1960-07-09 — Page 5

THE CHIN MAIL SATURDAY JULY 1960

Know Your Dog

BY HOL. HOWELL.

THE WEIRD WORLD OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

AN UNEXPECTED CONFESSION:

I think that I had too much

EVERY

morning around day-break an English bulldog bitch called Baby Doll goes in to the bedroom of Ten- nessee Williams and tries to get him up.

A few minutes later the small, squat bulldog (prankishly named Baby Doll by a previous own- er and not by Mr Wil- liams who created the character) is followed by a towering black Belgian shepherd dog

named

hate in me...

WHEN a writer begins to create a character the clay in his. hands often assumes an identity which has its birth deep in his subconscious. To probe deep into the dark recesses of the mind that has bred so many unsavoury themes the China Mail sent one of its star writers to live with Tennessee Williams. Here then is a further exploration of his weird' world....:

by DAVID LEWIN

There is also a divan in the room, a portable refrigerator, Satan, who looks like and in a corner an old upright wolf.

pedal organ which he plays in those rare moments "when I am very happy."

Compulsion

Satan places a vast paw on' Williams's chest and keeps it there until the playwright gets up. This is

He said: "I was so hard up then I had to borrow a type-

writer in a friend's apartment in New York and as I worked I this thick coffee, you had couldn't see through even if. you

to a four held it up fair weather

window.

write for thres or hours at a time and by noon I um finished. That is as much as I can do now at a time. I'm getting old you know (he will Tebe 50 for another year).

"Then suddenly my heart started going flip, flp, flip and I was so scared I ran down- stairs five flights-orid. OLTOSS

}

Brando and Magnani "they bated "each other'

Anatomy

of a hit: 3

in which Williams describes how he wrote "Cat On a Hot Tin Roof":

1. GOT more, money for selling this to Hollywood than for any other of my plays-half a million dollars, I haled what they did with it

When I wrote the original theme the title I gave It was, "Three players of a summer

game." Then I remembered a

father's. Whenever there would be any trouble at home he would say to my mother "You make me as nervous as a cat on a hot lin roof."

favourile expression of my

"At one time I worked for, to a bar on Third Avenue and ups since he was the bigger in Tennessee. Williams's plays have the same kind of warmih.

a routine that is followed seven or eight hours and broke every morning that nessee Williams is in West.

a sherry Ten-off in the middle for

Alpa sherry with an egg in Key it-to pick me up. Now I take half a pill and rely on swim in the afternoon to act as therapy..

the

"Then around seven or so I start work in my study,

"I type very, very fast. I had he said. "I write every day, a course at a business college Saturdays and Sundaya in- when I was young which my to grandmother paid for and I cluded. I just have

worked as a typist in business work: it is compulsion and as a clerk."

for me."

B

His study is a white wooden bungalow of one room. It is separated by the width of a small gar den, now being made into a patio, from the main

house.

He sits on a metal frame chair left over by the film company which came to Key West to make his film "The Rose Tattoo."

Coffee

B

had a drink and made a resolu- star. tion that I'd never take coffee like that again.

Antipathy

THE LONG & SHORT OF IT!

I'

our article the week before fast, we mentioned some 15 breeds popular locally, some ten of U.K. favour- ites, which as far as six bree dy were concerned overlap- ped leaving us with Corgi, Toy Poodle, Yorkshire in the smaller sizes and Labrador in the larger size where Lon- don shows us the present d sy trend.

Where Hongkong held on to No 17, West Highland White No,

In the 19, "Whippet No. 20′′ older favourites was {breeds Wirehaired and Smooth

Fox Terrier, Bull Terrier, Collle, We will then have dealt with Scottie, Pointer, Irish Satles, the 20 most popular doga in the The character Big Daddy is Great Dane and thanks to one U.K. and Hongkong, but extra-

The ordinarily, not the most popular based a bit on my father- enthualäst - ́an "anomaly except that my father did not American Cocker Spaniel. dep of the U.9.A.. the Beagle." are entirely different. Whatever Years ago I worked for six Well that makes., 19. breads... There remains therefore to Tennessee Williams described happens to them, though, they months in Hollywood as a script What a lot you may say! Well discuss the Beagle and some up for me what happened from that usually share one problem in writer. They paid me 250 dollars there are only about 100 mere and coming breeds.

Some of point on. "Mogriani came over common: fading beauty.

a week. During the first two recognised by London. But, be these possibly suitable on ag saying simply that she was the "They may not want to face weeks the producer kept com- not afeared we do not propose to count of size for Hongkong'e greatest actress in Europe and up to it and some actresses do ing to see me and mying every- "analyse" all these but some 30 myriad apartments. she was looking forward to not want to play such a role, thing I wrote was fine. Then who for various reasons may meeting the greatest actor in but it is a vital part of a wo- they sent for me and said, appeal locally. America. She had no false man's life..

"Don't bother to come in any

mumble

"Because of my heart condi- tion I took my first holiday. went off for three months, I've modesty about herself. They "My women are sometimes more" never taken a holiday since. hated one another. When they lonely or they go mad, or the I did nothing except collect Even when I go to Europe with chased a scene for the Alm, are frustrated because I have the money for the rest of the six

and seen so much of this around months. my mother this summer for a Marlon would

speak me, especially in the South, while month I'll take my typewriter Magnani who doesn't

English very well. anyway where I was brought up. along with me and work."

understand anything "But after my analysis. I have he was saying. So she mumbled reached a big decision about myself. I think perhaps I had too much hate in me. Hate can he constructive but perhaps I

even more.

