ANNIVERSARY TODAY:
February 8, 1958 - After 53 performances, Miss Isobel closed on Broadway.
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Miss Isobel, the original comedy-drama offered Shirley Booth a challenging and bizarre role. This show concerned an elderly woman whose mental state gradually deteriorates. Miss Isobel runs a rooming house in San Francisco that includes a blind Korean War veteran, a young widow, and a Chinese woman.
As 70-year-old, white-haired Mrs. Ackroyd, Shirley Booth revealed her skill at playing a character that regresses and imagines herself to be younger. She is a sixteen-year-old Australian bride in Act II. The final act had her regressing to a second childhood, and even at one point thinking her spinster daughter (Nancy Marchand) is her mother. Marchand may be better known now as the magazine editor in Lou Grant and Livia Soprano on The Sopranos.
Shirley Booth: “I thought it was a wonderful play but the critics didn’t. It was a voyage of discovery but I felt like I was on a boat-waving goodbye to the critics who were left on the pier. We just didn’t reach them; they didn’t understand.”
Shirley concurred with those critical of Miss Isobel. She noted, “we knew the critics wouldn’t like it. This is an audience play. Ladies like a good cry, and I can see them out in the orchestra, weeping and sniffling. Besides, we worked awfully hard on it, and I think we can take great satisfaction from a job well done. Of course, tonight we had a very bad audience. They laughed in all the wrong places. Well, I say let’s make a run for it. The matinee tomorrow is sold out.”
As 70-year-old, white-haired Mrs. Ackroyd, Shirley Booth revealed her skill at playing a character that regresses and imagines herself to be younger. She is a sixteen-year-old Australian bride in Act II. The final act had her regressing to a second childhood, and even at one point thinking her spinster daughter (Nancy Marchand) is her mother. Marchand may be better known now as the magazine editor in Lou Grant and Livia Soprano on The Sopranos.
Shirley Booth: “I thought it was a wonderful play but the critics didn’t. It was a voyage of discovery but I felt like I was on a boat-waving goodbye to the critics who were left on the pier. We just didn’t reach them; they didn’t understand.”
Shirley concurred with those critical of Miss Isobel. She noted, “we knew the critics wouldn’t like it. This is an audience play. Ladies like a good cry, and I can see them out in the orchestra, weeping and sniffling. Besides, we worked awfully hard on it, and I think we can take great satisfaction from a job well done. Of course, tonight we had a very bad audience. They laughed in all the wrong places. Well, I say let’s make a run for it. The matinee tomorrow is sold out.”
MORE TOMORROW ON THE CRITICAL RESPONSE TO MISS ISOBEL....
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Hazel says...
In episode #110 ("A Lesson in Democracy"), Hazel speaks to a Russian commissar, saying: "You've been talking about how bad off we are here in this country and how much better off people are in your country and that everybody is equal. It seems to me as if equality is alright with you as long as you're more equal than everybody else."
In episode #110 ("A Lesson in Democracy"), Hazel speaks to a Russian commissar, saying: "You've been talking about how bad off we are here in this country and how much better off people are in your country and that everybody is equal. It seems to me as if equality is alright with you as long as you're more equal than everybody else."
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THANKS FOR VISITING!
JOIN ME AGAIN TOMORROW!
*****
For purchasing any of my books, you can visit Amazon.com
You can also check www.bookfinder.com
which offers the best prices on new & used copies.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For Bill, His Pinup Girl: The Shirley Booth & Bill Baker Story
by Jim Manago
Foreword by Leslie Sodaro
Published December 1, 2010
Further details at: http://shirleybooth.blogspot.com
THANKS FOR VISITING!
JOIN ME AGAIN TOMORROW!
*****
For purchasing any of my books, you can visit Amazon.com
You can also check www.bookfinder.com
which offers the best prices on new & used copies.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For Bill, His Pinup Girl: The Shirley Booth & Bill Baker Story
by Jim Manago
Foreword by Leslie Sodaro
Published December 1, 2010
Further details at: http://shirleybooth.blogspot.com
*****
Love is the Reason for it All: The Shirley Booth Story
by Jim Manago
Radio Research by Donna Manago
Foreword by Ted Key
BearManor Media, May 2008
http://bearmanormedia.bizland.com
by Jim Manago
Radio Research by Donna Manago
Foreword by Ted Key
BearManor Media, May 2008
http://bearmanormedia.bizland.com
This is very interesting. I was not very aware of this particular play. Ms. Booth really seemed to work nonstop in the theater until she moved into television.
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