Tennessee Williams Wounded Genius

[Music] from a d this is biography [Music] Blanche Dubois Stanley Kowalski Big Daddy all of them born in the fertile brain of Tennessee Williams [Music] all the material comes from the back of my head and right through my fingers onto the electric portal this work is so powerful that he came along once in a century he shocked audiences and rescued an art form he kept the American Theater a live almost single-handedly during the 50s until he was ridiculed as a has been the critics murdered him fully murder really destroyed himself he was alas one of the first casualties of alcoholism and drug addiction genius is a word that should without a shred of doubt be applied to Tennessee Williams Cornelius Williams descended from an illustrious Tennessee family but loud hard drinking a ladies man at winner Williams daughter of a minister mentally unstable sexually repressed their son Tennessee inherited the best and the worst from both in March 1911 he was born Thomas Lanier Williams in Columbus Mississippi Tom spent his infant years in this home belonging to the Episcopal Church where his grandfather was a highly respected minister Edwina stayed home and doted on Tom and his older sister Rose Cornelius a traveling salesman was usually out of town [Music] the marriage was a marriage made in hell and he was happiest out on the road with the boys onto playing poker room and uh probably dallying a bit with the ladies too of the evening and when Cornelius was home he bullied and terrorized his wife and young children Edwina ignored her husband reserving her affection for Tom and Rose but she was also controlling warning that any misbehavior would be punished by God when Tom was four years old the family moved to Clarksdale another town in Mississippi already a needy child Tom needed even more when he fell deathly ill my brother was a victim of diphtheria and for a year he wasn't able hard to get out of the house his legs were practically the skin and bone you couldn't hardly walk but he could discover the world of words his mother introduced him to writers like Shakespeare and Dickens during Tom's two-year illness Edwina Williams grew even more protective of her frail son Tom also spent hours with his sister Rose the two became Inseparable best friends then in 1918 Tom's world was turned upside down his father got a new job with the international shoe company the Williams family was uprooted from rural Mississippi to St Louis one of the largest cities in America Williams hated the town and his new school which he compared to a jail his misery was compounded because his incompatible parents were now under the same roof in this apartment building in 1919 there was a third child Dakin and money was tight every month at the end of the month when the bills came in there was a Donnie Brook in our house because my father was very bombastic around the house and was shout at my mother was shout at my sister Tom was Drew deeper into his private Oasis of poetry and novels for a boy who was shy to the point of pain and sensitive to what then might have been called a feminacy he was almost brutalized by schoolboys and this was reinforced at home because his father couldn't stand the fact that he didn't turn into a football hero the boy preferred to read poetry Tom was ridiculed by his Macho dad who mocked him as a [ __ ] and wondered whether he was raising a homosexual mom wasn't a model parent either she was manipulative continually warning her children about men like their father the mother could at times be extremely difficult being very puritanical about sex and of course the effect on the children was divisive was destructive Rose and Tom found solace in each other they played together then when they were old enough went to movies together at the local theater they were similar in personality best friends and soul mates Rose was his one really great love it was one to whom he was at all times faithful as he was to his writing they were the two major forces in his life but in her late teens Rose began showing signs of mental problems violent mood swings hysterical crying adding even more tension to the home the breaking point came one night when Tom assaulted rose with his most dangerous weapon his words my brother met her coming down the stairs and said I never want to see your ugly face again and that was a a tremendous blow because my sister at that time was just wavering between sanity and insanity and the next day she took a carving knife and went after my father with it eventually the family had Rose Williams committed to a mental hospital Tom was devastated and for the rest of his life feared that he too might go mad fortunately there was an outlet writing he became more serious about it at age 19 when he entered the University of Missouri Tom wrote poetry a kiss brings pain and yet I'll kiss again his father wasn't exactly proud Tom's prowess in poetry was nothing to brag about at poker games and Cornelius Williams flew into a rage when Tom flunked ROTC military training he felt his son was a disgrace to the family not a real man [Music] he yanked Tom out of college and put him to work at International Shoe by day 21 year old Tom stacked boxes in this