Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Playwright, best known for his plays.
On the island
Eight records
Danny BoyFavourite
The first one is a song I always request of a person with a great tenor voice. It's called O'Danny Boy.
Oh, that we two were maying, yes. That's uh one of my uh childhood uh days favorite. You know, it was one of my mother's favorites, my grandmother's.
Because I've always loved the Beatles and I was very sad when they broke up. I thought they had the most beautiful addiction, and the lyrics uh were um important lyrics.
While I was riding streetcar, just around the corner, there was a bar called Victor's, and after work I would go to Victor's to fortify myself with the uh Brandy Alexander. And they had this Ink Spots record on the jukebox, and I would always play that while drinking the Brandy Alexander.
I happened to meet Elvis Presley when I took my mother out to Hollywood on a vacation. He was particularly sweet to her.
It's also a record I associate with New Orleans. Right across from my rental apartments, one of which I occupy occasionally. There was a bar called The Chopping Block, and on their jukebox they had this enchanting record called The Shadow of a Smile, sung by Miss Vaughan.
Which means love me much. I used to hear it continually in Cuba before the days of Castro. Key West, where I live, is only forty five minutes from Cuba, and I used to go and I would always request the hotel band to play Kirima mucho.
My last record is uh Judy Garland. I adored Judy Garland, as did everybody, I believe, who knew her.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:34Does music play a big part in your life?
I love to hear it while I'm writing. You know, it uh affects the mood of the writing. I don't listen to it consciously, but it does seep into my consciousness as well. It sort of takes up the slack and helps you to concentrate.
Presenter asks
2:08What was your reaction to [moving from the south to the midwest]?
Uh, when uh as if entering a nightmare. Because uh I lived under the gentle influence of my grandparents in uh Mississippi and uh I was suddenly transported to the uh crudity and brutality of St. Louis, where we were suddenly conscious that we were poor.
Presenter asks
3:07Which writers influenced you most as a youngster?
I read all of Chekhov at the age of ten. All of all of Shakespeare, I beg your pardon, Shakespeare by the age of ten. Shakespeare first. Then Chekhov became my greatest influence later on.
Presenter asks
4:42The keepsakes
Had you seen a lot of theatre as a youngster?
No, I hadn't seen there wasn't much theater in Saint Louis, so the first time I saw a play that deeply, deeply moved me was uh Ghosts, Ibsen's Ghosts with Alan Azimova. Yeah. It uh moved me to the extent that it moved me right out of my seat and I I just couldn't sit still. I had to pace up and down the back aisle.
Presenter asks
6:49Tell me about working for MGM.
Yes, I had a very lovely office. I was put on an impossible assignment, uh writing for um Lana Turner. Who happened to have caught the fancy of the producer, you know.
Presenter asks
22:02How will you stand up to loneliness [on the desert island]? Could you endure it?
If I had a typewriter and plenty of typing paper, yeah.
“I find I do my best poetry within the context of of play, but I still write poems, yes.”
“I feel very, very guilty if a day passes in which I haven't written.”
“I maintain a pre precarious balance between citizenship in Bohemia and in the the world of propriety.”