My Sister Eileen

Last updated
First edition (publ. Harcourt Brace) My Sister Eileen.jpg
First edition (publ. Harcourt Brace)

My Sister Eileen is a series of autobiographical short stories by Ruth McKenney, originally published in The New Yorker , which eventually inspired many other works: her 1938 book My Sister Eileen, a play, a musical, a radio play (and an unproduced radio series), two motion pictures, and a CBS television series in the 1960–1961 season.

Contents

The stories center on two sisters from Ohio who are out to make successful careers while living in a basement apartment in the Greenwich Village section of New York City. Older, sensible Ruth aspires to be a writer, while Eileen dreams of success on the stage. A variety of oddball characters bring color and humor to their lives.

Adaptations

1940 play

The stories were adapted for the stage by Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov. The Broadway production, directed by George S. Kaufman, opened on December 26, 1940 at the Biltmore Theatre and moved three times before finally completing its run of 864 performances on January 16, 1943. The opening night cast included Shirley Booth as Ruth and Jo Ann Sayers as Eileen, with Richard Quine and Morris Carnovsky in supporting roles.

Eileen McKenney, the inspiration for the title character, and her husband, novelist and screenwriter Nathanael West, were killed in a car accident in Southern California four days before the Broadway opening. [1]

1942 film

Fields and Chodorov adapted their play for a 1942 film released by Columbia Pictures (their biggest hit of 1942/3). Alexander Hall directed a cast that includes Rosalind Russell as Ruth (in an Academy Award–nominated performance [2] ) and Janet Blair as Eileen, with Brian Aherne, George Tobias, Allyn Joslyn, Elizabeth Patterson, Grant Mitchell, Jeff Donnell, and Richard Quine in supporting roles.

1946 radio play and unproduced radio series

On May 18, 1946 Rosalind Russell and Janet Blair reprised their roles in a half-hour radio adaptation of the 1942 film for the CBS Radio anthology series Academy Award Theater . [3] During the closing credits show announcer Hugh Brundage stated that a radio series based on the two main characters was being prepared by writer Arthur Kurlan. He added that it would star Lucille Ball and it would premiere in the fall. However CBS ultimately turned down the proposed series after only a sample audition record was made. [4]

In 1947 CBS began airing a new radio series, My Friend Irma , which contained the same basic premise and characterizations. In response, Arthur Kurlan sued CBS on behalf of himself and Ruth McKenney, ultimately winning compensation from CBS. [4]

1953 Broadway musical

Wonderful Town , with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, music by Leonard Bernstein, and book by Fields and Chodorov, is a musical stage adaptation of the 1940 play, which was in turn based on McKenney's stories. Rosalind Russell reprised the part of Ruth for the Broadway production and appeared in a CBS broadcast of the musical on November 30, 1958. [5] It was revived on Broadway, starring Donna Murphy, in 2004.

1955 film

In 1955, Columbia made a film as a musical comedy with a score by Jule Styne and Leo Robin. Richard Quine and Blake Edwards wrote the screenplay, and Quine directed. The cast includes Betty Garrett as Ruth and Janet Leigh as Eileen, with Jack Lemmon, Bob Fosse (who choreographed the musical numbers), Kurt Kasznar, Dick York, Arnold Stang, and Tommy Rall in supporting roles.

1960–1961 television series

A pilot for a television series based on the short stories and subsequent film adaptations aired on NBC as an episode of Alcoa-Goodyear Theater titled "You Should Meet My Sister" on May 16, 1960, starring Elaine Stritch as Ruth and Anne Helm as Eileen. [6] Twenty-six more episodes were produced with Stritch as Ruth and Shirley Bonne portraying Eileen, and CBS broadcast these in the United States during the 1960–1961 season as the situation comedy My Sister Eileen . The series premiered on October 5, 1960. It was canceled after one season, and last aired on April 12, 1961.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adolph Green</span> American dramatist

Adolph Green was an American lyricist and playwright who, with long-time collaborator Betty Comden, penned the screenplays and songs for musicals on Broadway and in Hollywood. Although they were not a romantic couple, they shared a unique comic genius and sophisticated wit that enabled them to forge a six-decade-long partnership. They received numerous accolades including four Tony Awards and nominations for two Academy Awards and a Grammy Award. Green was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1980 and American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981. Comden and Green received the Kennedy Center Honor in 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosalind Russell</span> American actress (1907–1976)

Catherine Rosalind Russell was an American actress, comedian, screenwriter, and singer, known for her role as fast-talking newspaper reporter Hildy Johnson in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday (1940), opposite Cary Grant, as well as for her portrayals of Mame Dennis in Auntie Mame (1958) and Rose in Gypsy (1962). A noted comedienne, she won all five Golden Globes for which she was nominated. Russell won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1953 for her portrayal of Ruth in the Broadway show Wonderful Town. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress four times during her career before being awarded a Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1973.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">June Havoc</span> American actress, vaudeville performer, and memoirist (1912–2010)

June Havoc was an American actress, dancer, stage director and memoirist.

