by Marion Meade
285 MISS H. BROUGHT NOTHING: Gellhorn, p. 296.
285 SHE GAVE NEWSPAPER INTERVIEWS: New York Post, October 22, 1937.
285 YOU KNEW DARN WELL: Parker interview, Columbia University Oral History Research Office.
285 AT PARTIES : Mother Jones.
285 IN PIPERSVILLE: Author’s interview with Lei Droste Iveson.
285 SHE IMAGINED: Dorothy Parker letter to Alexander Woollcott, September 2, 1942, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
286 DEAR MISS KENNEDY: Dorothy Parker letter to Sheelagh Kennedy, November 1937, Spanish Refugee Collection, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Libraries.
287 SHE MANAGED TO GET A LAUGH: New York Herald Tribune, December 4, 1937.
287 PERELMAN WAS CURIOUS: Perelman, The Last Laugh, pp. 186—7.
289 IN A LETTER : Alan Campbell letter to Toni Strassman, April 1938.
289 AS ALWAYS: Dorothy Parker letter to Sheelagh Kennedy, March 21, 1938, Spanish Refugee Collection.
289 KOBER LATER CLAIMED: Richard Moody, Lillian Hellman, Playwright, Pegasus Division of Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1972, p. 113.
289 HER WORK HABITS: Author’s interview with Budd Schulberg.
290 AND THEN WHAT: Author’s interview with Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett.
290 AT A PARTY: Writers Guild of America West News, March 1982.
290 YOU COULD HAVE: Dorothy Parker interview, Columbia University Oral History Research Office.
290 NOW LISTEN : Ibid.
290 TO AN INTERVIEWER : Ibid.
291 ONE DAY, SHE LOOKED OUT: Siegfried M. Herzig letter to author, January 31, 1983.
291 A REPORTER ASKED HER: New York Times, “Miss Parker Never Poses,” January 8, 1939.
291 SHE INSISTED : Richard Lamparski interview with Dorothy Parker.
292 IF YOU HAD SEEN: Time, January 16, 1939, p. 55.
292 TWENTY-FIVE YEARS LATER: Richard Lamparski interview with Dorothy Parker.
292 THOUGH THE WORLD: William Rose Benét letter to Dorothy Parker, May 15, 1939, Spanish Refugee Collection.
292 MEANWHILE, DOROTHY WENT ON: Dorothy Parker letter to Evelyn Ahrend, May 19, 1939, Spanish Refugee Collection.
293 NOT UNTIL 1942: Dorothy Parker note to Marshall Best, The Viking Press, received August 21, 1942.
293 DOT, CHARLES MACARTHUR REMARKED: Janet Flanner letter to Alexander Woollcott, ca. 1939-1940, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
294 PRESENTS, SHE GROWLED: Cooper, p. 112.
294 WHY IS IT : Parker, “One Perfect Rose,” The Portable Dorothy Parker, p. 104.
295 THE WHOLE WORLD: Alan Campbell letter to Ruth and Augustus Goetz, undated.
295 DOROTHY PERKED UP: Dorothy Parker telegram to Helen Grimwood, June 16, 1939.
295 JOHN DAVIES THOUGHT: John Davies letter to author, December 12, 1979.
296 HELEN WALKER ALSO NOTICED: Author’s interview with Helen Walker Day.
296 THAT SUMMER, JANET FLANNER: Janet Flanner, Paris Was Yesterday, 1925-1939, The Viking Press, 1972, p. 220.
296 ALAN IMPRESSED HELEN: Author’s interview with Helen Walker Day.
297 ALAN ADMITTED: Alan Campbell letter to Alexander Woollcott, August 1939, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
297 KNOWLEDGE OF THE FIBROIDS: Dorothy Parker letter to Alexander Woollcott, December 1940, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
298 HE WAS ASTONISHED: Alan Campbell letter to Alexander Woollcott, December 1940, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
298 CONVALESCING: Dorothy Parker letter to Alexander Woollcott, December 1940, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
298 ROBERT BENCHLEY DESCRIBED HIM: Robert Benchley letter to Gertrude Benchley, December 29, 1940, Mugar Library, Boston University.
