Mandingo (1961)

Franchot with members of the Mandingo cast.
Source: Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library.
"Mandingo. [1961]" The New York Public Library Digital Collections.
        http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/bc27eacb-6f1c-465e-e040-e00a1806652a

Mandingo opened on May 22, 1961 at the Lyceum Theatre, but closed after just eight performances five days later on May 27th. Written by Jack Kirkland and based on the novel by Kyle Onstott, Mandingo was set on an Alabama plantation in 1832. The play was directed by Louis MacMillan and starred Franchot Tone, Dennis Hopper, and, in her Broadway debut, Brooke Hayward. Full cast included Duke Farley, Georgia Burke, Clark Morgan, Philip Huston, Vinie Burrows, Maurishka Ferro, Arnold Moore, Rockne Tarkington, Fran Bennett, Verta Smart, Arnold Soboloff, John A. Topa, and Coley Wallace.

On March 9th, the New York Times suggested that Franchot might play a part in Mandingo and by March 23rd, Franchot had signed a contract to star in the play. Mandingo is often cited in biographical examinations of Dennis Hopper and Brooke Hayward, because the two became a couple during the production and later wed. Hayward would go on to call it a "potboiler" that "quite rightly closed after a week."

After opening night, N.Y. Times reviewer Howard Taubman wrote:

To a world painfully aware of the anguish of racial tension a play like "Mandingo" can only seem like a crude, sensationalized effort to capitalize on a newsworthy theme...It may well be that he [original author Kyle Onstott] wishes to say something compassionate and purging about the misery of slaves and the malevolence of the slave owners. But what emerges is a group of stereotyped characters taking part in noisome affairs...Franchot Tone, who has an honorable record of worthier things, snorts, wheezes and blusters his accomplished way through the role of Mr. Maxwell...In a time when insight and wisdom are desperately wanted, "Mandingo" offers only a shabby, coarse, surface treatment of an agonizing theme.

In the play, Maxwell (Tone) is a menacing slave owner who treats the slaves on his property with cruelty. His son Hammond (Hopper) does not agree with his father's ways and faces Maxwell's wrath as well. The story moves from one shocking scene to another, each featuring violence and sex (including rape and incest.)

I am surprised that despite the overwhelmingly negative response to the play's theme and the brief run due to this, Hollywood made a commercially successful movie version of Mandingo starring James Mason in 1975. A 1976 sequel Drum followed.

Candid backstage shot of Franchot with costars Maurishka Ferro and Verta Smart. Source: JET, June 1, 1961.

Sources:

• Hayward, Brooke. "Once Upon a Time in L.A." Vanity Fair. April 10, 2010.
• "Mandingo." Internet Broadway Database:https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/mandingo-2309 
• "Mandingo." New York Public Library Digital Collections: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/friedman-abeles-photograph-collection#/?tab=navigation&roots=1:48c27050-c544-012f-0b3f-58d385a7bc34/568:314711c0-c54e-012f-2b27-58d385a7bc34
• "Mandingo." Playbill Vault: http://www.playbill.com/production/mandingo-lyceum-theatre-vault-0000007166
• JET Magazine. June 1, 1961.

Doris Roberts (1925-2016)

Most famous for her role as Marie Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond, Doris Roberts (who passed away on April 17) made her Broadway debut in the Pulitzer Prize winning play The Time of Your Life starring Franchot Tone and Gloria Vanderbilt. Produced by the New York City Theatre Company, the play ran for 15 performances from January 19-30, 1955.

In her autobiography, Roberts recalled that she had just three lines in the play, but, as she put it, they were "mine and mine alone." When William Saroyan tried to cut one of the lines, Roberts begged him to keep it in, and he did.

In 2009, Roberts told Susan King of the LA Times, ""Franchot Tone would drink champagne at the bar every night in the play. I used to watch his ankles swell."

Source: www.playbill.com

Sources:

• https://www.ibdb.com/Production/View/478205
• King, Susan. "Doris Roberts Still Knows Best." Los Angeles Times. July 29, 2009. http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jul/29/entertainment/et-classic-hollywood29
• http://www.playbill.com/production/the-time-of-your-life-city-center-vault-0000013148
• Roberts, Doris, and Danelle Morton. Are You Hungry, Dear?: Life, Laughs, and Lasagna. New York: St. Martin's, 2003. Print.

The Age of Innocence (1929)

Although he appeared in several plays before it, The Age of Innocence is often reported as Franchot's New York stage debut.  The successful play ran for 207 performances between November 1928 and May 1929 at the Empire Theatre. Located at 1430 Broadway, the Empire Theatre was built in 1893 and demolished in 1953.

Setting from Age of Innocence. Source: Billy Rose Theatre Division,
     The New York Public Library. "Stage and the hall."
         The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1928.
       http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47db-e2d8-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Based on Edith Wharton's novel, the play was written by Margaret Ayer Barnes and produced by Gilbert Miller. Katharine Cornell, dubbed the "First Lady of Theatre", starred as Ellen Olenska. Highly respected for her dedication to the theatre and starring roles in compelling stage dramas, Cornell was also a successful writer and producer.

Katharine Cornell. Source: Billy Rose Theatre Division,
     The New York Public Library. "Katharine Cornell as Countess Ellen
Olenska in The Age of Innocence. N.Y., Empire Theatre."
         The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1928.
       http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47db-e335-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Indicating that many years have passed, Franchot enters at the end of the play as Newland Archer, Jr., the product of a marriage between Newland Archer and May Van Der Luyden. Although married to his mother, Jr.'s father has always been in love with Countess Olenska and made many an attempt to leave May to be with Ellen. Earlier in the play, it is May's announcement that she is pregnant (with Newland Archer Jr.) that seals the separation between Archer and Countess Olenska permanently.

At twenty-three years old when the play first began, Franchot was called a "disciple of the new emancipation" and a "member of our chucking generation" by the New York Times (the chucking comment is based on his line, "My generation chucks that." in the play). The Age of Innocence cast was praised for its acting being "eloquent even when it was hushed".

Original playbill from my collection

Original playbill from my collection

Original playbill from my collection

Sources:

http://www.ibdb.com/Production/View/10792

More or Less in the Times Square Spotlight: Miss Vale of "Let Us Be ... New York Times (1923-Current file); Mar 31, 1929; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times pg. 104

The Play by J. Brooks Atkinson. New York Times (1923-Current file); Nov 28, 1928; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times pg. 33