<i>Mame</i> (musical) Musical

Mame is a musical with the book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. Originally titled My Best Girl, it is based on the 1955 novel Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis and the 1956 Broadway play by Lawrence and Lee. A period piece set in New York City and spanning the Great Depression and World War II, it focuses on eccentric bohemian Mame Dennis, whose famous motto is "Life is a banquet and most poor sons of bitches are starving to death." Her fabulous life with her wealthy friends is interrupted when the young son of her late brother arrives to live with her. They cope with the Depression in a series of adventures.

<i>Wonderful Town</i> Musical

Wonderful Town is a 1953 musical with book written by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and music by Leonard Bernstein. The musical tells the story of two sisters who aspire to be a writer and actress respectively, seeking success from their basement apartment in New York City's Greenwich Village. It is based on Fields and Chodorov's 1940 play My Sister Eileen, which in turn originated from autobiographical short stories by Ruth McKenney first published in The New Yorker in the late 1930s and later published in book form as My Sister Eileen. Only the last two stories in McKenney's book were used, and they were heavily modified.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elaine Stritch</span> American actress (1925–2014)

Elaine Stritch was an American actress, known for her work on Broadway and later, television. She made her professional stage debut in 1944 and appeared in numerous stage plays, musicals, feature films and television series. Stritch was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1995.

Jerome Chodorov was an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. He co-wrote the book with Joseph A. Fields for the original Broadway musical Wonderful Town starring Rosalind Russell. The musical was based on short stories by Ruth McKenney.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Quine</span> American actor (1920–1989)

Richard Quine was an American director, actor, and singer.

<i>My Friend Irma</i> Radio comedy of the 1940s and 1950s

My Friend Irma is a media franchise that was spawned by a top-rated, long-running radio situation comedy created by writer-director-producer Cy Howard. The radio show was so popular in the late 1940s that its success escalated the films, television, a comic strip and a comic book that comprise the franchise. Marie Wilson portrayed the title character Irma Peterson on radio, in two films and the television series. The radio series was broadcast on CBS from April 11, 1947, to August 23, 1954.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eileen Herlie</span> American actress

Eileen Herlie was a Scottish-American actress.

Ruth Marguerite McKenney was an American author and journalist, best remembered for My Sister Eileen, a memoir of her experiences growing up in Ohio and moving to Greenwich Village with her sister Eileen McKenney.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janet Blair</span> American singer and actress (1921–2007)

Janet Blair was an American big-band singer who later became a popular film and television actress.

Joseph Albert Fields was an American playwright, theatre director, screenwriter, and film producer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haila Stoddard</span> American dramatist

Haila Stoddard was an American actress, producer, writer and director.

<i>Junior Miss</i>

Junior Miss is a collection of semi-autobiographical stories by Sally Benson first published in The New Yorker. Between 1939 and the end of 1941, the prolific Benson published 99 stories in The New Yorker, some under her pseudonym of Esther Evarts. She had a bestseller when Doubleday published her Junior Miss collection in 1941.

My Sister Eileen is a 1955 American CinemaScope comedy musical film directed by Richard Quine. It stars Janet Leigh, Betty Garrett, and Jack Lemmon.

<i>My Sister Eileen</i> (1942 film) 1942 film by Alexander Hall

My Sister Eileen is a 1942 American comedy film directed by Alexander Hall and starring Rosalind Russell, Brian Aherne and Janet Blair. The screenplay by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov is based on their 1940 play of the same title, which was inspired by a series of autobiographical short stories by Ruth McKenney originally published in The New Yorker. The supporting cast features George Tobias, Allyn Joslyn, Grant Mitchell, Gordon Jones and, in a cameo appearance at the end, The Three Stooges.

My Sister Eileen is an American comedy stage production, written by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov, based on autobiographical short stories by Ruth McKenney. The stories were originally published in The New Yorker and then collected and published as the book My Sister Eileen in 1938.

<i>My Sister Eileen</i> (TV series) American situation comedy, 1960

My Sister Eileen is an American situation comedy broadcast during the 1960–1961 television season. It depicts the lives of two sisters, one a writer and the other an actress, who move to New York City to further their careers.

My Sister Eileen is a series of short stories by Ruth McKenney published in book form in 1938.

References

  1. ↑ "Playbill: Theatre information". Archived from the original on 2006-04-12. Retrieved 2006-03-16.Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (Broadway)
  2. ↑ My Sister Eileen (1942) at Oscar.org
  3. ↑ "Saturday's Selections (9:45 p.m.)". The Toledo Blade (Ohio). 1946-05-18. Retrieved 2018-06-29.
  4. 1 2 Arthur KURLAN and Marilyn Kurlan, Petitioners, v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Petitioner, v. Arthur KURLAN and Marilyn Kurlan, Respondents.
  5. ↑ "Sunday". The Reading Eagle. 1958-11-30. p. 2 (TV Program Preview section). Retrieved 2023-04-07.
  6. ↑ "TV Highlights for Tonight". The Reading Eagle. 1960-05-16. p. 19. Retrieved 2023-04-07.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.