1973 Glass Menagarie with Hepurn, Waterson and Moriarity

[EricMontreal22]

It was a radio version. And then there is the infamous movie which is on youtube--and Williams (before he stopped caring about adaptations of his works) thankfully curtailed the original ending--although the one as filmed is not much better.

[NoName3]

Did anyone ever track down the alleged radio excerpts read by Laurette Taylor discussed a couple of years ago in this thread?

http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.php?thread=1041761

[D2]

The Katherine Hepburn movie was my introduction to this play, which remains my favorite Tennessee Williams work. I haven't seen it since it originally aired (on ABC, btw, not PBS) so I don't know how I'd react to it now.

My favorite stage production was the recent Roundabout revival with Judith Ivey as Amanda. She was stunning, and I wish her performance had been more widely seen. It was one of those moments when I saw the play through fresh eyes, and fell in love with it all over again.

[SNAFU]

I too have to thank the Hepburn movie to introducing me to this play. Thankful it is on Netflix!

[GavestonPS]

Goth, your account of Amanda's geography is correct, I think. I was still talking about Williams' mother and how she may be reflected in the play.

Perhaps because of his mother's "transformation" after the family moved South, Williams' women are very much aware that "Southern belle" was always a conscious performance that could be turned on or off as required.

You talk about the U.S. have to "rebuild" after the war as if we were Poland. If we were rebuilding, we were doing it in Europe and Asia.

But Williams' original story was published in 1943; by then Tom would have been in service whether he liked it or not. Since it's a "memory piece", I assume the events of the play take place during the Depression in the 1930s--which actually fits the plot better. Is this chronology not correct?

[FindingNamo]

Brian07663NJ, I hope you banished the Bad Idea bears from your life after that decision.

[EricMontreal22]

"Portrait of a Girl in Glass," the short story that was adapted into Glass Menagerie was started in 1940, according to the Library of America editions of his plays. In 1943 when MGM hired him as a contract screenwriter (which didn't last more than a few months) he tried to sell them on an early adaptation, The Gentleman Caller." Then the play opened in Chicago in 1944 before New York producers moved the entire production (the Chicago production wasn't a tryout) in 1945.

The script claims it takes place Now and The Past, but earlier drafts mentioned that the past was meant to be 1937--so yeah, pre-war, and of course Tenn/Tom was passed for the army so it could make place, if we assume Tom is him, that could still be him in the narrating bits in 1944. However, of course, it's dangerous to take it *too* much as autobiography--Tom's dad was still very much in his life, and he went to various universities and colleges from 32-37 while having various amateur productions of his early plays done, and stories sold to papers.

BTW, besides the fact that the Hepburn one is on youtube, the harder to find on DVD Paul Newman directed one starring his wife, Joanna Woodward and John Malkovich (who I can't decide if is awful in this or great,) a good Karen Allen and James Naughton is there too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDPMBDiwL0M

And he infamous, never released to home video, "happier" 1950 flop movie version is there too. The cast is intriguing but odd--Jane Wyman is Laura (only a few years before she played the "older woman" in All That Heaven Allows and Magnificent Obsession!) Gertrude Lawrence is Amanda, Kirk Douglas is Jim, and Tom is... Arthur Kennedy who seemed to get the role because he wasn't offered the chance to recreate his award winning stage role of Biff in the Death of a Salesman movie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_21D4BI5v0