Letters to His Mother • From the Hotel Carlyle

From the Hotel Carlyle, New York • 1 February 1932

Mother darling,

"It seems—and is—ages since I wrote to you, but it has been, as usual, a hectic time since I arrived in this benighted country. We started our rehearsals [for The Animal Kingdom] almost immediately I landed and continued them without interruption for a month, and then went on tour for two weeks. During the whole of these six weeks we had interminable troubles with casting and rewriting of script. When I arrived I found that the cast they had chosen were, in most cases, pretty hopeless and several changes had to be made. We rehearsed for ten days with five different girls for the part of the mistress [one of them was Katharine Hepburn] before hitting on one [Frances Fuller] who could get near the part. And then, while we were at Pittsburgh, changed the other leading lady (wife) [Lora Baxter] and two important men parts. Meanwhile I was very dissatisfied both with the play and my own part, and got the author [Philip Barry], not always very willingly, to do considerable rewriting. During those two weeks we never played the same version twice running, and were constantly meeting new faces on the stage.

"All this was a bit nerve-racking as you can imagine, and I was thankful when we finally hit New York in some kind of order. Gilbert [Gilbert Miller, his co-producer] was with us all this time, and behaved wonderfully, supporting my ideas continually, the author being a little difficult.

"However, a little to my surprise, the thing turned out to be an enormous hit, about the biggest here this season. We opened on a Tuesday night, and on Wednesday morning there was a long queue at the box-office for the matinée, and we have sold out at every subsequent performance with large numbers standing. This is spite of the fact that we have one of the largest theatres [Broadhurst Theatre] in New York (which I am glad I insisted upon). Our prices are much lower than for Berkeley Square, but we are taking much more money, on account of the bigger theatre, and because of a lower running cost our profits will be doubled.

"Gilbert is in his seventh heaven and so is the author [Philip Barry] who will make a fortune. Your eldest son is reputed to be marvellous, but for your private information I will tell you that it is nothing great either as play or acting. It is an easy job for me and does not come up to what I did in 'B.S.' For that matter neither does the play. But it is an even greater success, so who am I to argue with them.

"My great worry now is how long the wretched thing will persist. The bookings are terrific and far ahead. I ask the manager every night if he can hold out any hope of business falling off, and he shakes his head. He seems to be delighted for some reason or another. I don't know when we are going to get home, and I am already appalled at the prospect of being shut up interminably among these steel and concrete prisons.

"I don't want to be indefinitely without either of the children, and think that Doodie ought to come out later. I miss her terribly, I miss them both, but have given up any hope of seeing Wink for ages. I can see this thing running well into the summer, and even then I may have to be ill to get away from it." 

In Search of My Father, pg. 36

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