189
“pretending to be deaf”: Williams to Donald Windham, Jan. 26, 1949,
TWLDW
, p. 230.
189
“Tom is so good to me”: Rev. Walter Dakin to Audrey Wood, Jan. 30, 1949, LLC.
189
“A girl makes her best contacts”: Williams to Paul Bigelow, Dec. 4, 1949,
L2
, p. 275.
189
“I feel somewhat rejuvenated”: Williams to Margo Jones, Jan. 2, 1950, ibid., p. 280.
190
“five drinks a day”: Williams to Carson McCullers, Dec. 6, 1949, ibid., p. 278.
190
“He will bring you good-luck”: Ibid., p. 277.
190
“the nicest piece of jewelry”: Williams to Jane Lawrence and Tony Smith, Jan. 5, 1950, ibid., p. 282.
190
“Frankie had lost weight at home”: Williams to Jane Lawrence and Tony Smith, Jan. 5, 1950,
L2
, p. 282.
190
“We shall all be together again soon”: Frank Merlo to Rev. Walter Dakin, July 6, 1950, LLC.
190
“kitchen sink version”: In the note to this first draft, Williams writes, “I call this ‘the kitchen sink draft’ because I have thrown into it every dramatic implement I could think of. Perhaps all of them will work. Perhaps none of them will work. Probably a few of them will work.” (See Williams to Paul Bigelow, Dec. 4, 1949,
L2
, p. 275.) For Williams, the completion of a play was always a moving goal. As late as February 2, 1950, he was writing to Windham about
The Rose Tattoo
: “I am pleased with the way I think it is going to be.” (
TWLDW
, p. 254.)
190
“dark, blood-red translucent stone”: Williams to Elia Kazan, June 16, 1950,
L2
, p. 324.
190
“During the past two years”: Ibid., pp. 324–25.
190
“Well, this is your little friend”: Tennessee Williams, “The Rose Tattoo” (unpublished kitchen-sink version), HRC.
190
“one of those Mediterranean types”: Ibid.
190
“Humble Star”: Williams to Paul Bowles, Feb. 23, 1950, HRC. This early draft was later published in a much-revised version as “Death Is High” without the dedication to Merlo.
192
“I want him to feel some independence”: Williams to Audrey Wood, Mar. 27, 1950,
L2
, p. 300.
192
“in return for Sicily”: LOA1, p. 246.
192
“I remember Frankie telling us”:
FOA
, pp. 18–19.
192
“My approach to my work”: Williams to Elia Kazan, June 16, 1950,
L2
, p. 325.
192
“Have I ever told you”: Williams to Maria Britneva, Mar. 5, 1949,
FOA
, p. 16.
193
“the Dionysian element”:
NSE
, p. 63.
193
“somewhere along the Gulf Coast”: LOA1, p. 654.
193
“giant step forward”: Audrey Wood to Williams, Mar. 5, 1950, HRC.
193
“the baffled look”: Williams to Elia Kazan, June 16, 1950,
L2
, p. 324.
193
“tentative and mixed”: Ibid.
193
“very optimistic”: Williams to Audrey Wood, undated, LLC.
193
“that the script might be something”: Williams to Elia Kazan, Feb. 24, 1950,
L2
, p. 289.
193
“I said I was still too nervous”: Williams to Audrey Wood, Jan. 23, 1950, HRC.
193
“The play is probably too subjective”: Williams to Paul Bigelow, Feb. 23, 1950, HRC.
193
“Audrey is sitting on the new script”: Williams to Gore Vidal, Mar. 1, 1950,
L2
, p. 293.
194
“It is a kind of comic-grotesque Mass”: Elia Kazan to Williams, undated, HRC.
194
Williams himself later adopted it:
NSE
, p. 63.
194
“Your letter about the play”: Williams to Elia Kazan, Feb. 27, 1950,
L2
, p. 289.
194
“Kazan, Kazan”:
KAL
, p. 223.
194
Gadg: “I despised my nickname,” he wrote later. “It suggested an agreeable, ever-compliant little cuss, a ‘good Joe’ who worked hard and always followed orders.” (
KAL
, p. 5.)
