sign in sign up
<<
Home , Barbara Garson, Brooks Atkinson, Burns Mantle, David Hare (playwright), David Mamet, Frank Rich

Appendix

Plays Discussed in This Book

Abe Lincoln in , Robert Sherwood. 1938 Broadway run: 472 performances. 1993 revival: 27 previews, 40 performances. Abraham Lincoln, John Drinkwater. 1919 Broadway run: 193 per- formances. 1929 Broadway revival: 8 performances. Abraham Lincoln’s Big Gay Dance Party, Aaron Loeb. 2008 . 2010 off-Broadway run. American Iliad, Donald Freed. 2001 Burbank, . As the Girls Go, William Roos (book), Jimmy McHugh (music), Harold Adamson (lyrics). 1948 Broadway run: 414 performances. , John Weidman (book), (music and lyrics). 1990 off-Broadway run: 73 performances. 1992 London revival. 2004 Broadway revival: 26 previews, 101 performances. The Best Man, Gore Vidal. 1960 Broadway run: 520 performances. 2000 Broadway revival: 15 previews, 121 performances. Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson, Alex Timbers (book), Michael Friedman (music and ly73rics). 2008 . 2009 and 2010 off-Broadway runs. Buchanan Dying, John Updike. 1976 Franklin and Marshall College. Bully! Jerome Alden. 1977 Broadway run: 8 previews, 8 performances. 2006 off Broadway revival. The Bully Pulpit, Michael O. Smith. 2008 off-Broadway. Camping with Henry and Tom, Mark St. Germain. 1995 off- Broadway run: 105 performances. Numerous regional theater revivals since then. An Evening with , Gore Vidal. Broadway run: 14 previews, 16 performances. First Lady, Katherine Dayton and George S. Kaufman. 1935 Broadway run: 246 performances. 1952 off-Broadway revival. 1980 Berkshire Theater Festival revival. 1996 Yale Repertory revival. , Michael John LaChiusa. 1993 off-Broadway run: 32 performances. Revivals include Los Angeles 2002, off Broadway 2004, and London 2009. 160 Appendix

Frost/Nixon, . 2006 London. 2007 Broadway run: 23 previews, 137 performances. The Gang’s All Here, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. 1959 Broadway run: 132 performances. Give ’em Hell, Harry! Samuel Gallu. 1975 premiere in Hershey, Pennsylvania followed by three-week Washington, DC, run, six- city tour. 2008 off-Broadway revival. The Heavens Are Hung in Black, David Selby. 2009 Washington, DC, run. Hope: The Obama Musical Story, Randall Hutchins. 2010 run. I’d Rather Be Right, George S. Kaufman and (book), (music), Lorenz Hart (lyrics). 1937 Broadway run: 290 performances. 2008 Los Angeles revival. If Booth Had Missed, Arthur Goodman. 1931 Broadway run: 1 performance. 1932 Broadway run: 21 performances. In Time to Come, Howard Koch and . 1941 Broadway run: 40 performances. Jackie, Gip Hoppe. 1997 Broadway run: 34 previews, 128 perfor- mances. Several regional revivals since then. The Last Days of Lincoln, Mark Van Doren. 1961 Florida State University. 1965 off-Broadway run: 1 performance. Let ’em Eat Cake, George S. Kaufman and (book), (lyrics), (music). 1933 Broadway run: 90 performances. 1978 Berkshire Theater Festival revival. Lincoln, Benjamin Chapin. 1906 Broadway run: 21 performances. 1909 Broadway revival: 17 performances. Lincoln, Saul Levitt. 1976 off-Broadway run: 32 performances. The Lincoln Mask, V. J. Longhi. 1972 Broadway run: 19 previews, 8 performances. MacBird!, Barbara Garson. 1967 off-Broadway run: 386 perfor- mances. 2006 Washington, DC, revival. A Man of the People, Thomas Dixon, Jr. 1920 Broadway run: 15 performances. Mister Lincoln, Herbert Mitgang. 1980 Washington, DC, premiere. 1980 Broadway run: 5 previews, 16 performances. 1995 off- Broadway revival. Mr. President, and (book), (music and lyrics). 1963 Broadway run: 4 previews, 265 performances. 2001 off-Broadway revival with significant revisions. Nixon’s Nixon, Russell Lees. 1994 off-Broadway run: 125 perfor- mances. 2006 off-Broadway revival. Appendix 161

November, . 2007 Broadway run: 33 previews, 205 performances. Obama on My Mind, Teddy Hayes. 2009 London run. 2009 Seattle run. , George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind (book), Ira Gershwin (lyrics), George Gershwin (music). 1931 Broadway run: 441 performances. 1952 Broadway revival: 72 performances. 1969 off-Broadway revival. Poker Night at the White House, Sean Benjamin. 2007 run. The Patriots, . 1943 Broadway run: 173 performances. President Harding Is a Rock Star, Kyle Jarrow. 2003 off-off Broadway run. 2008 Washington, DC, revival. Prologue to Glory, Ellsworth P. Conkle. 1938 Broadway run: 161 performances. The Rivalry, Norman Corwin. 1959 Broadway run: 81 performances. 2008 Los Angeles revival: 5 performances. 2009 off-Broadway revival. Secret Honor, Donald Freed and Arnold Stone. 1983 off-Broadway run: 47 performances. 1986 Washington, DC, revival. 1988 San Francisco revival. 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Alan Jay Lerner (book and lyrics), (music). 1976 Broadway run: 13 previews, 7 performances. 1992 Washington, DC, revival. Revived as A White House Cantata in London 1997 and off-Broadway 2008. State of the Union, Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. 1945 Broadway run: 765 performances. 2006 and 2008 Washington, DC, revivals. , . 2004 London premiere. U.S. premiere, Los Angeles 2005. 2008 off-Broadway run. Sunrise at Campobello, Dore Schary. 1958 Broadway run: 556 performances. Occasional regional revivals since. Teapot Scandals, Jon Steinhagen. 2007 Chicago run. Teddy and Alice, Jerome Alden (book), John Philip Sousa (music), Hal Hackady (lyrics). 1987 Broadway run: 11 previews, 77 perfor- mances. 1996 Waterbury, revival. Teddy Tonight! Laurence Luckinbill. 2002 off-Broadway run. That Awful Mrs. Eaton, John Farrar and Stephen Vincent Benét. 1924 Broadway run: 16 performances. The White House, A. E. Hotchner (books and lyrics), Lee Holby (music). 1964 Broadway run: 1 preview, 23 performances. 162 Appendix

You’re Welcome America: A Final Night With George W. Bush, Will Ferrell. 2009 Broadway run: 18 previews, 46 performances.

Note

These plays are listed alphabetically by title, followed by authors, informa- tion about the original run, and a listing of the most prominent revivals, if any. Notes

Introduction

1. For example, see the collection Hollywood’s White House, Peter C. Rollins and John E. O’Connor (eds.), Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press, 2003. 2. Patrick Julian, “A Touch Too Cracker Barrel Folksy: The Mythic Portrayal of Harry S. Truman in Give ’em Hell, Harry!” Philological Papers 44 (1998): 113. 3. Christian Moe, Scott J. Parker and George McCalmon, Creating Historical : A Guide for Communities, Theatre Groups and Playwrights, Second Edition, Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois Press, 2005: 5. 4. Quoted in Casper H. Nannes, Politics in the American Drama, Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1960: 13. 5. Nannes: 24.

1 Plays about Abraham Lincoln

1. Merrill D. Peterson, Lincoln in American Memory, : , 1994: 389. 2. Marcus Cunliffe, : Man and Monument, : Little Brown and Co., 1958: 5. 3. Quoted in Cunliffe: 14. 4. Cunliffe: 13. 5. Garry Wills, Cincinnatus: George Washington and the Enlightenment, Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1984: xxi–xxii. 6. Christian H. Moe, Scott J. Parker, and George McCalmon, Creating Historical Drama: A Guide for Communities, Theater Groups, and Playwrights, Second Edition, Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois Press, 2005: 16. 7. , Valley Forge, in Stanley Richards (ed.), America on Stage: Ten Great Plays of American History, Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Co., 1976: 145–56. 8. Anderson: 184. 9. Anderson: 248. 10. , “Drama: —and White and Blue,” Nation 139 (Dec. 26, 1934): 750. 164 Notes

11. , “Philip Merivale in ‘Valley Forge,’ ” New York Times, Dec. 11, 1934: 28. 12. David Turley, “A Usable Life: Popular Representations of Abraham Lincoln,” in David Ellis (ed.), Imitating Art: Essays in Biography, London: Pluto Press, 1993: 60. 13. Peterson: 27, 395–7. 14. Peterson: 35. 15. Benjamin Chapin, “Lincoln in the Hearts of the People,” 66 (Feb. 11, 2009): 305–8. 16. “To Portray Lincoln on the Stage,” New York Times, Feb. 6, 1906: X4. 17. “Abraham Lincoln as a Stage Figure,” New York Times, Jan. 1, 1906: XI. 18. “Mr. Chapin as Lincoln,” New York Times, Feb. 6, 1909: 9. 19. Peterson: 202. 20. Peterson: 170. 21. “The Negro a Menace, Says Thomas Dixon,” New York Times, Jun. 9, 1903: 2. 22. Thomas Dixon, A Man of the People: A Drama of Abraham Lincoln, New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1920: ix. The edition used was reprinted by Kessinger Publishing. 23. Dixon: 31–2. 24. Dixon: 47–49. 25. Dixon: 53–60. 26. Dixon: 105. 27. “Lincoln Again Play Hero,” New York Times, Sept. 8, 1920: 18 (Section: Amusements); and Anthony Slide, American Racist: The Life and Films of Thomas Dixon, Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2004: 69. 28. Lerone Bennet, Jr., “Was Abe Lincoln a White Supremacist?” Ebony, Feb. 1968: 35–42. 29. Two useful summaries of this debate are Arthur Zilversmit, “Lincoln and the Problem of : A Decade of Interpretations,” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 2 (1980) Issue 1: 22–45; and Martin D. Tullai, “Abraham Lincoln: Racist, Bigot or Misunderstood?” Lincoln Herald 103 (2001) Issue 2: 85–92. 30. Raymond A. Cook, Thomas Dixon, New York: Twayne Publishers, 1974: 107. 31. Brook Thomas, “Thomas Dixon’s A Man of the People: How Lincoln Saved the Union by Cracking Down on Civil Liberties,” Law and Literature 20 (Spring 2008): 21–46. 32. Thomas: 42. 33. St. John Ervine, “John Drinkwater,” North American Review 210 (Dec. 1919): 825. 34. Peterson: 202. 35. Eva Chappell, “The Pitiful High Heart of Lincoln,” World Outlook 6 (Feb. 1920): 7. Notes 165