299 THE POOR SON-OF-BITCH: Frank Scully, Rogues Gallery, Murray and Gee, 1943, p. 269.
299 SHE HAD MADE POSSIBLE: Author’s interview with Albert Hackett.
299 BENCHLEY TOLD THE MURPHYS: Robert Benchley letter to Sara and Gerald Murphy, July 1, 1937.
300 SCRATCH AN ACTOR: Author’s interview with Albert Hackett.
300 WHAT AM I DOING WITH HIM: Author’s interview with Ruth Goetz.
300 WHAT AM I DOING IN HOLLYWOOD: Author’s interview with Albert Hackett.
300 IT’S THE CURVED LIPS : Author’s interview with Henry Ephron.
300 GROWING RECKLESS: Author’s interview with Ruth Goetz.
300 SAID RUTH GOETZ: Ibid.
301 DOROTHY HAS BEEN HEARD TO SAY: Sid Perelman letter to Ruth and Augustus Goetz, April 10, 1940.
302 RUTH GOETZ CALLED HIM: Author’s interview with Ruth Goetz.
302 SID PERELMAN, SPECULATING: Sid Perelman letter to Ruth and Augustus Goetz, April 10, 1940.
302 SHE BITTERLY DESCRIBED: Writers at Work, p. 75.
303 SHE WAS, AFTER ALL: Brendan Gill, Here at The New Yorker, Random House, 1975, p. 264.
303 CLEARLY HER SO-CALLED FRIENDS: Prescott, p. 7
304 NEGLECTING TO MENTION: Harold Guinzburg letter to Dorothy Parker, July 12, 1937.
304 TO ALAN,: Harold Guinzburg letter to Alan Campbell, July 12, 1937. Even though Dorothy felt no need of a literary agent, some of the tasks that an agent ordinarily handles were taken care of by Harold Guinzburg or Alan. In his agent role, Alan tended to be quite haughty. When, for example, a biographical dictionary asked for information, he forwarded the request to Toni Strassman at Viking with a disdainful note saying that he simply could not imagine his wife writing “an informal, first-person autobiographical sketch of about five hundred words.”
304 GOD DAMN IT: Parker, New Masses, March 14, 1939.
305 HE “THOUGHT IT WAS A SCREAM” : Dorothy Parker letter to Helen Bugbee, March 24, 1939, in Mother Jones, February/ March 1986, p. 41.
305 THEIR VILLAGE: Parker, “Soldiers of the Republic,” The Portable Dorothy Parker, p. 168.
306 SHE SAID: Dorothy Parker telegram to Harold Guinzburg, April 25, 1938.
306 HE SCOLDED HER: Harold Guinzburg letter to Dorothy Parker, April 27, 1938.
306 HE HAD SENT HER: Harold Guinzburg letter to Dorothy Parker, November 3, 1936.
307 THE MAN SAID: Hellman, An Unfinished Woman, p. 188.
307 IN THE SUMMER OF 1941: Robert Benchley to Gertrude Benchley, July 2, 1941, Mugar Library, Boston University.
307 ON HER BIRTHDAY: Dorothy Parker letter to Harold Ross, August 22, 1941.
308 “MY,” DOROTHY REMARKS: From Saboteur.
308 SHE CALLED HIS VALUES: Dorothy Parker to Alexander Woollcott, September 2, 1942, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
308 I WAS TOO GREEN : Author’s interview with Helen Deutsch.
309 SHE WOULD JUST HOLD OUT: Author’s interview with Joseph Bryan.
309 OUR OLD FRIEND DOTNICK: Sid Perelman to Ruth and Augustus Goetz, December 1941. Prudence Crowther, editor of Don’t Tread on Me : The Selected Letters of S.J. Perelman, dates this letter March 1942.
