by John Lahr
Excerpts from The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, © 1945, renewed 1973 the University of the South. Reprinted with permission of Georges Borchardt, Inc. for the University of the South. All rights reserved.
Excerpts from Memoirs by Tennessee Williams and John Waters, © 1975, renewed 2003 by the University of the South. Reprinted with permission of Georges Borchardt, Inc. for the University of the South. All rights reserved.
Excerpts from Moise and the World of Reason by Tennessee Williams, © 1975 by the University of the South. Reprinted with permission of Georges Borchardt, Inc. for the University of the South. All rights reserved.
Excerpts from unpublished material by Tennessee Williams, © 2013 by the University of the South. Reprinted with permission of Georges Borchardt, Inc. for the University of the South. All rights reserved.
Index
Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.
Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.
Academy Awards, 232, 248, 249
acting:
Brando’s revolutionary style of, 135–36
Kazan’s influence on, 129–30
Actors Studio, 130, 211, 240, 254, 263, 657n
Adams, Jim, 474
Adler, Stella, 236
Albee, Edward, 441
Albus, Joanna, 137
alcohol, see drinking
All About Eve (film), 5
Allen, Fred, 220
All My Sons (Miller), 129, 131
Alma Winemiller (char.), 73–74, 79, 81, 82, 95, 97, 98, 99, 101, 103, 120, 122, 385
Alsop, Joseph, 167
Altman, Richard, 529
Alvaro (char.), see Mangiacavallo, Alvaro (char.)
Amanda (char.), see Wingfield, Amanda (char.)
American Academy of Arts and Letters:
Gold Medal for Drama awarded to TW by, 492
TW’s election to, 258, 567
American Blues (Williams), 619n
American in Paris, An (film), 249
American Pastoral (Roth), 64
Anderson, Maxwell, 135
Anderson, Robert, 262, 263
Ann-Margret, 596–97
“Answered Prayers” (Capote), 535
antiwar movement, 521
TW and, 524, 525, 526–28
art:
conformity and, 221
Miller on McCarthyism and, 665n
redemption through, see redemption, TW’s quest for
TW’s self-cannibalization in service of, 288–89, 329–30, 371, 376, 377–78, 395, 415, 438, 447, 485–86, 564, 571, 601–2
Arteaga, Bob, 500
Arthur, Jean, 275
Ashley, Elizabeth, 243, 588–89
Atkinson, Brooks, 213, 214, 216, 273, 301, 311, 328–29, 343, 369, 397
on Camino Real, 273, 277
retirement of, 417
on Rose Tattoo, 215, 223
Times Book Review article of, 436
Times essay on tragedy by, 392
TW’s letters to, 33–34, 153, 162, 163, 172–73, 215, 218, 223–25, 277–78, 311–12, 345, 378, 392, 416–17
Attica riots, 525
Auden, W. H., 174
Austen Riggs Center, 348, 350
Awake and Sing (Odets), 342
Ayers, Lemuel, 272, 275, 314
B (Campbell), 322
Baby Doll (film), 245–46, 248, 253, 278, 281, 318, 329, 379
Kazan and, 245–46, 317–20, 408
promotion of, 319–20, 321
reviews of, 320–21
Bachardy, Don, 324
Baddeley, Hermione, 238–39, 397
in Milk Train, 443–44, 445, 454–55, 468, 662n
Baden, Michael, on TW’s cause of death, 587–88
Baker, Carroll, 318, 318
Bang the Drum Slowly (film), 557
Bankhead, Tallulah, 22, 317, 469, 700n–701n
in Milk Train revival, 467–72
in Streetcar, 317, 322–24, 323
Bar Bizarre (D. Williams), 590
Barnes, Bill, 215, 544, 557, 599
as TW’s agent, 518–19, 545, 550, 553, 568
TW’s letters to, 520, 529, 534, 540, 549, 687n–88n
Barnes, Clive, 530
Barnes Hospital, TW committed to, 497, 499–507
Barrault, Jean-Louis, 152
Barrymore, Diana, 398
death of, 397, 401, 687n
on Kazan, 399–400
TW and, 395–96, 398–401, 687n
Barter Theatre (Abingdon), 456, 461
Barton, Lee (pseud.), 532–33
Bastos, Milton L., 588
Battle of Angels (Williams), 16–20, 41, 46, 94, 126, 281, 285, 329, 330–31, 335, 623n
Boston reviews of, 26
Hopkins and, 22–25, 24, 27
out-of-town closing of, 27–28, 553
public reaction to, 25, 26–27
quest for redemption in, 19–20, 96–97
Theatre Guild production of, 20, 22–27
TW on, 16, 23
see also Fugitive Kind, The (film); Orpheus Descending (Williams)
Baxley, Barbara, 271, 275
Beaumont, Hugh “Binkie,” 159, 160
Beautiful and the Dammed, The (Fitzgerald), 561–62
Beckett, Samuel, 441, 442, 476, 479
