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Spofford (play)
''Spofford'' is a 1967 play based on the novel ''Reuben, Reuben'' by Peter DeVries. Melvyn Douglas appeared in the original Broadway run. accessed 16 June 2013 The play was profiled in the William Goldman
William Goldman (August 12, 1931 – November 16, 2018) was an American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. He first came to prominence in the 1950s as a novelist before turning to screenwriting. He won Academy Awards for his screenplays '' ... book '' The Season: A Candid Look at B ...
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Herman Shumlin
Herman Shumlin (December 6, 1898, Atwood, Colorado – June 4, 1979, New York City) was a prolific Broadway theatre, Broadway Theatre director, theatrical director and theatre producer, theatrical producer beginning in 1927 with the play ''Celebrity'' and continuing through 1974 with a short run of ''As You Like It'', notably with an all-male cast. He was also the director of two movies, including ''Watch on the Rhine'' (1943), which he first directed and produced on Broadway in 1941. During a Broadway career lasting 47 years, he was the director, producer or both of 45 productions, including three separate productions of ''The Corn Is Green'' (1940, 1943, and 1950). Other productions include ''The Little Foxes'' (1939), ''Watch on the Rhine'' (1941), and ''Inherit the Wind (play), Inherit the Wind'' (1955). ''Inherit the Wind'' ran for 806 performances, and was Inherit the Wind (1960 film), made into a movie in 1960 starring Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, and Gene Kelly, and has be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reuben, Reuben
''Reuben, Reuben'' is a 1983 comedy-drama film directed by Robert Ellis Miller and starring Tom Conti, Kelly McGillis (in her film debut), Roberts Blossom, Cynthia Harris, and Joel Fabiani. The film was adapted by Julius J. Epstein from the 1967 play ''Spofford'' by Herman Shumlin, which in turn was adapted from the 1964 novel ''Reuben, Reuben'' by Peter De Vries. The main character in DeVries's novel was based largely on the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, who was a compulsive womanizer and lifelong alcoholic, finally succumbing to the effects of alcohol poisoning in November 1953, while on a speaking tour in America. Plot Gowan McGland (Tom Conti) is a creatively blocked Scottish poet who ekes out a day-to-day existence by exploiting the generosity of strangers in an affluent Connecticut suburb, where he recites his verse to various arts groups and women's clubs. Gowan is something of a leech, cadging expensive dinners from well-off patrons (usually stealing the tips afterward) whil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter DeVries
Peter De Vries (February 27, 1910 – September 28, 1993) was an American editor and novelist known for his satiric wit. He has been described by the philosopher Daniel Dennett as "probably the funniest writer on religion ever". Biography De Vries was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1910. He was educated in Dutch Christian Reformed Church schools, graduating from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1931. He also studied at Northwestern University. He supported himself with a number of different jobs, including those of vending machine operator, toffee-apple salesman, radio actor in the 1930s, and editor for ''Poetry'' magazine from 1938 to 1944. He joined the staff of ''The New Yorker'' magazine at the insistence of James Thurber and worked there from 1944 to 1987, writing stories and touching up cartoon captions. A prolific writer, De Vries wrote short stories, reviews, poetry, essays, a play, novellas, and twenty-three novels. Films made from De Vries's novels include ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melvyn Douglas
Melvyn Douglas (born Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg, April 5, 1901 – August 4, 1981) was an American actor. Douglas came to prominence in the 1930s as a suave leading man, perhaps best typified by his performance in the romantic comedy ''Ninotchka'' (1939) with Greta Garbo. Douglas later played mature and fatherly characters, as in his Academy Award-winning performances in ''Hud'' (1963) and ''Being There'' (1979) and his Academy Award–nominated performance in ''I Never Sang for My Father'' (1970). Douglas was one of 24 performers to win the Triple Crown of Acting. In the last few years of his life Douglas appeared in films with supernatural stories involving ghosts. Douglas appeared as "Senator Joseph Carmichael" in '' The Changeling'' in 1980 and '' Ghost Story'' in 1981 in his final completed film role. Early life Douglas was born in Macon, Georgia, the son of Lena Priscilla (née Shackelford) and Edouard Gregory Hesselberg, a concert pianist and composer. His father was a Je ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Goldman
William Goldman (August 12, 1931 – November 16, 2018) was an American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. He first came to prominence in the 1950s as a novelist before turning to screenwriting. He won Academy Awards for his screenplays ''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'' (1969) and ''All the President's Men'' (1976). His other well-known works include his thriller novel '' Marathon Man'' (1974) and his cult classic comedy/fantasy novel ''The Princess Bride'' (1973), both of which he also adapted for film versions. Early life Goldman was born into a Jewish family in Chicago in 1931 and grew up in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois, the second son of Marion (née Weil) and Maurice Clarence Goldman. Goldman's father initially was a successful businessman, working in Chicago and in a partnership, but he suffered from alcoholism, which cost him his business. He "came home to live and he was in his pajamas for the last five years of his life," according to Goldman ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Candid Look At Broadway
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version can be written in two forms: the double-storey a and single-storey ɑ. The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type. In English grammar, " a", and its variant " an", are indefinite articles. History The earliest certain ancestor of "A" is aleph (also written 'aleph), the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, which consisted entirely of consonants (for that reason, it is also called an abjad to distinguis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1967 Plays
Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and commercial relations (not diplomatic ones). ** Charlie Chaplin launches his last film, ''A Countess from Hong Kong'', in the UK. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps, USMC and Army of the Republic of Vietnam, ARVN troops launch ''Operation Deckhouse Five'' in the Mekong Delta. * January 8 – Vietnam War: Operation Cedar Falls starts. * January 13 – A military coup occurs in Togo under the leadership of Étienne Eyadema. * January 14 – The Human Be-In takes place in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco; the event sets the stage for the Summer of Love. * January 15 ** Louis Leakey announces the discovery of pre-human fossils in Kenya; he names the species ''Proconsul nyanzae, Kenyapithecus africanus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