36. John Drinkwater, Lincoln, The World Emancipator, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1920: 3. 37. Chappell: 7. 38. John Drinkwater, Abraham Lincoln: A Play, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1919: 2. 39. Drinkwater 1919: 34. 40. Drinkwater 1919: 62. 41. Drinkwater 1919: 73. 42. Drinkwater 1919: 103. 43. Drinkwater 1919: 112. 44. (editor), The Best Plays of 1919–20, Boston: Small, Maynard & Co., 1920: v. 45. “Letters and Art: Abraham Lincoln,” The Literary Digest, Jan. 30, 1920: 30–32. 46. F. Abraham Hackett, “After the Play,” New Republic 21 (Dec. 31, 1919): 148. 47. Alexander Woolcott, “Second Thoughts on First Nights: Abraham Lincoln,” New York Times, Dec. 21, 1919: 76. 48. Edmund Wilson, “After the Play,” New Republic 26 (Apr. 6, 1921): 162. 49. Harriet Monroe, “A Lincoln Primer,” Poetry: A Magazine of Verse 15 (Dec. 1919): 159–62. 50. Alexander Woolcott, “The Play,” New York Times, Dec. 16, 1919: 18. 51. Drinkwater 1920: 47. 52. Quoted in Literary Digest: 31. 53. “Royalty Saves ‘Abraham Lincoln,’ ” New York Times, May 5, 1940: 154. 54. “Abe Lincoln in Japanese,” Time, Feb. 25, 1946, accessed at www. time.com. 55. Mark S. Reinhart, Abraham Lincoln on Screen: A Filmography of Drama and Documentaries, Including Television, 1903–1998, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1999: 36. 56. Arthur Goodman, If Booth Had Missed, New York: Samuel French, 1932: unnumbered front matter. 57. Martin Bunzl, “Counterfactual History: A User’s Guide,” The American Historical Review 109 (Jun. 2004), 845–858. 58. Goodman: 23. 59. Brooks Atkinson, “The Play: What Might Have Happened in American History if Lincoln Had Lived,” New York Times, Apr. 5, 1932: 24; “New Play in ,” Time, Feb. 15, 1932, accessed at www.time.com; and Joseph Wood Krutch, “Drama: Cleopatra’s Nose,” Nation 134, Feb. 24, 1932: 238. 60. Eric Foner, “If Lincoln Hadn’t Died . . .” American Heritage 56 (Winter 2009): 47, 53–54. 61. Hans L. Trefousse, Thaddeus Stevens: Nineteenth Century Egalitarianian, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997: 159, 170. 62. Goodman: 4, 19. 63. E. P. Conkle, “Prologue to Glory,” in Willard Swire, Three Distinctive Plays About Abraham Lincoln, New York: Washington Square Press, 166 Notes

1961. Most of the dialogue in the play is written in this style of dialect. The major exception is that of Ann Rutledge. 64. Conkle: 21. 65. Conkle: 28. 66. Brooks Atkinson, “The Play: E. P. Conkle’s ‘Prologue to Glory,’ a Fable of Lincoln’s Early Years in New Salem,” New York Times, Mar. 18, 1938: 22; and Time, “New Play in Manhattan,” Mar. 28, 1938, accessed at www.time.com. 67. Thomas Ewing Dabney, “Lincoln Drama Well Received,” New Orleans States, Jan. 24, 1939 and Burns Mantle, “Iowan’s Story of Lincoln Wins Critic’s Praise,” Chicago Daily Tribune, Mar. 27, 1938. 68. Malcolm Goldstein, The Political Stage: American Drama and Theater of the Great Depression, New York: Oxford University Press, 1974: 273. 69. Conkle: 60. 70. For an account of these events, see David Herbert Donald, Lincoln, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995: Chapter Two. 71. Robert Sherwood, Abe Lincoln in Illinois, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1939. The essay is on 189–250; the quotes on 189 and 197. 72. Sherwood: 208–9. 73. Sherwood: 79–80. 74. Sherwood: 88–89. 75. Sherwood: 100–101. 76. Sherwood: 220. 77. Sherwood: 127. 78. Sherwood: 139. 79. Sherwood: 182–84. 80. Gerald Boardman, American Theatre: A Chronicle of Comedy and Drama, 1914–1930, New York: Oxford University Press, 1995: 171; Brooks Atkinson, “The Play: Raymond Massey Appearing in Robert Sherwood’s Abe Lincoln in Illinois,” New York Times, Oct. 17, 1938: 59; and Harriet Hyman Alonso, Robert E. Sherwood: The Playwright in Peace and War, Amherst: University of Press, 2007: 200. 81. Joseph Wood Krutch, “A Good Beginning,” Nation 147 (Nov. 5, 1938): 488; Alonso: 200; and “Drama Critics Fail to Name ‘Best Play,’ ” New York Times, Apr. 20, 1939: 25. 82. Peterson: 321 and Alonso: 203. 83. “Abe Lincoln in Illinois: Overview Article,” , www.tcm.com. 84. , “Theater: Lincoln Revival,” New York Times, Jan. 23, 1963: 5; and Richard Gilman, “Abe Lincoln in Illinois,” Commonweal 77 (Feb. 15, 1963): 543. 85. Carol Gelderman, “Abe’s Global Vision,” American Theatre, Dec. 1, 1993: 13; and Michael Sommers, “Abe Lincoln in Illinois Revival Depicts a Spiritual Heritage,” The Oregonian, Nov. 25, 1993. Notes 167

86. David Richards, “Abe Lincoln in Illinois,” New York Times, Nov. 30, 1993: C15; , “A Lincoln With an Agit-Prop Subtext,” New York Times, Dec. 12, 1993: A5; Michael Kuchwara, “ ‘Lincoln’ an Impeccable Drama,” Albany Times Union, Dec. 3, 1993: C9; and “Backwoods Lawyer Hews a Path to the White House,” Christian Science Monitor, Dec. 2, 1993. 87. Kelly Huffman, “Abe Lincoln in Illinois,” www.theatermania.com, Oct. 19, 2009. 88. Letter from Corwin to Cheryl Crawford, Dec. 19, 1958, Norman Corwin Papers, Series II, Box 16, Syracuse University Library Special Collections. 89. Herbert Mitgang, “Saturday Night! Lincoln v. Douglas,” New York Times, Feb. 1, 1959: X1. 90. Norman Corwin, “Cautionary Note,” Norman Corwin Papers. 91. “The Tangled Weave,” in The Rivalry tour play program booklet in Corwin Papers and A. J. Langguth (editor), Norman Corwin’s Letters, New York: Barricade Books, 1994: 210. 92. Norman Corwin, The Rivalry, New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1960: 12, 31. 93. Corwin 1960: 46. 94. Corwin: 73–74. 95. Brooks Atkinson, “Vivid Americana,” New York Times, Feb. 15, 1959: X1; Harold Clurman, “The Rivalry,” Nation 188 (Feb. 28, 1959): 194; Kenneth Tynan, “Matters of Fact,” New Yorker 35 (Feb. 21, 1959): 96–98; Richard Watts, Jr., “Those Lincoln-Douglas Debates,” , Feb. 9, 1959; and “New Play in Manhattan,” Time, Feb. 16, 1959, accessed at www.time.com. 96. Sid Friedlander, “The Man in the Stove-pipe Hat,” New York Post, Feb. 15, 1959: M2. 97. Max Lerner, “The Wrestler,” New York Post, Feb. 11, 1959: 48. 98. Harold Holzer (editor), The Lincoln-Douglas Debates, New York: Harper Collins, 1993: 63, 283. 99. Norman Corwin, “Coast to Coast with a Dramatized Debate,” Theatre Arts 43 (Feb. 1959): 61. 100. Quoted in Richards: 346–7. 101. Mark Van Doren, The Last Days of Lincoln in Richards: 354. 102. Van Doren: 367–69. 103. Van Doren: 383–386. 104. Van Doren: 407, 410. 105. Richards: 346. 106. Van Doren: 431. 107. “Van Doren’s Play Given in Florida,” New York Times, Oct. 19, 1961: 39. 108. Charles Poore, “Books of ,” New York Times, Feb. 12, 1959: 25. Two collections that include The Last Days of Lincoln are Richards and Swire. 168 Notes

109. Tom Donnelly, “Longhi: Arguing with the Immortals,” Washington Post, Sept. 10, 1972. 110. Clive Barnes, “Lincoln Mask at Plymouth,” New York Times, Oct. 31, 1972: 51; and , “Self-Wounding, Self-Delighting,” New Yorker 48 (Nov. 11, 1972): 130. 111. , “Stage: Weaver as Multimedia Lincoln,” New York Times, Dec. 20, 1976: 62. 112. Herbert Mitgang, Mister Lincoln, Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1982: v. 113. Mitgang: x. 114. James Lardner, “A Century Later Abe Lincoln Returns to Ford’s Theatre,” Washington Post, Jan. 13, 1980: M1. 115. Mitgang: 52–53. 116. Mel Gussow, “Stage: Mister Lincoln, Starring Roy Dotrice,” New York Times, Feb. 26, 1980: C5; and John Beaufort, “An Authoritative Mister Lincoln,” Christian Science Monitor, Mar. 3, 1980. 117. Accessed at www.c-span.org/PresidentialSurvey. 118. Barry Schwartz, “Lincoln at the Millenium,” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 24 (Winter 2003): 1–31 (quote on 31). 119. “2009 Lowlights,” Washington City Paper, Dec. 25, 2009: 23.

