Clifford Odets (July 18, 1906 – August 14, 1963) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and actor. In the mid-1930s, he was widely seen as the potential successor to
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
-winning playwright
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier ...
, as O'Neill began to withdraw from Broadway's commercial pressures and increasing critical backlash.
From January 1935, Odets's socially relevant dramas were extremely influential, particularly for the remainder of the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. His works inspired the next several generations of playwrights, including
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are '' All My Sons'' (1947), ''Death of a Salesman'' ( ...
,
Paddy Chayefsky
Sidney Aaron "Paddy" Chayefsky (January 29, 1923 – August 1, 1981) was an American playwright, screenwriter and novelist. He is the only person to have won three solo Academy Awards for writing both adapted and original screenplays.
He was ...
,
Neil Simon
Marvin Neil Simon (July 4, 1927 – August 26, 2018) was an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly film adaptations of his plays. He has received mo ...
, and
David Mamet
David Alan Mamet (; born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, filmmaker, and author. He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony Award, Tony nominations for his plays ''Glengarry Glen Ross'' (1984) and ''Speed-the-Plow'' (1988). He first ...
. After the production of his play ''
Clash by Night
''Clash by Night'' is a 1952 American film noir drama directed by Fritz Lang and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas, Robert Ryan, Marilyn Monroe and Keith Andes. The film is based on the 1941 play by Clifford Odets, adapted for the screen ...
'' in the 1941–42 season, Odets focused his energies primarily on film projects, remaining in Hollywood for the next seven years. He returned to New York in 1948 for five and a half years, during which time he produced three more Broadway plays, only one of which was a success. His prominence was eventually eclipsed by Miller,
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thre ...
, and in the early- to mid-1950s,
William Inge
William Motter Inge (; May 3, 1913 – June 10, 1973) was an American playwright and novelist, whose works typically feature solitary protagonists encumbered with strained sexual relations. In the early 1950s he had a string of memorable Broad ...
.
Early life
Odets was born in Philadelphia to Louis J. Odets (born Leib Gorodetsky) and Pearl Geisinger, Russian- and
Romanian-Jewish
The history of the Jews in Romania concerns the Jews both of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is present-day Romanian territory. Minimal until the 18th century, the size of the Jewish population increased after ...
immigrants, and was raised in Philadelphia and the Bronx, New York. He dropped out of high school after two years to become an actor and a writer.
Career
Theatre
Odets pursued acting with great passion and ingenuity. At the age of 19 he struck out on his own, billing himself as "The Rover Reciter." Under this moniker he participated in talent contests and procured bookings as a radio elocutionist. He appeared in several plays with
Harry Kemp
Harry Hibbard Kemp (December 15, 1883 – August 5, 1960) was an American poet and prose writer of the twentieth century. He was known as (and promoted himself as) the "Vagabond Poet", the " Villon of America", the "Hobo Poet", or the "Tramp P ...
's Poet's Theatre on the Lower East Side. Odets was among America's first real disc jockeys at about this time, at radio station WBNY and others in Manhattan, where he would play records and ad lib commentary. He also functioned as a drama critic, allowing him free entry to Broadway and downtown shows. In this capacity he saw the 1926 Broadway production of
Seán O'Casey
Seán O'Casey ( ga, Seán Ó Cathasaigh ; born John Casey; 30 March 1880 – 18 September 1964) was an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes.
...
's ''
Juno and the Paycock.'' O'Casey's work proved to be a powerful influence on Odets.
In the early 1920s, Odets spent four summers as a dramatics counselor at Jewish camps in the Catskills and the Poconos. He toured extensively with stock companies, in particular Philadelphia's popular Mae Desmond Company, playing a large variety of character roles at their theater in Chester, Pennsylvania. His first Broadway break came in 1929 when he was cast in two small roles and as understudy to the young Spencer Tracy in ''Conflict'' by Warren F. Lawrence. Odets landed his first job with the prestigious
Theatre Guild
The Theatre Guild is a theatrical society founded in New York City in 1918 by Lawrence Langner, Philip Moeller, Helen Westley and Theresa Helburn. Langner's wife, Armina Marshall, then served as a co-director. It evolved out of the work of the W ...
in the fall of 1929 as an extra. He acted in small roles in a number of Theatre Guild productions between 1929 and 1931. It was at the Guild that he befriended the casting director
Cheryl Crawford
Cheryl Crawford (September 24, 1902 – October 7, 1986) was an American theatre producer and director.
Biography
Born in Akron, Ohio, Crawford majored in drama at Smith College. Following graduation in 1925, she moved to New York City and ...
. Crawford suggested that
Harold Clurman
Harold Edgar Clurman (September 18, 1901 – September 9, 1980) was an American theatre director and drama critic. In 2003, he was named one of the most influential figures in U.S. theater by PBS. , then a play reader for the Guild, invite Odets to a meeting to discuss new theater concepts they were developing with
Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg (born Israel Strassberg; November 17, 1901 – February 17, 1982) was an American theatre director, actor and acting teacher. He co-founded, with theatre directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931 ...
. Though initially bewildered by the concept of acting as an art, Odets was nonetheless mesmerized by Clurman's talks and became the last actor chosen for the Group Theatre's first summer of rehearsals in June 1931 at Brookfield Center in Connecticut, thus becoming a founding member of the company.