310 NOW THE WHOLE WORLD: AIItllOr’S interview with Sally Foster.
310 WE WERE WORKING VERY HARD: Author’s interview with Henry Ephron.
311 SHE ASSURED ALECK: Dorothy Parker letter to Alexander Woollcott, September 2, 1942, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
311 AFTER CONFUSING THE ISSUE: Ibid.
311 HER PHILOSOPHY: Ibid.
Fifteen: The Leaking Boat
312 RELATIONS WITH HER SISTER: Dorothy had difficulty imagining her sister’s life. After Helen separated from Victor Grimwood and considered renting a small apartment in Manhattan, Dorothy was full of encouragement. She sent her a check to have “a little fun” but wondered if Helen really wished to live in the eighteen-dollar-a-week room she described. It sounded “dreary” to Dorothy, who instead recommended the Fairfax Hotel, where she could have “a great big room that sort of divides itself into a sitting room, and a sort of kitchenette—at least, with a nice ice-box, so you could give people a cocktail.” (Dorothy Parker letter to Helen Grimwood.) The rates at the Fairfax were probably beyond H
elen’s means because in the end she decided to live with her daughter.
312 DESPITE HER COMPLAINTS: Ibid.
312 HER NIECE LEL: Author’s interview with Lel Iveson.
313 SHE WAS DETERMINED : Dorothy Parker letter to Alexander Woollcott, September 2, 1942, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
313 HE LATER JOKED: Harold Ross letter to Marc Connelly, September 22, 1942.
314 FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS: Author’s interview with Thomas Guinzburg.
315 ALAN LATER RECALLED: Alan Campbell letter to Alexander Woollcott, in “P.S. He Got the Job,” As You Were, The Viking Press, 1943, p. 637.
316 DESPITE HIS PRECONCEIVED NOTIONS: Joshua Logan, Movie Stars, Real Peo. ple, and Me, Delacorte Press, 1978, p. 250-1.
316 THEY WERE TERRIBLY INTIMATE: Author’s interview with Joshua Logan.
316 A BELOVED LITTLE MOUSE: Logan, p. 251.
317 WE HAVE THE ROUND TABLE: Gaines, p. 237.
317 HARPO MARX: Harpo Marx, Harpo Speaks!, Bernard Geis Associates, 1961, p. 432.
317 DOROTHY, SEATED: Ted Morgan, Maugham, Simon and Schuster, 1980, p. 472.
318 HIGGLEDY PIGGLEDY: Parker untitled verse, in W. Somerset Maugham, “Variations on a Theme,” introduction to The Portable Dorothy Parker, p. 600.
318 ALTHOUGH DOROTHY LATER: Morgan, p. 473.
318 IN AN ARTICLE: Excerpt reprinted in New York Times Book Review, June 24, 1945, p. 21. On the Sunday that the excerpt appeared in the Times, Dorothy was to be a weekend guest at the Kaufman farm in Bucks County. Beatrice Kaufman, shortly before her death, thought the feud between George and Dorothy was silly and hoped to reconcile them. That morning, Dorothy saw the newspaper before George came down for breakfast. Dismayed, she tucked it under her arm and thumped back to her room where she locked it in her suitcase. Kaufman, upset over the disappearance of the paper, spent the morning interrogating the servants for clues to its whereabouts.
318 ON THE OTHER HAND: Parker, “The Middle or Blue Period,” Cosmopolitan, December 1944, in The Portable Dorothy Parker, p. 594.
