Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1993 Voices From Home: Familial Bonds in the Works of Horton Foote (1916- ). Marion Dean Castleberry Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Castleberry, Marion Dean, "Voices From Home: Familial Bonds in the Works of Horton Foote (1916- )." (1993). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 5618. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/5618 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microGlm master. 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Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI University Microfilms International A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 Nortfi Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Order Number 9419872 Voices from home: Familial bonds in the works of Horton Foote ( 1 9 1 6 - ) Castleberry, Marion Dean, Ph.D. The Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical Col., 1993 Copyright ©1993 by Castleberry, Marion Dean. All rights reserved. U’MI 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. VOICES FROM HOME: FAMILIAL BONDS IN THE WORKS OF HORTON FOOTE (1916- ) A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Theatre by Marion Castleberry B.S., East Texas State University, 1973 M.A., East Texas State University, 1976 December 1993 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Copyright 1993 Marion Dean Castleberry All rights reserved 1 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my gratitude and indebtedness to the following people: my dissertation supervisor. Dr. Bill Harbin, for his friendship, patience, and close attention to my work; my dissertation committee, Dr. Gresdna Doty, Dr. John May, Dr. Les Wade, and Dr. Femi Euba, for their encouragement and support; my dear friends, Nikki Anderson, Nancy Patrick, Lea Anne Clare, Amy Harbaugh, and Neena McLain for their invaluable assistance and inspiration. I could not have reached this goal without their help. I am especially indebted to Horton and Lillian Foote for their kindness and gracious support of this dissertation. Both of them taught me a great deal about the values of courage and integrity. I will always cherish our friendship and remember them fondly. Finally, I wish to thank my family: my mother and father, Callie and Kenneth Castleberry, whose love and support saw me through a difficult time in my life; my son, Colin, who loved me through both the good times and the bad; and my wife, Terri, who gave me a reason to write and inspired me during the darker moments of this project. I could not ask for a more supportive family and so this dissertation is dedicated to them, with all my love. Ill Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS p a g e ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................ iii ABSTRACT ................................................ V INTRODUCTION ........................................... 1 CHAPTER 1 FOOTE’S FAMILY HERITAGE ................ 8 2 BECOMING A WRITER ........................... 76 3 WRITING FOR TELEVISION..................... 134 4 FOOTE AND FILM .............................. 190 5 THEMES AND VARIATIONS : THE LATE PLAYS OF HORTON FOOTE .... 264 CONCLUSION ..................................... ....... 3 01 WORKS CITED ............................................ 305 VITA .................................................... 313 IV Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT For more than half a century Horton Foote has been regarded as one of America’s foremost dramatists. Born and reared in Wharton, Texas, he wrote his first play Wharton Dance in 1939, at the age of twenty-three, and gained his first Broadway production. Only The Heart, in 1944. His success as a playwright led to television, for which he wrote some of his finest dramas, and finally to a distinguished career in film. Foote has received numerous awards for his plays and screenplays, including Academy Awards for To Kill A Mockingbird (1962) and Tender Mercies (1983) and an Academy Award nomination for The Trip to Bountiful (1985). Foote's compassionate depiction of small town family relationships is his unique terrain. Virtually every play he has written has been about the rural Texas of his youth. Most of his dramas have been based on familial stories or childhood experiences, revealing the writer’s obsessive need to dramatize the life struggles of his own family during the early years of the twentieth century. His works focus upon families in transition and upon individual resilience in the face of conflict and tragedy. Throughout his writings Foote weaves an intricate commentary on the nature of fate and the importance of family to personal responsibility and contentment. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Unquestionably, the subject of family is a significant part of Foote's fiction; yet it has been dealt with only incidentally by scholars. This study focuses on this otherwise neglected topic and explores the significance of family to the writer's artistic theory and practice. Through extensive research into Foote's familial background, interviews with the playwright himself, and close examination of more than sixty plays and screenplays, this study examines the forces which have shaped the writer's artistic vision. VI Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION Horton Foote has been a distinctive writer of drama for television, film, and theatre since the appearance in 1940 of his play Wharton Dance. During the 1940s and early 1950s his full-length plays, Texas Town (1940), Out of My House (1941), Only The Heart (1942). The Chase (1952), and a number of one-act plays had successful Broadway or off- Broadway productions. Foote further established himself as one of America's most accomplished playwrights during the "Golden Age" of live television drama. From 1952 to 1960, he contributed twenty-eight adaptations and original works to the new media. Foote's adaptation of William Faulkner's Old Man (1960) was nominated for an Emmy Award, and his drama The Trip to Bountiful (1952) was the first teleplay to be included in the New York Museum of Art's film archives. Foote has had equal success as a screenwriter. He won Academy Awards for his film adaptation of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) and his original screenplay Tender Mercies (1983). In 1972, he adapted William Faulkner's Tomorrow for the screen and in 1985 his movie version of The Trip to Bountiful was nominated for an Academy Award. During the same year. On Valentine's Day was selected as the official American entry for the Venice Film Festival. Since 1985, Foote has had numerous other plays performed on stages across America, and his films have been shown in theatres across the world. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 Foote's record of achievement has been acknowledged by audiences and critics. Yet, for a large part of his creative life,