The
Group Theatre proved to be one of the most influential companies in the history of the American stage. It was the first to base its work on an acting technique new to the United States, devised by the Russian actor and director
Constantin Stanislavski
Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski ( Alekseyev; russian: Константин Сергеевич Станиславский, p=kənstɐnʲˈtʲin sʲɪrˈgʲejɪvʲɪtɕ stənʲɪˈslafskʲɪj; 7 August 1938) was a seminal Soviet Russian ...
. It was further developed by Group Theatre director
Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg (born Israel Strassberg; November 17, 1901 – February 17, 1982) was an American theatre director, actor and acting teacher. He co-founded, with theatre directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931 ...
and became known as
The Method or Method Acting.
From the start, Odets was relegated to small roles and understudying his Group colleagues. He understudied lead actor Luther Adler in the Group's production of
John Howard Lawson
John Howard Lawson (September 25, 1894 – August 11, 1977) was an American writer, specializing in plays and screenplays. After starting with plays for theaters in New York City, he worked in Hollywood on writing for films. He was the first pres ...
's ''Success Story'' during the 1932–33 season. Much to Odets's frustration, Adler never missed a performance, but he gained much knowledge of the playwriting craft by standing in the wings and listening to the play. Odets credited Lawson with giving him an understanding of the potential theatrical power of colloquial language.
With time on his hands and at Clurman's urging he began to try his own hand at writing plays.
Odets's earliest plays were an autobiographical piece, ''910 Eden Street'', and one about his hero, Beethoven, with the working title ''Victory''. Clurman dismissed both as juvenilia but encouraged Odets to continue writing, while steering him toward familiar milieus. In late 1932, Odets began writing a play about a middle-class Jewish family in the Bronx, initially called ''I Got the Blues''. He worked diligently on this play, sharing drafts of it with Clurman and promising parts to his fellow actors—often the same parts. While at Green Mansions, its 1933 summer rehearsal venue in Warrensburg, New York, the Group performed Act II of the play, soon to be retitled ''
Awake and Sing!
''Awake and Sing!'' is a drama written by American playwright Clifford Odets. The play was initially produced by The Group Theatre in 1935.
Summary and characters
The play is set in The Bronx borough of New York City, New York, in 1933. It co ...
'', for other camp residents. The audience was enthusiastic but the Group's leadership, Strasberg in particular, still opposed producing it.
Until his debut as a playwright, Odets continued to train as an actor with the Group at its various summer rehearsal headquarters in the Connecticut countryside and upstate New York. In addition to Brookfield Center and Green Mansions, these venues included Dover Furnace in Dutchess County (1932) and a large house in the Catskill village of Ellenville (1934). The Group spent the summer of 1936 at
Pine Brook Country Club
Pine Brook Country Club is a private lake association in Nichols, Connecticut, a village within the Town of Trumbull. It began when Benjamin Plotkin purchased Pinewood Lake and the surrounding countryside on Mischa Hill. Plotkin built an audito ...
in Fairfield County, Connecticut. Its final summer retreat was at Lake Grove, in Smithtown, New York, in 1939. Odets's Group training under Strasberg's tutelage was essential to his development as a playwright. He said in an interview late in life, "My chief influence as a playwright was the Group Theatre acting company, and being a member of that company ... And you can see the Group Theatre acting technique crept right into the plays."
Odets became the first Method-trained playwright with his first produced play, the one-act ''
Waiting for Lefty
''Waiting for Lefty'' is a 1935 play by the American playwright Clifford Odets; it was his first play to be produced. Consisting of a series of related vignettes, the entire play is framed by a meeting of cab drivers who are planning a labor ...
'', on January 6, 1935, at the former
Civic Repertory Theatre
The Fourteenth Street Theatre was a New York City theatre located at 107 West 14th Street just west of Sixth Avenue.Berg, J.C. (9 January 2011)The Fourteenth Street Theater, ''nycvintageimages.com''
History
It was designed by Alexander Saelt ...
on Fourteenth Street in New York City. The occasion was a benefit performance for ''New Theatre Magazine''. Like Lawson, a member of the Communist Party, Odets was by this time influenced by Marxism and his plays became increasingly political. ''Waiting for Lefty'' was inspired by the 1934 New York City taxi strike and is written in the format of a minstrel show. A one-act play, it is composed of interconnected scenes depicting social and economic dilemmas of workers in various fields. The focus alternates between a union meeting of taxi drivers and vignettes from the workers' difficult and oppressed lives. A young medical intern falls victim to anti-Semitism; a laboratory assistant's job is threatened if he refuses to comply with orders to spy on a colleague; couples are thwarted in marriage and torn apart by the hopelessness of economic conditions caused by the Depression. The climax is a defiant call for the taxi drivers' union to strike, which brought the entire opening night audience to its feet. The play does not require a proscenium stage and can be performed in any acting space, including union meeting halls and on the street. ''Waiting for Leftys unexpectedly wild success brought Odets international fame, though its strong pro-union bent caused it to be banned in many U.S. towns and cities. It was produced by a number of left-wing theaters in Britain, Australia, and other English-speaking countries, and has been widely translated.
''
Awake and Sing!
''Awake and Sing!'' is a drama written by American playwright Clifford Odets. The play was initially produced by The Group Theatre in 1935.
Summary and characters
The play is set in The Bronx borough of New York City, New York, in 1933. It co ...
