Alexander Woollcott, 37, is stunned. The theatre critic for the New York Sun and witness to countless Broadway hits and abject failures—tonight he is just stunned.
Woollcott’s friend,would-be playwright Charles MacArthur, 29, had finally persuaded Alex to come to the premiere of I’ll Say She Is.
Casino Theatre
A mixture of old vaudeville, new music and sketches, and old jokes, the standouts of the revue are the four brothers who star: Leonard, 37, Arthur, 35, Julius Henry, 33, and Herbert Marx, 23.
Woollcott had heard about the Marxes, but dismissed the four as “some damn acrobats.”
Now, Alexhas to go backstage to meet them, particularly Arthur, who is “Harpo” in the revue. He doesn’t speak a word, is hysterically funny, and then stops to play the harp! Alex thinks he is the funniest person he has ever seen on stage.
Woollcott is going to invite Arthur to the Thanatopsis Literary and Inside Straight Club, the weekly poker game Saturday nights at the Algonquin Hotel. He’ll write a rave review for the show tomorrow. But Alex is also going to advise the brothers to be billed under their stage names from now on: Harpo, as well as Chico (Leonard), Groucho (Julius) and Zeppo (Herbert).
This summer I will be talking about the literary 1920s in Paris and New York at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University.
Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with F. Scott Fitzgerald. Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, is also available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in both print and e-book versions.
Tonight is the premiere of Soirees de Paris, a mix of music hall, ballet, theatre and poetry put together by the impresario Count Etienne de Beaumont, 41, in an attempt to rival the Ballets Russes, headed by Serge Diaghilev, 52.
For this latest project, the Count purposely hired some of Diaghilev’s former stars, including choreographer Leonide Massine, 27, and ballerina Lydia Lopokova, 32.
Diaghilev threatened any of his cast or crew who might be poached. He showed up tonight, pointed at the poster for the production, and shouted to the crowds,
All that’s missing is my name!”
Soirees de Paris poster by Marie Laurencin
The Ballets Russes’ season opens in a bit over a week, and de Beaumont is planning to hire groups of claques to harass the performers from the audience, just as Diaghilev has done tonight.
Lydia is a hit in Le Beau Danube, which the count himself designed the costumes for; she also appears in Premier Amour with music by Erik Satie, turning 58 today, where she plays a doll that a little girl falls in love with.
In Massine’s La Roses all Lydia has to do is stand still and pose. She thinks it’s stupid.
Lydia was also supposed to appear in Vogues, a dance-suite created by the Count. But she wasn’t comfortable being sandwiched between two male characters on stage, so she withdrew.
On to the after-party!
*****
Now that the performance is over, the real fun begins, at the annual masquerade ball the Count throws here at his mansion to raise money for charity. This year the beneficiary is the Aid Organization for War Widows and the Relief Committee for Russian Refugees. The Count is calling the event the “automobile ball.”
Count Etienne de Beaumont at home
American ex-pat painter and photographer Man Ray, 33, is in charge of documenting the guests in their costumes. Being captured by Ray on film definitely means you have arrived on Paris’ social scene.
Pablo Picasso with other guests, by Man Ray
French writer Jean Cocteau, 34, is flying around the place in his Mercury costume. As usual. The Count himself has his own style.
Count Etienne de Beaumont en costume
Ex-pat Americans Gerald, 35, and Sara Murphy, 40, decide to illustrate the “automotive” theme.
Sara and Gerald Murphy at the ball, by Man Ray
Word is that Gerald had to be welded into the tunic.
This summer I will be talking about the literary 1920s in Paris and New York at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University.
Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, is also available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in both print and e-book versions.
Ever since the Provincetown Playhouse announced, back in January, that the next premiere by their star playwright, double Pulitzer Prize winner Eugene O’Neill, 35, would be All God’s Chillun Got Wings, starring Paul Robeson, 26, there has been controversy.
All God’s Chillun Got Wings by Eugene O’Neill
Most of the hubbub about the play’s treatment of interracial marriage has been fueled by two newspapers, the American and the Morning Telegraph, both owned by William Randolph Hearst, 61. But even Time magazine headlined its story about the play, “Mr. O’Neill Writes a ‘Revolting’ Play,” although calling Paul “a brilliant Negro.”
Noisy critics wanted to ban the production even before the script was published in the new magazine, the American Mercury, back in February. They warn the Mayor’s office that there will be riots! However, Chillun is being presented to a subscription-only audience, so the city has no authority to shut it down.
Robeson and his wife Essie, 28, on the other hand, pored over an advance copy of the script, admiring its beauty. Paul is thrilled to finally be in an O’Neill play.
