| Hell-Bent Fer Heaven | |
|---|---|
 Poster for 1936 production | |
| Written by | Hatcher Hughes |
| Date premiered | January 4, 1924 |
| Place premiered | Klaw Theatre New York City, New York |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | melodrama |
| Setting | The Hunt family home in the Blue Ridge Mountains |
Hell-Bent Fer Heaven is a melodrama play by Hatcher Hughes.
The play ran at the Klaw Theatre from January 4 to April 1924 and was produced by Marc Klaw. The cast featured George Abbott, Glenn Anders and Margaret Borough. [1] The play was staged by Augustin Duncan. [2]
It also helped launch the career of Clara Blandick, who later appeared as Auntie Em in the classic 1939 adaptation of The Wizard of Oz . [3]
The play was included in Burns Mantle's The Best Plays of 1923-1924.
The play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1924. [4] The choice sparked controversy in literary circles and the media because the prize jury had actually selected George Kelly's The Show-Off , but was overruled by Columbia University, which was administering that year's Pulitzers as Hatcher Hughes was a professor there. [5] [6]
Set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Kentucky, late one afternoon to 9 o'clock that evening during the summer. Rufe Pryor is a religious fanatic who works for the Hunts. Sid Hunt returns to the family home from the war. He has a girlfriend, Jude Lowry, who Rufe also is interested in. Rufe inspires old clan rivalry between the Hunts and the Lowrys, in an attempt to remove Sid from the picture. When Rufe's plans are discovered, the two families reconcile. (The play was billed as "A High Spirited Tale of the Blue Ridge.")
The play was made into the motion picture Hell-Bent for Heaven in 1926. [7]
The Pulitzer Prize for Drama is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It is one of the original Pulitzers, for the program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were awarded that year. It recognizes a theatrical work staged in the U.S. during the preceding calendar year.
George Francis Abbott was an American theatre producer, director, playwright, screenwriter, film director and producer whose career spanned eight decades.
Clara Blandick was an American character, film, stage and theater actress. She played Aunt Em in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's The Wizard of Oz (1939). As a character actress, she often played eccentric elderly matriarchs.
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The following are the Pulitzer Prizes for 1924.
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Hatcher Hughes was an American playwright who lived in Grover, NC, as featured in the book Images of America. He was on the teaching staff of Columbia University from 1912 onward. He was awarded the 1924 Pulitzer Prize for his 1922 play Hell-Bent Fer Heaven.
Owen Gould Davis was an American dramatist known for writing more than 200 plays and having most produced. In 1919, he became the first elected president of the Dramatists Guild of America. He received the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Icebound, His plays and scripts included works for radio and film.
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The Shrike is a play written by American dramatist Joseph Kramm. The play won the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Glenn Anders was an American actor, most notable for his work on the stage.
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Craig's Wife is a 1925 play written by American playwright George Kelly. It won the 1926 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and has been adapted for three feature films.
Idiot's Delight is a 1936 Pulitzer-Prize-winning play written by American playwright Robert E. Sherwood and presented by the Theatre Guild. The play takes place in the Hotel Monte Gabriel in the Italian Alps during 24 hours at the beginning of a world war. The guests trapped in the hotel by the sudden onset of hostilities are from Germany, France, the United States and Britain. Directed by Bretaigne Windust, the cast starred Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne (Irene), with Sydney Greenstreet as Dr. Waldersee and Francis Compton as Achille Weber. The play was nominated for the 1936 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, Best American Play.
Icebound is a 1923 play written by American playwright Owen Davis, for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It is set in Veazie, Maine, a suburb of Bangor.
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The Klaw Theatre was a Broadway theatre located at 251–257 West 45th Street in Midtown Manhattan. Built in 1921 for producer Marcus Klaw, the theater was designed by Eugene De Rosa. Rachel Crothers' Nice People was the opening production in 1921 with Tallulah Bankhead and Katharine Cornell in her debut Broadway role albeit a small one.
The Show-Off is a 1924 stage play by George Kelly about a working-class North Philadelphian family's reluctance to accept their daughter's suitor Aubrey Piper, an overly confident Socialist buffoon. The play has been revived five times on Broadway and adapted for film four times; it is Kelly's most frequently produced play.
Hell-Bent for Heaven is a 1926 American silent drama film directed by J. Stuart Blackton and written by Marian Constance Blackton. It is based on the 1924 Pulitzer Prize-winning play Hell-Bent Fer Heaven by Hatcher Hughes. The film stars Patsy Ruth Miller, John Harron, Gayne Whitman, Gardner James, Wilfrid North, and Evelyn Selbie. The film was released by Warner Bros. on May 1, 1926.