2 Other Heroic Presidents

1. Thomas E. Cronin and Michael A. Genovese, The Paradoxes of the American Presidency, Second Edition, New York: Oxford University Press, 2004: 62. 2. Lydia Saad, “Best President? Lincoln on Par with Reagan, Kennedy,” www.gallup.com, Feb. 11, 2009 and “C-SPAN 2009 Historians Presidential Leadership Survey,” www.c-span.org, Feb. 16, 2009. 3. An excellent discussion of the difficulty of rating presidents which includes summaries of recent surveys of both historians and the general public can be found in Cronin and Genovese, Chapter 3. Unless other- wise stated, information about such surveys is taken from this source. 4. The correct spelling of her first name is Dolley. Because Nirdlinger used the popular but incorrect “Dolly,” we will avoid confusion in discuss- ing his play by adopting his version. 5. Charles Frederic Nirdlinger, The First Lady of the Land, Boston: Walter H. Baker Co., 1914: 54. 6. Nirdlinger: 25. 7. Nirdlinger: 38, 43. 8. Nirdlinger: 163. 9. Nirdlinger: 169. 10. Nirdlinger: 208. Notes 169

11. “Elsie Ferguson in Historical Comedy,” New York Times, Dec. 5, 1911: 9; and Clayton Hamilton, “Midwinter Nights’ Entertainments,” The Bookman 34 (Sept. 1911–Feb. 1912): 651. 12. Acton Davies and Charles Nirdlinger, The First Lady in the Land, New York: H.K. Fly Co., 1912. 13. Catherine Allgor, A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation, New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2006: 32. 14. Allgor: 10. 15. Nirdlinger: 145. 16. Gerald Boardman, American Theatre: A Chronicle of Comedy and Drama, 1869–1914, New York: Oxford University Press, 1994: 700. 17. Stephen Vincent Benét, “Is the Costume Drama Dead?” The Bookman 60 (Dec. 1924): 481. 18. Sean Wilentz, The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln, New York: W. W. Norton, 2005: 318. 19. Allgor: 360. The spelling is unchanged from the original source. 20. Wilentz: 318. 21. “New Plays,” Time, Oct. 13, 1924, www.time.com; Stark Young, “The Play,” New York Times, Sept. 30, 1924: 27; and Charles Fenton, Stephen Vincent Benét: The Life and Times of an American Man of Letters, 1898–1943, New Haven: Press, 1958. 22. Howard Koch and John Huston, In Time to Come, in Stanley Richards (ed.), America on Stage: Ten Great Plays of American History, Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1976: 530. 23. Koch and Huston: 534. 24. Koch and Huston: 538. 25. Koch and Huston: 555. 26. Koch and Huston: 561. 27. Koch and Huston: 568–72. 28. Koch and Huston: 575. 29. Koch and Huston: 579. 30. Koch and Huston: 586. 31. Koch and Huston: 589. 32. Koch and Huston: 599. 33. John Gassner, “ ‘Clash by Night’ and Other Plays,” Current History 1 (Feb. 1942): 568; Brooks Atkinson, “Drama About League of Nations and Woodrow Wilson Opens at the Mansfield,” New York Times, Dec. 29, 1941: 20; and Burns Mantle, The Best Plays of 1941–1942, New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1942: 35. 34. “In Time to Come,” Theatre Arts 28 (Oct. 1944): 606. 35. Alexander L. George and Juliette L. George, Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House: A Personality Study, New York: Dover Publications, 1964: 315. 36. John Guare and Ruth Goetz, “Conversations With . . . Sidney Kingsley,” Dramatists Guild Quarterly (Autumn 1984): 27. 170 Notes

37. Sidney Kingsley, The Patriots, in Nena Couch (ed.), Sidney Kingsley: Five Prizewinning Plays, Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 1995: 181. 38. Kingsley: 183. 39. Sidney Kingsley, “On Lifting Washington’s Periwig,” New York Times, Feb. 21, 1943: X1. 40. Kingsley 1995: 200. 41. Kingsley 1995: 209. 42. Kingsley 1995: 223–25. 43. Kingsley 1995: 235. 44. This seems more like playwright’s melodramatic hindsight than Hamiltonian prophecy as the challenge from Burr came more than three years later, after, as Sean Wilentz has written, “Hamilton had hated and pursued Burr with a passion that . . . certainly bordered on the obsessive” (Wilentz: 115). 45. Kingsley 1995: 238. 46. Lewis Nichols, “The Play,” New York Times, Jan. 30, 1943: 11; John Gassner, “Jefferson and Hamilton in Drama,” Current History 4 (Mar. 1943): 88–89; George Jean Nathan, “The Best Play of the Season,” The American Mercury 56 (1943): 486–87; and Wolcott Gibbs, “Birth of a Nation,” 18 (Feb. 6, 1943): 31. 47. Thomas F. Brady, “Warners to Film Play by Kingsley,” New York Times, Jun. 9, 1947: 27. 48. Kingsley 1995: 185. 49. Kingsley 1995: 212. 50. Dore Schary, Sunrise at Campobello, New York: Random House, 1958: Foreword. 51. Schary: 77. 52. Schary: 101. 53. Schary: 109. 54. James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox, New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1956: 94. 55. Brooks Atkinson, “FDR as Invalid,” New York Times, Feb. 9, 1958: X1; and Kerr quoted in “Sunrise at Campobello,” Theatre Arts 42 (Apr. 1958): 16. 56. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., “F.D.R. on the Stage,” 138 (Feb. 10, 1958): 20; Wolcott Gibbs, “F.D.R.,” The New Yorker 33 (Feb. 9, 1958): 93–96; Robert Hatch, “Sunrise at Campobello,” The Nation 186 (Feb. 15, 1958): 146; and Henry Hewes, “The FDR Story,” Saturday Review 41 (Feb. 15, 1958): 28. 57. Schary: 67. 58. Schary: 78, 105. 59. “New Play in Manhattan,” Time 71 (Feb. 10, 1958): 20. 60. Blanche Wiesen Cook, Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume One, 1884–1933, New York: Viking 1992: 285 and 316. Notes 171

61. Jacob Leibenluft, “The Unpopular President: Why was Harry Truman as unloved as George W. Bush?” Slate, May 5, 2008 (www.slate.com). 62. Merle Miller, Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman, New York: Berkley, 1974. 63. Stefan Kanfer, “Trumania in the ’70s,” Time 105 (Jun. 9, 1975): 45. 64. John V. R. Bull, “Splendid Saltiness Marks Whitmore’s Recreated Truman,” Philadelphia Inquirer, Mar. 31, 1975: 5B. 65. Patrick Julian, “A Touch Too Cracker Barrel Folksy: The Mythic Portrayal of Harry S. Truman in Give ’em Hell, Harry!” Philological Papers 44 (1998): 114. 66. Samuel Gallu, Give ’em Hell Harry: Reminiscences, New York: The Viking Press, 1975: 1. 67. Alonzo L. Hamby, Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman,” New York: Oxford University Press, 1995: 641. 68. Gallu: 76. 69. Gallu: 82. 70. For example, see Sarah Miles Bolam and Thomas J. Bolam, The Presidents on Film: A Comprehensive Filmography of Portrayals from George Washington to George W. Bush, Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Col, 2007: 278–80. 71. Gallu: 61. 72. White House Central Files: President’s Secretary’s Files, Box 118, Harry S Truman Library and David McCullough, Truman, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992: 901. 73. Hamby: 129. 74. McCullough: 164 and Hamby: 114. 75. Gallu: 56. 76. McCullough: 801. Hamby: 544 has a similar account of the incident. 77. T. E. Kalem, “His Own Man,” Time, May 12, 1975: 63 www.time.com, Richard L. Coe, “Whitmore’s Glorious Mr. Truman,” Washington Post, Apr. 16, 1975: B1, 9 and Richard L. Strout, “Ford’s Hero, Truman, back in capital; onstage,” Christian Science Monitor, Apr. 17, 1975: 3. 78. Harry F. Waters, “One-Man Showmanship,” , May 12, 1975: 89. 79. Andrew Gans, “Barnaba Will Be Truman in Give ’Em Hell Harry!” www..com, Jul. 18, 2008. 80. Andy Propst, “Seeing the President as Outspoken Leader in Give ’Em Hell Harry!” American Theater Web Review, Jul. 30, 2008, accessed at www.americantheaterweb.info and Robert Windeler, “Give ’Em Hell Harry!” Backstage.com, Aug. 1, 2008. 81. Stephen Skowronek, The Politics Presidents Make: Leadership from to , Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Press, 1997: 228. 82. Michael A. Genovese, The Power of the American Presidency, 1789– 2000, New York: Oxford University Press, 2001: 114. 172 Notes

83. Nora E. Taylor, “: a sense of history,” Christian Science Monitor, Apr. 5, 1977: 10. 84. Jerome Alden, Bully: An Adventure with Teddy Roosevelt, New York: Crown Publishers, 1979: 8. 85. Alden: 12. 86. Alden: 20. 87. Alden: 27. 88. Alden: 32. 89. Alden: 16. 90. Alden: 29. 91. Kathleen Dalton, : A Strenuous Life, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002: 191. 92. Alden: 49, 52. 93. Alden: 67–68. 94. Alden: 11. 95. Alden: 32. 96. Anita Hamilton, “A Step Back for Blacks,” Time 168 (Jul. 3, 2006), www.time.com; and John D. Weaver, The Brownsville Raid, College Station, TX: A & M University Press, 1992. 97. Richard Eder, “Drama: Bully Talks Softly,” New York Times, Nov. 2, 1977: 67. 98. For example, see Thor Eckert, Jr., “James Whitmore does bully job depicting Teddy,” Christian Science Monitor, Mar. 23, 1977: 12. 99. Clifford Ridley, “A Side of Roosevelt in Bully!,” Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov. 17, 1998: E04; and Mike Steele, “John Davidson is a bully Roosevelt,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 31, 1997: 3E. 100. Michelle Bearden, “Not So Rough Rider,” Tampa Tribune, Sept. 3, 2002: 1 (Baylife section). 101. Michael Sommers, “The Bully Pulpit,” Newark Star-Ledger, May 16, 2008: 4. 102. Frank Scheck, “Solo Portrait of Teddy Roosevelt Bears Up,” New York Post, May 16, 2008: 53.

