by Rhoda Levine , Scenic Design and lighting by James Tilton, and costumes by Nancy Potts. Orchestrations were by Jonathan Tunick and Robert Russell Bennett , Theodore Saidenberg

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1890-661: Was the wife of John Cromwell , with whom she acted on multiple occasions. Born in Saginaw, Michigan, Nelson was the daughter of Sanford Leroy Nelson and vaudeville actress Eva Mudge . She attended Immaculate Heart Convent School in Los Angeles, studying first with Daniel Frohman and then with Richard Boleslawski at the American Laboratory Theatre in New York City during the early 1920s. Nelson made her stage debut in New York on April 4, 1928, at

1935-409: Was unimpressed with the first draft. He said he thought it was a good novel, but that it didn't showcase Capote's "distinctive artistic voice". After reading the draft several times, Capote noted that the novel was "well written and it's got a lot of style", but that he just did not like it. In particular Capote began "to fear [the novel] was thin, clever, unfelt". Later Capote claimed to have destroyed

1980-496: Was vacationing in Taormina , Sicily. The last section was airmailed to the publishers Random House just days after he finished writing it, but it was not published for four months because the editors, specifically Bob Linscott, did not care for the ending of the novel. Linscott thought that the ending was weak because, once the characters were up in the tree house, Capote "didn't know what to do with them." He asked Capote to rewrite

2025-548: Was working with Scarlett Johansson on the screenplay and Johansson was slated to direct in her feature film directorial debut. She said: "Being able to bring this story to the screen as my full-length directorial debut is a life dream and deep privilege." Ruth Nelson (actress) Ruth Gloria Nelson (August 2, 1905 – September 12, 1992) was an American stage and film actress. She is known for her roles in films such as Wilson , A Tree Grows in Brooklyn , Humoresque , 3 Women , The Late Show and Awakenings . She

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