Life with Father

Last updated
Life with Father
Written by Howard Lindsay
Russel Crouse
Based on the novel by Clarence Day
Date premieredNovember 8, 1939 (1939-11-08)
Place premiered Empire Theatre
New York City
GenreComedy
SettingThe morning room of the Day house on Madison Avenue in the late 1880s

Life with Father is a 1939 play by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, adapted from a humorous autobiographical book of stories compiled in 1935 by Clarence Day. The Broadway production ran for 3,224 performances over 401 weeks to become the longest-running non-musical play on Broadway, a record that it still holds. [1] The play was adapted into a 1947 feature film and a television series.

Contents

Book

Clarence Day wrote humorously about his family and life. The stories of his father Clarence "Clare" Day were first printed in The New Yorker. They portray a rambunctious, overburdened Wall Street broker who demands that everything from his family should be just so. The more he rails against his staff, his cook, his wife, his horse, salesmen, holidays, his children and the inability of the world to live up to his impossible standards, the more comical and lovable he becomes to his own family who love him despite it all. First published in 1936, shortly after his death, Day's book is a picture of New York upper-middle-class family life in the 1890s. The stories are filled with affectionate irony. Day's understated, matter-of-fact style underlines the comedy in everyday situations. [2]

Production

Postcard showing cast featuring Dorothy Gish Life with Father, Cass Theatre -- Detroit, Mich (69686).jpg
Postcard showing cast featuring Dorothy Gish

The 1939 Broadway production ran for over seven years to become the longest-running non-musical play on Broadway, a record that it still holds. [3] It also held the title of the longest running Broadway play of any type of all time from 1947 to 1972. [4] It opened at the Empire Theatre on November 8, 1939 and ran at that theatre until September 8, 1945. It then moved to the Bijou Theatre where it ran until June 15, 1947, and finished its run at the Alvin Theatre on July 12, 1947 for a combined total of 3,224 performances. The play was produced by Oscar Serlin, staged by Bretaigne Windust, with setting and costumes by Stewart Chaney. It starred Howard Lindsay, his wife Dorothy Stickney, and Teresa Wright. [5]

Cast

  • Katherine Bard as Annie
  • Dorothy Stickney as Lavinia "Vinnie" Day
  • John Drew Devereaux as Clarence Day, Jr.
  • Richard Simon as John Day
  • Raymond Roe as Whitney Day
  • Larry Robinson as Harlan Day
  • Howard Lindsay as Father (Clarence "Clare" Day, Sr.)
  • Dorothy Bernard as Margaret
  • Ruth Hammond as Cora
  • Teresa Wright as Mary Skinner
  • Richard Sterling as the Reverend Dr. Lloyd
  • Portia Morrow as Delia
  • Nellie Burt as Nora
  • A.H. Van Buren as Dr. Humphreys
  • John C. King as Dr. Somers
  • Timothy Kearse as Maggie

Subsequent productions

Concurrent with the Broadway production, the producers sent out 11 touring companies that performed in 214 cities. [6] The amateur rights to Life with Father were released in 1948, and the following year saw 187 productions of the play, including a production at Theatre in the Round Players that included consultation with Warner films on staging. [7] [8]

In 1953, The Ford 50th Anniversary Show, broadcast live on both the CBS and NBC television networks, opened with Oscar Hammerstein II introducing a scene from the play featuring original cast members Howard Lindsay and Dorothy Stickney. The Ford show attracted an audience of 60 million viewers. Forty years after the broadcast, television critic Tom Shales recalled the broadcast as both "a landmark in television" and "a milestone in the cultural life of the '50s". [9]

The only major New York revival occurred in 1967 in a limited run at City Center, starring Leon Ames and Dorothy Stickney. Critic Vincent Canby called the revival "a quaint, pretty picture postcard." [7] Although professional revivals are now rare, Life with Father continues to be produced by amateur companies such as the American Century Theatre in Virginia (2009) and the Victorian Players in Ohio (2014). [10]

Critical reception

The New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson wrote in his review "Sooner or later every one will have to see Life with Father, which opened at the Empire last evening. For the late Clarence Day's vastly amusing sketches of his despotic parent have now been translated into a perfect comedy by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, and must be reckoned an authentic port [sic] of our American folklore." [11] When Life with Father surpassed Tobacco Road as the longest-running Broadway play, Elliot Norton of the Boston Post celebrated the play as "warmly human and heartily comical and completely inoffensive," thus restoring his faith in the theatre-going public. [12] Contemporary scholar Jordan Schildcrout describes Life with Father as "a comedy in which characters challenge and ultimately win over a figure of authority," which allows the play to appeal to nostalgia for more conservative times, while also finding pleasure in gentle subversion and anti-authoritarianism. [13]