Warehouse in St Louis [Music] by night he wrote his tools were a typewriter coffee cigarettes and persistence he typed ferociously on the typewriter and he just pounded them and he turned out a page in about a minute and then he'd be a dissatisfied and tear it out I put another one in and type furiously again maybe the same page 15 times into everything was exactly right after three years in the shoe factory Tom entered Washington University in St Louis at 24 he was one of the oldest students on campus in 1936 he won first prize of 25 in a poetry competition for the first time Tom felt he might actually have real talent so he entered one of his plays in a university drama contest when it got fourth place Tom's ego was crushed he screamed at his Professor quit school and stormed off campus he wrote about himself angry and bored wonder if I shall end up like rose the next year 1937 it was on to college number three the University of Iowa once again he wrote plays and acted in a student production this time he even graduated and he decided Thomas Lanier Williams just wasn't a suitable name so he named himself after the state settled by some of his ancestors from now on he would be Tennessee Williams it was also time to move away from home after considering a few possibilities he decided to try his luck in New Orleans [Music] in 1938 the day after Christmas Tennessee Williams arrived in his new city ready to begin a new life New Orleans was known as a place where just about anything went one of the first things to go was his virginity Tennessee quickly realized he preferred the company of men I entered the deck he preferred the company of men I entered the decadent world of New Orleans then I discovered the certain uh flexibility in my sexual nature should I say he also discovered poverty but when things seemed hopeless one of his plays won a contest and a first prize of one hundred dollars far more important the award caught the attention of Audrey wood a highly respected literary agent she convinced him New York City was the only place for a serious American dramatist Tennessee Williams was persuaded to head north to the theater capital of America [Music] in the first week of 1940 28 year old Tennessee Williams arrived in New York City he was entranced by the Theater District and the Marquis that lit up the great white way he soon made a new circle of friends many of them other writers from the south many of them homosexual I've never known anyone who accepted being homosexual more and who really believed the day was lost if he didn't get in bed with somebody the day was also lost if he didn't write Tennessee wasn't concerned with the mundane aspects of life things like eating or shopping but he did care about his work in 1942 Tennessee Williams and his friend Donald Wyndham wrote a play called you touched me he just worked practically all the time he would work eight hours typing away you know every now and then cracking his knuckles when he got nervous as in New Orleans Williams was constantly broke that changed abruptly in the summer of 1943 the playwright took a train to Hollywood and instant riches his agent Audrey wood landed Williams a job as a scriptwriter with MGM he called his new employer Metro Goldmine mayor he went right out of poverty into having 250 dollars a week into him this was incredible and unlike what you might have expected he did not go Hollywood meaning Tennessee kept working on serious plays even while enjoying the beach and a fat paycheck one of his works the gentleman caller was based on his controlling mother and mentally ill sister at the time Rose Williams was in a Missouri mental hospital but her screaming fits ended in 1943 when she underwent an experimental new treatment a lobotomy Tennessee Williams cherished sister would never be the same I asked him once how is Rose now and his response was well she's tranquil see and that was his he didn't want to go beyond that the same year Rose was lobotomized Williams submitted the play about his sister to MGM the studio rejected the gentleman caller as unsuitable for a movie Tennessee then rejected Hollywood as unsuitable for his own Mental Health In late 1943 Williams returned to New York with a bulging bank account and a new play with a revised title the gentleman caller was Now The Glass Menagerie Audrey wood passed the script around and it was eventually read by the legendary stage actress Laurette Taylor who felt the part of Amanda could put her back in the spotlight Amanda was a fading southern belle abandoned by her husband desperate to marry off her disabled daughter we're gonna get you married but mother I'm crippled he'd just have a slight effect that's all oddly noticeable The Glass Menagerie opened at Chicago Civic Theater winning critical praise but the true test came when it moved to New York City in April 1945. Broadway was crowded with musicals and light comedies but few serious plays and nothing quite like The Glass Menagerie with its blend of poetic language and naked emotion I'm going out walk out just the way your father did we'll manage without you I'm strong enough to take care of Laura you've got to the Moon your selfie Freeman the real-life dreamer had no idea what to expect he