Then the leading lady, Mary Blair, 29, a new mom recently married to literary critic Edmund Wilson, also 29, developed pleurisy, so the opening had to be delayed.
O’Neill and his two fellow directors of the Playhouse decided to fill the gap by reviving one of his hits, The Emperor Jones—this time with Robeson.
Paul, of course, is honored, but a little wary about rehearsing both roles at the same time. The controversy in the press over a photo showing Blair kissing his hand in a rehearsal scene brought him and the play even more notoriety.
A scene from rehearsal of All God’s Chillun Got Wings
During the rehearsals for Chillun, the audience included, not only Essie, but also invited VIPs such as James Weldon Johnson, 52, executive director of the NAACP.
Blair’s continual bouts of illness caused the Playhouse to announce that, after its first week, Chillun will alternate weeks with Emperor Jones. Keeping Paul busier than ever.
In addition to the uproar in the press—the cost of the press clipping service has been more than the cost of the sets—there have been bomb threats and nasty letters. Director Jimmy Light, 29, has decided to keep the scariest ones away from all the cast members.
To partially calm the audience, the Playhouse has printed in the playbill an essay by African-American leader W. E. B. Du Bois, 56, advising critics that they should instead praise O’Neill for “bursting through.”
W. E. B. Du Bois
The Emperor Jones’ first run ended just two days ago—two days! Today, for the premiere of Chillun, Paul and Essie take an alternate route to the theatre as a precaution. Police are stationed around the building; cast members have recruited some of their beefy steelworker friends to guard their dressing rooms.
Just hours before the opening, the Mayor’s office informs the Playhouse that its routine application to use child actors in the opening scene, which shows black and white kids playing together, has been rejected, with no explanation.
The curtain goes up. Director Light steps out to tell the full house—including critics from all the major publications, such as Life magazine’s Robert Benchley, 34; the Sun’sAlexander Woollcott, 37; and the World’sHeywood Broun, 35—that because of the Mayor’s action, the first scene cannot be performed as planned.
So he reads it to them.
And the rest of the play is presented with no problems. The audience applauds frequently.
Tonight, at the opening night party, the whole company is totally relieved. Paul entertains them by singing spirituals for hours.
This summer I will be talking about the literary 1920s in Paris and New York at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University.
Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, is also available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in both print and e-book versions.
At the Abbey Theatre, one long block away from O’Connell Street—up until five days ago known as Sackville Street—the second run of Juno and the Paycock by Sean O’Casey, 44, is coming to an end.
Juno and the Paycock program
When the theatre premiered this, O’Casey’s second play, back in March, theatre director LadyAugusta Gregory, 72, told her co-founder, poet and playwright William Butler Yeats, 59, “this is one of the evenings at the Abbey which make me glad to have been born.”
Now, after its second successful two-week run, in addition to her feelings of pride in the theatre and O’Casey, Augusta is also feeling that this will be a great money-spinner for the Abbey.
The premiere, starring their reliable company regulars—Barry Fitzgerald, 36, as Captain Jack Boyle; Sara Allgood, 43, as his long suffering wife Juno; and Fitzgerald’s brother Arthur Shields, 28, as their disabled war veteran son Johnny Boyle—was such a hit Yeats and LadyGregory doubled its scheduled one-week run, the first time the Abbey had ever done this.
Arthur Shields
Last month they repeated O’Casey’s first play, The Shadow of a Gunman, for the fifth time.
The Shadow of a Gunman program
Willie and Augusta have no qualms about bringing Juno back again now for another full two-week run—two Saturday matinees!—with the original hit cast. And once again the audiences are packing in.
Lady Gregory wants to have a long chat with young Sean about the possibility of his writing future plays for the Abbey.
Tomorrow, Saturday, May 11, is the Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in Highland Park. Stop by the “Such Friends” booth in Writers’ Row.
This summer I will be talking about the literary 1920s in Paris and New York at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University.
Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, is also available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in both print and e-book versions.
Editing this book is probably the most fun Maxwell Perkins, 39, has ever had in his job, but it was also the biggest pain in the patoot.
Maxwell Perkins
Perkins was introduced to the author, well-known columnist Ring Lardner, also 39, by Scribner’s hit novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, 27. Last July Scott invited Max to have dinner with them out on Long Island where they both lived. A lovely drunken evening ended when Scott drove Max into Durand’s Pond. But that’s another story.
Lardner’s first book, You Know Me Al, a series of letters from an imaginary minor league baseball player, was a success seven years ago. Perkins really wanted to have Scribner’s bring out a collection of Ring’s newspaper columns and magazine articles.
You Know Me Al by Ring Lardner
The problem was that Ring never kept track of where his work had been published. Perkins had to do all the searching and calling around.
