The Time of Your Life (1955 and 1958)

1955 production
Although disappointed that an agreement to play Mister Roberts dissolved after director's Josh Logan's protests (I wrote about that here), Franchot signed on to play Joe in William Saroyan's The Time of Your Life in its place. (In my research of The Time of Your Life, I actually came across a January 3rd notice in Theatre Arts magazine that states that Franchot will headline Mister Roberts through January 16.) When asked if he'd be interested, Franchot's response to Jean Dalrymple was ""Joe! The Time of Your Life! Wonderful! I'd love to do it!" The Time of Your Life resulted in a major success for Franchot.  The play ran as part of New York City Center's season for 15 performances between January 19th and January 30th, 1955.

Franchot in The Time of Your Life, 1955.

William Saroyan wrote on January 16th that the two-week revival of his play

represents the only play by me to be professionally produced on Broadway in more than ten years. I have every hope and very nearly every reason to believe the play will be effectively performed by an excellent cast...

Saroyan's wish for the play to be well-received came true. Brooks Atkinson reviewed Franchot's performance:

The acting is out of the top drawer. As the central character, Mr.Tone plays with a dry detached geniality that establishes the right relationship between the environment and himself, and that admirably avoids sentimentality...It belongs on the stage where it is alive, unique and delightful.

Maurice Zolotow called it a "beautiful play whose lines are filled with a tender and warm feeling for language, whose people are real and moving." Zolotow praised the acting of cast members John Carradine, Wolfe Barzell, Myron McCormick, Fred Kareman, and Paula Lawrence. You'll notice an important name missing from that list. Zolotow confessed:

Every human being has one blind spot, and I confess mine is Franchot Tone, the Joe of this revival. I have seen him in many roles and I know it is irrational to say this, but he has never convinced me he is the person he is playing. 

The play was such a success that Playhouse owner Ben Marden wanted to transfer the City Center production to Broadway once its two weeks were up. Louis Calta also publicly lamented that such a play could not be moved to a longer Broadway engagement. Actors who performed in City Center productions did so because they believed in the mission of the center and to hone their craft. All those involved in City Center productions, including Franchot, generously worked for minimum salaries so that they could keep ticket prices low and the Center's vision pure.

Franchot Tone and Gloria Vanderbilt

During the run of the play, Franchot's romance with heiress Gloria Vanderbilt added extra publicity for the production. Vanderbilt's small role in the play was being highly publicized during the time and she and Franchot engaged in what she termed a "transient" relationship. You can read her thoughts on Franchot here.

During the run of the play, Franchot and Gloria made a special television appearance on The Colgate Comedy Hour on January 23, 1955. I've not seen this appearance but their scene was summarized as "Franchot Tone and Gloria Vanderbilt in "In the French Style." The episode was hosted by Gordon MacRae. Other guests on the show that evening were Paul Winchell, Ronny Graham, Joyce Bryant, the DeMarco Sisters and the Mayo Brothers.

1958 production
Although The Time of Your Life never did a full Broadway run, fans had another opportunity to see Franchot in the role of Joe. Three years after the first production, Jean Dalrymple secured Franchot Tone and actress Susan Strasberg for a weeklong engagement of The Time of Your Life at the Brussels World's Fair in Belgium. Also in this production were Dan Dailey and Ann Sheridan.

The play opened to an audience of 1,150 socially prominent citizens (attendees were listed as commissioners and ambassadors) at the United States Pavilion Theatre on October 8, 1958. Belgian reviewers gave the performance high praise and the cast received eight curtain calls on opening night.

Franchot Tone and Susan Strasberg

This special event led to the play being filmed for television in Britain. The production aired as a presentation of Armchair Theatre on October 19,1958. I'd love to see this. I feel like it would be equivalent to seeing Franchot in the filmed version of Uncle Vanya. Viewing Franchot in his element as Astroff in Uncle Vanya is a serious and emotional experience for me and I think that seeing his performance of Joe would have the same effect. I don't know if a recording even exists of The Time of Your Life, but I hope if there is, it'll be released someday.

Franchot in the Armchair Theatre production, 1958.

British TV Times promoting The Time of Your Life, 1958.

Sources:
http://abcatlarge.co.uk/armchair-theatre/
Atkinson, Brooks. "Time of Your Life: Saroyan in Top Form in an Excellent Revival for the City Center Series." The New York Times. January 30, 1955.
Calta, Louis. "Center Play Eyed as Broadway Item." The New York Times. January 25, 1955.
Funke, Lewis. "News and Gossip of the Rialto." The New York Times. May 11, 1958.
Saroyan, William. "Saroyan on Saroyan: Pulitzer-Prize Playwright Investigates His Record." The New York Times. January 16, 1955.
http://www.televisionheaven.co.uk/at134.htm
"U.S. Play Opens at Fair." The New York Times. October 9, 1955.
Zolotow, Maurice. "The Season On and Off Broadway." Theatre Arts. April 1955.

Jean Dalrymple on Franchot and The Time of Your Life

Recently, I wrote about the Theatre Four, which was the theater Franchot and Jean Dalrymple purchased together in 1967. In her memoir of her time spent at the New York City Center, producer Jean Dalrymple talks a lot about Franchot's involvement there from the 1940's to his death in 1968. I learned about several plays Franchot really desired to do, but the productions fell through for one reason or another.

