“MY IDEA WAS TO WRITE A SERIOUS POLITICAL EXPOSÉ. I HAD NO INTENTION OF WRITING A COMEDY. I WASN’T IN A COMEDY MOOD ONE BIT.” Garson Kanin, playwright, BORN YESTERDAY

IT’S A FREE COUNTRBY LOIS KIVESTOY

WITH THE EYES OF TODAY’S WORLD TURNED In 1933, after studies at the American Academy ON WASHINGTON, D.C. IN HOPE OF CHANGE, of Dramatic Arts, Kanin worked in a New York GARSON KANIN’S CLASSIC SATIRE, BORN burlesque house as a self-termed “fifth banana”. He YESTERDAY, RESOUNDS WITH THE TRIUMPH recalled one of the strippers there as a beautiful OF GOOD PEOPLE IN A DEMOCRATIC WORLD. girl with a dressing room notable for its shelf of classic books. He revelled in their intellectual SET IN 1945, early in Harry S. Truman’s presidency, conversations. Kanin’s burlesque calling was short- BORN YESTERDAY opened on Broadway in 1946. lived, but a decade later, as he began to write BORN It enjoyed an unprecedented four-year run there, YESTERDAY, “the memory of that girl fused with my followed by great success as an Academy Award- story. And out of it came the soul of Billie Dawn.” winning film. Kanin had enlisted in the Army in 1941. While An uncouth self-made scrap-iron tycoon, Harry overseas, he began to write a screenplay about the Brock, travels from the Midwest to Washington inner workings of the U.S. government, based on ready to work fraudulent schemes, to buy and sell his own disillusioned observations: “I met more legislation “as though it were junk.” In tow is his than one Harry Brock when I was down there, and charming mistress, a not-so-dumb-blonde former I saw that it was even more than a matter of offering chorus girl named Billie Dawn. Harry hires idealistic bribes to elected officials. These guys were trading New Republic reporter, Paul Verrall, to smooth in power and support.” Kanin began to realize that Billie’s rough edges, “to smarten her up a little.” The such a scathing film would never see production, but boorish Harry wants to parade her without a stage version just might. He had worked steadily embarrassment in front of the senator he hopes to in film and theatre, but this would be his first bribe. The plan backfires when Paul’s consideration venture as a playwright. and integrity lead Billie to an empowering BORN YESTERDAY was inspired by more than awakening of her thirst for knowledge, during political trickery. George Bernard Shaw’s PYGMALION which they fall in love. was one of Kanin’s favourite plays. His film actress

Photo of Deborah Hay by Shin Sugino BORN YESTERDAY. Portrait of Garson Kanin by Michael Shane Neal. 9 “Misalliance”: Judy Holliday and Broderick Crawford as the un-romantic couple in Columbia’s film version of the Broadway hit BORN YESTERDAY, 1950. c Bettman/CORBIS friend, Jean Arthur, expressed a desire to return paved the way for the phenomenal Broadway success to stage work, perhaps as Eliza Doolittle. Kanin of BORN YESTERDAY, repeating her portrayal of Billie responded that she would fare better with “a sort in an Academy Award-winning performance in the of American PYGMALION”. He created just that, with 1950 film version. Paul educating and emancipating Billie, and with In the April 1946 issue of Theatre Arts magazine, Arthur initially cast in the role. critic Rosamond Gilder heralded the original Kanin was fortunate when Broadway producer, Broadway production under the playwright’s Max Gordon, saw the potential in BORN YESTERDAY, sparkling direction: “This is the Broadway formula a work-in-progress. Gordon, aware of Arthur’s hammered down tight: a wisecrack in every sentence, reputation for difficult backstage histrionics, was a smashing curtain line for each act, tough talk and skeptical of her casting as Billie. His doubts would plenty of action – and behind it all a vigorous satiric prove to be well-founded, marked by her departure intent: in this case an attack on gangster techniques while the play was in the gruelling pre-Broadway in business and venality in high places.” tryout mode. After approaching several replacements And that formula still rings true. BORN YESTERDAY to no avail, Kanin decided to give a Broadway is a timeless, humane comic drama. Its witty newcomer a try, believing that she was “funny and a exploration of the corrupt underbelly of business and hell of a good actress.” Judy Holliday, an experienced politics versus the importance of teaching, learning, revue comedienne, was a recent award recipient for and warmth in relationships will resonate always. her Broadway debut in KISS THEM FOR ME. Holliday As Paul comments to Billie: “A world full of ignorant had just four days to prepare for the role of Billie, people is too dangerous to live in.” and did so with aplomb. This was her first leading role, and would become her signature, graced by Lois Kivesto, Ph.D. is researcher for The Canadian Stage Company. a natural, naive charm, free from caricature. Holliday She is a frequent contributor to Shaw Festival publications.

10 SHAW MAGAZINE / SPRING 2009