3 The President as Anti-Hero

1. Casper H. Nannes, Politics in the American Drama, Washington, DC: Catholic University of America, 1960: 120. 2. Nannes: 133. 3. American National Election Studies data were found at www. electionstudies.org. The Pew Research Center Survey is “The People and Their Government: Distrust, Discontent, Anger and Partisan Rancor, Washington, DC: Pew Research Center for the People & The Press, 2010. Notes 173

4. Harris Poll results came from www.pollingreport.com/institut.htm.; Obama approval ratings from Lydia Saad, “Obama Starts 2010 With 50% Approval,” www.gallup.com, Jan. 6, 2010. 5. Rosalee A. Clawson and Zoe M. Oxley, Public Opinion: Democratic Ideals, Democratic Practice, Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2008: Chapter 10 contains a useful summary of the debate. 6. Arthur Marwick, The Sixties, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998: 16–17; and John C. McWilliams, The 1960s Cultural Revolution, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000: 15–18, 94. 7. Mel Gussow, “Much Ado About Mac,” Newsweek 69 (Feb. 27, 1967): 99. 8. Gussow: 99. 9. Gussow: 99. 10. Barbara Garson, MacBird!, New York: Grassy Knoll Press, 1966: Prologue. 11. Garson: 5–6. 12. Garson: 9, 11. 13. Garson: 28. 14. Garson: 26–27. 15. Garson: 33. 16. , Macbeth, in David Bevington (ed.), Four Tragedies, New York: Bantam Books, 1980: 710; and Garson: 56. 17. Garson: 55. 18. Garson: 34. 19. Garson: 22–23. 20. Garson: 40. 21. Barbara Garson, “The Stealth Socialist; I’m Running Too—So Won’t Somebody Ask Me About NAFTA?” Washington Post, Nov. 1, 1992: C5. 22. Sam Zolotow, “Program Printer Rejects ‘M’Bird!’ ” New York Times, Jan. 11, 1967: 53; Louis Calta, “Grove Press Buys Stage Programs,” New York Times, Aug. 12, 1967: 15; and , “Hoover Assails MacBird! Author, New York Times, Apr. 1, 1967: 29. 23. Walter Kerr, “Truth, Taste and MacBird!” New York Times, Mar. 12, 1967: 111: “Mangy Terrier,” Time 89 (Mar. 3, 1967), 52; Edith Oliver, “Off Broadway,” The New Yorker 43 (Mar. 11, 1967): 127; and Robert Graham Kemper, “A Plague on Both Houses,” Christian Century 84 (May 31, 1967): 725. 24. Ryan Howe, “How Can Who Say What About the War? Dramatic Form and Authorial Identity in Criticism of Two Plays: MacBird! and Streamers,” Theatron, Spring 2003: 70–81; and Walter Kerr, “MacBird! at the Village Gate,” New York Times, Feb. 23, 1967: 38. 25. Robert Brustein, “MacBird! on Stage,” The New Republic 156 (Mar. 11, 1967): 30–32; and , “Birds of America,” New York Review of Books 7 (Dec. 1, 1966): 12–14. 26. Peter Brook, “Is MacBird! Pro-American?” New York Times, Mar. 19, 1967: D1. 174 Notes

27. Dan Sullivan, “M’Bird! Gets Off to Flying Start,” New York Times, Feb. 22, 1967: 22. 28. For example, see Peter Marks, “ ‘60s Satire MacBird! Lays a MacEgg,” Washington Post, Sept. 13, 2006: C02. 29. Jay Tolson, “Ten Worst Presidents: Introduction,” U.S. News & World Report, Feb. 16, 2007, www.usnews.com; “C-SPAN 2009 Historians Presidential Leadership Survey,” www.c-span.org, accessed Feb. 16, 2009; and Robert K. Murray, The Harding Era: Warren G. Harding and His Administration, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press: 1969: 418. 30. ’ dates of birth and election to the White House can be found in “Discussions: The Gang’s All Here” (Robert E. Lee dictating), Nov. 22, 23, 1958, Lawrence and Lee Papers, 1917–70, Sub-series 4—The Gang’s All Here, (NYPL), Billy Rose Theater Collection. 31. Kenneth Tynan, “Thunder on Pennsylvania Avenue,” The New Yorker 35 (Oct. 10, 1959): 125. 32. The first quote can be found in Alan Woods (ed.), The Selected Plays of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 1995: 170; the second in “Discussions with Danny Mann,” Oct. 10, 1957, Lawrence and Lee Papers, NYPL. 33. Paul F. Boller, Jr., Presidential Campaigns, Revised edition, New York: Oxford University Press, 1996: 214. 34. Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, The Gang’s All Here, Cleveland, OH: World Publishing Co., 1960: 76–77. 35. Lawrence and Lee: 102. 36. Lawrence and Lee: 123. 37. Lawrence and Lee: 129. 38. Brooks Atkinson, “Political Play,” New York Times, Oct. 2, 1959: 38. Kerr’s quote is cited in Woods: 171 which summarizes the opinions of the other newspaper reviewers. 39. Tynan: 126. 40. Lawrence and Lee, “Comments on Gang’s All Here,” Jun. 16, 1958 and Letter from Lawrence and Lee to , Mar. 22, 1959, both in Lawrence and Lee Papers, NYPL. 41. Lawrence and Lee, The Gang’s All Here, 113, 126–27. 42. Nannes: 120. 43. Kathleen Allen, “Play imagines trip by Edison, Ford and, curiously, Harding,” Arizona Daily Star, Feb. 6, 2009. 44. Allen. 45. Mark St. Germain, Camping With Henry and Tom, Garden City, NY: The Fireside Theatre, 1995: 15. 46. St. Germain: 30. 47. St. Germain: 46–47. 48. St. Germain: 50. 49. St. Germain: 70. 50. St. Germain: 98. Notes 175

51. St. Germain: 105. 52. St. Germain: 107. 53. St. Germain: 74–75. 54. Vincent Canby, “American Luminaries Venture Into the Wild With Agendas in Tow,” New York Times, Feb. 21, 1995: C13. 55. “Poker Night at the White House,” www.theatermania.com, accessed Apr. 8, 2007. The Neo-Futurist website is www.neofuturists.org. 56. Sean Benjamin, Poker Night at the White House, unpublished manu- script supplied by the play’s author: 2, 5. 57. Benjamin: 30. 58. Benjamin: 6. 59. Benjamin: 12. 60. Megan Powell, “Poker Night at the White House,” Time Out Chicago, Apr. 26, 2007; and Wendell Brock, “Poker Night at the White House,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, shared blogs, Feb. 14, 2008. 61. David Greenberg, Nixon’s Shadow: The History of an Image,” New York: W.W. Norton, 2003: xiii. 62. Greenberg: xvii. 63. Stephen E. Ambrose, Nixon: The Triumph of a Politician 1962–1972, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989: 10; Michael Genovese, The Power of the American Presidency, 1789–2000, New York: Oxford University Press, 2001: 159; and Greenberg: 337. 64. For examples, see Daniel Frick, Reinventing Richard Nixon: A Cultural History of an American Obsession, Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas: 146–47. 65. Mel Gussow, “Vidal Warming Up His ‘Act of Politics,’ ” New York Times, Apr. 28, 1972: 32. 66. Gore Vidal, An Evening with Richard Nixon, New York: Random House, 1972: 6. 67. Vidal: 3. 68. Gussow: 32. 69. Vidal: 85–86. 70. Vidal: 85. 71. Vidal: 133. 72. Walter Kerr, “ ‘Nixon’—Reminding Us Doesn’t Amuse Us,” New York Times, May 7, 1972: 3; Jack Kroll, “Hail to the Chief,” Newsweek 79 (May 15, 1972): 92; Henry Hewes, “Distal and Proximal Bite,” Saturday Review 55 (May 20, 1972): 63; and Harold Clurman, “Theatre,” The Nation 214 (May 22, 1972): 34. 73. Margit Peterfy, “Gore Vidal’s ‘Public’: Satire and Political Reality in Visit to a Small Planet, The Best Man, and An Evening with Richard Nixon,” Amerikastudien 45 (Issue 2, 2001): 218. 74. Frick: 78. 75. Donald Freed and Arnold Stone, Secret Honor: The Last Testament of Richard M. Nixon: A Political Myth, in M. Elizabeth Osborn and Gillian Richards (eds.), New Plays USA 2, New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1984: 3. 176 Notes

76. Freed and Stone: 6–7. 77. Freed and Stone: 13. 78. Herbert S. Parmet, Richard Nixon: An American Enigma, New York: Pearson/Longman, 2008: 11. 79. Freed and Stone: 23. 80. Parmet: 27. 81. Freed and Stone: 26. 82. Freed and Stone: 28. 83. Freed and Stone: 29. 84. Freed and Stone: 17–19. 85. Freed and Stone: 28. 86. Freed and Stone: 31. 87. Keith W. Olson, Watergate: The Presidential Scandal that Shook America, Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2003: 62. 88. Freed and Stone: 17, 24. 89. Mel Gussow, “Secret Honor, Nixon After the Pardon,” New York Times, Nov. 11, 1983: C4; and David Sterritt, “It’s Fascinating to Watch, but Secret Honor Is No Legitimate Historic Study of Nixon,” Christian Science Monitor, Nov. 30, 1983: 35. 90. Janet Maslin, “At the Movies,” New York Times, Jun. 14, 1985: C12. 91. Vincent Canby, “Nixon Tale, Secret Honor,” New York Times, Jun. 7, 1985: C8; Roger Ebert, “Secret Honor,” www.rogerebert.com: Jan. 1, 1984; and Jay Carr, “Altman Humanizes Nixon,” Boston Globe, Nov. 2, 1984: 38. 92. Allan Havis (editor), American Political Plays: An Anthology, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001: 271. 93. Robert Nesti, “Writer Plays Head Games with Nixon and Kissinger,” , Mar. 4, 2000: 30. 94. Stephen E. Ambrose, Nixon: Ruin and Recovery, 1973–1990, New York: Touchstone, 1991: 428–29. 95. Russell Lees, Nixon’s Nixon, New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1996: 18. 96. Lees: 18. 97. Lees: 38. 98. Lees: 39. 99. Lees: 46–47. 100. Lees: 49. 101. Vincent Canby, “Of Nixon and Kissinger: What Might Have Been,” New York Times, Mar. 13, 1996: C13; and Liz Trotta, “Nixon’s Nixon Replays Last Night with Kissinger,” Washington Times, Dec. 8, 1995: A2. 102. “Frost/Nixon Interviews Hit Broadway,” Morning Edition, Apr. 20, 2007, www.npr.org; Gareth McLean, “When the Playboy Met the Liar,” , Aug. 1, 2006: 22; and Peter Morgan, Frost/ Nixon, London: Faber and Faber, 2006: author’s note preceding the script. Notes 177