194
“I do not think the material”: Elia Kazan to Williams, undated, HRC.
194
“Sometimes I can make a virtue”: Williams to Elia Kazan, Feb. 24, 1950,
L2
, pp. 289–90.
195
“like a radio”: As quoted in Williams to Elia Kazan and Molly Day Thacher, Mar. 23, 1950, WUCA.
195
“I think if you start much later”: Kazan to Williams, undated, WUCA, permission granted.
195
“I’d cut out Rosario”: In the final version, Rosario is an idea who never materializes; earlier drafts had him out of sight, unseen behind rose-colored curtains, but not internalized in this way.
195
“Consider Gadg’s approach with great care”: Audrey Wood to Williams, Mar. 5, 1950, HRC.
196
“I have just now completed”: Williams to Elia Kazan and Molly Day Thacher, Mar. 23, 1950, WUCA.
196
“The most violent see-saw of my life!”: Williams to Audrey Wood, Apr. 3, 1950, HRC.
196
“Dame Selznick”: Williams to Oliver Evans, Apr. 7, 1950,
L2
, p. 304.
196
“When I think about Irene”: Williams to Audrey Wood, Apr. 11, 1950, ibid., p. 306.
196
“Woman of the Year”: Audrey Wood to Irene Selznick, May 3, 1948, ISC. By 1950, Wood was singing a different tune. She wrote to Williams, “I am terribly and deeply concerned about Irene’s approach on a second venture, not again as a measure of her functioning as a producer but greatly so as her functioning as a human being. I don’t function well if compelled to work in what I would call a vacuum of acquiescence.” (Audrey Wood to Williams, Apr. 10, 1950, HRC.)
196
“I place it, like Pilate”: Williams to Irene Selznick, Feb. 1949,
L2
, p. 311.
196
lackluster but successful British-debut production: The production ran for 326 performances. Olivier rarely directed a contemporary play. Kenneth Tynan said that Olivier’s production showed the way “in which a good play can be scarred by unsympathetic and clumsy direction.”
196
“I simply had to have a play”: Irene Selznick,
A Private View
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1983), p. 329.
197
“be as devastatingly candid”: Williams to Irene Selznick, Apr. 10, 1950,
L2
, p. 305.
197
“Just hope with me that I am dead wrong”: Irene Selznick to Williams, Apr. 16, 1950, HRC.
197
“To me, this is not a play”: Irene Selznick to Williams, Apr. 16, 1950, ISC.
197
“Your letter knocked the goddam bottom”: Williams to Irene Selznick, Apr. 1950,
L2
, p. 311.
197
“eventually happens to most lyric talents”: Ibid.
197
“For the first time since this draft”: Williams to Irene Selznick, Apr. 1950,
L2
, p. 311.
197
“Were I to see rather than read”: Irene Selznick to Williams, Apr. 16, 1950, HRC.
197
“fully documented and justified”: Williams to Irene Selznick, Apr. 1950,
L2
, p. 313.
198
“The great advance I have made”: Ibid.
198
Cheryl Crawford: A co-founder of the Actors Studio, Crawford, who produced her first play in 1931, was also a founding member of the Group Theatre, for which she had produced plays by Clifford Odets, Maxwell Anderson, and John Howard Lawson; she had also produced
Porgy and Bess
,
One Touch of Venus
, and
Brigadoon
, among many Broadway musicals.
198
“I don’t know if you realize”: Cheryl Crawford to Elia Kazan, Apr. 13, 1950, WUCA.
198
Thacher told Williams what she thought: Molly Day Thacher to Williams, May 9, 1950, WUCA.
199
“All-At-Sea, May, 1950”: Williams to Elia Kazan, May 1950, WUCA.
199
“a grim, nihilistic mood”: Williams to Elia Kazan, June 16, 1950,
L2
, p. 323.
199
“. . . I have never been anything with you”: Williams to Elia Kazan, May 30, 1950, WUCA.
