By Women Possessed

by Arthur Gelb

  The question is, did Carlotta not keep diaries during those years? If not, why? Or, did she keep and then destroy them? It would be premature to conclude they’re nonexistent, for they might exist among someone’s private papers and will come tumbling out of an attic one day, as did the long “lost” O’Neill one-act Exorcism in 2012.

  “Of life’s forgotten mystery.” The thirty-five-line poem, entitled “To a Stolen Moment” and dated June 29, 1945, ends: “The magic of love was there / For me / And you / Standing there . . . With the sea and sky in your eyes, / And the sun and wind in your hair.”

  “If the ocean washes us away right now, it would be okay,” she remembers thinking. A/BG interview with JC.

  “If I’d known how to handle it, I might’ve—I don’t know what I would’ve done—I didn’t want—he was older, he was older, he was older—” Ibid.

  “It doesn’t mean anything.” A/BG interview with JC.

  “I couldn’t take care of him; I mean, I wasn’t about to.” Ibid.

  “His eyes, and the beauty of speech he had—his laughter, his dancing, I loved to dance with him.” Ibid.

  but only to run down Janie. A/BG interview with JC.

  she herself never called O’Neill by his first name. A/BG interview with KA.

  later notices O’Neill’s slightly puffy right hand. Ibid.

  “He told me I needn’t be sorry, he had a hundred people waiting for the canceled space.” A/BG interviews with CM, & SP interview.

  “I have to fake an interest.” 9/16/45, As Ever, Gene, SL.

  Carlotta can’t wait to get back. A/BG interviews with CM.

  PART V: UNRAVELING

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

  Greeks and Elizabethans, who “saw their lives ennobled” by the tragic. EO to Malcolm Mollan (probably Dec.), 1921, Conn. College, SL.

  “On the contrary, in spite of my scars, I’m tickled to death with life!” letter to Mary Clark, EO’s Gaylord nurse, 8/5/23, Yale, SL.

  “If he ever thinks for a moment that he is a success then he is finished.” Flora Merrill, NY World, 7/19/25.

  “If a person is to get the meaning of life, he must learn to like the facts about himself—ugly as they may seem to his sentimental vanity—before he can lay hold on the truth behind the facts; and that truth is never ugly!” Mary B. Mullett, The American Magazine, 1922.

  “doing wonders in bringing him back” to physical and spiritual health. A/BG interview with LL.

  and also “rent a small place in Sea Island or wherever Gene wants to go.” 12/18/45, Eugene O’Neill Foundation, Tao House Library.

  to be followed at the beginning of 1947 by either A Moon for the Misbegotten or A Touch of the Poet. 1/1/46, “TTWWF.”

  “There is only empty air now where I came into this world,” he quipped. PM, John S. Wilson, 9/3/46.

  “Once in a while,” Aronberg recalls, “Gene will take a sip of a drink just for appearances.” A/BG interview with Winfield Aronberg.

  O’Neill does not contradict him. Ibid.

  ignoring his own virtual abandonment of his son. 5/7/45, Yale, SL.

  “A typical pure Irish family.” Ibid.

  “He has a background all torn apart, without inner or outer decency.” Ibid.

  O’Neill responds, “Tell Shane to call me, I’d like to see him.” The Curse of the Misbegotten.

  she visits the King Street flat, bringing a complete layette for the baby. Ibid.

  “None of us commented much on her views of jazz.” Ibid.

  to assist him with cash and legal help. A/BG interview with CM.

  “And I have always felt that we should be, and would be friends—(not that you haven’t proved very much of a friend already as far as my work is concerned!)—if my good fortune should ever be to meet you.” 2/21/26, Harvard, SL.

  compensate just a bit for their still painful loss of Blemie. A/BG interviews with CM, Eline Winther, SW, & other friends.

  demands that the set be removed the next day. A/BG interview with SWL.

  “Here’s for a new beginning!” Inscriptions, 7/22/46.

  “We’ll have to wait until they bury this fellow and the world gets more back on keel before I’ll allow this play to be done.” Dowling’s Oral History, Columbia University.

  “I’ll tell you, Eddie, when I need you.” Ibid.

  the real bums lunch along with the actors as O’Neill’s guests. A/BG interviews with Dowling.

  warmth and admiration for his accomplishments as a scholar. Ibid.

  “He changed suddenly; he grew a beard, a fat belly from drinking and became a Communist,” she later recalled. A/BG interviews with CM.

  tried to get into the OSS (predecessor of the CIA) but was rejected. A/BG interview with Frank Meyer.

  “What would have interested me would have been to show the importance of Oratory in Cicero’s time and the period in our history when the orations, not speeches, of our Senators had a comparable importance—the pre–Civil War period of Webster, Hayne, Calhoun, etc.” 8/13/44, Yale, SL.

  “‘Why don’t you go into the bedroom?’” A/BG interview with CM.

  “We might not make any money, considering that most of our friends would open charge accounts and lovably forget them, but it would be a great sensation again to eat up the free lunch.” New York Journal-American, 8/26/46.

  despite his “great good fortune to earn over two million dollars by dramas greater or lesser.” ESS deposited her compiled observations at Beinecke, labeling them “Casual Notes on O’Neill the Writer.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

  entertained a crowd of friends in his dressing room instead of resting. A/BG interview with LL, & The Magic Curtain.