Beebe, Lucius, 21
Bel Geddes, Barbara, 296, 308
Bell, Book and Candle (van Druten), 212–14
Bella McCorkle (char.), 573, 575–78
Bennett, Michael, 549
Bentley, Eric, 273
Berghof, Herbert, 211
Bergman, Ingrid, 174
Berneis, Peter, 186–87
Bernstein, Leonard, 348
Bethel Methodist Home, 363
Bettis, Valerie, 275
Big Daddy Pollitt (char.), 285, 287, 292, 293–95, 305–7, 308
Bigelow, Paul, 111, 224, 235, 639n, 672n
and Baby Doll script, 246
on Merlo’s relationship with TW, 169
on Pancho’s relationship with TW, 110, 112
TW’s letters to, 22, 72, 85, 105, 193, 202, 263, 323, 367
“Big Time Operators, The” (Williams), 171–72
Blackie (char.), 443, 447
Blair, Betsy, 60
Blanche Dubois (char.), see Dubois, Blanche (char.)
Bloom, Claire, 550, 551, 552, 553
Bloomgarden, Kermit, 128
Blumenstock, Mort, 187
bohemianism, TW on, 223–25
Bolt, Robert, 440
Bolton, Whitney, 371
Boom! (film), 448, 482, 485, 700n
Booth, Shirley, 276
Boss Finley (char.), 378–79, 394
Boston Globe, 26, 551
Bowden, Charles, 362, 363, 473, 520, 539
as Night of the Iguana producer, 422–23, 424–25, 428, 431, 433, 435, 692n
as Slapstick Tragedy producer, 474–75, 480, 495
Bowles, Paul, 170, 275
TW’s letters to, 351, 369, 460, 474, 502, 507
Brando, Marlon, 149, 150, 315
in audition for TW, 136–38
in Fugitive Kind, 339–41, 339, 340, 677n
Kazan on, 135, 136
on Magnani, 339, 340–41
Magnani on, 678n
Orpheus Descending and, 337, 339
revolutionary acting style of, 135–36
Streetcar and, 135–38, 141–43, 145, 146, 228, 249
TW on, 304–5
Bray, William Robert, 227, 721n
Breen, Joseph Ignatius, 225, 227, 230
Breen office:
Glass Menagerie and, 225–26
Streetcar and, 226–29, 230
Brick (char., “Three Players of a Summer Game”), 236–37
see also Pollitt, Brick (char.)
Brimberg, Shirley (Shirley Clarke), 92–93
Britnev, Alexander, 158
Britnev, Vladimir
, 158
Britneva, Maria, see St. Just, Maria
Britneva, Mary, 158
Brody, Eugene, 346–47
Brooks, Louise, 394
Brooks, Stella, 123, 124
Brooks Atkinson Theatre (New York), 472
Brown, Andreas, 502
and publication of Tom, xv, 599–600
TW’s letters to, 453–54
Brown, Blair, 557
Brown, Pamela, 133
Brownlow, Margaret, 43
Brustein, Robert, 477, 547, 567, 598, 714n
Buchanan, John (char.), 79, 94, 97, 103, 122
Bucknall, Charles Herbert, 159
Bungakuza Theatre Company, 493
Burton, Richard, 440, 466
Bus Stop (Inge), 342, 406
Caffe Cino, 477
Caldwell, Zoe, 475, 480, 481, 481, 702n
Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis, 589, 591
Camino Real (Williams), 124–25, 245, 255–62, 270, 279, 281, 387, 509
closing of, 277
Kazan and, 253, 254, 256, 257, 259–74
Kazan’s Times essay on, 272
New Haven tryout of, 272
as paean to nonconformity, 264–65
praise for, 274, 275–76, 277
rehearsals for, 267–72
reviews of, 273–75
rewriting of, 263–67, 269
Thacher and, 261–62, 263, 265
TW on, 256, 667n
as TW’s emotional autobiography, 254, 255, 263, 269
Campbell, Sandy, 112–13, 322
Capote, Truman, 154, 163, 174, 441, 572–73
on St. Just, 161–62
on TW’s physical decline, 535
Caretaker, The (Pinter), 441–42
Carroll, Charles, 593
Carroll, Robert, 536
TW on, 541–42
TW’s bequest to, 544
TW’s relationship with, 535–42, 544, 568
“Carrousel Tune” (Williams), 257
Carter, Jimmy, 567
Cassandra “Sandra” Whiteside (char.), 19, 25
Cassidy, Claudia, 12–13, 408, 409, 432–33
“Catastrophe of Success, The” (Williams), 68
Catharine Holly (char.), 356, 357, 359, 367, 369, 398, 420
Cathedral of St. John the Divine (New York), antiwar fund-raiser at, 526, 527–28
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (film), 326, 372
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Williams), 94, 162, 236, 284, 285, 287–89, 292–94, 303, 309, 329, 398
as battle between self-destruction and creativity, 285
Broadway opening of, 310–11
financial success of, 312
Kazan and, 291–92, 294–96, 302–8, 312, 673n
Pulitzer Prize awarded to, 312
reviews of, 311
rewriting of, 294–97, 300, 302–10
tryouts of, 308
two endings of, 308–10, 311–12, 313, 408–9
TW on, 287–88
Cavett, Dick, 160, 554
Chance Wayne (char.), see Wayne, Chance (char.)