200
“clutching . . . for all it is worth”: Williams to Elia Kazan, June 16, 1950,
L2
, pp. 323–24.
200
“Not very manly of me”: Ibid., p. 322.
200
“My main concern, now”: Ibid, p. 324.
201
“mixed feelings”: Irwin Shaw to Elia Kazan, June 19, 1950, WUCA.
201
“Please keep after Gadg”: Williams to Cheryl Crawford, June 26, 1950,
L2
, p. 329.
201
“Kazan is still not entirely sold on the play”: Williams to Oliver Evans, June 20, 1950, ibid., p. 327.
201
“infinitely
wrong
”:
N
, July 23, 1950, p. 515.
201
“like the battle front in Korea”: Williams to Maria Britneva, Aug. 8, 1950,
FOA
, p. 34.
201
“Key West seems like heaven”:
N
, July 23, 1950, p. 515.
201
“I have felt like a tired horse”: Williams to Audrey Wood and Cheryl Crawford, Aug. 15, 1950,
L2
, p. 343.
202
“The play is hung like a tent”: Williams to Cheryl Crawford, Aug. 11, 1950, ibid., p. 342.
202
“If we don’t get Magnani”: Audrey Wood to Williams, Mar. 5, 1950, HRC.
202
“Magnani told a friend of mine”: Williams to Audrey Wood, July 1950,
L2
, p. 331.
202
“She has the warmth and vigor”: Williams to Paul Bigelow, Aug. 3, 1950, ibid., p. 339.
202
“She was looking quite marvelous”: Williams to Cheryl Crawford, Aug. 11, 1950, ibid., p. 342.
202
“For an actor”: Quoted in Giancarlo Governi,
Nannarella: Il romanzo di Anna Magnani
(Rome: Minimum, Fax, 2008).
203
“almost complete control over everything”: Williams to Cheryl Crawford, Aug. 11, 1950,
L2
, p. 342.
203
“it would be very easy”: Ibid. In 1954, Magnani starred opposite Burt Lancaster in the Hal Wallis production of
The Rose Tattoo
.
203
“the long dalliance with Gadg”: Williams to Robert Lewis, Oct. 10, 1950,
L2
, p. 352.
203
“Tell Tennessee how badly I feel”: Elia Kazan to Audrey Wood, Aug. 12, 1950, HRC.
203
“If Gadg were available”: Williams to Audrey Wood and Cheryl Crawford, Aug. 15, 1950,
L2
, p. 344.
203
“On the sea, returning”:
N
, Sept. 1, 1950, p. 517.
203
“I still believe that the flat stretches”: Williams to Audrey Wood and Cheryl Crawford, Aug. 15, 1950,
L2
, p. 344.
203
“very impressed with it”: James Laughlin to Tennessee Williams, Nov. 3, 1950, Harvard.
204
“The heart should have a permanent harbor”: Williams to Elia Kazan, Nov. 18, 1950, WUCA.
204
“You wild, wild crazy thing”: LOA1, p. 687.
204
royal road to knowledge
was
sexuality: “I doubt that anything did me more good as a writer than the many years of loneliness, of cruising around, making sudden and deep acquaintances, one after another, each leaving a new and fresh imprint on me,” Williams said. (As quoted in
KAL
, p. 496.)
205
“To me the big bed”: LOA1, p. 696.
205
“a female ostrich”: Ibid., p. 680.
205
“slovenly deshabille”: Ibid., p. 685.
205
“Are you in there, Mama?”: Ibid., p. 684.
205
“spectral rose”: Williams, “Rose Tattoo,” HRC.
205
instead of this external imposition of the ghostly: Also cut was the Parrott who mimics Rosario’s voice.
205
“Each time is the first time”: LOA1, p. 661.
205
“a pain like a needle”: Ibid., p. 659.
205
“Serafina stares at the truck driver”: Ibid., p. 702.
206
“I always cry”: Ibid., p. 703.
207
“the grandson of the village idiot”: Ibid., p. 712.
207
“Love and affection”: Ibid., p. 711.
207
“You are simpatico, molto”: Williams, “Stornello,” HRC.
207