  “To Lawrence Langner, The hell with your cuts!” Ibid.

  “The truth is, about The Iceman Cometh, all kinds of things are happening all the time, but you have to listen and watch, and you hear repetition because that is the way O’Neill planned it, so that you cannot miss his meaning, and the emotions generated by his drama.” copy of undated letter from Nichols to his friend Irving Hoffman of the Hollywood Reporter, given to A/BG.

  soon “became aware that its length was indispensable to its power, its fullness of passion.” A/BG interview with Tennessee Williams, and “Founding Father: O’Neill’s Correspondence with Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams” by Dan Isaacs, The Eugene O’Neill Review, Spring/Fall 1993 (Isaacs credits an article, “Concerning Eugene O’Neill,” published in Souvenir Program for first production of More Stately Mansions at Center Theater Group, L.A., Sept. 1967).

  “O’Neill gave birth to the American theater and died for it.” A/BG interview with Tennessee Williams. The Times reporter was Arthur Gelb, then chief cultural reporter for the Times and at the time researching the 1962 biography O’Neill.

  slate-gray dress “much like that of a very proper housemaid,” noted Eline; Winther collection, Tao House Library.

  “‘What happened?’ I asked.” Ibid.

  “Well, I hope you enjoy yourself.” Ibid.

  suspects that Carlotta did sleep with Freeman. Ibid.

  the confidential story Carlotta has confided. Eugene O’Neill Foundation, Tao House Library.

  he will ask the Berlins to come after dinner. A/BG interview with RC.

  thanking him for “making Gene so happy.” Ibid.

  “His ‘off the record’ songs are all right for old gentlemen—but for a mixed party of so-called respectable folk—a bit misplaced & embarrassing! . . . personally, I am not old enough, nor young enough, to be excited by ribald songs.” 3/11/47, O’Neill Foundation, Tao House Library.

  “There we were, at opposite ends of the room, Carlotta sedately reading a book, and my face buried in a newspaper.” A/BG interview with JL.

  didn’t make an issue of Carlotta’s assumed amnesia. A/BG interview with BC
, & BC interview for Columbia University Oral History. It must be noted that Cerf was frequently inaccurate in presenting his observations about both O’Neills.

  “Chorus kids keep coming in for autographs and Gene has a wonderful time,” says Crouse. A/BG interview with RC.

  “I love you!” Inscriptions, Dec. 1946.

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

  “We just killed ourselves trying to find Irish actors,” Langner later recalled. A/BG interview with LL.

  “I signed the contract to play Josie,” remembered Mary Welch, “with the added, unusual clause, ‘The artist agrees to gain the necessary weight required for the role.’” A/BG interview with Welch, & Theatre Arts.

  “I felt that [Gene] had idealized his brother and would never be able to accept any actor in the part.” Ibid.

  “He mentioned other words which, he said, should not be used on the stage.” The Magic Curtain, & A/BG interviews with Marshall.

  the producers will delete eight words. Ibid.

  “Gene asked us to defer this until he was feeling better and he also asked us to postpone the production of A Touch of the Poet for the same reason.” A/BG interview with LL, & The Magic Curtain.

  never saw O’Neill again after she left for Hollywood. A/BG interview with Patricia Neal.

  when it was time for her to make her excuses and leave. A/BG interview with Bergman & CM.

  Bergman took her departure. Ibid., & The Eugene O’Neill Newsletter, May 1979.

  “He said that the O’Neills felt I hadn’t developed enough as an actress to play Abbie.” A/BG interview with Neal.

  “Gene is exhausted—his tremor much worse” and “more depressed than usual.” letter, 3/11/47, Sophus Winther Collection, Eugene O’Neill Foundation Research Library at Tao House.

  they are having to budget their money. Ibid.

  “who can keep an Irishman from stepping over a cliff?” 6/8/47, A/BG interview with Kennedy, who gave the authors a copy of the letter.

  now that his “ability to write in long hand has improved.” Aug. 1947, Yale, SL.

  “I’m going to catch hell for this.” A/BG interview with SW.

  of his escapade and of Carlotta’s disapproval. A/BG interview with Weeks.

  expresses her disapproval of the book and of Sherlee’s interest in it. A/BG interview with SW.

  “I love you, Carlotta, as I have loved you, as I always will!” Inscriptions.

  embarrassed to be a witness to their quarrel, he excuses himself and goes home. A/BG interview with SC, & “Love and Admiration and Respect.”

  asks him to come to the penthouse. A/BG interviews with SC.

  Commins dared to set down his version. “Love and Admiration and Respect.”

  “made a melodramatic exit, swearing she would never return.” Ibid.

  removing her clothes and some of her other possessions from the penthouse. CM diary, 1/17/48.

  asking his help in “getting Gene into a sanatorium.” CM diary.

  only too happy to move in with O’Neill. A/BG interview with Agnes Casey (Walter Casey’s sister) & SC.