Adaptations

Leon Ames and Lurene Tuttle in the television version, 1954 Life With Father 1954.JPG
Leon Ames and Lurene Tuttle in the television version, 1954

Life with Father was adapted for the November 6, 1938, broadcast of CBS Radio's The Mercury Theatre on the Air . The cast included Orson Welles (Father), Mildred Natwick (Mother), Mary Wickes (Employment Office Manager), Alice Frost (Margaret) and Arthur Anderson (young Clarence Day). [14] [15]

The theatrical adaptation of Life With Father was made into a film in 1947, directed by Michael Curtiz and starring William Powell and Irene Dunne as Clarence and his wife, supported by Elizabeth Taylor, Edmund Gwenn, ZaSu Pitts, Jimmy Lydon and Martin Milner. Six years later, the film was adapted into a television series, starring Leon Ames and Lurene Tuttle, which ran from November 1953 until July 1955 on the CBS Television network. [16] The series was the first live color program for network TV to originate in Hollywood. [17] The film (not the series) and its audio entered the public domain in 1975. [18]

Related Research Articles

Born Yesterday is a play written by Garson Kanin which premiered on Broadway in 1946, starring Judy Holliday as Billie Dawn. The play was adapted into a successful 1950 film of the same name.

<i>Barefoot in the Park</i> Play written by Neil Simon

Barefoot in the Park is a romantic comedy by Neil Simon. The play premiered on Broadway in 1963, starring Robert Redford and Elizabeth Ashley. It was made into a film in 1967, which starred Redford and Jane Fonda.

Russel Crouse was an American playwright and librettist, best known for his work in the Broadway writing partnership of Lindsay and Crouse.

Lindsay Ann Crouse is an American actress. She made her Broadway debut in the 1972 revival of Much Ado About Nothing and appeared in her first film in 1976 in All the President's Men. For her role in the 1984 film Places in the Heart, she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Her other films include Slap Shot (1977), Between the Lines (1977), The Verdict (1982), Prefontaine (1997), and The Insider (1999). She also had a leading role in the 1987 film House of Games, which was directed by her then-husband David Mamet. In 1996, she received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for "Between Mother and Daughter", an episode of CBS Schoolbreak Special. She is also a Grammy Award nominee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clarence Day</span> American writer

Clarence Shepard Day Jr. was an American author and cartoonist, best known for his 1935 work Life with Father.

This is a selected list of the longest-running musical theatre productions in history divided into two sections. The first section lists all Broadway and West End productions of musicals that have exceeded 2,500 performances, in order of greatest number of performances in either market. The second section lists, in alphabetical order, musicals that have broken historical long run records for musical theatre on Broadway, in the West End or Off-Broadway, since 1866, in alphabetical order.

<i>Arsenic and Old Lace</i> (play) Play by Joseph Kesselring

Arsenic and Old Lace is a play by American playwright Joseph Kesselring, written in 1939. It has become best known through the 1944 film adaptation starring Cary Grant and directed by Frank Capra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howard Lindsay</span> American dramatist (1889–1968)

Howard Lindsay, born Herman Nelke, was an American playwright, librettist, director, actor and theatrical producer. He is best known for his writing work as part of the collaboration of Lindsay and Crouse, and for his performance, with his wife Dorothy Stickney, in the long-running play Life with Father.

Lindsay and Crouse was the writing team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, who collaborated famously on a succession of Broadway plays and musicals for 27 years during the mid 20th century. Their first collaboration was the rewriting of the book for the Cole Porter musical Anything Goes in 1935. They continued to co-pen books for Broadway musicals through 1962, including Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music in 1959. They also penned several successful comedies; notably winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1945 for their original play State of the Union. Several of their works were adapted into motion pictures. The team also co-produced the original production of Arsenic and Old Lace by playwright Joseph Kesselring.

Timothy Crouse is an American journalist and writer.

<i>State of the Union</i> (play)

State of the Union is a play by American playwrights Russel Crouse and Howard Lindsay about a fictional Republican presidential candidate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy Stickney</span> American actress

Dorothy Stickney was an American film, stage, and television actress, best known for appearing in the long-running Broadway hit Life with Father.

<i>Mr. President</i> (musical)

Mr. President is a musical with a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse and music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. The story focuses on fictional US President Stephen Decatur Henderson, who runs into political trouble following a disastrous trip to the Soviet Union, and his problems with his children. Bored with life as a civilian after his presidency ends, he decides to return to political life.