Frustration

What Tennessee Williams has couldn't never revealed before is that ever since "Street Car" he h While he writes he has

written the leading part in cach victrola playing. There are four new play so Marlon Brando records on it and they play could play it. Most of the time round and round again until I Mr Brando has said. No-but Lam Anished." One record is Tennessee goes on just the

another is some. Hungarian violins. Hank Williams, a country-style singer, and the rest are Mexican mus: I think. I can just hear the music,

"I type one draft at a time. Then I revise in pencil. I hate

"Brando," said Williams simply, "is one of the world's two greatest actors. The other is Laurence Olivier."

When Williams wrote the play he Descending" "Orpheus

I saved it to live on I wrote "The Glass Menagerie," which was my first hit,

NEXT WEEK

What Williams

decided now

-(gondon Express Service).

Favourites

for

For instance of the smaller types: Boetan Terrier, Longhair-: ed Dachs. Miniature Schnauzer, Dandie Dinmont, Maltese, Chi- huahua, Black & Tan Torries, Itellan Greyhound, Japanese We may well start with our Cpaniel, Keeshond, Lakefand, ommission from the "Top Papillons, Pomeranian, Shih Tzu, Twenty favourites In

Tibetan Terrier, Lhasa Apsos which would mean:

U.K.

And of the larger types- Coral (Pembroke) No. 2 In, Golden Retriever, Basenji, Chow U.K., Labrador Retriever No. 7, Chaw, Borzol, Bulldog, Afghan Ppedia (Toy) No. 8, Yorkshire Alredale, Tereler No. 10 already mentioned above, and---

Incidentally, the half-brother of the Crufts winner laton his. way to Hongkong as a surprise.

· Calen® Terrier No. 11, Shetland birthday present for the místrasa Sheepdog. No. 12, Golden Re- of the house hence no names triever No. 14, English Bpringer. But what a parocil

POLEROUTER

hated more than I should. "When it came to a take and am going to make a change," she was brilliant. Marlon some. It is this change in Tennessee how would fluff his lines and it Williams that will be vital in does in woud have to be reshot and everything that he Magnani woud cry and say: future.

I be that good "How can again? She called Brando a sadistic egocentric."

Later, when the film was Willams typing it all through again asked Brando lo appear in it finished Tennessee can't bear the thought of having to read it all again--so I usually with Anna Magnani, the Italian met Brando again in Hollywood. actress. Brando read the part. They shared a car, together have someone in to type the new and said he would do it if it briefly after a premiere

Then The walls are bure save for a draft with the changes.

were made bigger than Miss Tennessee started to tell Brando travel poster of Turkey (he 1 revise again, sometimes five Magnani's, "Or, he said, "it what he thought of his be went to Istanbul a year ago but times,"

I can come on stage with a rock haviour to Magnani. As he works he smokes end- hated it), a stuffed straw roosier

in my hand." from Mexico, and a cut-out in lessly. He used to drink black heavy material of a coffee so strong it stood up in some Japanese Ash which had once the cup. He stopped the coffee been carried on the end of a habit in 1944 just after he sold

The Glass Menagerie." string in a carnival

On the deek is an electric typewriter and a file of papers neatly marked with alterations.

A British Crossword Puzzle

and

"But I haven't got enough The stormy meeting between time to tell you exactly what I Brando

was think. sala. Tennessee. and Magnan!

Brando Bnally agreed when "Orphe turned to the chauffeur and said, Dexinding" became the film "Mr Williams wants a longer

The Fugitive

Kind" with ride." Mr Brando's part considerably Although all his men could be enhanced and guaranteed close- played by Brando, the women

120

19

13

4

5 6

18

16

10

13

15

26

24

22

29.

'ACROSS Really swall tender? (6);

5 One in a book of 150 (5).

8 Certainly no angel (5)........

9 Old Bill's "better fole"? (B);

10 Teetotaller's conveyance (5).

11 Ultra-modem, it seems (5)..

12 Just Men (4).4).

13 No disciplinarian (6),

16. Fashioned from "errors" by

Shakespeare (8).

18 Made invisible (6)

20 Tree for a pillar of the

Church (5). -

22 One of Tennyson's young

Ladies (4)

23 Charge to someone's account

(3)

25 Fly through the air with the

greatest of ease? (6)

28 Modern hankie), ((8):

27 Go in for a contest (5)%

28 Meets metre

requirements

more thick in the head.

DOWN

1 Shout to a defender to shoot?

(8),

2 Properly regulated regarding

dize (8),

3 Writer of memoirs (4).

4 Altar panelling or screen

(7) RAMON AMA

5 Supplied with a motive force

(7).

6 Arden's become trapped (8). 7.On the run (5)","

14 Roundabout routes, they seem

(8),

15 This painter, apparently, was

8 country observer (8)

16 Removes barnacles, ete (7),

17 Deserved (7); (*)

19 Appear to be guilty? (6),

21 Shade of a shrub (5)

24 Make ready for bed (4),

"T¢ tik, rg Reith 'I wir Kust # Lum

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