Appendix: the Liebling-Wood Agency's Client List of Playwrights, 1938–1958
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
A p p e n d i x : T h e L i e b l i n g - W o o d Agency’s Client List of Playwrights, 1938–1958 Audrey Wood and William Liebling with Frances Stoloff, founder of the Gotham Book Mart, New York City (Photograph by William Yoscary) Courtesy of Cheryl Raymond for the Estate of William Yoscary. 174 Appendix Audrey Wood’s client list at Liebling-Wood was extended for another 23 years beyond the sale of the Liebling-Wood Agency and her reloca- tion, first, to Music Corporation of America, and, second, to the Ashley- Steiner-Famous Agency (later, International Creative Management). Katharine Albert Robert Anderson Jean Anouilh Don Appell Harold Arlen Robert Ayres Marie Baumer Bertram Bloch Allen Boretz Bertolt Brecht Jane Bowles Marc Connelly Luther Davis Mel Dinelli Friedrich Düerrenmatt Vernon Duke Jack Dunphy Jacques Duval Mignon Eberhart Dale Eunson John Finch Doris Frankel Claiborne Foster Ketti Frings Charlcie Garrett Oliver Garrett Michael Gazzo E. B. Ginty Jean Giraudoux C. Givens Jay Gorney E. Y. (“Yip”) Harburg Roy Hargrave Sig Herzig Dorothy Heyward DuBose Heyward William Inge Appendix 175 Orrin Jannings Fay Kanin Michael Kanin Jean Kerr Walter Kerr H. S. Kraft Searle Kramer Herbert Kubly Clare Kummer John LaTouche Charles Laughton Isabel Leighton Carl Leo Vera Matthews Carson McCullers John Murray Liam O’Brien Edward Paramore Ernest Pascal John Pen Leo Rifkin Howard Rigsby Cecil Robson Lynn Root Fred Saidy George Seaton David Shaw Elsa Shelly Arnold Sundgaard Frank Tarloff Julian Thompson Dan Totheroh Maurice Valency F. Wakeman Robert Wallston Hagar Wilde Tennessee Williams Calder Willingham Donald Windham Eva Wolas N o t e s INTRODUCTION Epigraph: From a one-page hand-out of quotes by Audrey Wood prepared for the dedication of the Audrey Wood Theatre, New York City, on September 24, 1984, Audrey Wood Papers, HRC. 1. Audrey Wood, with Max Wilk, Represented by Audrey Wood ( N e w Y o r k : Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1981), 7. Reprinted with the approval of the A u d r e y W o o d E s t a t e . 2 . W o o d , Represented by Audrey Wood, 130. 3 . W o o d , Represented by Audrey Wood , 13. 1 STAGESTRUCK 1 . From Audrey Wood with Max Wilk, Represented by Audrey Wood , 22, by permission of the Audrey Wood estate and by David Wilk for the estate of Max Wilk. 2 . W o o d , Represented by Audrey Wood , 14. 3 . W o o d , Represented by Audrey Wood , 15. 4 . W o o d , Represented by Audrey Wood , 20–21. 5. Press photograph of William H. Wood, dated March 18, 1916, and inscribed to his daughter, Audrey, Audrey Wood Papers, HRC. 6 . W o o d , Represented by Audrey Wood , 28. 7 . W o o d , Represented by Audrey Wood , 29. 8 . W o o d , Represented by Audrey Wood , 31. 2 STARTING OUT 1 . From Audrey Wood with Max Wilk, Represented By Audrey Wood , 48. 2 . W o o d , Represented By Audrey Wood , 56. 3 . W o o d , Represented By Audrey Wood , 60. 4 . W o o d , Represented By Audrey Wood , 60–61. 178 Notes 5 . W o o d , Represented By Audrey Wood , 61. 6 . Quoted in Wood, Represented By Audrey Wood , 62. 7 . Quoted in Wood, Represented By Audrey Wood , 62. 8 . Jesse Zunser, “Nursemaid to Genius,” Cue October 18, 1958, 14; in Audrey Wood Clippings File, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, NYPL. 9 . Q u o t e d i n W i l f r e d S h e e d , The House that George Built (New York: Random House, 2007), 67. 10 . Brooks Atkinson, “Mamba’s Waters,” New York Times , January 4, 1939, 28. 1 1 . Q u o t e d i n W o o d , Represented By Audrey Wood , 64. 1 2 . W o o d , Represented By Audrey Wood , 64. 1 3 . “ W i l l i a m L i e b l i n g O b i t u a r y , ” Variety , December 31, 1969. 1 4 . Q u o t e d i n W o o d , Represented By Audrey Wood , 65. 1 5 . Q u o t e d i n W o o d , Represented By Audrey Wood , 65. 3 A ROOM OF THEIR OWN 1 . From Audrey Wood, with Max Wilk, Represented by Audrey Wood , 11. 2 . W o o d , Represented by Audrey Wood , 3. 3 . Quoted in Wood, Represented by Audrey Wood , 4. 4 . Brooks Atkinson, “The Play: ‘Room Service,’ ” New York Times , May 20, 1937, 16. 5. Author’s telephone conversation with Gilbert Parker, January 31, 2011. Gilbert Parker, former agent for playwrights and directors at the William Morris Agency, now retired, started out as a switchboard operator at Liebling-Wood and became Audrey Wood’s assistant for a time in the late 1940s. 6 . W o o d , Represented by Audrey Wood , 78. 