'', finally produced by the Group Theatre in February 1935 after the success of ''Waiting for Lefty'', is generally regarded as Odets's masterpiece. It has been cited as "the earliest quintessential Jewish play outside the Yiddish theatre." The play concerns the Berger family, who struggle to maintain some respectability and self-esteem in the Longwood section of the Bronx while grappling with the anxiety produced by economic collapse. Odets's choice to open the play
in medias res
A narrative work beginning ''in medias res'' (, "into the middle of things") opens in the midst of the plot (cf. ''ab ovo'', ''ab initio''). Often, exposition is bypassed and filled in gradually, through dialogue, flashbacks or description of pa ...
, his dialogue style, its blatant bias towards the working class, and the fact that it was the first play on Broadway to focus entirely on a Jewish family distinguish ''Awake and Sing!'' from other full-length plays produced on Broadway during this time.
Odets became the Group's signature playwright with the debuts of ''Waiting for Lefty'' and ''Awake and Sing!'' and his reputation is inextricably connected with the Group Theatre.
![Cliffordodets](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Cliffordodets.jpg)
The two 1935 one-acts ''Waiting for Lefty'' and the anti-Nazi ''Till the Day I Die,'' along with a number of other works by various playwrights produced by the Group Theatre, are harsh criticisms of profiteers and exploitative economic systems during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. They have been dismissed by some critics as left-wing
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
. But ''Waiting for Lefty'' is more commonly considered iconic in the
agitprop
Agitprop (; from rus, агитпроп, r=agitpróp, portmanteau of ''agitatsiya'', "agitation" and ''propaganda'', " propaganda") refers to an intentional, vigorous promulgation of ideas. The term originated in Soviet Russia where it referred ...
genre, is widely translated and anthologized, and continues to be popular. Odets asserted that all of his plays deal with the human spirit persevering in the face of any opponent, whether or not the characters are depicted as struggling with the capitalist system. The highly successful ''
Golden Boy'' (1937) portrays a young man torn between artistic and material fulfillment. Ironically, it was the Group Theatre's biggest commercial success. From ''Golden Boy'' on, Odets's work focused more on the dynamics of interpersonal relationships as affected by the moral dilemmas of individual characters. In 1938 the Group presented ''
Rocket to the Moon'', a psychological play that explores the failure of human beings to fulfill their creative potential. Leftist critics rebuked Odets for abandoning his formerly overt political stance and the play was only modestly successful. The playwright
George S. Kaufman and others asked, "Odets, where is thy sting?" Nonetheless, ''Rocket to the Moon'' garnered enough attention to place Odets on the cover of ''Time'' in December 1938.
''Rocket to the Moon'' was followed by ''
Night Music'' (1940) and ''
Clash by Night
''Clash by Night'' is a 1952 American film noir drama directed by Fritz Lang and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas, Robert Ryan, Marilyn Monroe and Keith Andes. The film is based on the 1941 play by Clifford Odets, adapted for the screen ...
'' (1941), neither of which was successful. Except for his adaptation of
Konstantin Simonov
Konstantin Mikhailovich Simonov, born Kirill Mikhailovich Simonov (russian: link= no, Константин Михайлович Симонов, – 28 August 1979), was a Soviet author, war poet, playwright and wartime correspondent, arguabl ...
's play ''
The Russian People
''The Russian People'' is a 1942 play by Clifford Odets adapted from a Russian original by Konstantin Simonov.
External links
*
Plays by Clifford Odets
1942 plays
{{1940s-play-stub ...
'' in the 1942–43 season, Odets did not have another Broadway production until 1949. ''The Big Knife'' is an allegory about the damaging effects of fame and money on the character of the artist; it also alludes indirectly to the politics of the early Cold War period. The play's harsh critique of Hollywood mores was interpreted as ingratitude on the part of Odets, who had by this time made a significant amount of money writing films. It ran only three months and lost money at the box office.
Odets's 1950 play ''
The Country Girl'' focuses on the effects of alcohol abuse on creativity and marital relations. It was a critical and box-office success and later adapted for a film starring Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly. Both actors earned Academy Award nominations for their performances. Kelly won Best Actress for her work in the film, and screenwriter George Seaton received an Oscar for his adaptation. Odets's last play was produced on Broadway in 1954. ''The Flowering Peach'' was the preferred choice of the Pulitzer Prize jury in 1955, but under pressure from Joseph Pulitzer Jr., the prize instead was given to Tennessee Williams for ''
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' is a three-act play written by Tennessee Williams. An adaptation of his 1952 short story "Three Players of a Summer Game", the play was written by him between 1953 and 1955. One of Williams's more famous works and his p ...
'', which the jury had considered the weakest of the five shortlisted nominees.
Hollywood
The immediate success of Odets's early plays attracted the attention of Hollywood producers. He first went to Hollywood in early 1936 to write for the screen as well as the stage. From this point on he spent most of his life in Hollywood. His initial intention was to make money to help subsidize the Group Theatre's run of his 1935 play ''Paradise Lost'' over which the critics were divided, and to help him fulfill his own financial obligations. His first screenplay was produced by Paramount and directed by
Lewis Milestone
Lewis Milestone (born Leib Milstein (Russian: Лейб Мильштейн); September 30, 1895 – September 25, 1980) was a Moldovan-American film director. He is known for directing ''Two Arabian Knights'' (1927) and '' All Quiet on the Weste ...