103. McLean: 22. 104. Morgan: 6. 105. Morgan: 17. 106. Morgan: 15. 107. Morgan: 29. 108. MacLean: 22. 109. Morgan: 45 and 56. 110. Morgan: 47. 111. Morgan: 66–67. 112. Morgan: 71. 113. Morgan: 74. 114. Morgan: 77–78. 115. Morgan: 81–82. 116. Michael Billington, “Frost/Nixon Donmar,” The Guardian, Aug. 23, 2006: 34; Andrew Gilligan, “It May Not Be History But It’s Great Theatre,” The Evening Standard, Nov. 28, 2006: 13 and Quentin Letts, “Expletive Deleted! Why Tricky Dick Is Still So *!*!? Mesmerising,” The , Aug. 25, 2006: 63. 117. Ben Brantley, “When David Faced a Wounded Goliath,” New York Times, Apr. 23, 2007: E1; David Rooney, “Frost/Nixon,” Variety, Apr. 22, 2007; and Jeremy McCarter, “We Still Have Nixon to Kick Around,” New York, May 7, 2007. 118. Elizabeth Drew, “Nixon’s Broadway Revival,” The Nation 285 (Jul. 16, 2007): 26–28. The quote from the play can be found in Morgan: 77. 119. Ambrose 1991: 512. 120. Morgan: 82. 121. David Greenberg, “The President Who Never Came in from the Cold,” Slate, May 27, 2007 www.slate.com and Ambrose 1991: 591. 122. Sean Wilentz, “The Worst President in History?” Rolling Stone, Issue 999 (May 4, 2006): 32–37. 123. “Bush’s Final Approval Rating: 22 Percent,” www.cbsnews.com, Jan. 16, 2009. 124. David Hare, Stuff Happens, London: Faber and Faber, 2004: author’s note. 125. Jesse McKinley, “David Hare Enters the Theater of War,” New York Times, Mar. 26, 2006: Section 2, p.1. 126. Hare: 3. 127. Hare: 9–10. 128. Hare: 14. 129. , The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004: 75. 130. Hare: 17–18. 131. Hare: 19–25. 132. Bob Woodward, Plan of Attack, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004: 25–26. 178 Notes

133. Hare: 30. 134. Hare: 36. 135. Hare: 46. 136. Hare: 49. 137. Hare: 60. 138. Hare: 64. 139. Hare: 75. 140. Hare: 79–82. 141. Hare: 84–86. 142. Hare: 88. 143. Hare: 92. 144. Woodward: 271. 145. Hare: 120. 146. Nicholas de Jongh, “The State Gets Its Old Protest Power Back,” The Evening Standard, Sept. 14, 2004: 61; Quentin Letts, “Theatre of War,” The Daily Mail, Sept. 13, 2004: 13; Michael Billington, “Stuff Happens,” The Guardian, Sept. 11, 2004: 7 and John Lahr, “Collateral Damage: David Hare on the March to War in ,” New Yorker, Sept. 27, 2004: 154. 147. Ben Brantley, “His Gang, in ‘On the Road to Baghdad,’ “ New York Times, Apr. 14, 2006: E1; Michael Kuchwara, “Stuff Happens a Robust Drama,” Associated Press, Apr. 14, 2006; and Jeremy McCarter, “The Fog of Antiwar,” New York, Apr. 24, 2006. 148. Steven R. Weisman, “Powell Calls His U.N. Speech a Lasting Blot on His Record,” New York Times, Sept. 9, 2005: 10. 149. Charlotte Higgins, “Hare: I Was Wrong About Powell,” The Guardian, May 30, 2006: 10. 150. Alan Cowell, “Mocking the White House at War,” New York Times, Apr. 14, 2003: E1. 151. Patrick Healy, “No President Needs This Kind of Exposure,” New York Times, Feb. 7, 2009: C1. 152. Tolson and Michael Genovese, The Power of the American Presidency, 1789–2000, New York: Oxford University Press, 2001: 77. 153. John Updike, Buchanan Dying, Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2000: vii-viii. 154. Updike: 19 and 24. 155. Updike: 43–44. 156. Updike: 62 and 66–67. 157. Updike: 134. 158. David Herbert Donald, Lincoln, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995: 268; and Updike: 141. 159. Updike: 150, 175, 179 and 180. Updike’s explanation of his addition to Buchanan’s last words is on p. 260. 160. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., “The Historical Mind and the Literary Imagination,” Atlantic Monthly 233 (Jan. 1974): 54–59; Peter Prescott, “Immobile President,” Newsweek 24 (Jun. 24, 1974): 82, 85–86; Irvin Notes 179

Ehrenpreis, “Buchanan Redux,” New York Review of Books 21 (Aug. 8, 1974): 6–8; and D. Keith Mano, “Doughy Middleness,” 26 (Aug. 30, 1974): 987–88. 161. Lydia Saad, “Best President? Lincoln on Par with Reagan, Kennedy,” Feb. 11, 2009, www.gallup.com and C-SPAN 2009. 162. Thomas E. Cronin, “John F. Kennedy: President and Politician,” in Paul Harper and Joann P. Krieg (eds.), John F. Kennedy: The Promise Revisited, New York: Greenwood 1988: 2. 163. Terry Byrne, “The Spoof That Laid a Golden Egg,” Boston Herald, Nov. 7, 1997: S11. 164. Gip Hoppe, Jackie: An American Life, New York: Samuel French, 1998: 8. 165. Hoppe: 20. 166. Hoppe: 42 and 46. 167. Hoppe: 58. 168. Hoppe: 80. 169. Ben Brantley, “Enter Smiling but Elusive, as Always,” New York Times, Nov. 11, 1997: E4; Charles Isherwood, “Jackie: An American Life,” Variety, Nov. 11, 1997: 2; and Fintan O’Toole, “Jackie: Pretty in Pink,” New York Daily News, Nov. 11, 1997: 41.

4 Fictional Presidents

1. Malcolm Goldstein, George S. Kaufman: His Life, His Theater, New York: Oxford University Press, 1979: 227; and Scott Meredith, George S. Kaufman and His Friends, Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Co., 1974: 518. 2. Brigid C. Harrison, Women in American Politics: An Introduction, Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2003: 174. 3. Katharine Dayton and George S. Kaufman, First Lady, New York: Random House, 1935: 66. 4. Dayton and Kaufman: 48. Elsewhere in the play, she gives a figure of five million. 5. Dayton and Kaufman: 96. 6. Dayton and Kaufman: 116 and 122. 7. Dayton and Kaufman: 157. 8. Brooks Atkinson, “Capitol Impieties,” New York Times, Dec. 8, 1935: X3; “New Plays in Manhattan,” Time 26 (Dec. 9, 1935): 52; and Joseph Wood Krutch, “Drama: Cat Fight,” The Nation 141 (Dec. 11, 1935): 694–95. 9. For example, see Frank S. Nugent, “The Screen,” New York Times, Dec. 23, 1937: 25. 10. Brooks Atkinson, “Helen Gahagan and Edna Best Appear in ‘First Lady’ at the City Center,” New York Times, May 29, 1952: 18. 180 Notes

11. Frank Rich, “A Kaufman Revival,” New York Times, Jul. 16, 1980: C17. 12. Casper H. Nannes, Politics in the American Drama, Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1960: 223. 13. Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, State of the Union, New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1945: 8. 14. : 58 and 64. 15. Lindsay and Crouse: 67. 16. Lindsay and Crouse: 82. 17. Lindsay and Crouse: 92. 18. Lindsay and Crouse: 93 and 95. 19. Howard Barnes, “The Theater Has a Winner,” , Nov. 16, 1945: 16; Brooks Atkinson, “State of the Union,” New York Times, Sept. 8, 1946: XI; Wolcott Gibbs, “Brief Thanksgiving,” The New Yorker 21 (Nov. 24, 1945): 48; and Harold Clurman, “Nightmares for a Prosperous People,” in Marjorie Loggia and Glenn Young (eds.), The Collected Works of Harold Clurman: Six Decades of Commentary on Theatre, Dance, Music, Film, Arts and Letters, New York: Applause Books, 1994: 54. 20. Jack Gould, “Television: State of the Union,” New York Times, Nov. 17, 1954: 45. 21. Lindsay and Crouse: 4. 22. Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, The Federalist Papers, New York: Pocket Books, 2004: 61. 23. “The New Pictures,” Time 51 (May 3, 1948): 90. 24. Gore Vidal, The Best Man, Boston: Little Brown and Co., 1960: 7. 25. Gore Vidal interview, Theater Talk #703, Sept. 15, 2000, New York Public Library, Theater on Film and Tape Archive; and Gore Vidal, Palimpsest: A Memoir, New York: Random House, 1995: 337. 26. Vidal 1960: 28. This stereotype was harder to put across in more recent revivals. Vidal did change at least Sue-Ellen Gamadge’s physical appear- ance, omitting the description of her as “small, plump, elderly” (21) from the script for the 2000 Broadway revival in which she was played by the still glamorous Elizabeth Ashley. See Gore Vidal, The Best Man, New York: Dramatists Play Service, 2001: 13. 27. Vidal 1960: 46. 28. Vidal 1960: 65. 29. Vidal 1960: 79. 30. Vidal 1960: 123 and 126. 31. Vidal 1960: 163. 32. Vidal 1960: 171. 33. Brooks Atkinson, “The Best Man Arrives,” New York Times, Apr. 1, 1960: 39; Brooks Atkinson, “The Best Man,” New York Times, Apr. 10, 1960: X12; “New Play on Broadway,” Time 75 (Apr. 11, 1960): 85; and Henry Hewes, “ Song,” Saturday Review 43 (Apr. 16, 1960): 343. Notes 181

34. Gore Vidal interview, 2000; and “The Best Man: Overview Article,” www.tcm.com. 35. Elysa Gardner, “Gore Vidal Still Outwits Politics,” USA Today, Sept. 15, 2000: 2E. 36. Adam Nagourney, “The Bard of American Politics, Still Campaigning,” New York Times, Sept. 3, 2000: Section 2, p. 8; Fintan O’Toole, “Still the ‘Man’ of the Hour,” New York Daily News, Sept. 18, 2000: 43; and Margit Peterfy, “Gore Vidal’s ‘Public’: Satire and Political Reality in Visit to a Small Planet, The Best Man, and An Evening with Richard Nixon,” Amerikastudien 45 (Jan. 2000): 214. 37. Vidal 1960: 169. 38. David Mamet, “Why I Am No Longer a ‘Brain-Dead Liberal,’ ” , Mar. 12–18, 2008: 19. 39. David Mamet, November, New York: Vintage Books, 2008: 7. 40. Mamet, November: 57. 41. Mamet, November: 64. 42. Mamet, November: 66. 43. Mamet, November: 74. 44. Mamet, November: 120. 45. Joe Dziemianowicz, “Expletives Depleted in Prez Plot,” New York Daily News, Jan. 18, 2008: 43; Eric Grode, “Race to the Bottom,” New York Sun: Jan. 18, 2008: 13; Jeremy McCarter, “David Mamet’s November Spins the White House for Laffs,” New York, Feb. 4, 2008; and John Lahr, “Presidential Pratfalls,” New Yorker 83 (Jan. 28, 2008): 84.