At one point he even asked his boss, Charles “Old CS” Scribner, 69, for some extra help, telling him,
I should be of more value if I were more free.”
Ring apologized for all the trouble, and told Max he could visit Great Neck again,
It’s safer now…as Durand’s Pond is frozen over.”
Max did get together with Ring out on Long Island a few times, and, although Lardner was talking about taking a trip to Europe soon, he didn’t look well. His chain smoking was making his cough worse, and, although they both had a lot of drinks, Ring didn’t eat much.
The resulting book, How to Write Short Stories (With Samples), published this month, has been worth the effort, according to Perkins. This should get Lardner some well-deserved recognition.
How to Write Short Stories (With Samples) by Ring Lardner
At the end of the month, Max’s wife is leaving on a Caribbean cruise with some friends, but the editor has too much work to do to be able to join her.
He has to drive to Richmond, Virginia, to meet with one of his authors. Perkins has considered taking a small detour to Middleburg to visit a lovely woman he has met a few times when she visited relatives up north, Elizabeth Lemmon, 31.
But Max is thinking it would be better not to make the detour.
Mark your calendar! The Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books returns to the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in Highland Park this Saturday, May 11. Stop by the “Such Friends” booth in Writers’ Row to receive the special Festival discount on all five volumes.
This summer I will be talking about the literary 1920s in Paris and New York at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University.
Manager as Muse, about Perkins’ relationships with, Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, is also available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in both print and e-book versions.
At this year’s third annual Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books we will celebrate the launch of the fifth volume in the series, “Such Friends”: The Literary 1920s. Halfway through the decade!
Volume V, covering 1924, continues to chronicle the private and professional lives of the key figures in the literary world in the fabulous decade of the 1920s.
“Such Friends”: The Literary 1920s, Volume V—1924
You can see how the year ends before the postings on this blog get there!
Like the other four volumes—all available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk—Volume V has a unique dip-in-and-dip-out layout, designed by Lisa Thomson (LisaT2@comcast.net), that makes it easy to find the writers, artists, events and dates you’re most interested in. Find out what Ernest Hemingway was doing 100 years ago on your birth date! What was Virginia Woolf doing this week?! Or read straight through from January 1st through December 31st.
The unique layout of “Such Friends”: The Literary 1920s
Copies of the first four volumes will be available at the “Such Friends” booth in Writer’s Row at the Festival. Not only can you take advantage of the Festival discount—I’m happy to personally sign your copies!
Thanks to Amazon’s crack delivery system, you will also be able to enter the “Such Friends” raffle to win a free copy of the new “Such Friends”: The Literary 1920s, Volume V—1924, when they finally arrive, shortly after the Festival.
If you can’t make it to Highland Park next Saturday between 10 am and 5 pm, or just can’t wait that long, you can order your copies of all five volumes now from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, or by emailing me at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.
See you at the Festival!
“Such Friends” at last year’s Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books
This summer I will be talking about the literary 1920s in Paris and New York at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University.
Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe, is also available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in both print and e-book versions.
Surrounded by 17 pieces of luggage, several crates filled with volumes of the Encyclopedia Brittanica, and copies of his own novels and short story collections bound in pale blue leather with gold lettering, F. Scott Fitzgerald, 27, sits in his living room waiting for the taxi to take him, his wife Zelda, 23, and their two-year-old daughter Scottie, to board the SSMinnewaska to sail to Cherbourg, France.
SS Minnewaska
They have also thrown in a one-hundred-foot roll of copper screening. Might be bugs.
Scott and Zelda had been to France once before, a few years ago, right after the publication of his first novel, This Side of Paradise. Zelda was sick the whole time, pregnant with Scottie. They didn’t like it.
But now they both feel they need a big change. Scott has been working on his third novel, and he feels as though he is stuck. They have a small nest egg, and income from the magazine short stories he’ll keep writing. At the current exchange rates, the money will go a lot further in the south of France than in Great Neck.
This time, the Fitzgeralds decided to plan ahead a bit more. They hosted a dinner at Christmastime to get some tips from friends about where to go, whom to see.
Their Great Neck neighbor, Esther Murphy, 26, suggested that they make contact with her brother Gerald, 36, a painter, and his wife Sara, 40. They have children around Scottie’s age and moved permanently to France a few years ago.
Esther Murphy
They sound interesting. Scott will be sure to look them up when they get to Paris.
Mark your calendar! The Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books returns to the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in Highland Park on Saturday, May 11. Stop by the “Such Friends” booth in Writers’ Row.
This summer I will be talking about the literary 1920s in Paris and New York at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University.
Manager as Muse, about Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ relationships with, Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, is also available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in both print and e-book versions.
SuchFriends Blog 