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#molnár ferenc himself has said so
iocallistoeuropa · 2 months
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I just wrote something that goes like:
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outoftowninac · 2 years
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THE HAREM
1924
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The Harem is a three-act play by Ernest Vajda adapted by Avery Hopwood. It was originally produced and staged by David Belasco. It starred Lenore Ulric as Carla and featured William Courtenay.
The story is set in Budapest. 
Carla is the actress wife of Roland Valetti, a Budapest musician. Quite by accident, someone carelessly upsets a can of water on Manon, an attractive divorcee, who stops at the Valetti residence to rest and dry her gown. Remarks lead to a bit of philosophizing between Carla and Manon. Valetti, coming in unawares, mistakes Manon for his wife and plants a passionate kiss upon wet lips. Whereupon Carla proceeds to put Manon's theory to the test. Manon avers that every man has a harem, and that no husband will remain true to his wife. Roland is intrigued into a visit to Manon's apartment. Carla goes there, too, as a Turkish princess. In this guise she succeeds in deceiving her husband, and the play ends with the customary cross-questioning, false explanations. and final confession.
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Lenore Ulric (1892-1970)  was discovered by David Belasco in 1913.  He would go on to manage her stage career, in which she was noted for portraying fiery, hot-blooded women; the typical vamp. Belasco managed her stage career until shortly before his death in 1931. In a tribute to Belasco, she said: 
All of us who were with him depended upon him so much that we'd just flounder around and say, "What do I do now?" He was a good soldier, a hard worker, and a great director.
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The Harem opened in Atlantic City at Nixon’s Apollo Theatre on November 10, 1924. It then moved on to Washington DC at The National, and Fords in Baltimore. 
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The Harem opened on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre (111 West 44th Street). 
About the Venue: David Belasco built it in 1907 with all the luxuries available. Best of all was a ten-room duplex penthouse apartment he built for himself. After his death, the theatre was leased to Katharine Cornell, then Elmer Rice. The Shuberts bought it in 1949 and, after leasing it to NBC for three years, returned it to legit use in 1953.
“There never was such a harem as this, not even to represent a Ziegfeld folly or a John-Murray-Anderson dream in chiffon. It is a gorgeous room hung in billowing silk and lighted with a smoldering Belascoan passion.” ~ BURNS MANTLE
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Comparisons were inevitably made to its similarity to The Guardsman, by Ferenc Molnár, a play with a similar theme and storyline. 
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In early March 1925, New York theatres came under fire for immoral content. The District Attorney’s office got involved and producers, including David Belasco, were asking to revise their scripts or face suppression. Even Eugene O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms was deemed “fundamentally bad”.
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At the insistence of District Attorney Banton, Manager Belasco last week called several midnight rehearsals of ‘The Harem’ and succeeded in making numerous changes, even against the expressed and, I gather, rather vociferous opposition of Lenore Ulric.  
In the second act, the bedroom upstage has been removed and in its place there is now a grand piano topped with a vase of roses. 
Here is a cleaning up indeed. Nothing certainly can be more chaste than a grand piano. Unless it be two grand pianos. And what could more sweetly suggest home and mother than a vase of roses? 
But will the play juror appreciate this? If Miss Ulric, as the lady of the play, should walk up to that section of the stage and remark: "Here where I stand, and where my bed used to be before they moved in this d---- piano, I say to you, musseer, I am not going back to my husband this evening!"
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More scandal then rocked The Harem...
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Lenore Ulric and Belasco had not been on speaking terms since he sold the screen rights to Kiki, a play she devoted three years of her life to, to United Artists, who would certainly cast Norma Talmadge in the title role. [Which is indeed what happened.]  Ulric was also not happy about the play being censored and felt that Belasco did not fight hard enough for the play. Ulric suddenly gave two weeks notice. Belasco set into action to recast the role, summoning Vivienne Osborne, whom he had seen in another play still running on Broadway, to his office. She accepted his offer to replace Ulric and gave her two weeks notice to the play she was then appearing in. Broadway managers cried foul, claiming Belasco breached their gentlemen’s agreement about poaching actors. Others carped that Belasco was a ‘law unto himself’ and ran roughshod over others. The unions, however, confirmed that as long as two weeks notice was given, the actors were within their rights. Rumors persisted that Ulric was about to get married to actor Sidney Blackmer, who was also appearing on stage at the time, in a play in Brooklyn. As for Ulric, she denied that she and Belasco had fallen out, and claimed she was leaving to nurse her failing voice. Ulric’s final performance in The Harem would be on May 9, 1925. 
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Two weeks after Osborne’s first performance, Belasco posted a closing notice for May 30, 1925. The play scored 183 performances. 
To bolster Miss Osborne, Belasco announced that he ‘may’ make the actress his next big star. But this was simply to save face. Although Osborne returned to Broadway in 1927, she never again worked for David Belasco. In 1926, Ulric returned to work for Belasco and they stayed together till his death. In 1929, Ulric married Sidney Blackmer. They were together ten years. She accepted the blame for their divorce. 
“I don't think I'm comfortable to live with. I have a temper. I'm difficult. I'm too quick and too impulsive. And men have a right to be comfortable.” 
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