5 Musical Presidents

1. Raymond Knapp, The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005: 3. 2. Mark Lubbock, The Complete Book of Light , New York: Appleton-Century Crofts, 1962: 753. 3. David Ewen, The Story of America’s Musical Theater, New York: Chilton Co., 1961: 65. 4. Scott Miller, Strike Up the Band: A New History of , Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2007: 5. 5. Howard Pollack, George Gershwin: His Life and Work, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006: 499. 6. Pollack: 499–500; Malcolm Goldstein, George S. Kaufman: His Life, His Theater, New York: Oxford University Press, 1979: 194–95; and Scott Meredith, George S. Kaufman and His Friends, Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Co., 1974: 428–30. 7. George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, Of Thee I Sing, New York: Samuel French, 1931: 11–12. 8. Kaufman and Ryskind: 7; and Constitution, Article II, Section 1. 182 Notes

9. Kaufman and Ryskind: 19. 10. Kaufman and Ryskind: 22. 11. Kaufman and Ryskind: 31–32. 12. Kaufman and Ryskind: 36. 13. Kaufman and Ryskind: 43. 14. Kaufman and Ryskind: 72. 15. Kaufman and Ryskind: 80. 16. Brooks Atkinson, “Of Thee I Sing,” New York Times, Jan. 3, 1932: X1; Gabriel quoted in Miller: 33 and E. B. White, “Of It We Sing,” The New Yorker, Jan. 2, 1932: 26. 17. Pollack: 513. 18. “Play Is Revised as Coolidge Dies,” New York Times, Jan. 6, 1933: 23. 19. Brooks Atkinson, “At the Theatre,” New York Times, May 6, 1952: 34; “Old Musical in Manhattan,” Time 59 (May 19, 1952): 83; Walter Kerr, “The Stage,” Commonweal 56 (May 30, 1952): 196; and “Revival,” Newsweek 39 (May 19, 1952): 101. 20. Goldstein: 429. 21. Clive Barnes, “Of Thee Is Thirties, ,” New York Times, May 8, 1969: 19. 22. This version was viewed at the Paley Center for Media in , Nov. 15, 2008. 23. John J. O’Connor, “Of Thee I Sing,” New York Times, Oct. 24, 1972: 87. 24. Knapp: 9. 25. Pollack: 503, 509 and 512–13. 26. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., “How History Upstaged the Gershwins,” New York Times, Apr. 5, 1987: Section 2, p. 6. 27. George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, Let ’Em Eat Cake, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1933: 27, 36. 28. Kaufman and Ryskind 1933: 55–56. 29. Kaufman and Ryskind 1933: 117, 126–27. 30. Brooks Atkinson, “Further Adventures of Wintergreen and Throttlebottom in Let ’Em Eat Cake,” New York Times, Oct. 23, 1933: 18; Joseph Wood Krutch, “Three Good Plays,” The Nation 137 (Nov. 8, 1933): 548–50; and Richard Dana Skinner, “Let ’Em Eat Cake,” Commonweal 19 (Nov. 10, 1933): 47. 31. Richard Eder, “Let ’Em Eat Cake Back in Berkshires,” New York Times, Jul. 5, 1978: C14. 32. Schlesinger: 6. 33. Jared Brown, Moss Hart: A Prince of the Theatre, New York: Back Stage Books, 2006: 136. 34. Brown: 137. 35. Goldstein: 292. 36. Patrick Julian, “Let the Orchestra Go, but Carry the Gallery: The Mythic Portrayal of FDR in I’d Rather Be Right,” New Theatre Journal Notes 183

9 (Jan. 1998): 54; and “Spoofing the Budget,” New York Times, Oct. 14, 1937: 24. 37. George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, I’d Rather Be Right, New York: Random House, 1937: 10. 38. Kaufman and Hart: 16–20. 39. Kaufman and Hart: 121–22. 40. Kaufman and Hart: 124. 41. Brooks Atkinson, “George M. Cohan as the United States President in I’d Rather Be Right,” New York Times, Nov. 3, 1937: 28; George Jean Nathan, “George M. Roosevelt,” Newsweek 10 (Nov. 15, 1937): 29; and “New Plays in Manhattan,” Time 30 (Nov. 15, 1937): 25. 42. Peter Hepple, “I’d Rather Be Right,” The Stage, May 20, 1999: 12 and Bob Verini, “I’d Rather Be Right,” Variety, May 19, 2008, www. variety.com. 43. Julian: 67–68. 44. Garrett Eisler, “Kidding on the Level: The Project of I’d Rather Be Right,” Studies in Musical Theatre 1 (Number 1, 2007): 7–24. 45. Kaufman and Hart: 92, 69. 46. Kaufman and Hart: 4–5. A hundred thousand dollars in 1937 would certainly be the equivalent of well over a million . 47. Eisler: 21. 48. Miller: 84. 49. Lester Bernstein, “Bobby Clark Set for Show in Fall,” New York Times, Jul. 14, 1948: 27; and Stanley Green, The Great Clowns of Broadway, New York: Oxford University Press, 1984: 36. 50. Brooks Atkinson, “At the Theatre,” New York Times, Nov. 15, 1948: 21; Wolcott Gibbs, “The President’s Husband,” The New Yorker 24 (Nov. 20, 1948): 58; Harold Clurman, “Light Up the Box Office,” The New Republic 119 (Dec. 6, 1948): 37; and Kappo Phelan, “As the Girls Go,” Commonweal 49 (Dec. 10, 1948): 231. 51. William Ewald, “Berlin Returns to Broadway,” Saturday Evening Post 235 (Oct. 20, 1962): 93. 52. Herbert Mitgang, “ ‘Mr. President’ of ,” New York Times Magazine, Oct. 14, 1962: 43. 53. Lawrence Bergreen, As : The Life of Irving Berlin, New York: Viking Penguin, 1990: 535–44 and “President Flintstone,” Time 80 (Sept. 7, 1962): 62. 54. Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, Mr. President, unpublished manu- script, New York: Theatre Library, 1978: 5. 55. Lindsay and Crouse: 1. 56. Lindsay and Crouse: 72. 57. Lindsay and Crouse: 73. 58. Lindsay and Crouse: 113. 59. Lindsay and Crouse: 139. 184 Notes

60. Lindsay and Crouse: 141. 61. Howard Taubman, “Irving Berlin’s ‘President,’ ” New York Times, Oct. 22, 1962: 32; “Shipwreck of State,” Time 80 (Nov. 2, 1962): 82; and Henry Hewes, “There Are No Presidents Like Show Presidents,” Saturday Review 45 (Nov. 3, 1962): 40. 62. A. L. Berman letter to Lindsay and Crouse, Feb. 4, 1964, Irving Berlin Collection, Box 267, Folder 18, Music Division, , Washington DC. 63. Robert Dominguez, “Flagging Invention,” New York Daily News, Aug. 4, 2001, www.nydailynews.com. 64. Sydney H. Schanberg, “The White House—Washington to Wilson,” New York Times, May 17, 1964: X3. 65. A. E. Hotchner, The White House, New York: Samuel French, 1964: 6–7. 66. Hotchner: 18. 67. Hotchner: 78. 68. Howard Taubman, “Theater: White House,” New York Times, May 20, 1964: 39; “Presidential Snipshots,” Time 83 (May 29, 1964): 49; and John McCarten, “Melange,” The New Yorker 40 (May 30, 1964): 78. 69. Nadine Brozan, “Chronicle,” New York Times, Mar. 3, 1995: B4. 70. Joan Peyser, Bernstein: A Biography, New York: Beech Tree Books, 1987: 445. 71. Peyser: 444. 72. Erik Haagensen, “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: The Show that Got Away,” Show Music 8 (Fall 1992): 25–32. 73. Humphrey Burton, Leonard Bernstein, New York: Doubleday, 1994: 432. Unless otherwise cited, this account is based on Peyser, Haagensen and Burton. 74. Kate Taylor, “A Bernstein Musical Revived—in Part,” New York Sun, Mar. 11, 2008: 14. 75. Haagensen: 28. 76. Peyser: 446; and Letter from Robert Whitehead to Gordon Parrish (liaison from Coca-Cola), Apr. 1, 1976, Robert Whitehead Collection, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Box 1, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington DC. 77. Both quotes are from Haagensen: 29. 78. “1600: Anatomy of a Turkey,” Time 107 (May 31, 1976): 69–70 79. Whitehead to Parrish and Haagensen: 30. 80. Clive Barnes, “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Arrives,” New York Times, May 5, 1976: 47; Jack Kroll, “Patriotic Bore,” Newsweek 87 (May 17, 1976): 96; Richard Watts, “Memories of Pennsylvania Avenue,” New York Post, May 10, 1976; 20; and Gottfried quoted in Haagensen: 30. 81. Haagensen: 32. 82. Bernard Holland, “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Tries For a Comeback in Washington,” New York Times, Aug. 13, 1992: 17. Notes 185

