DOROTHY PARKER: A CERTAIN WOMAN
Selections of Parker's work compiled by Suzanne Dawson and James Rana
Performed by Suzanne Dawson (pictured above)
June 16 - July 24 (Wednesdays through Sundays) at 8:30 PM
Tickets: $35; $30 senior; $20 student and military; ages 12 and under free
"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me instead of a frontal lobotomy." - just one of Dorothy Parker's bon mots
Tickets: $35; $30 senior; $20 student and military; ages 12 and under free
"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me instead of a frontal lobotomy." - just one of Dorothy Parker's bon mots
Suzanne Dawson has played leading roles off-Broadway in: CBS Live, The Last Musical Comedy, The Great American Backstage Musical, and the revival of New Faces of ’52. Her regional credits include Sylvia at Florida Studio Theatre, The Snowball and A Little Night Music at Buffalo Studio Arena, Carnival at The Alliance in Atlanta, and Rumors at Paper Mill Playhouse here in NJ. She toured with Rumors, and opposite Gavin Macleod in Last of the Red Hot Lovers. ELTC shows include: To the Ladies!, Alice on the Edge, The Butter and Egg Man, Berkeley Square, The World of Dorothy Parker, Dulcy, Ruth Draper’s Company of Characters, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Zorro!, and Arsenic and Old Lace. Member AEA.
Dorothy Rothschild Parker, the youngest of four siblings, was born on August 22, 1893 in West End, NJ, and was raised in a comfortable apartment, with servants, on West 72nd Street in Manhattan. Her father, Henry, a partner in a cloak-making firm, was of Prussian Jewish descent and her mother, Eliza, was an English Protestant. Eliza died when Dorothy was almost five. Henry quickly married Eleanor Lewis, who died when Dorothy was nine. Not happy with either the Catholic or Protestant schools she attended, Dorothy stopped going to school at age fourteen, and lived with her father until his death in 1913. He’d encountered financial reversals, so none of his children inherited much. Needing a job, Dorothy worked as a dance instructor, while she continued to write.
In 1915, her poem “Any Porch” was published by “Vanity Fair,” which led to a ten-dollar-a-week job writing captions at its sister publication, “Vogue.” Soon, her poems were published regularly in “Vogue,” “Vanity Fair,” and “Life.” She began reviewing Broadway shows for “Vanity Fair,” where she became friends with Robert Benchley and Robert Sherwood. Quickly perceived as a sharp wit in all of her writing whether the medium was short stories, poetry, or reviews, she held nothing back. In one of her classic Broadway reviews about Katharine Hepburn, Dorothy wrote, “She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B.”
In June, 1917, Dorothy married Edward Pond Parker II, a handsome stockbroker. After he returned from France, having fought in World War I, his drinking problem was worse. By 1920, Dorothy and Eddie were living separate lives. They finally divorced in 1928.
Alexander Woollcott, who reported for “The New York Times,” returned from France where he had worked for the military newspaper, “Stars and Stripes.” In June 1919 to celebrate his return, thirty-five writers and publishers gathered for lunch at The Algonquin Hotel in midtown Manhattan. Those present included another former “Star and Stripes” staffer, Harold Ross. This was the beginning of the regularly scheduled luncheons for the group that formed The Algonquin Round Table aka the “Algonks.” Members included Benchley, Sherwood, Heywood Broun, Frank Adams, George S. Kaufman, Marc Connelly, Edna Ferber, and Dorothy.
In 1921, the Chicago newspaper reporter Charles MacArthur, who would later write “The Front Page” with Ben Hecht in 1928, moved to New York City. Soon after Charles and Dorothy met, an affair ensued, although both were married to others at the same time. When he put a stop to the affair, Dorothy made what would be her first of four suicide attempts. She slashed her wrists – but after she’d called a local restaurant to deliver her dinner. The deliveryman saved her life by rushing her to a hospital.
Meanwhile, she was getting published regularly in Frank Adam’s “Conning Tower” column in the “World,” and wrote a play with Elmer Rice, “Close Harmony,” that was produced on Broadway in 1924. It received excellent reviews, but opened around the same time as the Gershwins’ “Lady, Be Good” with Adele and Fred Astaire and Romberg’s “The Student Prince,” so it was overlooked by patrons.
When Harold Ross started publishing “The New Yorker” in 1925, Dorothy found another home for much of her work, and from 1927-1933, was the magazine’s book reviewer, using the byline “Constant Reader.”
