Transcript of Book Beat Radio Feature on Elia Kazan

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Transcript of Book Beat radio feature on Elia Kazan Don Swaim Collection (MSS #117), Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections, Ohio University Libraries Broadcast circa April 16, 1985 Book Beat Reel 17, February / March 1985. Track #36 (Transcribed Track #36) swaim_broadcast_bookbeat_17_36_36.txt - With Book Beat, I'm Don Swaim. Elia Kazan won fame for directing many of the greatest stage plays of the century, A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman and Cat On a Hot Tin Roof. His film directing credits include East of Eden, Gentleman's Agreement and On the Waterfront. - I never think back on the plays I did or the movies I did. They don't mean anything to me now. They're like another fellow did them. - What Elia Kazan thinks about now is his writing. His best-selling 1967 novel, The Arrangement, has been reissued as a paperback by Stein and Day. Born in Turkey in 1909 of Greek parents, Elia Kazan grew up in New Rochelle, New York. He graduated from Williams, studied at the Yale Drama School, and in the early 1930s, launched a career as a stage and radio actor. - I don't think I was a very good actor and I certainly wasn't a very versatile actor. I only could do one kind of part, partly because of my accent and my looks. - Kazan directed Thornton Wilder's play, The Skin of Our Teeth, and it was such a hit that Hollywood called. - They said, "Come on out and just observe "for a couple of months and just hang around "the sets and watch," which I did. I studied very hard. - His first directing job for the movies was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Elia Kazan joined the Communist Party in the 1930s and was a reluctant member for 16 months. - And it got more and more impossible for me. I found that many of things they did were manipulative and hypocritical. - In the 1950s after he had left the party, he testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee naming names that damaged his relationship with such friends as playwright Arthur Miller. But, Kazan says he likes himself better for speaking out against the party. Kazan lives in New York City and thrives on it. - I like the noise and the hustle and the violence, and I even like the danger a little bit. - Elia Kazan, his best-selling novel, The Arrangement, is out again as a paperback. With Book Beat, I'm Don Swaim..

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The Art of Elia Kazan Geoffrey Jacques Film Director, Playwright
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