Channing, Carol, 217
Chapman, John, 273
Charlie McCorkle (char.), 575–77
“Chart of Anatomy” (Williams), see Summer and Smoke (Williams)
Chatterton, Thomas, 586
Chekhov, Anton, 1, 25, 34, 65
Chicago Tribune, 12–13, 408, 432–33
China, People’s Republic of, 219
Christian Science Monitor, 551–52
Christ on a Cross (Williams), 571, 572
Christopher Flanders (char.), 444–49, 468–69
Circle in the Square (New York), 385, 650n
Clarke, Shirley (Shirley Brimberg), 92–93
Clarksdale, Miss., Williams family in, 36
Clarksdale Register, 27
Clift, Montgomery, 151–52
Closing Time (Williams), 451
Clothes for a Summer Hotel: A Ghost Play (Williams), 464, 560–64, 593
closing of, 567
reviews of, 560, 563, 564, 566–67, 568, 571
Clurman, Harold, 136, 199, 211, 236, 439, 476, 482, 492, 521, 571
Orpheus Descending and, 342
Coconut Grove Playhouse (Miami), 317, 322–23, 386
Cocteau, Jean, 152
Cold War, 219
Come Back, Little Sheba (Inge), 210, 211
Commonweal, 455
Common Wealth Award of Distinguished Service in Dramatic Arts, 579
Communism, 222
HUAC and, 248, 249
Kazan and, 243, 248–49, 251–53
U.S. obsession with, 219–20, 248–49
Confessional (Williams), see Small Craft Warnings (Williams)
conformity, in 1950s, 220–21, 225, 255
Congdon, Tom, 545–46
Conjure Man (char.), 20, 622n
Cooch Behar, Maharaja of, 238, 239
Cornelius (char., You Touched Me!), 75, 77
Cornelius McCorkle (char., A House Not Meant to Stand), 573–75, 577
Cornell, Katharine, 68, 110, 114
Corsaro, Frank, 432
Night of the Iguana and, 411–13, 415, 416, 422–24, 426–28, 435, 436, 437, 438
“Cortege” (Williams), 35, 48, 282–83
Cort Theatre (New York), 564
Costly Performances: Tennessee Williams: The Last Stage (Smith), 593
counterculture, 521
TW’s encounters with, 522–28
Country Girl, The (Odets), 210
Coward, Noël, 476, 477
Crane, Hart, 65, 66
Crawford, Cheryl, 128, 260, 290, 296, 365, 465, 657n
as Camino Real producer, 260, 265
as Period of Adjustment producer, 406
as Rose Tattoo producer, 198, 200, 201–2, 203, 217
as Sweet Bird of Youth producer, 385, 386, 399
TW’s break with, 422
TW’s letters to, 201–2, 203, 210, 217, 222, 223, 248, 289, 342, 385, 422
Crawford, Joan, 22
Creature (monkey), 457, 465–66
“Cried the Fox” (Williams), 583
Cronyn, Hume, 133, 588
Crowther, Bosley, 341
Cukor, George, 184–85
Curtis, Simon, 597
Daily Express (London), 549
Dakin, Rosina, 35, 50
death of, 72
emotional reserve of, 41
Dakin, Walter, 35, 43, 50, 67, 78, 118, 292
death of, 314
Edwina and, 188–89
Edwina’s home shared by, 72, 188
in Key West, 116–17, 188–89, 283–84, 414
Merlo and, 188–89, 190, 414
possible homosexuality of, 41–42
rich vocabulary of, 49–51
TW’s relationship with, 116–18
Dalí, Salvador, 166
Dalrymple, Jean, 322
Dance of Death (Strindberg), 495, 705n
Darling, Candy, 522–53
Daughters of the American Revolution, 38
David Frost Show, TW’s coming-out on, 521, 545