. Starring
Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper (born Frank James Cooper; May 7, 1901May 13, 1961) was an American actor known for his strong, quiet screen persona and understated acting style. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice and had a further three nominations, a ...
and
Madeleine Carroll
Edith Madeleine Carroll (26 February 1906 – 2 October 1987) was an English actress, popular both in Britain and America in the 1930s and 1940s. At the peak of her success in 1938, she was the world's highest-paid actress.
Carroll is rememb ...
, ''
The General Died at Dawn
''The General Died at Dawn'' is a 1936 American drama film that tells the story of a mercenary who meets a beautiful girl while trying to keep arms from getting to a vicious warlord in war-torn China. The movie was written by Charles G. Booth and ...
'' (1936) received some positive reviews, though Frank Nugent of the New York ''Times'' headed his review, "Odets, Where Is thy Sting?"—a phrase that dogged Odets for the rest of his life
Like most screenwriters of the time, Odets worked within the studio system until the advent of independent production in the 1950s. Thus he often wrote drafts for films such as ''Rhapsody in Blue'' and ''It's a Wonderful Life'' that were handed off to another screenwriter or team for further development. Odets declined to be credited for many of the films on which he worked, but did accept full credit as both screenwriter and director for ''
None but the Lonely Heart'' (1944), adapted from the novel by
Richard Llewellyn
Richard Dafydd Vivian Llewellyn Lloyd (; 8 December 1906 – 30 November 1983), known by his pen name Richard Llewellyn ( , ), was an English-born novelist of Welsh descent, who is best remembered for his 1939 novel '' How Green Was My Va ...
and produced by RKO. The film starred
Cary Grant
Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English-American actor. He was known for his Mid-Atlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing. He was one o ...
,
Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore (born Ethel Mae Blythe; August 15, 1879 – June 18, 1959) was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors. Barrymore was a stage, screen and radio actress whose career spanned six decades, and was regarde ...
(who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress),
Barry Fitzgerald, and
Jane Wyatt
Jane Waddington Wyatt ( ; August 12, 1910 – October 20, 2006) was an American actress. She starred in a number of Hollywood films, such as Frank Capra's ''Lost Horizon'', but is likely best known for her role as the housewife and mother Marga ...
.
Odets wrote the 1957 screenplay for ''
Sweet Smell of Success
''Sweet Smell of Success'' is a 1957 American film noir drama film directed by Alexander Mackendrick, starring Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, and Martin Milner, and written by Clifford Odets, Ernest Lehman, and Mackendrick from t ...
'', based on the novelette and a first draft by Ernest Lehman and produced by the independent company Hecht-Hill-Lancaster. Starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis, this
film noir
Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...
depicts the underbelly of the newspaper world. The character of J.J. Hunsecker, played by Lancaster, was voted the 35th most despicable villain in 100 years of film by the American Film Institute. Odets directed one other film, for which he also wrote the screenplay, ''
The Story on Page One
''The Story on Page One'' is a 1959 American drama film written and directed by Clifford Odets, and starring Rita Hayworth, Anthony Franciosa, and Gig Young. Shot in CinemaScope, the film was distributed by 20th Century Fox.
Plot
As the film beg ...
'' (1959).
Four of Odets's plays—''
Golden Boy'', ''
Clash by Night
''Clash by Night'' is a 1952 American film noir drama directed by Fritz Lang and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas, Robert Ryan, Marilyn Monroe and Keith Andes. The film is based on the 1941 play by Clifford Odets, adapted for the screen ...
'', ''
The Big Knife
''The Big Knife'' is a 1955 melodrama directed and produced by Robert Aldrich from a screenplay by James Poe based on the 1949 play by Clifford Odets. The film stars Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Wendell Corey, Jean Hagen, Rod Steiger, Shelley Winte ...
'' and ''
The Country Girl''—have been made into films, though Odets did not write the screenplays.
Style
Odets's dramatic style is distinguished by a kind of poetic, metaphor-laden street talk. Arthur Miller observed that, with Odets's first plays, "For the very first time in America, language itself ... marked a playwright as unique." Odets's use of local urban speech patterns reflects the influence of
Seán O'Casey
Seán O'Casey ( ga, Seán Ó Cathasaigh ; born John Casey; 30 March 1880 – 18 September 1964) was an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes.
...
, another socialist playwright with proletarian concerns. Other hallmarks of Odets's style are his humanistic point of view, and his way of dropping the audience right into the conflict with little or no introduction. Often character is more important than plot, reflecting the influence of
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...
.
House Committee on Un-American Activities
The
House Committee on Un-American Activities
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...
(HCUA; more commonly, HUAC) initiated its Hollywood Investigation in October 1947. The House Committee was investigating possible subversive communist influences in Hollywood and inevitably subpoenaed Odets in April 1952. He first testified in executive session, and on May 19 and 20 he again testified, this time in public hearing.
Odets had belonged to the Communist Party for less than a year, between 1934 and 1935, but continued to sponsor many left-wing, progressive groups, some of which were suspected communist fronts. He cooperated with HUAC to the extent that he responded to their questions and reiterated names of Communist Party members who had been previously cited by his friend and former Group colleague
Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan (; born Elias Kazantzoglou ( el, Ηλίας Καζαντζόγλου); September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003) was an American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, described by ''The New York Times'' as "one o ...