83. Warren Hoge, “Bernstein’s Singing Presidents: A Recount,” New York Times, Mar. 31, 2008: E1, 6. 84. Thomas B. Harrison, “Teddy and Alice Starts Rough Ride to Broadway in Tampa,” St. Petersburg Times, Aug. 9, 1987: 1F. 85. Although the play was never published, a detailed summary can be found at The Guide to Musical Theatre, www.nodanw.com. 86. Paul F. Boller, Jr., Presidential Campaigns, Revised edition, New York: Oxford University Press, 1996: 183; and Edmund Morris, Theodore Rex, New York: Random House, 2001: 359–60. 87. David Richards, “Teddy’s Rough Ride; A Hackneyed New Musical, in Baltimore,” Washington Post, Oct. 2, 1987: D1. 88. Frank Rich, “A Musical, Teddy and Alice,” New York Times, Nov. 13, 1987: C3; Michael Kuchwara, “Teddy and Alice, A New Musical Opens on Broadway,” Associated Press, Nov. 13, 1987; and Thomas B. Harrison, “Critics Singing Dirge for Teddy,” St. Petersburg Times: 3D. 89. Markland Taylor, “Teddy and Alice,” Variety, Oct. 28, 1996: 79. 90. Ted Chapin interview with John Weidman at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Aug. 5, 2004, Theater on Film and Tape Archive, NYPL; Mark Eden Horowitz, Sondheim on Music: Minor Details and Major Decisions, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2003: 57; and Knapp: 163. 91. Knapp: 164; and Andre Bishop, “Preface” in Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman, Assassins, New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1991: viii. 92. Sondheim and Weidman: 5–7, 14. 93. Sondheim and Weidman: 22. 94. Sondheim and Weidman: 26–28. 95. Sondheim and Weidman: 34. 96. Sondheim and Weidman: 53. 97. Sondheim and Weidman: 69. 98. Sondheim and Weidman: 81–89. 99. Jack Kroll, “The Killing of Presidents,” Newsweek 117 (Feb. 4, 1991): 72; John Simon, “Dumb, Dumb Bullets,” New York 24 (Feb. 4, 1991): 38; and Michael Feingold, “Hit After Hit,” Village Voice, Feb. 5, 1991: 87, 90. 100. David Richards, “They Shoot Presidents, Don’t They?” New York Times, Feb. 3, 1991: Section 2, p.1. 101. Knapp: 174. 102. Jeremy Sams, “America Gets His Best Shot,” The Times, Oct. 20, 1992: 29. 103. Horowitz: 66. 104. Michael Billington, “Assassins—Donmar Warehouse,” The Guardian, Oct. 31, 1992: 28; John Peter, “Suitable Cases for Musical Treatment,” Sunday Times, Nov. 1, 1992: 20; “Assassins,” Variety, Jan. 28, 1991: 78; and Matt Wolf, “Assassins,” Variety, Nov. 2, 1992: 98. 186 Notes

105. Dick Lochte, “Assassins,” Los Angeles Magazine 40 (Feb. 1, 1995): 110. 106. Jesse McKinley, “Assassins Ready Again,” New York Times, Sept. 27, 2003: B14. 107. Elysa Gardner, “Assassins: A Broadway Show Whose Time Has Come,” USA Today, Apr. 23, 2004: E1; Ben Brantley, “A Demon Gallery of Glory Hounds,” New York Times, Apr. 23, 2004: E1; Frank Rich, “At Last, 9/11 Has Its Own Musical,” New York Times, May 2, 2004: Section 2, p. 1; and John Simon, “Show Guns,” New York 37 (May 3, 2004): 64–65. 108. Stephen Holden, “First a Hobby, Now Three Musicals,” New York Times, Dec. 12, 1993: E5. 109. Michael John LaChiusa, First Lady Suite, New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1995: 13–14. 110. LaChiusa: 24. 111. LaChiusa: 32. 112. LaChiusa: 34. 113. LaChiusa: 51. 114. LaChiusa: 55–56. 115. Blanche Wiesen Cook, Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume One, 1884–1933, New York: Viking, 1992: 489. 116. LaChiusa: 63, 77, and 80. 117. David Richards, “Jackie, Mamie and Eleanor, Traveling to their Destinies,” New York Times, Dec. 16, 1993: C13; Michael Feingold, “Icon Game,” Village Voice 38 (Dec. 28, 1993): 98; Mary Campbell, “First Lady Suite: Musical Contains Mostly Modern Opera,” Albany Times Union, Dec. 17, 1993: C9; and John Simon, “Originals,” New York 27 (Jan. 10, 1994): 51. 118. LaChiusa: 80. 119. Kenneth Jones, “Warren G. Harding Is Star of New Musical Teapot Scandals,” Jan. 25 in Chicago,” Playbill.com, Jan. 25, 2007. 120. Jon Steinhagen (book, music and lyrics), The Teapot Scandals: A Musical Vaudeville, Brookfield, IL: Trouble Clef Music, 2005, 2007: 5. Jon Steinhagen was kind enough to supply the unpublished manuscript. 121. Steinhagen: 16. 122. Steinhagen: 52. 123. Steinhagen: 79–82. 124. Hedy Weiss, “Playfully Naughty Teapot Romps,” Chicago Sun-Times, Feb. 9, 2007: 38; “The Teapot Scandals,” Time Out Chicago 103 (Feb. 15, 2007); and Barbara Vitello, Chicago Daily Herald, Feb. 11, 2007: 19. 125. Liesl Schillinger, “Death By Crab,” The New Yorker 79 (Aug. 4, 2003): 24. 126. Ben Brantley, “Old Hickory, That Emo Punk, Singing and Dancing to Fame,” New York Times, May 18, 2009: C1, 5; and David Sheward, “Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson,” Backstage.com, Apr. 6, 2010. Notes 187

Conclusions

1. Darrell M. West, Air Wars: Television Advertising in Election Campaigns, 1952–2008, Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2010: 65–70. 2. Lyn Gardner, “Obama on My Mind,” www.guardian.co.uk, Mar. 7, 2009; Gianni Truzzi, “No Hope for Obama on My Mind,” Seattle Post Globe, Oct. 24, 2009; Kirsten Grieshaber, “Obama Musical Set to Open in Germany,” Associated Press, Jan. 13, 2010; and Catherine Hickley, “Obama, Michelle Sing Duet, Chorus Chants ‘Yes We Can,’ ” www. bloomberg.com, Jan. 18, 2010. Index

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Blix, Hans, 92–94 137–41, 144, 154, 156 Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson, 153 Abe Lincoln in Illinois, 18–24, 40, Boller, Paul, 68, 142 60, 149 Boone, Richard, 25, 27 Abe Lincoln’s Big Gay Dance Booth, John Wilkes, 13, 145–46, 155 Party, 34 Brantley, Ben, 87, 94, 100–101, 148 Abraham Lincoln (play), x, 7–12 Brennan, Jack, 85–86 Adams, Abigail, 138 Brook, Peter, 66–67 Adams, John, 136 Brown, John Mason, 22 Adams, John Quincy, 136 Brownsville raid, 57–58 Adamson, Harold, 131 Brustein, Robert, 66–67 Alden, Jerome, 55, 57, 141 Buchanan, James, 89, 95–99 Allgor, Catherine, 38 Buchanan Dying, 96–99 Altman, Robert, 80 Bully!, 55, 141 Ambrose, Stephen, 75, 81, 88 Burns, James MacGregor, 48 Anderson, Marian, 150–51 Burr, Aaron, 36–38, 45 Anderson, Maxwell, 2–3 Bush, George H. W., 61, 95 As the Girls Go, 131, 149 Bush, George W., 62, 75, 84, 88–95, Assassins, 144–49, 154, 156 114, 148, 153 Atkinson, Brooks, 3, 14, 17, 22, 27, Byck, Samuel, 145–46 42, 49, 70, 105–106, 109, 113, 121–22, 125, 128, 131 Camping With Henry and Tom, 71–74 Bamman, Gerry, 83–84 Canby, Vincent, 24, 73, 81, 83 Barnaba, Bix, 54–55 Carter, Jimmy, 61 Barnes, Clive, 30, 122, 140, 143–44 Chapin, Benjamin, 4–5 Benet, Stephen Vincent, 38–39 Cheney, Richard, 92–93, 95, 157 Benjamin, Sean, 74 Clark, Bobby, 131 Bennett, Lerone, Jr., 7 Cleveland, Grover, 136 Berlin, Irving, 72, 131–32, 134–35, Clinton, Bill, 61–62, 113, 153 154 see also impeachment Bernstein, Carl, 80 Clurman, Harold, 27, 77, 109–10, Bernstein, Jamie, 138, 141 131 Bernstein, Leonard, 137–40, 146 Cohan, George M., 119, 127, 147 The Best Man, 78, 110–14, 117, 156 Coleman, Anne, 96–98 Billington, Michael, 87, 93, 94, Collins, William, 139 147–48 Conkle, Ellsworth, ix, 16–18 Bishop, Andre, 144–45 Cook, Blanche Wiesen, 50–51 Blair, Tony, 89–94, 102 Cook, Raymond, 7 190 Index

Coolidge, Calvin, 48, 122, 126 Foner, Eric, 15 Corsaro, Frank, 139 Ford, Gerald, 52, 54, 82–83 Corwin, Norman, 24–28 Ford, Henry, 71–73 Coward, Noel, 127 Ford’s Theatre, 4, 11, 29, 31, 33, 109 Cronin, Thomas, 35, 99 Franklin, Benjamin, 53 Crouse, Russel, 107, 109–110, Freed, Donald, 78–81 131–32 Frick, Daniel, 78 Cunliffe, Marcus, 1 Fromme, Lynette (Squeaky), 145–46 Czolgosz, Leon, 145–46 Frost, David, 84–88,102 Frost/Nixon, 84–88, 101–102 Dalton, Kathleen, 57 Daugherty, Harry, 68–70, 74, Gallu, Samuel, 152–53 151–52 Gang’s All Here, The, 67–71, 114, Dayton, Katherine, 104 152 “Deep throat,” 79–80 Gardner, Elysa, 148 Dixon, Thomas, Jr., 5, 7–8, 16 Garfield, James, 136 Dotrice, Roy, 33 Garson, Barbara, 63–65, 144, 156 Douglas, Adele, 26 Garson, Greer, 49 Douglas, Helen Gahagan, 79, 106 Gassner, John, 42, 46 Douglas, Melvyn, 70 Genovese, Michael, 35, 55, 76 Douglas, Stephen, 7, 21, 25–27 Gershwin, George, 120, 122, 124 Drew, Elizabeth, 87–88 Gershwin, Ira, 120, 122, 124 Drinkwater, John, x, 8–12 Gibbs, Wolcott, 46, 49, 109, 131 Gill, Brendan, 30 Earhart, Amelia, 150–51 Gilligan, Andrew, 89 Eder, Richard, 58, 126 Gilman, Richard, 23 Edison, Thomas, 71–73 Give ’Em Hell Harry!, 52–55 Eisenhower, Dwight, 76–77, 109, Goodman, Arthur, 13–15 132, 150–51 Gottfried, Martin, 140 Eisenhower, Mamie, 149–50 Grant, Ulysses, 11, 14, 15, 29 Eisler, Garrett, 129–30 Greenberg, David, 75–76, 88 Ervine, St. John, 8 Guiteau, Charles, 145–46 Evening With Richard Nixon, An, Gussow, 31, 32, 76, 80 76–78, 101, 114 Ewen, David, 119 Haagensen, Erik, 138–40 Haig, Alexander, 79–80, 82 Faison, George, 139 Hall, Philip Baker, 80 Farrar, John, 38–39 Hamby, Alonzo, 52–53 , 16–18, 129, Hamilton, Alexander, 36–37, 130 43–47, 76, 153, 155 Feingold, Michael, 146, 151 Hammerstein, Oscar, 119 Felt, W. Mark, 80 Harding, Florence, 68–70 Ferrell, Will, 95 Harding, Warren, ix, 67–75, 83, First Lady, 104–106, 116 151–53 First Lady in the Land, 36–38, 155 Hare, David, 89–95, 102 First Lady Suite, 149–151, 154 Hart, Lorenz, 127 Index 191

