Comic Master from Page 5 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • from Page to Stage and Screen
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ACTOR RICHARD BURTON described a conversation with Sheran Hornby as “inane.” He said FROM PAGE 5 And Then There Was Jeeves to her, “You all sound like characters AtComic their home on LongMaster Island, New York, he and Jeeves first appeared in a l9l7 short story, “Extricating From Page to Stage Young Gussie,” and continued to be prominent thereafter from P.G. Wodehouse,” pronouncing his wife Ethel lived lives of happy routine among cats and dogs, especially Pekingese and dachshunds. in numerous other stories. He and Bertie made their novel Byand Jeeves Screenis not the first time Jeeves and “Wodehouse” as “any sensible man He left to his wife, whom he occasionally called debut in 1934 in Thank You, Jeeves. Wodehouse recalled that would, rhyming ‘Wode’ with ‘spode’... “Baby Doll,” all decisions about domestic life. She Jeeves was conceived when he saw possibilities in another Bertie Wooster have stepped off the pages Wode-as-in-spode-house.” To which she once observed that she was sure he would be butler he had created for the stage. The character had two of P.G. Wodehouse’s novels and short sto- happy living in a dog house if he were assured writ- lines: “Mrs. Gregson to see you, sir” and “Very good, sir. ries. They have pursued crackpot adven- replied, “Wood-as-in-good-house.” ing materials and quiet. Which suit will you wear?” It was only later that “the man’s qualities dawned upon me. I still blush,” he said, “to think of tures on stage, in film, and on television. “What makes you so sure that it is ‘wood’ He was described by friends as ungregarious and a the off-hand way I treated him at our first encounter.”* and not ‘wode?’” he asked. man of simple tastes, with no pretensions; one of With his longtime collaborator Guy his editors called him humble. Though dismissed by Jeeves’ name appears in at least 15 titles of Wodehouse “Because he is,” she said, “my grandfather.” many in the literary establishment, Wodehouse novels, short story collections, and omnibus editions. Bolton, Wodehouse put Jeeves on stage in drew the praise of such varied writers as Orwell, *Introduction to The the l950s in Come On, Jeeves. A new ver- ••••••• Evelyn Waugh, Rudyard Kipling, Agatha Christie, World of Jeeves. sion of Come On, Jeeves, titled Betting on the subject P.G. WODEHOUSE IS Hillaire Belloc, and Ogden Nash. His writings have Bertie, is currently in development with of a number of biographies and studies, been translated into all the European languages as music and lyrics by Robert Wright and some of which are listed on page 16. If you’d well as into Chinese and Japanese. like to read Wodehouse on Wodehouse, look Forgiven for his “Berlin broadcasts” indiscretions, George Forrest. Wodehouse was made a knight of the British for the following: Empire just before his death in l975. Edward Duke adapted several Jeeves sto- Author! Author! New York: Simon and Richard Usborne reports that upon ries for his one-man show, in which he Schuster, l962. hearing of Wodehouse’s death, played both Jeeves and Bertie. Jeeves Takes he asked a Carmelite priest Charge was seen in Great Britain and the Bring on the Girls, co-written with Guy to remember the author at Bolton. New York: Simon and Schuster, mass. “He replied, ‘Well, I United States, including engagements at l953. will, since you ask me. But Washington’s Ford’s Theatre. in the case of someone Over 70. London: Herbert Jenkins, l957. who brought such joy to so Wodehouse also adapted his servant-mas- many people in the course of ter stories for the films,Thank You, Jeeves ••••••• his life, do you think it is and Step Lively, Jeeves, both of which starred necessary?’”* IRISH PLAYWRIGHT Arthur Treacher. SEAN O’CASEYdismissed *After Hours With P.G. P.G. Wodehouse as “the performing Wodehouse A British-made l960s television series flea of English literature.” called “The World of Wooster” starred Undaunted, Wodehouse immediately Dennis Price as Jeeves and Ian Carmichael put the insult to advantage by calling as Bertie. his l962 autobiography Performing Flea. It Another British-made series, “Jeeves and was published in the United States Wooster,” starring Stephen Fry and Hugh under the title Author! Author! Laurie, has been seen in the United States on PBS. 6 7.