''Hell-Bent Fer Heaven'' is a melodrama play by Hatcher Hughes.

Production

The play ran at the

Klaw Theatre The Klaw Theatre was a Broadway theatre located at 251–257 West 45th Street (now a part of George Abbott Way) in Midtown Manhattan. Built in 1921 for producer Marcus Klaw, the theater was designed by Eugene De Rosa. Rachel Crothers' '' Nice ...

from January 4 to April 1924 and was produced by Marc Klaw. The cast featured

George Abbott George Francis Abbott (June 25, 1887 – January 31, 1995) was an American theatre producer, director, playwright, screenwriter, film director and producer whose career spanned eight decades. Early years Abbott was born in Forestville, New Yo ...

, Glenn Anders and Margaret Borough. The play was staged by Augustin Duncan.Fischer, Heinz Dietrich and Fischer, Erika J. (ed.
"1924 Award"
''Drama/comedy Awards, 1917-1996: From Eugene O'Neill and Tennessee Williams to Richard Rodgers and Edward Albee'',

Walter de Gruyter Walter de Gruyter GmbH, known as De Gruyter (), is a German scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature. History The roots of the company go back to 1749 when Frederick the Great granted the Königliche Realschule in Be ...

, 1998, , It also helped launch the career of

Clara Blandick Clara Blandick (born Clara Blanchard Dickey; June 4, 1876 – April 15, 1962) was an American character, film, stage and theater actress. She played Aunt Em in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's '' The Wizard of Oz'' (1939). As a character actress, sh ...

, who later appeared as Auntie Em in the classic 1939 adaptation of '' The Wizard of Oz''. The play was included in

Burns Mantle Robert Burns Mantle (December 23, 1873February 9, 1948) was an American theater critic. He founded the ''Best Plays'' annual publication in 1920.Chansky, Dorothy (2011)"Burns Mantle and the American Theatregoing Public" in ''Theatre History Stu ...

's ''The Best Plays of 1923-1924''.

Pulitzer Prize

The play won the

Pulitzer Prize for Drama The Pulitzer Prize for Drama is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It is one of the original Pulitzers, for the program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were a ...

in 1924. The choice sparked controversy in literary circles and the media because the prize jury had actually selected George Kelly's ''

The Show-Off ''The Show-Off'' is a 1924 stage play by George Kelly about a working-class North Philadelphian family's reluctance to accept their daughter's suitor Aubrey Piper, an overly confident Socialist buffoon. The play has been revived five times on Bro ...

'', but was overruled by

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, which was administering that year's Pulitzers as Hatcher Hughes was a professor there.

Plot

Set in the

Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are a Physiographic regions of the world, physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsy ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

, late one afternoon to 9 o'clock that evening during the summer. Rufe Pryor is a religious fanatic who works for the Hunts. Sid Hunt returns to the family home from the war. He has a girlfriend, Jude Lowry, who Rufe also is interested in. Rufe inspires old clan rivalry between the Hunts and the Lowrys, in an attempt to remove Sid from the picture. When Rufe's plans are discovered, the two families reconcile. (The play was billed as "A High Spirited Tale of the Blue Ridge.")

Cast

as Sid Hunt *

as Meg Hunt * Augustin Duncan as David Hunt * Burke Clarke as Matt Hunt * Glenn Anders as Andy Lowry * Margaret Borough as Jude Lowry * John F. Hamilton as Rufe Pryor

Film

The play was made into the motion picture '' Hell-Bent for Heaven'' in 1926.''Hell-Bent Fer Heaven''
tcm.com, accessed December 21, 2015

References

External links

*The full text of
Hell-Bent Fer Heaven
' at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

''Hell-bent Fer Heaven'' at the Internet Broadway Database''Hell-Bent for Heaven''
at the

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

"Hell-bent Fer Heaven" Museum of the City of New York
{{Pulitzer Prize for Drama 1918-1925 1924 plays American plays adapted into films Pulitzer Prize for Drama-winning works