. Before Kazan's final testimony in April 1952, they agreed to name each other. Odets thereby avoided overt
blacklisting though the Committee did not thank him for his testimony, an omission generally construed as signifying their displeasure. He also found it increasingly difficult to garner film assignments. The negative reactions to his testimony confused him as he did not consider himself a cooperative witness. A partial transcript of Odets's testimony can be found in
Eric Bentley
Eric Russell Bentley (September 14, 1916 – August 5, 2020) was a British-born American theater critic, playwright, singer, editor, and translator. In 1998, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. He was also a member of the New ...
's ''Thirty Years of Treason''.
Odets was tormented by public reaction to his testimony for the rest of his life. In his autobiography, Kazan recalls incidents of Odets being accosted in New York City streets and snubbed in Hollywood restaurants after his HUAC appearance. His productivity markedly declined after the event; he finished only one play and, while he advised other filmmakers such as his friend Nicholas Ray and was sporadically hired as a script-doctor, he managed to produce only one entire screenplay of his own, along with his rewrite of Ernest Lehman's ''Sweet Smell of Success'' for the production team of Hecht-Hill-Lancaster.
Later years
In the early 1960s, Odets contracted to write four of a proposed total of 13 teleplays for ''
The Richard Boone Show
''The Richard Boone Show'' is an anthology television series. It aired on NBC during the 1963-64 season.
Synopsis
Richard Boone hosted the series and starred in about half of the episodes, garnering an Emmy nomination for himself and a Golden G ...
'', NBC's new dramatic anthology born of a plan for televised repertory theater. He also acted as script supervisor. Two of Odets's finished scripts were aired posthumously: "Big Mitch" (December 10, 1963), and "The Mafia Man" (January 7, 1964). Odets also worked on the libretto for a projected musical version of ''Golden Boy''. He died before the project came to fruition. Playwright William Gibson, a former student of Odets' when he taught at the Actors Studio, completed the play's book.
Though many obituaries lamented his work in Hollywood and considered him someone who had not lived up to his promise, Kazan understood it differently. "The tragedy of our times in the theatre is the tragedy of Clifford Odets," Kazan began, before defending him against the accusations of failure that had appeared in his obituaries. "His plan, he said, was to . . . come back to New York and get
ome newplays on. They'd be, he assured me, the best plays of his life. . . .Cliff wasn't 'shot.' . . . The mind and talent were alive in the man."
Personal life
![Rainer-Odets-1937-cropped](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Rainer-Odets-1937-cropped.jpg)
Odets married actress
Luise Rainer
Luise Rainer ( , ; 12 January 1910 – 30 December 2014) was a German-American-British film actress. She was the first thespian to win multiple Academy Awards and the first to win back-to-back; at the time of her death, thirteen days shy of her ...
in January 1937, just months before she won her first of two consecutive Academy Awards for
Best Actress
Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress aw ...
. They divorced in May 1940. He married actress Bette Grayson in 1943, and the couple had two children: Nora (born in 1945) and
Walt
Walt is a masculine given name, generally a short form of Walter, and occasionally a surname. Notable people with the name include:
People Given name
* Walt Arfons (1916-2013), American drag racer and competition land speed record racer
* Walt B ...
(born in 1947). Odets and Grayson divorced in 1951. Nora Odets died at Long Beach, Long Island in 2008;
Walt Odets became a clinical psychologist, author, and photographer residing in Berkeley, California.
Odets also had relationships with actresses
Frances Farmer,
Kim Stanley and
Fay Wray
Vina Fay Wray (September 15, 1907 – August 8, 2004) was a Canadian/American actress best known for starring as Ann Darrow in the 1933 film ''King Kong (1933 film), King Kong''. Through an acting career that spanned nearly six decades, Wray a ...
.
Death
Odets had long suffered from gastrointestinal distress and on July 23, 1963, was admitted to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles to undergo treatment for stomach ulcers. During surgery, doctors discovered that he had metastatic stomach cancer. He received bedside visits from such movie and theater friends as
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he received numerous accolades throughout his career, which spanned six decades, including two Academ ...
,
Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg (born Israel Strassberg; November 17, 1901 – February 17, 1982) was an American theatre director, actor and acting teacher. He co-founded, with theatre directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931 ...
and
Paula Strasberg
Paula Strasberg (born Pearl Miller; March 8, 1909 – April 29, 1966) was an American stage actress. She became actor and teacher Lee Strasberg's second wife and mother of actors John and Susan Strasberg, as well as Marilyn Monroe's acting coac ...
,
Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir (; 15 September 1894 – 12 February 1979) was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent film, silent era to the end of the 1960s. ...
and his wife Dido,
Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan (; born Elias Kazantzoglou ( el, Ηλίας Καζαντζόγλου); September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003) was an American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, described by ''The New York Times'' as "one o ...
,
Harold Clurman
Harold Edgar Clurman (September 18, 1901 – September 9, 1980) was an American theatre director and drama critic. In 2003, he was named one of the most influential figures in U.S. theater by PBS. ,
Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine (born Shirley MacLean Beaty, April 24, 1934) is an American actress, author, and former dancer. Known for her portrayals of quirky, strong-willed and eccentric women, MacLaine has received numerous accolades over her seven-dec ...