Davis, Bette:
in Night of the Iguana, 425–29, 430, 433–36, 437–38
TW’s letters to, 434, 435–36, 437
“Death Is High” (Williams), 636n
Death of a Salesman (Miller), 65, 173, 194, 395
de Havilland, Olivia, 221
de Kooning, Willem, 275
Dellinger, David, 525
De Niro, Robert, 557
“Desire and the Black Masseur” (Williams), 73
dissent, suppression of, 254, 255, 258
Donne, John, 26
Doriden, 496, 501, 505
Doubleday, 545–46
Douglas, Mitch:
on St. Just, 593
as TW’s agent, 568–71
TW’s correspondence with, 568, 569–71
Dowling, Eddie:
Glass Menagerie and, 2–5, 7, 8–9, 12–16, 32, 60–61, 126, 434, 643
on Laurette Taylor,
4, 32
TW’s relationship with, 4, 12
Dowling, Ray, 14–15
drama:
Miller on McCarthyism and, 665n
1960s revolution in, 475–77
postwar shift in, 64–65
TW as creator of new style of, 65–67
as TW’s chosen genre, 34, 621–22n
see also acting
drinking:
by CC Williams, 43, 46, 49, 72, 78, 344, 354
by Merlo, 328, 404–5
by Pancho, 71
by Taylor, 3–4, 7–8, 15, 621n
by TW, 43, 46, 49, 72, 78, 344, 354
drugs, see prescription drugs
Dubois, Blanche (char.), 118–22, 398, 399
Kazan on, 146
TW on, 95, 121
as TW’s alter ego, 121, 122, 143
Dunnock, Mildred, 445
Dunphy, Jack, 174
Eastman, John, as co-trustee of Rose Williams Trust, 592, 595, 596, 601
Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense (A. Freud), 634n
Elavil, 474
Elkins, Hillard, 547, 550–51
Emmie (char.), 75, 77
“Enemy: Time, The” (Williams), see Sweet Bird of Youth (Williams)
English Theatre (Vienna), 553–55
“Epitaph for Tennessee Williams” (Mamet), 715
Esmeralda (char.), 264–65, 269, 271
Esquire, 477, 535
Europe:
TW’s trips to, 151–57, 198–203, 280–82, 373–74, 420, 459–60, 649n
see also Rome
Evans, Edith, 159–60
Evans, Oliver, 95–96, 100, 221, 235, 283, 519, 651n
on Merlo, 169
TW’s letters to, 70–71, 153–54, 201, 221, 246, 351, 360, 377, 429, 494, 509–10, 540, 711n
Evening with Nichols and May, An, 441, 695n
Evergreen Review, 522, 526
Everlasting Ticket, The (Williams), 573
Eyre, Richard, 158, 597
Eyre de Lanux, Elizabeth, 176–77
“Faint as Leaf Shadow” (Williams), 175
Farmington State Hospital, 54, 58, 359, 360–61, 362, 681n–82n, 716n
Farther Off from Heaven (Inge), 406
Faulk, Maxine (char.), 414, 425, 439–40
Faulkner, Henry, 544
Federal Theatre Project, 262
Feldman, Charles, 185, 187
Festival of Two Worlds (Spoleto), 412, 416, 442
Field, Henry, 474
“Final Day of Your Life, The” (Williams), 462
Finley, Boss (char.), 378–79, 394
Fitelson, Bill, 128
Fitzgerald, F. Scott:
as character in Clothes for a Summer Hotel, 560, 561, 562–64, 564
TW’s identification with, 561
Zelda’s life appropriated in fiction of, 561
Fitzgerald, Zelda, 561–62
as character in Clothes for a Summer Hotel, 560, 561, 562–64, 564
Five O’Clock Angel (St. Just), xiii, 301, 514, 588, 592, 594
Flanagan, Hallie, 262
Flanders, Christopher (char.), 444–49, 468–69