attended opening night with Donald Windham remaining aware of people coughing and things like that what Tennessee and I talked about when we walked around the streets afterwards it was whether the coughing with what people do on first nights or admit the audience was bored and how could one tell from that what the critics were going to say what many of them said was that Menagerie was a masterpiece at age 34 Tennessee Williams had a hit play and the acceptance he never got it home but he felt little satisfaction fearing he would be a one-hit wonder in January of 1946 the suddenly famous playwright returned to this apartment in New Orleans the city he found most conducive to writing he began work on a play about another faded southern belle named Blanche DuBois and named it after the streetcar that ran past his apartment A Streetcar Named Desire [Music] the play's power and William's reputation convinced Elia Kazan to sign on as director Kazan and Williams then gambled on some unknown actors Marlon Brando to play tough guys Stanley Kowalski Kim Hunter as his wife Stella I had no notion what I was getting into had no notion that it would be the play of the century that I was involved with none at all even more than Menagerie A Streetcar Named Desire explored Uncharted and forbidden territory this is a story of a stud who beats up his pregnant wife rapes his sister-in-law and holds the pair of them in economic bondage I mean people that never seen anything like this on stage I asked him could you give me an idea of what you consider the theme of the play and he said well he said I think it's a plea for the understanding of the delicate people and I think the plea is also to understand him Williams had The Uncanny ability to write equally well for men and women I think the Duality agenda is very useful to her right he can write both for a male point of view and a female point of view or in between he had what you'd call two personalities a male personalities similar to Stanley Kowalski and a female the type of Personality inside of him which enabled him to live the life of Blanche in his mind would you smash the bottle for if I could twist the broken end in your face I bet you will do it I would I will you want some rough awesome all right let's have a little rough out we've had to stay with each other from the beginning it was such a tremendous play so powerful the audience was quiet we didn't know what they really liked it or didn't like it they were just stunned they liked it the audience gave Williams a standing ovation later one of the guests at the opening night party was famed playwright Thornton Wilder he said that he thought for theater at any rate that the character of Blanche was simply too complex and Tennessee said but Thornton people are complex the reviews for streetcar went beyond smashing there were more Awards and even a Pulitzer Prize theatergoers lined up for tickets and Tennessee Williams was the sensation of Broadway but there was a downside audiences and critics demanded more more magic more masterpieces Tennessee Williams felt the weight of everyone's expectations he would soon search for relief in the bottle and the bedroom young playwright Tennessee Williams returns from abroad on the Queen Elizabeth Williams is back in New York for the Radio City Music Hall opening of the Warner Brothers Motion Picture version of his critics Plies play The Glass Menagerie version of his critics supplies play The Glass Menagerie not yet 40 years old Tennessee Williams was America's most famous playwright the plays that took Broadway by storm were now being turned into Hollywood spectaculars father what are you doing improve me they call Gay deceivers I won't wear them you will why should I because of a painfully honest honey you're just as flat the movie version of A Streetcar Named Desire again starred in Marlon Brando Kim Hunter the lighting crew that are way up above you never meet them one of these chaps up there leaned over and said hey who wrote this thing and we yelled up Tennessee Williams he said wow he said I've been in the business 25 years he said I don't go to movies this one I want to see the movie had to be sanitized for the screen and the rape scene removed but it remained powerful [Music] you think I'm gonna interfere with you meanwhile Tennessee Williams was in love in late 1948 he started seeing Frank Merlot a former sailor with a charismatic personality the two men moved in together it would be Tennessee Williams one and only enduring relationship Merlot organized their lives allowing Williams to concentrate on writing Frank once said very plaintively Tomcat accept how much I love him that's a very sad commentary because Frank Merlot really gave his whole life to loving of this very wounded genius that was Tennessee Williams devoted that genius to the theater in 1951 he had another hit with the rose tattoo starring Eli Wallach as a truck driver in love with an immigrant Widow every other night Tennessee would come in with a new ending he was not happy with the ending of that play and he'd say I think I found it now but it took him almost three weeks to find what he wanted Wallach then starred in a more experimental Williams play called Camino Real