Her first book, “Enough Rope,” released in December 1926, was a critical success. Two more collections of her verses followed: “Sunset Gun” in 1928 and “Death and Taxes” in 1931. “Big Blonde” first published in Seward Collins’s “Bookman” in February 1929, won the prestigious O. Henry competition for the best short story that year.
In 1934, Dorothy married Alan Campbell, an actor and a writer who was eleven years her junior. They moved to Hollywood to write screenplays for Paramount Pictures: Campbell receiving $250 a week, and Dorothy receiving a $1,000 a week – and this was during The Great Depression. They worked on such pictures as Hitchcock’s “Sabateur” and were nominated for two Academy Awards: “A Star is Born” in 1937 and “Little Foxes” in 1941.
A compilation of Dorothy’s poems appeared under the title “Not So Deep as a Well,” earning more than $30,000 in royalties between 1935 and 1937. The Campbells’ purchased Fox House, a colonial farmhouse with one-hundred acres, in Bucks County, PA. They paid less than $5,000 for it, and spent $8,000 on renovations. They moved between Hollywood and Bucks County until 1942, when Alan enlisted in the Air Force. In 1947, Alan and Dorothy divorced, and sold Fox House for $40,000. They remarried in 1950, but less than a year later, they separated, partially due to the political climate.
Dorothy had attacked the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) during the late 1940s, and was questioned by the FBI in 1951. She denied any ties to the Communist Party, but HUAC still cited her and three- hundred other writers, artists, actors, and professors for affiliating with Communist front organizations. Although Dorothy escaped official punishment, Hollywood producers informally blacklisted her through most the 1950s. Apparently this didn’t bother her because she seemed happy for an excuse to move back to New York.
She settled into the Volney Hotel on East 74th Street. With Arnaud d’Usseau, she wrote “Ladies of the Corridor,” that opened on Broadway in October 1953. The critic George Jean Nathan called it the best of the season, but it closed after six week. She began writing fiction again for “The New Yorker,” and for five years, wrote book reviews for “Esquire.”
In 1961, she reconciled with Alan, again, and they moved to Los Angeles, but heavy drinking continued for both of them and they existed mostly on unemployment insurance. On June 14, 1963, Alan died from an overdose of Seconal. Dorothy maintained it was accidental. Two months later, she turned 70, and moved back to the Volney in New York. She tried to control her alcoholism, but could not, and was in and out of hospitals. She did take speaking engagements, and there where friends like Wyatt Cooper and his wife Gloria Vanderbuilt (Anderson Cooper’s parents), who held parties in her honor.
On June 7, 1967, Dorothy suffered a fatal coronary in her apartment. Her death was reported on the front page of “The New York Times.” Her body was cremated, and her ashes sat in her attorney’s office for 20 years.
Dorothy left her estate of a bit more than $40,000, and all rights to her work, to Dr. Martin Luther King. Upon the death of Dr. King, as per Dorothy’s wishes, the rights became the property of the NAACP. In 1988, the NAACP created a memorial garden for Dorothy in which her ashes now have a home. It is located outside the NAACP’s Baltimore headquarters. In 2020, the NAACP made plans to move its headquarters to Washington, D.C, and Dorothy is moving with them.
The first edition of “The Portable Dorothy Parker,” edited by Parker, appeared in 1944, and was selected by Alexander Woollcott as the fourth in a series of volumes intended for soldiers overseas. It has never been out of print.
In 1915, her poem “Any Porch” was published by “Vanity Fair,” which led to a ten-dollar-a-week job writing captions at its sister publication, “Vogue.” Soon, her poems were published regularly in “Vogue,” “Vanity Fair,” and “Life.” She began reviewing Broadway shows for “Vanity Fair,” where she became friends with Robert Benchley and Robert Sherwood. Quickly perceived as a sharp wit in all of her writing whether the medium was short stories, poetry, or reviews, she held nothing back. In one of her classic Broadway reviews about Katharine Hepburn, Dorothy wrote, “She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B.”
In June, 1917, Dorothy married Edward Pond Parker II, a handsome stockbroker. After he returned from France, having fought in World War I, his drinking problem was worse. By 1920, Dorothy and Eddie were living separate lives. They finally divorced in 1928.
Alexander Woollcott, who reported for “The New York Times,” returned from France where he had worked for the military newspaper, “Stars and Stripes.” In June 1919 to celebrate his return, thirty-five writers and publishers gathered for lunch at The Algonquin Hotel in midtown Manhattan. Those present included another former “Star and Stripes” staffer, Harold Ross. This was the beginning of the regularly scheduled luncheons for the group that formed The Algonquin Round Table aka the “Algonks.” Members included Benchley, Sherwood, Heywood Broun, Frank Adams, George S. Kaufman, Marc Connelly, Edna Ferber, and Dorothy.