319 PEOPLE OUGHT TO BE: Parker, “The Middle or Blue Period.”
319 WHEN SHE WAS NOTIFIED: Rosmond, p. 11.
320 AFTER BENCHLEY’S DEATH: Bruccoli, p. 181.
320 WHENEVER PEOPLE ASKED: Case, p. 60.
320 DOROTHY WAS HAPPY TO SPREAD: Richard Lamparski taped interview with Dorothy Parker.
320 THREE DECADES LATER: New York Times, October 27, 1979.
320 THOSE EYES: Benchley, p. 17.
321 BOB, DON’T YOU KNOW: Sheilah Graham, The Garden of Allah, Crown Publishers, 1970, p. 111.
322 HIS SON TIMOTHY: Author’s interview with Timothy Adams.
322 BRENDAN GILL RECALLED: Author’s interview with Brendan Gill.
323 WHEN SHE KNEW: Parker, “The Lovely Leave,” The Portable Dorothy Parker, p. 5.
323 THE LETTERS SPELLED OUT: Logan, p. 252.
323 SHE MADE IT HOMIER: Author’s interview with Mary McDonald.
324 AT THE NEW YORKER: Author’s interview with E. J. Kahn, Jr.
324 EVERYONE MAKES A SWELL FUSS: Helen Grimwood letter to Bill Droste, ca. 1943.
324 HE HAD GAINED : Parker, “The Lovely Leave.”
325 WE GUESSED: Author’s interview with Marge Droste.
326 YOU SEE THAT: Author’s interview with William Targ.
326 DOROTHY FELT: Dorothy Parker, “Who Is That Man?” Vogue, July 1944, p. 67.
327 ONLY, FOR THE NIGHTS: Parker, “War Song,” The Portable Dorothy Parker, p. 370.
327 ALAN EXPECTED HER: Author’s interview with Joshua Logan.
328 I CAN COMPETE : Charles Addams letter to author, February 23, 1983.
328 I’M SORRY IT’S OVER: Engle, p. 14.
328 TO HIS UNCLE: Author’s interview with Roy Eichel.
328 A COUNTRY RESIDENCE : Dorothy and Alan sold Fox House in July 1947. Over the years the farm has changed hands several times. Its present owner is Robert Yaw III.
Sixteen: Toad Time
330 HE WAS A CONFIRMED ALCOHOLIC: Author’s interview with Joshua Logan.
330 LATER HE DESCRIBED HIMSELF: Newark News, October 15, 1961.
331 THERE WERE QUITE A FEW: Keats. p. 250.
331 COMPARED WITH ALAN: Author’s interview with Joshua Logan.
331 1 SHE WAS CONSTANTLY: Author’s interview with Joseph Bryan.
332 DON’T WORRY ABOUT THAT: A. E. Hotchner, Choice People: The Greats, Near-Greats, and Ingrates I Have Known, William Morrow, 1984, pp. 20-32.
334 REFERRING TO A FILM: Dorothy Parker/Ross Evans letter to Margo Jones, August 12, 1949, Dallas Public Library.
335 IN LETTERS: Margo Jones letters to Dorothy Parker and Ross Evans, June 6, 30, 1949, Dallas Public Library.
335 Now WE KNOW: Dorothy Parker and Ross Evans letters to Margo Jones, February 17, March 25, 1949, Dallas Public Library.
335 CRIES FOR AUTHOR: Dallas, Morning News, April 5, 1949.
335 WE’VE TASTED BLOOD: Time, April 18, 1949.
336 I SAID IT WOULDN’T WORK: Norman Mailer, “Of a small and Modest Malignancy, Wicked and Bristling with Dots,” Esquire, November 1977, p. 133.
336 IN POOR HEALTH: Ross Evans letter to Margo Jones, August 12, 1949, Dallas Public Library.
336 ONE OF HER DOCTORS: Ibid.
337 BIT BY BIT: Despite extensive revisions, further productions of The Coast of Illyria failed to materialize. In England, it was rejected by every first-rate director, all of whom disliked the script. Dame Flora Robson, insufficiently impressed, could barley recall the play in 1982. (Dame Flora Robson letter to author, March 15, 1982).
338 THE REPORT: Files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Los Angeles Field Office.
338 HE SAID LATER: Ross Evans letter to Margo Jones, January 27, 1951, Dallas Public Library.
338 SHE HAD NOT EXPECTED GRATITUDE : Ross Evans remained in Cuernavaca, where he eventually married and had a child. In the late 1950s, returning to the United States, he fell upon hard times and worked as a dishwasher in San Francisco and then as a Macy’s salesclerk in New York. For a time he had an affair with singer Libby Holman and lived at her Connecticut estate. An autobiographical novel begun in 1950 finally appeared in 1961 as A Feast of Fools but did not prove a critical or commercial success. When Evans died in 1967, he was 51.