Mary, Mary is a play by Jean Kerr. After two previews, the Broadway production opened on March 8, 1961, at the original Helen Hayes Theatre, where it ran for nearly three years and nine months before transferring to the Morosco, where it closed on December 12, 1964, after 1572 performances, making it the longest-running non-musical Broadway play of the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bretaigne Windust</span>

Ernest Bretaigne Windust was a United States-based French-born theater, film, and television director.

<i>Life with Father</i> (film) 1947 film by Michael Curtiz

Life with Father is a 1947 American Technicolor comedy film adapted from the 1939 play of the same name, which was inspired by the autobiography of stockbroker and The New Yorker essayist Clarence Day.

The Voice of the Turtle is a Broadway comedy by John William Van Druten dealing with the challenges of the single life in New York City during World War II. Controversial in its time, The Voice of the Turtle explores the sexual struggles of Sally Middleton, a young woman attempting to reconcile her childhood teachings on the importance of chastity with her newfound affection for Bill Page. The play derives its name from a verse in the Song of Solomon in the Bible, which reads "The voice of the turtle [as in turtle dove] is heard in our land." On December 8, 1943, the show opened at the Morosco Theatre and ran for 1,557 performances, making it the 51st longest-running show and the 9th longest-running play in Broadway history. In 1947, the stage play was adapted into a film of the same name starring Ronald Reagan, Eleanor Parker, Eve Arden, and Wayne Morris.

<i>Tobacco Road</i> (play) Play adapted by Jack Kirkland

Tobacco Road is a play by Jack Kirkland first performed in 1933, based on the 1932 novel of the same name by Erskine Caldwell. The play ran on Broadway for a total of 3,182 performances, surpassing Abie's Irish Rose to become the longest-running play in history at the time. As of 2023, it was still the 20th longest-running Broadway show in history, as well as being the second-longest running non-musical ever on Broadway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Holland (actor)</span> American stage actor (1910–1994)

Joseph Holland was an American actor of stage and screen who was principally known for his work in the theatre. Active on Broadway from 1935 through 1957, he was particularly admired for his performances in the plays of William Shakespeare. He was notably a founding member of John Houseman and Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre in 1937; performing the title role in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar for the first play mounted by that company. During that production he was seriously wounded by Welles, in the role of Brutus, who stabbed him in the chest and arm with a steel knife in the famous Act 3 Scene 1 betrayal. After a month of recovery, he returned to the production. Holland went on to create roles in original works by playwrights Maxwell Anderson, Lindsay and Crouse, Elsie Schauffler, and Robert E. Sherwood. He worked periodically on television as a guest actor from 1949 through 1961 on a variety of programs, and appeared in a minor supporting role in the 1958 film Rally Round the Flag, Boys!.

<i>Life with Father</i> (TV series) American TV sitcom (1953–1955)

Life with Father is an American television sitcom that ran from 1953 to 1955. It starred Leon Ames as Clarence Day Sr. and Lurene Tuttle as his wife Lavinia. It began broadcasting in color in 1954, and was the first live color TV series for network television originating in Hollywood.

References

Notes
  1. Schildcrout 2019, p. 62.
  2. "Life with Father by Clarence Day". Barnes and Noble.
  3. "Life With Father - Trailer - Showtimes - Cast - Movies - New York Times". October 16, 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-10-16.
  4. (19 June 1972). Fiddler on the Roof longest running show, Ottawa Citizen (Associated Press)
  5. Internet Broadway Database listing for Broadway production ibdb.com
  6. Schildcrout 2019, pp. 62–63.
  7. 1 2 Schildcrout 2019, p. 64.
  8. "This Week and Upcoming". The Minneapolis Sunday Tribune . January 11, 1953. p. 3.
  9. "Ford's 50th anniversary show was milestone of '50s culture". Palm Beach Daily News. December 26, 1993. p. B3 via Newspapers.com.
  10. Schildcrout 2019, p. 65.
  11. "THE PLAY: Clarence Day's 'Life With Father' Dramatized by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse". timesmachine.nytimes.com. The New York Times, November 9, 1939.
  12. Schildcrout 2019, p. 54.
  13. Schildcrout 2019, p. 59.
  14. Welles, Orson; Bogdanovich, Peter; Rosenbaum, Jonathan (1992). This is Orson Welles . New York: HarperCollins Publishers. p.  347. ISBN   0-06-016616-9.
  15. Orson Welles on the Air: The Radio Years. New York: The Museum of Broadcasting, catalogue for exhibition October 28–December 3, 1988. p. 52.
  16. tv.com listing for Life with Father television show
  17. The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946-Present . Ballantine Books. p. 685. ISBN   0-345-45542-8.
  18. New York Times, Life With Father
Bibliography
Preceded by Longest-running Broadway show
1947–1972
Succeeded by