1947 : A Streetcar Named Desire opens on Broadway
On this day in 1947, Marlon Brando's famous cry of "STELLA!" first
booms across a Broadway stage, electrifying the audience at the Ethel
Barrymore Theatre during the first-ever performance of Tennessee
Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire.
The 23-year-old Brando played the rough, working-class Polish-American
Stanley Kowalski, whose violent clash with Blanche DuBois (played on
Broadway by Jessica Tandy), a Southern belle with a dark past, is at
the center of Williams' famous drama. Blanche comes to stay with her
sister Stella (Kim Hunter), Stanley's wife, at their home in the
French Quarter of New Orleans; she and Stanley immediately despise
each other. In the climactic scene, Stanley rapes Blanche, causing her
to lose her fragile grip on sanity; the play ends with her being led
away in a straitjacket.
Streetcar, produced by Irene Mayer Selznick and directed by Elia
Kazan, shocked mid-century audiences with its frank depiction of
sexuality and brutality onstage. When the curtain went down on opening
night, there was a moment of stunned silence before the crowd erupted
into a round of applause that lasted 30 minutes. On December 17, the
cast left New York to go on the road. The show would run for more than
800 performances, turning the charismatic Brando into an overnight
star. Tandy won a Tony Award for her performance, and Williams was
awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
In 1951, Kazan made Streetcar into a movie. Brando, Hunter and Karl
Malden (as Stanley's friend and Blanche's love interest) reprised
their roles. The role of Blanche went to Vivien Leigh, the
scenery-chewing star of Gone with the Wind. Controversy flared when
the Catholic Legion of Decency threatened to condemn the film unless
the explicitly sexual scenes--including the climactic rape--were
removed. When Williams, who wrote the screenplay, refused to take out
the rape, the Legion insisted that Stanley be punished onscreen. As a
result, the movie (but not the play) ends with Stella leaving Stanley.
A Streetcar Named Desire earned 12 Oscar nominations, including acting
nods for each of its four leads. The movie won for Best Art Direction,
and Leigh, Hunter and Malden all took home awards; Brando lost to
Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen.
history.com/tdih.do
General Interest
1947 : A Streetcar Named Desire opens on Broadway
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihVideoCategory&id=52283
1912 : First Balkan War ends
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5570
1967 : First human heart transplant
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=7100
1984 : The Bhopal-Union Carbide disaster
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5571
#########################################
On this day in 1947, Marlon Brando's famous cry of "STELLA!" first
booms across a Broadway stage, electrifying the audience at the Ethel
Barrymore Theatre during the first-ever performance of Tennessee
Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire.
The 23-year-old Brando played the rough, working-class Polish-American
Stanley Kowalski, whose violent clash with Blanche DuBois (played on
Broadway by Jessica Tandy), a Southern belle with a dark past, is at
the center of Williams' famous drama. Blanche comes to stay with her
sister Stella (Kim Hunter), Stanley's wife, at their home in the
French Quarter of New Orleans; she and Stanley immediately despise
each other. In the climactic scene, Stanley rapes Blanche, causing her
to lose her fragile grip on sanity; the play ends with her being led
away in a straitjacket.
Streetcar, produced by Irene Mayer Selznick and directed by Elia
Kazan, shocked mid-century audiences with its frank depiction of
sexuality and brutality onstage. When the curtain went down on opening
night, there was a moment of stunned silence before the crowd erupted
into a round of applause that lasted 30 minutes. On December 17, the
cast left New York to go on the road. The show would run for more than
800 performances, turning the charismatic Brando into an overnight
star. Tandy won a Tony Award for her performance, and Williams was
awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
In 1951, Kazan made Streetcar into a movie. Brando, Hunter and Karl
Malden (as Stanley's friend and Blanche's love interest) reprised
their roles. The role of Blanche went to Vivien Leigh, the
scenery-chewing star of Gone with the Wind. Controversy flared when
the Catholic Legion of Decency threatened to condemn the film unless
the explicitly sexual scenes--including the climactic rape--were
removed. When Williams, who wrote the screenplay, refused to take out
the rape, the Legion insisted that Stanley be punished onscreen. As a
result, the movie (but not the play) ends with Stella leaving Stanley.
A Streetcar Named Desire earned 12 Oscar nominations, including acting
nods for each of its four leads. The movie won for Best Art Direction,
and Leigh, Hunter and Malden all took home awards; Brando lost to
Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen.
history.com/tdih.do
General Interest
1947 : A Streetcar Named Desire opens on Broadway
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihVideoCategory&id=52283
1912 : First Balkan War ends
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5570
1967 : First human heart transplant
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=7100
1984 : The Bhopal-Union Carbide disaster
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5571
#########################################
No comments:
Post a Comment