For example, Franchot wanted to do the play Arms and the Man, the George Bernard Shaw comedy that deals with war's futility. That plan disintegrated, because Shaw refused to cut his 15 percent royalty, a cost that the sometimes financially-struggling City Center could not afford.



Franchot Tone and Jose Iturbi kiss Jean Dalrymple.

Another play that Franchot had his heart set on was Mister Roberts. Dalrymple was enthusiastic about Franchot's abilities and benefited from his participation at City Center. First of all, Franchot was considered a big name and would draw an audience. Secondly, Franchot was a dependable and capable actor that she admired but often struggled to find the perfect part for. Third, Franchot and Jean were very good friends and had been since Franchot starred in Dalrymple's Broadway production of Hope for the Best in 1945. Mister Roberts' original producer Leland Hayward approved the Mister Roberts project, provided the set pieces, and the promotional mailers were set to go.

When the announcement appeared in papers, Josh Logan, angry, called and forbid the play to go on. Logan was directing the film version which would be premiering around the same time as Franchot's performance in the play and felt the play's revival would damage the returns on the film. The film would go on to be nominated for Academy Awards (Jack Lemmon won one for his performance) and grossed 8 million, so I don't feel his reasons were justified. There's no way, in my mind, a City Center theater performance would be a spoiler for a big budget film starring Cagney, Powell, Lemmon, and Fonda. Logan wouldn't budge. He refused to approve and said Hayward had no right to give his approval. Dalrymple understood and needed to maintain a good relationship with Logan (he often directed plays for her), so she had to break the news to Franchot:

...how was I to break the news to Franchot, who already was busy studying the part? He was the first one I ran to and after his first outburst of anger and disappointment,  good friend that he was, Franchot agreed to do some other play—if I could come up with one he liked.

Franchot Tone and friend Jean Dalrymple on the Maid of the Mist,
in Franchot's hometown Niagara Falls.

Dalrymple relates that she pored over play anthology over play anthology in her personal library, but couldn't find a project that she felt was suitable for Franchot. In the middle of the night, an exhausted and discouraged Dalrymple threw a book down onto her bed and it opened to a page and the lines jumped out at her:

Joe: Out of the twenty-four hours at least twenty-three and a half—my God, I don't know why—are dull, dead, boring, empty and murderous.

It was a middle of the night hallucination, but I heard Franchot say those words. Whoever Joe was, it had to be a part for Franchot.  It was Joe in Saroyan's the Time of Your Life...in that moment I knew it was for him and could hardly wait for morning to come, Franchot to wake up, and the good news to reach him.

I was right. No sooner had I said to him,"How would you like to play a man sitting in a bar, drinking champagne, philosophizing and trying to set other people's lives to rights?" than he exclaimed, "Joe! The Time of Your Life! Wonderful! I'd love to do it!"

I enjoyed this backstory of how The Time of Your Life came to be and I'm glad that it turned out to be such a perfect fit for Franchot. It was a great success and over the next week, I will be writing in more detail about its production, both on the stage and on television. There's another, sadder story that Jean tells of her time with Franchot that I'll also share in short time.

In the meantime, you can learn more about Jean Dalrymple by reading her obituary here or brush up on your knowledge of City Center here and here.

Sources:
Dalrymple, Jean. From the Last Row. New York: JT White, 1975.
City Center's All-Star Winter Play Festival theater program. 1955.

 

Gloria Vanderbilt on Franchot Tone

Recently, I watched the HBO documentary Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper. Although I think there are actually several things unsaid, Gloria's reflections on her life and conversations with son Anderson were fascinating. Gloria does not discuss Franchot at all in the documentary, but I knew that Gloria and Franchot worked together in a Colgate Comedy Hour special and in the Saroyan Pulitzer-winning play The Time of Your Life.

Knowing that they both indulged in many romances, I assumed that Franchot and Gloria probably had one of their own at this time so I picked up Vanderbilt's romance memoir It Seemed Important at the Time at my library. My hunch paid off. The memoir includes a brief 2-page chapter dedicated to Mr. Tone.

Franchot & Gloria. Source: http://www.cinemarx.ro/

Franchot & Gloria. Source: http://www.cinemarx.ro/

The Pulitzer-winning play The Time of Your Life starring Franchot and Gloria was produced by the New York City Theatre Company. During the play's run in January 1955, Franchot and Gloria engaged in an affair that Gloria says they both knew was "transient."

Gloria talks about how she idolized the handsome, charming Franchot of the screen during her youth. When Gloria joined the cast of The Time of Your Life, she and Franchot began a romance. According to Gloria, Franchot told her that he was "King Arthur searching for Lady Guinevere." She elaborates on her romance with Franchot:

We spent a lot of time at Birdland and other hot spots, and he sent flowers with notes saying things like, 'I love you in the many mirrors of the real, but really too.'...There was a gentleness about him, a fineness, but by the end of an evening he would descend fuzzily into a passive melancholy that reminded me of the Clifford Odets play Golden Boy. 'I have a lump inside and I drink to dissolve it.' But it was too late for that and I wasn't the drink he was looking for. Soon after, Sinatra winged along and we parted without even saying good-bye.

Gloria is not the first person to comment on the inherent pain within the fineness of Franchot. I'm working on a future post about this characteristic of Franchot's personality and his peers' observations about his use of alcohol to dull that pain.


Sources:
Vanderbilt, Gloria. It Seemed Important at the Time: A Romance Memoir. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004. Print.

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.