7 . In a letter to Elia Kazan, Audrey Wood recalled Liebling’s account of his sing-along with Marlon Brando on the walk to Henry Miller’s Theatre. Conflicting claims about the amount of money advanced to Marlon Brando to make the trip to Provincetown differ by $5—or, perhaps the actor col- lected a total of $45.00 from the two parties. Audrey Wood recalled that Liebling gave the actor “the magnificent sum of $25.00” to take the bus to Provincetown. From Letter from Audrey Wood to Elia Kazan, August 14, 1978, Audrey Wood Papers, HRC. Kazan also claimed that he advanced Brando $20 to make the trip. See Elia Kazan, A Life (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988), 341. 8 . Quoted in Tennessee Williams, Memoir s (New York: Doubleday and Company, 1975), 131. Also, Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire , in Tennessee Williams Plays 1937–1955 (New York: Library Classics of the United States, Inc., 2000), 564. Reprinted by permission of The University of the South, © 1947, renewed © 1975, by The University of the South, Sewanee, TN. 9 . Quoted in Wood, Represented by Audrey Wood , 64. Notes 179 1 0 . W o o d , Represented by Audrey Wood , 7. Also, from a single-sheet list of Audrey Wood quotes, prepared as a handout for the dedication of the Audrey Wood Theatre, New York, on September 24, 1984, Audrey Wood Papers, HRC. 1 1 . W o o d , Represented by Audrey Wood , 95. 1 2 . Q u o t e d i n W o o d , Represented by Audrey Wood , 96. 1 3 . Q u o t e d i n W o o d , Represented by Audrey Wood , 99. 1 4 . “ O b i t u a r i e s , ” New York Times , October 23, 1958. 1 5 . R i c h a r d S e f f , Supporting Player: My Life Upon The Wicked Stage (New York: Xlibris Corporation, 2006), 100. Reprinted by permission of Richard Seff. 16 . Max Wilk, Mr. Williams and Miss Wood: A Two-Character Play (New York: Dramatists Play Service, Inc., 1990), 7. Reprinted by permission of David Wilk. 17 . Letter from Audrey Wood to Tennessee Williams, April 1, 1939, Audrey Wood Papers, HRC. Also, Lyle Leverich, Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams (New York: Crown Publishers, 1995), 300. 1 8 . L e v e r i c h , Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams, 300–404. 19 . Letter from Audrey Wood to Tennessee Williams, April 13, 1939, Audrey Wood Papers, HRC. 20. Letter from Audrey Wood to Tennessee Williams, April 28, 1939, Audrey Wood Papers, HRC. 21 . Letter from Audrey Wood to Tennessee Williams, April 28, 1939, Audrey Wood Papers, HRC. Also, Leverich, Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams, 303. 22 . Letter from Tennessee Williams to Audrey Wood, May 5, 1939, Audrey Wood Papers, HRC. 2 3 . W o o d , Represented by Audrey Wood , 130. The storied introduction between playwright and agent is repeated in Williams, Memoirs , 10; and also in, Leverich, Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams, 326. 2 4 . L e v e r i c h , Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams, 326. 2 5 . W i l l i a m s , Memoirs , 10. 26 . Letter from Tennessee Williams to Molly Day Thacher, circa late October 1939, Audrey Wood Papers, HRC. 27 . Letter from Tennessee Williams to Audrey Wood, circa early November 1939, Audrey Wood Papers, HRC; also see, Notebooks: Tennessee Williams , ed. Margaret Bradham Thornton (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006), 166. 28 . Letter from Audrey Wood to Tennessee Williams, November 8, 1939, Audrey Wood Papers, HRC. 29 . Letter from Tennessee Williams to Audrey Wood, November 30, 1939, Audrey Wood Papers, HRC. See also, Leverich, 332. 30 . Telegram from Audrey Wood to Tennessee Williams, December 22, 1939, Audrey Wood Papers, HRC. The Rockefeller fellowship was awarded on December 18, 1939. 3 1 . W o o d , Represented by Audrey Wood , 7. 180 Notes 4 THE BITCH GODDESS 1. From Letter from Audrey Wood to Irene Mayer Selznick, August 18, 1940, Audrey Wood Papers, HRC. Audrey Wood was communicating with the Streetcar principals about a future deal on a film; Irene Selznick was in London, Tennessee Williams was in Capri, and the agent was at her desk in New York. 2 . Notebooks: Tennessee Williams , ed. Margaret Bradham Thornton (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006), 226. 3 . Selected Letters of Tennessee Williams 1920–1945 , eds. Albert J. Devlin and Nancy M. Tischler, vol. 1 (New York: New Directions Publishers, 2000), xv. 4 . Audrey Wood, with Max Wilk, Represented by Audrey Wood , 133–34. 5 .