it was a critical and Commercial flop but Williams could ignore the poor reviews he was barely 40 with plenty of time and energy he was dubbed by one of his friends as tenacity Williams he could have a hangover a fighter with his lover he would get up in the morning and he would go to his typewriter those hangovers were becoming more frequent Williams came from a long line of heavy Drinkers and was following the family tradition he dealt with alcoholism in his next play about a drunk ex-football hero and his sex starved wife jump off the roof Maggie jump off it on stage and on film CAD on a Hot Tin Roof was filled with Unforgettable characters and overflowing with sexual tension Cat on a Hot Tin Roof earned Williams more rave reviews more Awards critics were in love with his language Williams was considered playwright and poet he was a Wordsmith he was very particular about how he put him together often he would scratch out a line scratch out a word and get it right gee golly gosh he wanted that gee golly gosh Rhythm and finally he worked about 10 times until he got it we go to see a play like say cat and he'd sit there and chuckle and laugh at he he loved his work he loved what he did and his laugh was just like a maniacal laugh and he'd be in the theater with him right in the back and he would this hyena laugh in the wrong places and people in front would turn around like how dare you you know in the 1950s Williams and Frank Merlot began spending most of their time in Key West not yet a major tourist attraction in 1955 Williams was in Key West when a telegram arrived he had won another Pulitzer Prize for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof that same year he finished his only work written specifically for the screen foreign [Music] Carol Baker and Eli Wallach this is the 19 year old baby doll she wouldn't let her husband come near her she wouldn't let the stranger go away [Music] I thought it was a rather innocent movie about getting revenge but when the reviews came out it was so this is the most pornographic well I couldn't believe it the Catholic Legion of decency gave the film a rating of C for Condemned Francis Cardinal Spellman denounced baby doll from the pulpit of St Patrick's Cathedral calling it morally repellent Cardinal Spellman was asked did you see the movie he said no if the water supply is poisoned why would I drink it oh that was I thought well I didn't ask him to drink poison water just to go see the movie the controversy focused attention on baby doll and helped make it a hit some critics called it one of the year's best movies Williams was also working on another controversial play sweet bird of Youth dealt with an aging movie Queen and her affair with a young gigolo he decided to preview the play at Studio M Playhouse in South Florida every day the director George Keithley went to Williams hotel room to pick up the latest version of the script these are William's actual notes and revisions Keithley noticed the playwright was drinking more and earlier at one time he had a a tumbler full of bourbon and this is at 10 o'clock in the morning and I said Tennessee why do you do that why do you why do you drink so much and he said well because someday when I don't have this and he pointed to all the writing he says I'll have this sweet bird of Youth eventually moved to Broadway and the movies it is a rare appearance in a premiere for the master Storyteller oh and sweet bird of Youth added another absorbing drama to his list of successes oh Williams received nearly a half million dollars for the film rights by now his reputation for racy material was used to help promote a movie never before even in the Strange World of Tennessee Williams has there been anyone like chance Wayne and the women who wanted him oh feel so I don't remember your face but your hands are familiar meanwhile the real life world of Tennessee Williams was a mess he and Frank Merlot were arguing more and more and Williams was unfaithful with faithful regularity when it came to sex he was addicted to the kindness of strangers Tennessee always had an eye open for some good looking young man and the younger the better after numerous separations Williams and Merlot split for good in 1962. soon after Merlot learned he had lung cancer in the summer of 1963 Frank Merlot died taking with him a part of Tennessee Williams [Music] Tennessee said I have been in a deep depression since Frankie's staff and he was I mean and you could just see it he could he was rendered almost immobile that's another thing that drove him into these kinds of drugs and and stuff to obliterate that pain there was more pain to come the great writer would soon be considered a washed up has been and the critics who made him were about to break him since man has known woman that has never been such a knight in 1964 another Tennessee Williams play was turned into a steamy film the Night of the Iguana featured religion guilt and of course sex iguana was widely praised but Williams Glory Days were nearing an end [Music] now in his early 50s he was taking huge amounts of sleeping pills washing them down with wine or gin Williams still stumbled to the typewriter every morning but often walked away with a blank page