Hart, Moss, 126 Kennedy, Robert, 64, 67, 100 Hayes, Helen, 107, 127 Kennedy (Onassis), Jacqueline, Heavans Are Hung in Black, The, 99–101, 132, 149, 151 33–34 Kern, Jerome, 119 Hewes, Henry, 49, 77, 113, 134 Kerr, Walter, 49, 66, 70, 77, 122 HIckock, Lorena 150–51 Kingsley, Sidney, 43–47 HInckley, John, 145 Kissinger, Henry, 81–83 Holland, Bernard, 140 Knapp, Raymond, 119, 123, 144, 147 Hoover, J. Edgar, 66 Koch, Howard, 40 Hope - The Obama Musical Story, Kroll, Jack, 77, 140, 146 158 Krutch, Joseph Wood, 3, 14–15, 22, Hoppe, Gip, 99–100 106, 125 Hotchner, A. E., 136–37 Ku Klux Klan, 53 House, Edward (Colonel), 40–42 Kuchwara, Michael, 24, 94, 143 Howe, Louis, 48–49 Howe, Ryan, 66 LaChiusa, Michael John, 149–51 Huston, John, 40 Lahr, John, 94, 116 Hutchins, Randall, 158 Langella, Frank, 87 Last Days of Lincoln, The, 28–30 I’d Rather Be Right, 126–30, 149, Lawrence, Jerome, 67–68, 70, 73, 102 154, 156 Lee, Robert, 67–68, 70, 73, 102 If Booth Had Missed, 13–15, 155 Lees, Russell, 81–84 Impeachment, 14, 69–70, 121, 155 Lerner, Alan J., 137–140 Clinton, Bill, 113 Lerner, Max, 27–28 Johnson, Andrew, 13, 138 Let ’Em Eat Cake, 124–26 Nixon, Richard, 82 Letts, Quentin, 87, 93 In Time to Come, 40–43, 156 Levitt, Saul, 31 Isherwood, Charles, 101 Lincoln, Mary Todd, 4, 6, 9, 14, 16, 18, 20–23, 30–32, 136, 155 Jackie: An American Life, 99–101, 151 Lincoln (play), 31 Jackson, Andrew, 38–40, 96, 153, 155 Lincoln, Abraham, xi, xiii, 1, 3–35, Jarrow, Kyle, 153 55, 60, 80, 89, 96–98, 99, 113, Jefferson, Thomas, 36–37, 43–46, 136, 155, 157 55, 60, 155 images of, 3, 27, 32, 33 Johnson, Andrew, 13, 138 racial views, 7, 15, 27–28 Johnson, Lyndon, 61, 63–67, 96, 99 Lincoln at the White House, 4–5 Julian, Patrick, 129 Lincoln Mask, The, 30–31 Lindsay, Howard, 107, 109–110, Kalem, T. E., 54 131–32 Kaufman, George S., 104, 106, Longhi, V. J. 30–31 120–24, 126, 129 Longworth, Nicholas, 104, 141–43 Keach, Stacy, 67 Luckinbill, Laurence, 58–59 Kennedy, Edward, 64 Kennedy, John, 35, 49, 64, 76–77, MacArthur, Douglas, 53–54 81, 99–101, 111, 114, 132, 135, MacBird!, 63–67, 71, 78, 95, 96, 146, 149, 151 100, 114, 130, 137, 144, 156 192 Index

MacDonald, Dwight, 66 Of Thee I Sing, 120–24, 126, 128, Madison, Dolley/Dolly, 36–40, 155 143, 149, 154, 156 Madison, James, 35–39, 44, 110, Olson, Keith, 80 155 one man plays, 31–33, 51–59, Madness of George Dubya, 95 78–81 Mamet, David, 114–16 Oswald, Lee Harvey, 146 A Man of the People (play), 5–8 man of the people (president as), 3, Patriots, The, 43–47, 155 8, 18, 27, 29–32, 46, 50, 52, Peter, John, 148 54, 56, 60, 71, 77, 82, 107, Peterfy, Margit, 77–78, 113 111, 128–29, 135 Peterson, Merrill, 3, 5 Mantle, Burns, 11, 17 Poker Night at the White House, Marwick, Arthur, 63 74–75 Massey, Raymond, 22, 25, 27 Powell, Colin, 89–95, 102 McCain, John, 157 President Harding Is a Rock Star, McCarter, Jeremy, 87, 94, 116 153 McClellan, George, 6 Prologue to Glory, ix, 16–18 McCulloch, David, 54 , 22, 43, 46, 109, 122 McHugh, Jimmy, 131 McWilliams, John, 63 Quinn, Arthur Hobson, xii Miller, Merle, 51–52 Miller, Scott, 119, 130 Reagan, Ronald, 35, 61, 79, 100, 111 Mister Lincoln, 31–33 Reston, James, Jr., 84–88 Mitgang, Herbert, 31–33 Rice, Condeleezza, 90 Moore, Sara Jane, 145–46 Rich, Frank, 106, 143, 148 Morgan, Peter, 84–88 Richards, David, 24, 143, 146–47, Moses, Gilbert, 139 150–51 Mr. President, 131–35, 141, 143, 144 Rivalry, The, 24–28, 32, 33 Rodgers, Richard, 127 Nagourney, Adam, 113 Rooney, David, 87 Nannes, Casper, xii, 61, 71 Roos, William, 131 Nathan, George Jean, 46, 128–29 Roosevelt, Alice, 56, 104, 141–43 Nichols, Lewis, 46 Roosevelt, Eleanor, 47–51, 150–57 Nixon, Richard, xiii, 52–54, 61, Roosevelt, Franklin, xi, 33, 35, 75–88, 100–101, 111, 137, 156 47–51, 52, 55, 74, 89, 99, 107, NIrdlinger, Charles, 36–38 126–28, 151, 156, 157 NIxon’s Nixon, 81–84, 101, 157 Roosevelt, Sara, 48–50 Norton, Elliot, 132 Roosevelt, Theodore, 51, 55–59, November, 114–16, 117, 156 104, 138, 141–43 Rumsfeld, Donald, 89, 93, 95 Obama, Barack, 33, 62, 157–58 Ryskind, Morrie, 120–22, 124, 129 Obama: TheMusical, 157 Obama on My Mind, 157–58 St. Germain, Mark, 71–73 O’Connor, John J., 123 Saint-Subber, Arnold, 139 O’Neill, Paul, 90 Sams, Jeremy, 147 O’Toole, Fintan, 101, 113 Shakespeare, William, 64–66, 145 Index 193

Schary, Dore, 47–51 Trotta, Liz, 83 Schlesinger, Arthur, Jr., 49, 98, Truman, Bess, 150 123, 126 Truman, Harry, 51–55, 111 Schwartz, Barry, 33 trust in government, 61–63, 100, Secret Honor, 78–81, 83, 101 130 Sellby, David, 33 Tynan, Kenneth, 27, 67, 70 Seward, William, 9–10 Sherwood, Robert, 19–23, 40 Updike, John, 96–99 Simon, John, 54,143, 146, 148–49, 151 Valley Forge, 2–3 Skinner, Richard, 125 Van Doren, Mark, 28–30 Smith, Al, 47–49 Vidal, Gore, 76–78, 80, 110–11, Smith, Michael O., 59 113, 140 Sondheim, Stephen, 144, 146–49 Sousa, John Philip, 141, 143–44, Washington, George, 1–3, 35, 145, 161 43–44, 46–47, 55, 60, 76–77, Stanton, Edwin, 14–15, 29 89, 99, 155 State of the Union, 107–110, Watergate scandal, 52, 54, 61, 62, 116–17, 156 75, 78–79, 85–86, 156 Steinhagen, Jon, 151–53 Waterston, Sam, 24 Stevens, Roger, 139 Watts, Richard, 22, 27, 42, 140 Stevens, Thaddeus, 6, 13–14, 16 Weaver, Fritz, 31 Stevenson, Adlai, 111 Weidman, John, 144, 147–49 Stone, Arnold, 78–80 Weiss, Hedy, 152 Strout, Richard, 54 Welles, Orson, 12 Stuff Happens, 89–95 West, Darrell, 157 Sumner, Charles, 29, 97 White House Cantata, A, 140 Sunrise at Campobello, 47–51, 61, White House, The (play), 136–37 156 Whitehead, Robert, 139–40 Whitmore, James, 51–55 Taft, William Howard, 56–57, 136 Wilentz, Sean, 39, 89 Taubman, Howard, 23, 134, Willkie, Wendell, 107 136–37 Wills, Garry, 1 Teapot Scandals, 151–53 Wilson, Woodrow, 8, 11–12, Teddy and Alice, 141–44 40–43, 57, 58, 59, 136, 155–56 Teddy Roosevelt: The Preacher of Wolf, Matt, 148 American Ideals, 57 Wolfowitz, Paul, 90, 92, 95, 157 Teddy Tonight!, 58–59 Woodward, Bob, 80, 93 Tenet, George, 90 Woolcott, Alexander, 11 Thackeray, William, 1 That Awful Mrs. Eaton, 38–40, You’re Welcome America: A Final 155 Night with George W. Bush, Thomas, Brook, 8 95, 100 Thomas, J. Parnell, 17–18 Young, Stark, 39 Tragedy of MacBush, 95 Trefousse, Hans, 16 Zangara, Giuseppe, 145