, and
Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye (born David Daniel Kaminsky; yi, דוד־דניאל קאַמינסקי; January 18, 1911 – March 3, 1987) was an American actor, comedian, singer and dancer. His performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and ...
. Renoir dedicated a chapter of his autobiography to his close friendship with Odets. On August 14, 1963, Odets died of stomach cancer at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital at the age of 57.
Odets's ashes were interred in the
Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale
Forest Lawn Memorial Park is a privately owned cemetery in Glendale, California. It is the original and current flagship location of Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks & Mortuaries, a chain of six cemeteries and four additional mortuaries in Southern Cal ...
in Glendale, California.
Legacy
Odets is regarded as one of the American theater's most important playwrights. According to Arthur Miller, "An Odets play was awaited like news hot off the press, as though through him we would know what to think of ourselves and our prospects."
Marian Seldes
Marian Hall Seldes (August 23, 1928 – October 6, 2014) was an American actress. A five-time Tony Award nominee, she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for '' A Delicate Balance'' in 1967, and received subsequent nomination ...
wrote that "
Paddy Chayefsky
Sidney Aaron "Paddy" Chayefsky (January 29, 1923 – August 1, 1981) was an American playwright, screenwriter and novelist. He is the only person to have won three solo Academy Awards for writing both adapted and original screenplays.
He was ...
, who felt competitive with Odets, told an interviewer 'There isn't a writer of my generation, especially a New York writer, who doesn't owe his very breath—his entire attitude toward theatre—to Odets.'"
''Golden Boy'' was made into a 1939 film and became the basis for a
1964 musical of the same name. ''The Flowering Peach'' became the basis for the 1970 Broadway musical ''
Two by Two'', which starred
Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye (born David Daniel Kaminsky; yi, דוד־דניאל קאַמינסקי; January 18, 1911 – March 3, 1987) was an American actor, comedian, singer and dancer. His performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and ...
. Odets's screenplay for ''Sweet Smell of Success'' became the basis for the 2002
musical of the same name starring
John Lithgow
John Arthur Lithgow ( ; born , 1945) is an American actor. Lithgow studied at Harvard University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art before becoming known for his work on the stage and screen. He has been the recipient of numerous ...
.
Lincoln Center celebrated the centennial of Odets's birth with their 2006 production of ''
Awake and Sing!
''Awake and Sing!'' is a drama written by American playwright Clifford Odets. The play was initially produced by The Group Theatre in 1935.
Summary and characters
The play is set in The Bronx borough of New York City, New York, in 1933. It co ...
'', directed by Bartlett Sher. It won that year's Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play and sparked an ongoing revival of interest in Odets's work. Another centennial production, ''Rocket to the Moon'', directed by Daniel Fish, was produced by Long Wharf Theater.
American Repertory Theater
The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) is a professional not-for-profit theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1979 by Robert Brustein, the A.R.T. is known for its commitment to new American plays and music–theater explorations; to ne ...
in Cambridge, Massachusetts produced ''
Paradise Lost
''Paradise Lost'' is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse (poetry), verse. A second edition fo ...
'' in 2010, also directed by Daniel Fish. ''Golden Boy'' was produced by Lincoln Center with Bartlett Sher again directing. It opened on December 5, 2012, to enthusiastic reviews, subsequently garnering 8 Tony Award nominations.
John Lahr
John Henry Lahr (born July 12, 1941) is an American theater critic and writer. From 1992 to 2013, he was a staff writer and the senior drama critic at ''The New Yorker''. He has written more than twenty books related to theater. Lahr has been ca ...
declared "In this distinguished, almost symphonic production, Sher and Lincoln Center have done a great thing: they have put Odets finally and forever in the pantheon, where he belongs."
Odets's early, more left-wing plays, such as ''Waiting for Lefty'', ''Awake and Sing!,'' and ''Paradise Lost,'' have enjoyed numerous revivals since the 2008 economic crash.
The Roundabout Theatre Company presented the first revival of Odets's 1949 play ''The Big Knife'' in 2013 at the
American Airlines Theatre
The American Airlines Theatre, originally the Selwyn Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 227 West 42nd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Built in 1918, it was designed by George Keister and developed by brothe ...
in New York, with Doug Hughes directing
Bobby Cannavale
Roberto Michael Cannavale (; born May 3, 1970) is an American actor. He is best known for various television roles, including leading roles in ''Third Watch'', ''Vinyl'', and ''Mr. Robot'', as well as recurring roles in ''Will & Grace'', which wo ...
in the lead role of Charlie Castle. The role was originated by Odets's former Group Theatre colleague
John Garfield
John Garfield (born Jacob Julius Garfinkle, March 4, 1913 – May 21, 1952) was an American actor who played brooding, rebellious, working-class characters. He grew up in poverty in New York City. In the early 1930s, he became a member of ...
. The National Asian American Theatre Company (NAATCO) mounted a highly acclaimed production of ''Awake and Sing!'' in 2013 with an all-Asian cast. Performed in a small downtown theatre space in New York's Soho area, the limited run played to sold-out houses. According to ''New York Times'' reviewer Anita Gates, "the production easily makes the point that ethnicity is transcended by the humanity of frightened, imperfect people facing unpleasant realities." NAATCO was invited by the
Public Theater
The Public Theater is a New York City arts organization founded as the Shakespeare Workshop in 1954 by Joseph Papp, with the intention of showcasing the works of up-and-coming playwrights and performers.Epstein, Helen. ''Joe Papp: An American Li ...
to revive the production under its auspices in 2015.