339 WHO IN LIFE : Author’s interview with Albert Hackett.
339 HE QUERIED FRIENDS : Ibid.
339 A WOMAN HE HAD BEEN DATING: Author’s interview with Bob Magner.
339 YOU NEVER KNOW: Newspaper clipping, unidentified source, August 15, 1950.
339 THEY HAD NO PLANS : Doylestown Intelligencer, August 18, 1950.
339 INCLUDING THE BRIDE. Cooper, p. 112.
339 BUDD SCHULBERG DESCRIBED: Author’s interview with Budd Schulberg.
339 ALAN WAS HEARD TO REMARK: Author’s interview with Sally Foster.
339 AS THE EVENING WORE ON: Dietz, p. 237.
340 IN JANUARY, HE REPORTED: Alan Campbell letter to Sara and Gerald Murphy, ca. January 1951.
341 FRANKLY, SHE FINALLY SAID: Author’s interview with Albert Hackett.
341 LISTEN, I CAN’T: Ibid.
341 DURING THE COURSE OF THIS INTERVIEW : Federal Bureau of Investigation files.
341 DEAR MR. HOOVER: Ibid.
341 SHE COULD THINK OF: Dalton Trumbo, Additional Dialogue: Letters of Dalton Trumbo, M. Evans and Co., 1970, p. 133.
342 IN 1947: New York Daily News, June 13, 1947.
342 IN NEW YORK: New York Herald Tribune, November 3, 1947.
342 STILL SHE WAS NOT CALLED: Federal Bureau of Investigation files citing 1952 speech at Abraham Lincoln Brigade/Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee meeting.
342 RED APPEASER: New York Times, June 9, 1949.
342 THE ACCUSATION MADE HER FEEL: Ibid.
342 NO DENIAL : New York World Telegram, June 8, 1949.
342 BY 1950: Federal Bureau of Investigation files, memo dated August 28, 1950.
343 THE BUREAU ALSO Q
UOTED: Ibid., memo dated July 19, 1950.
343 I WAS BLACKLISTED: Parker interview, Columbia University Oral History Research Office.
344 SHE KNEW NOTHING: New York Times, February 26, 1955.
344 A FOUR-PAGE MEMORANDUM: Federal Bureau of Investigation files. Even though FBI Headquarters closed her file in 1955, the New York Field Office continued to maintain its records until May 1956.
344 MR. TAVENNER: U.S. Congress, House Committee on Un-American Activities, Communist Infiltration of Hollywood Moti on Picture Industry, Hearings, Eighty-second Congress, Part 1, March 8, 1951.
345 MANY HE KNEW: S. J. Perelman letter to Leila Hadley.
345 DOROTHY LIKENED: Parker speech, Seven Arts, p. 139.
346 A DISGUSTED SID PERELMAN: Sid Perelman letter to Leila Hadley, 1951.
346 BY SEPTEMBER 1952: New York World Telegram and Sun, October 16, 1953.
346 ALL SHE WANTED: Ibid.
347 WE DROPPED IT : New York Herald Tribune, October 18, 1953.
347 WE HAD BEEN THINKING: Dorothy Parker, untitled typescript, Leah Salisbury Collection, Columbia University Library.
348 WE’D ARRIVE: Quentin Reynolds, By Quentin Reynolds, McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1963, p. 2.
348 SHE EDUCATED HIM: Author’s interview with Kate Mostel.
349 THEY HAVE TO ASK QUESTIONS: Kate Mostel and Madeline Gilford, 170 Years of Show Business, Random House, 1978, p. 129.
349 AN ADORING KATE MOSTEL: Author’s interview with Kate Mostel.
350 TO NORMAN MAILER: Mailer, p. 132.
350 THAT WAS REALLY THE DRUNKEST: Author’s interview with Kate Mostel.
350 ANOTHER EVENING AT THE MOSTELS: Author’s interviews with Ian Hunter, Kate Mostel.
350 BY THE TIME: New York Herald Tribune, October 18, 1953.
351 WALTER MATTHAU REMEMBERED: Walter Matthau letter to author, May 3, 1982.
351 THE FIRST DAY OF REHEARSAL: Harold Clurman interview, Columbia Oral History Research Office.
351 DOROTHY THOUGHT IT WOULD BE INSANE: Dorothy Parker interview, Columbia Oral History Research Office.
351 SOME OF THE REVIEWS: Mostel and Gilford, p. 130.
351 IT WAS, HE THOUGHT: New York Journal-American, April 4, 1954.
352 WHEN THE GOOD NEWS: Office memo dated October 14, 1955, Leah Salisbury Collection, Columbia University Library.