he sought help from a psychiatrist who had a novel suggestion he told him to stop being a homosexual I mean you can't do that to a person who is a boring homosexual you suddenly can't go to the shrink and say you want to get well you start sleeping with a woman I mean it made no sense at all [Music] [Laughter] in addition to the pills alcohol and dubious advice in addition to the pills alcohol and dubious advice there were reviews that seemed to get worse with each new play slapstick tragedy was called bizarre the seven descents of Myrtle was ridiculed as the several descents of Tennessee and a Critic called another play Williams monster just as he had been rejected by his father long ago Williams was now being rejected by the theater the critics murdered him literally murdered him mercilessly and that was very hard on him I think they killed him sure they drove him right back to drinking drugs through it all Williams remained eternally loyal to his lobotomized Sister Rose still in a nursing home he paid all her bills and occasionally brought her to his plays ever since Rose's Madness Williams had been terrified of going insane himself the alcohol and drugs were now leading to full-blown paranoia he would call me like he called me from Key West one evening he said they can an attempt will be made on my life tonight so I said well Tom I call him Tom still uh I can't possibly get the Key West tomorrow tonight well tomorrow will be all right and so he says yes yes come tomorrow so he knew that if the tent were made on his life that night it would most likely be unsuccessful so Dakin Williams a Roman Catholic convinced his brother religion was the answer Tennessee agreed to be baptized in Key West but soon disavowed the ceremony then Dakin took a more drastic step in 1969 he checked his brother into Barnes Hospital in St Louis the psychiatric ward [Music] he was diagnosed there is dying of acute drug poisoning and so I had no choice but to to keep him in and so I I kept him in for three months until I totally dried him out Mr Tennessee Williams after his release Tennessee Williams went on National Television the David Frost show Tennessee was clearly drunk and is one of the few times that anybody ever saw him swish drunk or not Tennessee bragged about his Newfound sobriety right I'm on the way and now and I must say it feels very strange you've given it up I allow myself one drink a day and you've given up sleeping pills as well yes I had to give them up I'm just on myself now and frost was a new month trying to get him to talk about his homosexuality how about the things like the homosexuality and so on does everybody live here Williams dodged the issue then came up with a one-liner that delighted the audience but I've covered the waterfront Williams kept his drinking and pill popping in check at least temporarily but Broadway producers were unwilling to risk their money on his plays Williams was forced to work in small theaters far from the great white way in 1971 at age 60 Williams decided to collaborate again with director George Keithley on Tennessee's new play outcry he became extraordinarily paranoid he became very aggressive in in all the wrong ways very defensive very difficult to work with one day he Unleashed that aggression on his agent Audrey wood she had nurtured his career for a quarter Century but in 1971 during rehearsals for outcry he fired her and he Whirled at her and he said and you you [ __ ] he said you've been against me from the beginning he said I want nothing more to do with you I mean the whole room stunned Audrey didn't know what to say she was deeply deeply deeply hurt the actress Anne Jackson also felt the William sting when she went to meet with him in a New York hotel he was drinking and he had a young boy up in the hotel room I was so ashamed for this young boy who was just sitting in the room and not part of the conversation and I tried to bring him into the conversation and Tennessee got very nasty and said would you like to go into the bedroom with him and of course I was that I was so upset by the way he was treating me he could just rip you apart the downward spiral continued but the Man known as tenacity Williams wasn't quite ready to surrender [Music] in 1972 after years of writing nothing but flops Tennessee Williams was ready to try again at the age of 61. his newest play small craft warnings was staged in a tiny theater in downtown Manhattan the publicity campaign included a press conference that was painful to watch because of William's obvious drunkenness though [Music] I won't say God damn and unless you let me this is all right you weren't so gone then odd love it's beautiful thank you I don't think you know how much I love actors they're my lines they're the blood that keeps me alive actors like you and I can be Williams himself acted in the play but it was ridiculed by audiences and critics alike even his friends debated whether Williams Magic Touch had vanished forever I'm always amazed at people who claim that the play has never got less good because I think they did and I think Tennessee knew it and it yes it more or less did him in as far as as being a failed a playwright believe me it was more of the people among his friends