In 1921, the Chicago newspaper reporter Charles MacArthur, who would later write “The Front Page” with Ben Hecht in 1928, moved to New York City. Soon after Charles and Dorothy met, an affair ensued, although both were married to others at the same time. When he put a stop to the affair, Dorothy made what would be her first of four suicide attempts. She slashed her wrists – but after she’d called a local restaurant to deliver her dinner. The deliveryman saved her life by rushing her to a hospital.
Meanwhile, she was getting published regularly in Frank Adam’s “Conning Tower” column in the “World,” and wrote a play with Elmer Rice, “Close Harmony,” that was produced on Broadway in 1924. It received excellent reviews, but opened around the same time as the Gershwins’ “Lady, Be Good” with Adele and Fred Astaire and Romberg’s “The Student Prince,” so it was overlooked by patrons.
When Harold Ross started publishing “The New Yorker” in 1925, Dorothy found another home for much of her work, and from 1927-1933, was the magazine’s book reviewer, using the byline “Constant Reader.”
Her first book, “Enough Rope,” released in December 1926, was a critical success. Two more collections of her verses followed: “Sunset Gun” in 1928 and “Death and Taxes” in 1931. “Big Blonde” first published in Seward Collins’s “Bookman” in February 1929, won the prestigious O. Henry competition for the best short story that year.
In 1934, Dorothy married Alan Campbell, an actor and a writer who was eleven years her junior. They moved to Hollywood to write screenplays for Paramount Pictures: Campbell receiving $250 a week, and Dorothy receiving a $1,000 a week – and this was during The Great Depression. They worked on such pictures as Hitchcock’s “Sabateur” and were nominated for two Academy Awards: “A Star is Born” in 1937 and “Little Foxes” in 1941.
A compilation of Dorothy’s poems appeared under the title “Not So Deep as a Well,” earning more than $30,000 in royalties between 1935 and 1937. The Campbells’ purchased Fox House, a colonial farmhouse with one-hundred acres, in Bucks County, PA. They paid less than $5,000 for it, and spent $8,000 on renovations. They moved between Hollywood and Bucks County until 1942, when Alan enlisted in the Air Force. In 1947, Alan and Dorothy divorced, and sold Fox House for $40,000. They remarried in 1950, but less than a year later, they separated, partially due to the political climate.
Dorothy had attacked the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) during the late 1940s, and was questioned by the FBI in 1951. She denied any ties to the Communist Party, but HUAC still cited her and three- hundred other writers, artists, actors, and professors for affiliating with Communist front organizations. Although Dorothy escaped official punishment, Hollywood producers informally blacklisted her through most the 1950s. Apparently this didn’t bother her because she seemed happy for an excuse to move back to New York.
She settled into the Volney Hotel on East 74th Street. With Arnaud d’Usseau, she wrote “Ladies of the Corridor,” that opened on Broadway in October 1953. The critic George Jean Nathan called it the best of the season, but it closed after six week. She began writing fiction again for “The New Yorker,” and for five years, wrote book reviews for “Esquire.”
In 1961, she reconciled with Alan, again, and they moved to Los Angeles, but heavy drinking continued for both of them and they existed mostly on unemployment insurance. On June 14, 1963, Alan died from an overdose of Seconal. Dorothy maintained it was accidental. Two months later, she turned 70, and moved back to the Volney in New York. She tried to control her alcoholism, but could not, and was in and out of hospitals. She did take speaking engagements, and there where friends like Wyatt Cooper and his wife Gloria Vanderbuilt (Anderson Cooper’s parents), who held parties in her honor.
On June 7, 1967, Dorothy suffered a fatal coronary in her apartment. Her death was reported on the front page of “The New York Times.” Her body was cremated, and her ashes sat in her attorney’s office for 20 years.
Dorothy left her estate of a bit more than $40,000, and all rights to her work, to Dr. Martin Luther King. Upon the death of Dr. King, as per Dorothy’s wishes, the rights became the property of the NAACP. In 1988, the NAACP created a memorial garden for Dorothy in which her ashes now have a home. It is located outside the NAACP’s Baltimore headquarters. In 2020, the NAACP made plans to move its headquarters to Washington, D.C, and Dorothy is moving with them.
The first edition of “The Portable Dorothy Parker,” edited by Parker, appeared in 1944, and was selected by Alexander Woollcott as the fourth in a series of volumes intended for soldiers overseas. It has never been out of print.
