THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 32 Friday, November 30, 1919 r I I Insight Into History of American Theater in Newest George S. Kaufman Biography Oak Park Racquet Club Offers Valuable Coupon I By ALLEN A. WARSEN "25% Distount" on Tennis Membership Bring in ad today!! Offer ex pires I THE MIME CLUBS Oak Park Racquet Club 14320 Oak Park Blvd Oak Park. Michigan 48237 Dec. 14th 398-2450 Malcolm Goldstein's vol- ume "George S. Kaufman: His Life, His Theater" (Ox- ford University Press) por- trays vividly and percep- tively the career of one of the great men of the Ameri- can theater. Born in Pittsburgh on Nov. 16, 1889, Kaufman lived to the age of 72. As a child, Kaufman enjoyed reading Carolyn Well's "A Nonsense Antho/- 1 ogy" and Gilbert's rhythmic a poems. In his teens, he liked 5 lbs. of MATZO If I can't Beat Your Best Deal Margolis Household Furniture 6 Mile, 1 Mk. 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Mon thru Sat. 9:30 til 5:30 SUNDAY, DEC. 9, 1919 Day of vo p,RITy 1:30 P.M. ife N.\ 0 C-) CONGREGATION DWI MOSHE (Corner 10 Mile and Church Streets) KEYNOTE SPEAKER: JEROME LEVINRAD National Executive Director Jewish War Veterans of America SSED Convened by: In Cooperation With: Pioneer Women Metropolitan Jewish Community Council Detroit Council of Metropolitan Detroit CO-SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS Adat Shalom Synagogue AKTSIA — University of Michigan American Jewish Action Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith B'nai B'rith Hillel Foundation Wayne- State University B'nai B'rith Metropolitan Detroit Council B'nai Brith Women's Council of Metropolitan Detroit B'nai B'rith Youth Organization Congregation Beth Abraham ,Hillel Moses Congregation Beth Achim Congregation Beth Shalom Congregation B'nai Moshe Congregation Shaarey Zedek Detroit Committee for Soviet Jewry Hadassah Jewish War Veterans, Department of Michigan Jewish War Veterans, Department of Michigan Ladies Zuxiliary Labor Zionist Organization National Council of Jewish Women Sephardic Community of Greater Detroit Temple Israel United Hebrew Schools United Synagogue Youth Women's American ORT Workmen's Circle, Michigan District Committee Zionist Organization of Detroit adventure stories, light verse and vaudeville shows. At 14 he was confirmed in a Reform temple, and wrote his first play "The Failure" in collaboration with Irving Pitchel, the future famous actor and Hollywood director. In 1912, Kaufman began to publish in the Washing- ton Times a humorous col- umn that he dubbed "This and That With Sometimes a Little of the Other." How- ever, he lasted on that job only one year, as Frank Munsey, the newspaper's anti-Semitic owner fired him for his "Jewish looks." Soon afterwards Kauf- man secured a position as a reporter on the New York Tribune. He also contrib- uted humorous tidbits to the periodical Puck. Two years later, Kauf- man made his first trip to Europe. On the boat, be- cause of his newspaper con- nections, he was "seated at the captain's table, along with a baroness and the wife of an admiral." As he returned from his European trip, Kaufman became the Tribune's drama reporter. He married Beatrice Barkrow of Rochester at age 28. On Sept. 10, 1917, Kauf- man quit the Tribune to be- come the New York Times drama editor. He continued on that job until August 1930. By that time, Kauf- man had become one of Broadway's most successful playwrights "with an in- come that made possible a domestic staff of three ser- vants and a nurse for his child." His play, "Someone in the House," produced in 1918, started him in show busi- ness. And the play "Dulcy," a satire on the business world, written in collabora- tion with Marc Connally, became a theater favorite. One of its sarcastic dialogues reads: Gordon: (A bit cheerily.) Oh I don't know —I have an idea it may be picking up presently. Bill: (Tapping the newspaper.) You've been reading Mr. Schwab (He quotes.) "Steel Man- Sees Era of Prosperity." Gordon: Well — I think he's right at that. Bill: Yes (A pause.) Roc- kefeller expects to break even this year, too. - "This sort of verbal thrust," comments the biog- rapher, "became the iden- tifying feature . . . of Kauf- man's comedies . . . A snap- ping, jumping kind of line, it gives a nervous rhythm to the plays." The comedy "The But- ter and Egg Man" Kauf- man composed without collaborators. Its theme is the creation of a "Broadway production," and its title was invented by a woman night club operator, one of New York's "most successful defiers of the 18th Amendment." "The Cocoanuts," a musi- cal with songs by Irving Be- rlin, performed by the Marx Brothers, was one of Kauf- man's most popular prod- uctions. Its setting was a run-down hotel in Cocoanut Beach, Fla. Groucho played the role of the hotel's prop- rietor, Harpo and Chico were the guests, and Zeppo the desk clerk. Incidentally, "The Cocoanuts" was Irving Ber- lin's only musical. The comedy "A Night at the Opera" that became a Marx Brothers film classic, Kaufman wrote in Hol- lywood. Altogether, Kaufman wrote 40 plays, several in collaboration with other playwrights. Of these, 25 were Broadway hits. They were played all over the United States and Europe. Kaufman never allowed his plays to be produced in Germany and Austria, a fact of which he was proud. The biography depicts and eloquently engrossingly Kaufman's private life, and provides behind-the-scenes fascinat- ing facts on the theatrical performances of his plays. This review would be in- complete hadn't it named some of the collaborators. They included Moss Hart, S.N. Behrman, Irving Be- rlin; Edna Ferber, Ira and George Gershwin, Dorothy Parker, Robert E. Sherwood and Alexander Woolcott. The biography's lightful photog 'aphs complement the text. The biographer, Malcolm Goldstein, is professor of English at Queens College and author of "The Political Stage." 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