Joel and Ethan Coen's 1990 film ''
Barton Fink
''Barton Fink'' is a 1991 American period black comedy psychological thriller film written, produced, edited and directed by the Coen brothers. Set in 1941, it stars John Turturro in the title role as a young New York City playwright who is hir ...
'' contains a number of indirect visual and historical references to Odets's personal appearance, background and career. A minor character in the 1982 film ''
Diner'' speaks only lines from Odets's screenplay for ''Sweet Smell of Success''. The Odets character was played by
Jeffrey DeMunn
Jeffrey DeMunn (born April 25, 1947) is an American stage, film and television actor known for playing Captain Esteridge in '' The Hitcher'' (1986), Sheriff Herb Geller in ''The Blob'' (1988), Andrei Chikatilo in '' Citizen X'' (1995), Harry Terwi ...
in the film ''
Frances
Frances is a French and English given name of Latin origin. In Latin the meaning of the name Frances is 'from France' or 'free one.' The male version of the name in English is Francis. The original Franciscus, meaning "Frenchman", comes from the F ...
'', and by
John Heard in the 1983 biography ''Will There Be A Morning?'', both about
Frances Farmer.
Odets is mentioned in an episode of the television series ''
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
''Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip'' is an American comedy-drama television series created and primarily written by Aaron Sorkin. The series was about the production of a live comedy series, similar to ''Saturday Night Live''. Produced by Warner B ...
'', "The Wrap Party." The episode's subplot dealt with
The Hollywood Ten
''The Hollywood Ten'' is a 1950 American 16mm short documentary film. In the film, each member of the Hollywood Ten made a short speech denouncing McCarthyism and the Hollywood blacklisting.
The film was directed by John Berry. After being na ...
.
Odets was the subject of a psycho-biography by psychoanalyst
Margaret Brenman-Gibson Margaret Brenman-Gibson (1918–2004) was an American psychologist, among the first to use of hypnosis in the treatment of neurosis resulting from war and related areas. She was the first non-physician to receive full clinical and research psychoana ...
: ''Clifford Odets – American Playwright – The Years from 1906–1940''. It was one component of an umbrella project Brenman-Gibson undertook on the subject of creativity. The biography was intended to be a three-volume work, with the second and third volumes to cover the final 23 years of Odets's life. Brenman-Gibson died in 2004, leaving the project unfinished. A full-length biography of Odets is in progress with the cooperation of the Odets Estate, to be published by Random House Doubleday Knopf.
Apart from Brenman-Gibson's work, six critical biographies have appeared by R. Baird Shuman (1962); Edward Murray (1968); Michael Mendelsohn (1969); Gerald Weales (1971); Harold Cantor (1978); and Christopher J. Herr (2003).
Odets was named a member of the
American Theater Hall of Fame
The American Theater Hall of Fame in New York City was founded in 1972. Earl Blackwell was the first head of the organization's Executive Committee. In an announcement in 1972, he said that the new ''Theater Hall of Fame'' would be located in the ...
.
Stage
Actor
* ''Midnight'' (1930)
* ''
Night Over Taos'' (1931)
* ''1931–'' (1931)
* ''Big Night'' (1933)
* ''They All Come to Moscow'' (1933)
* ''
Men in White'' (1933)
* ''
Gold Eagle Guy
''Gold Eagle Guy'' is a 1934 Broadway five scene drama written by Melvin Levy,
produced by the Group Theatre with D. A. Doran, Jr., staged by Lee Strasberg,
choreography by Helen Tamiris with scenic design by Donald Oenslager and costume desig ...
'' (1934)
* ''Waiting for Lefty'' (1935)
Playwright
* ''
Waiting for Lefty
''Waiting for Lefty'' is a 1935 play by the American playwright Clifford Odets; it was his first play to be produced. Consisting of a series of related vignettes, the entire play is framed by a meeting of cab drivers who are planning a labor ...
'' (1935)
* ''
Awake and Sing!
''Awake and Sing!'' is a drama written by American playwright Clifford Odets. The play was initially produced by The Group Theatre in 1935.
Summary and characters
The play is set in The Bronx borough of New York City, New York, in 1933. It co ...
'' (1935)
* ''
Till the Day I Die
''Till the Day I Die'' is a play by Clifford Odets performed on Broadway in 1935.
Description
The play is a seven-scene drama written by Clifford Odets. It was originally written as a piece to accompany ''Waiting for Lefty''.
Productions
It w ...
'' (1935)
* ''
Paradise Lost
''Paradise Lost'' is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse (poetry), verse. A second edition fo ...
'' (1935)
* ''I Can't Sleep'' (1935, monologue)
* ''Sarah Bernhardt'' (1936, radio play)
* ''The Silent Partner'' (1936, unproduced)
* ''
Golden Boy'' (1937)
* ''
Rocket to the Moon'' (1938)
* ''Night Music'' (1940)
* ''
Clash by Night
''Clash by Night'' is a 1952 American film noir drama directed by Fritz Lang and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas, Robert Ryan, Marilyn Monroe and Keith Andes. The film is based on the 1941 play by Clifford Odets, adapted for the screen ...