and among critics who failed him but no matter how bad the reviews Williams never stopped writing and never stopped believing the next play would be the one I doubt that I can write The Plea that will become a classic but I can write a successful play if I'm given a chance to after all I'm not the senile I don't believe [Laughter] one final blow came in 1980. Williams had great expectations for his play clothes for a summer Hotel but when it opened in Washington One reviewer called it vacant another said the play was illiterate and Williams fired back and I wrote him [Laughter] I'm sick of some some of those critics I won't take that [ __ ] no more you can keep that in too I'm a record his heart was broken and I think when that last play failed uh that was it for him he felt that there was no hope in early 1983 Williams seemed to give up he had absolutely no energy nothing left to offer on a visit to New York he checked into the Elysee hotel which he called the easy lay because of his many sexual encounters there on the night of February 24th Williams went to his room which was well stocked with wine and sleeping pills the next morning he was found dead at age 71. [Music] the announcement came on the radio first by afternoon before the body was finally removed from the hotel the street with clogs was trafficker could not get through I think he himself would have been more amazed at this spectacle Broadway's greatest stars were in shock I don't feel as much sorrow that he is dead as as much joy that he lived according to the autopsy Williams choked on a small cap from a plastic bottle of barbiturates it's an explanation his brother has never accepted first of all was too small to block the air passage and had absolutely nothing to do with his death and where there's a cover-up there has to be a reason for the cover-up and the reason was that he was murdered dick and Williams believes his brother was killed because he was about to change his will many others feel it was a form of suicide in fact he took his own life how deliberately we don't know but he took enough drugs deliberately that reveal to us the depth of Despair with which he clearly had lived his final months he wanted to close the door and finally he did so close friends argue that the actual cause of death was slow torture administered by critics I think Tennessee was martyred by the bad reviews and the and kind of humiliated publicly by critics who just didn't kind of humiliated publicly by critics who just didn't understand and then came all the Obits with the great praise and I would like to take the noses of those who who were on the destructive hunt and stick it in the in the obituaries and let them read what what a Heritage this man left Williams was buried in St Louis the city he associated with his lonely childhood violent family quarrels and his sister's descent into madness it was also the city where Williams collected the raw material he shaped into his masterpieces the play is powerful enough to stir the human soul I sent him a little gift once and when the sales woman said where should I send it I said Tennessee Williams in love and she said Tennessee Williams they just grabbed her heart and I thought you know that's what he did to people the woman who grabbed Tennessee's Heart is also dead in September 1996 Rose Williams died in her nursing home she was 87. brother and sister once Inseparable are together again their graves just a few feet apart in a St Louis Cemetery on Rose's headstone a line from The Glass Menagerie blow out your candles Laura Tennessee's other great love his work is very much alive his plays continue to Captivate audiences around the world not just the famous ones but also the experimental works that were so widely ridiculed since he died more and more of those little old little place toward the end of his life have been produced and people saying wow that's better than I thought it was when you come down to it he is one of the great literary figures of this century and he will last for quite a while into the Millennium I think you'll see his place Tennessee Williams was blessed with a gift to arouse and inspire his happiest moments were spent creating using his typewriter as a painter uses a brush you have to have the sparkle genius which he has that's what a great artist is you have those people doing that on canvas and you have them doing it with words and my brother was I think the greatest and always will be I always used to say with him he's piped in Tennessee's just piped directly into god with that kind of stuff how else does that come out God's at work somewhere they're doing that Tennessee Williams Left Behind theatrical classics they earned him praise and adulation as the Century's greatest playwright he personally felt the extremes of ecstasy and torment then put them in words and on stage for others to see to hear most of all to feel I often wonder how can anybody like me and yet the kitchen had discovered and then somebody that's [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Gevaldo Gomes

Views: 503,103

Keywords: Documentário; Biografia: Literatura

Id: L_cO_71cZxQ

Length: 44min 52sec (2692 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 04 2016