'' (1941)
* ''
The Russian People
''The Russian People'' is a 1942 play by Clifford Odets adapted from a Russian original by Konstantin Simonov.
External links
*
Plays by Clifford Odets
1942 plays
{{1940s-play-stub ...
'' (1942, adaptation)
* ''
The Big Knife
''The Big Knife'' is a 1955 melodrama directed and produced by Robert Aldrich from a screenplay by James Poe based on the 1949 play by Clifford Odets. The film stars Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Wendell Corey, Jean Hagen, Rod Steiger, Shelley Winte ...
'' (1949)
* ''
Golden Boy'' (1950)
* ''
The Country Girl (1950)''
* ''
The Flowering Peach
''The Flowering Peach'' is a 1954 dramatic play by American playwright Clifford Odets with music by Alan Hovhaness. The plot is a modern take on the Bible stories of Noah and Noah's Ark.
It was the last original play by Odets produced in his li ...
'' (1954)
Director
* ''
The Country Girl'' (1950, original Broadway production)
* ''
Golden Boy'' (1952, revival)
* ''
The Flowering Peach
''The Flowering Peach'' is a 1954 dramatic play by American playwright Clifford Odets with music by Alan Hovhaness. The plot is a modern take on the Bible stories of Noah and Noah's Ark.
It was the last original play by Odets produced in his li ...
'' (1954, original Broadway production)
Filmography
Screenwriter
* ''
The General Died at Dawn
''The General Died at Dawn'' is a 1936 American drama film that tells the story of a mercenary who meets a beautiful girl while trying to keep arms from getting to a vicious warlord in war-torn China. The movie was written by Charles G. Booth and ...
'' (1936)
* ''
None but the Lonely Heart'' (1944)
* ''
Humoresque
Humoresque (or Humoreske) is a genre of Romantic music characterized by pieces with fanciful humor in the sense of mood rather than wit.
History
The name refers to the German term ''Humoreske'', which was given from the 1800s (decade) onward to h ...
'' (1946, screenplay adaptation, with Zachary Gold)
* ''
Notorious'' (1946, dialogue: love scenes; uncredited)
* ''
Deadline at Dawn
''Deadline at Dawn'' is a 1946 American film noir, the only film directed by stage director Harold Clurman. It was written by Clifford Odets and based on a novel of the same name by Cornell Woolrich (as William Irish). The RKO Pictures film rele ...
'' (1946)
* ''
Sweet Smell of Success
''Sweet Smell of Success'' is a 1957 American film noir drama film directed by Alexander Mackendrick, starring Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, and Martin Milner, and written by Clifford Odets, Ernest Lehman, and Mackendrick from t ...
'' (1957)
* ''
The Story on Page One
''The Story on Page One'' is a 1959 American drama film written and directed by Clifford Odets, and starring Rita Hayworth, Anthony Franciosa, and Gig Young. Shot in CinemaScope, the film was distributed by 20th Century Fox.
Plot
As the film beg ...
'' (1959)
* ''
Wild in the Country
''Wild in the Country'' is a 1961 American musical–drama film directed by Philip Dunne and starring Elvis Presley, Hope Lange, Tuesday Weld, and Millie Perkins. Based on the 1958 novel ''The Lost Country'' by J. R. Salamanca, the screenplay ...
'' (1961)
Director
* ''
None but the Lonely Heart'' (1944)
* ''
The Story on Page One
''The Story on Page One'' is a 1959 American drama film written and directed by Clifford Odets, and starring Rita Hayworth, Anthony Franciosa, and Gig Young. Shot in CinemaScope, the film was distributed by 20th Century Fox.
Plot
As the film beg ...
'' (1959)
Actor
* ''
The General Died at Dawn
''The General Died at Dawn'' is a 1936 American drama film that tells the story of a mercenary who meets a beautiful girl while trying to keep arms from getting to a vicious warlord in war-torn China. The movie was written by Charles G. Booth and ...
'' (1936) – Minor Role (uncredited)
* ''
Sweet Smell of Success
''Sweet Smell of Success'' is a 1957 American film noir drama film directed by Alexander Mackendrick, starring Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, and Martin Milner, and written by Clifford Odets, Ernest Lehman, and Mackendrick from t ...
'' (1957) – Man Outside Theatre (uncredited) (final film role)
Bibliography
* Introduction to Modern Library edition of Nikolai Gogol's ''
Dead Souls
''Dead Souls'' (russian: «Мёртвые души», ''Mjórtvyje dúshi'') is a novel by Nikolai Gogol, first published in 1842, and widely regarded as an exemplar of 19th-century Russian literature. The novel chronicles the travels and adv ...
'' (1936)
See also
*
List of Jewish American playwrights
References
External links
Archival collections
Guide to the Clifford Odets Theatrical Materials.Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.
Finding aid to Clifford Odets papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.Clifford Odets Papers, 1926–1963held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, is located in Manhattan, New York City, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side, between the Metro ...
Clifford Odets at Online Archive of California
Other
*
*
Almedia Projects: Awake and Sing! by Clifford Odets
{{DEFAULTSORT:Odets, Clifford
1906 births
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20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
Jewish American male actors
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American people of Romanian-Jewish descent
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
American theatre directors
American theatre managers and producers
Broadway theatre directors
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
Deaths from cancer in California
Deaths from stomach cancer
Hollywood blacklist
Jewish American dramatists and playwrights
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