  “I felt as though I was alone, in a nightmare.” A/BG interview with SWL.

  Fisk orders O’Neill into Doctors Hospital A/BG interview with SW, SC, & Dr. Shirley Fisk. (This account differs somewhat from what SC later wrote in his book.)

  “He always managed a smile at the end of our meeting, even when he was uncomfortable.” A/BG interviews with Fisk & Patterson.

  “Where can I take up life at 60?” CM diary, 2/5 & 2/7/48.

  knows she will always regard him as a villain. A/BG interview with Fisk.

  describes him in her diary as “stupid, insensitive, trouble-making.” 2/4/48.

  her head in “a whirl.” CM diary.

  to sue for a separation. 3/3/48.

  safely stored in the trunk where he kept it. “Love and Admiration and Respect.”

  to “punish him for reasons totally obscure to him.” Ibid.

  “We had a lovely visit.” Dowling’s Columbia University Oral History.

  called his father at the hospital “and told him to leave the old Tory and come and live with him.” A/BG interview with CM.

  the hat he chose was the one she wore to bury her husband. NYT Magazine, 5/1/88.

  “A great many people thought he could, but Carl and I knew they needed each other, and would always go back together.” A/BG interview with FM.

  probably got wind of the proceedings and reported to O’Neill. A/BG interview with SWL.

  misremembered certain details when interviewed some years later. A/BG interview with JLP.

  “In a case like this, I don’t see how anyone ever understands any of the true issues.” 4/9/48, Columbia, SL.

  “Poor soul, he is as baffled as I am,” writes Carlotta, “his faithfulness to the Master is thrown into gutter [together] with my 20 yrs service & love & loyalty.” CM diary.

  only too happy to return to California. Tao House Oral History.

  to what Dr. Patterson considers “the tops in orthopedic circles.” A/BG interview with Dr. Robert Lee Patterson.

  “The shock to my already sick body and nerves almost ends me.” CM diary.

  “Quit shaking and write me.” A/BG interview with Patterson.

  “Mrs. O’Neill and I are together again with hope and love and a future!” letter (undated) shown to A/BG by Patterson.

  CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

  (At least for the moment.) letter, EO to Melville Cane, 6/6/48, Columbia University Libraries.

  “When that was gone there was nothing but disappointment and despair between us.” JQ, NYT Magazine, 5/1/88.

  “And why complain when the world itself is one vast tremor.” letter, 7/26/48, private, SL.

  that “this letter is being written legibly, without medication.” 12/3/48, As Ever, Gene.

  new medical research under way into the cause of Parkinsonian tremors. 12/4/48, Yale, SL.

  “I will never write another play and there is no use kidding myself that I will,” he writes soon after to Aronberg. 2/4/49, Yale, SL.

  to reaffirm that each is the other’s sole beneficiary. CM diary, 5/31/48.

  house perched on a cliff overlooking the Atlantic CM diary.

  “The house was so much on the water,” Carlotta once recalled, “that it was tied to rocks by steel cables and when the storms came up they came right up over our heads—we expected to go out to sea at any moment.” interview with SP recorded by A/BG.

  “Sweetheart, all my love and all of me.” Inscriptions.

  “for your happiness is my happiness!” Inscriptions, 7/22/48.

  paid for the house “out of her reserve fund.” 7/26/48, private, SL.

  supplemented by an additional $25,000 of O’Neill’s. 9/12/48, letter to Aronberg, Yale, SL.

  “Gene does not in any way deserve this last heartache,” she deplores to her diary. 8/16/48.

  “I don’t fancy ‘accusations’ beginning again—an unhealthy sign.” CM diary, 8/19/48.

  “His whole body needs extra sedatives . . . watch him all night.” CM diary, 9/3/48.

  “we can’t even afford a car!” Yale, SL.

  “There is peace here for me, and for Carlotta too.” 12/4/48, Yale, SL.

  “the saddest moment of all the years I had known O’Neill,” recalled Winther. Sophus Winther Collection.

  “I don’t need you anymore.” Ibid.

  “seemed to be filled with a longing for his ancestors.” Ibid.

  whether all tremors are in fact Parkinsonian and, ipso facto, incurable. letter, late Dec. 1948 or early Jan. 1949, Yale, SL.

  “It is not only a matter of hand, but of mind—I just feel there is nothing more I want to say.” 8/27/49.

  “Gene’s gramophone & records to be stored.” CM diary,
6/18 & 6/25/48.

  so she can keep an eye on him from her bed. A/BG interview with Mai-mai Sze, in whom CM confided during a visit to Marblehead Neck.

  from the nearby town of Salem to prepare and serve their meals. A/BG interview with CM.

  “At everything in the theatre except being tragic and being comic he is a success . . . the good clean fun of a Hitchcock movie is better.” The Playwright as Thinker: A Study of Drama in Modern Times (University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1946).

  Bentley regretted, “came out too late to be of any use to you.” Harcourt, Brace, New York, 1962.

  labels him a playwright who cannot write. Paris Review, Nov.–Dec. 1946.

  “I don’t believe I could live through a production,” he tells Langner. A/BG interview with LL.

  issued his invitation as “probably more a salute than anything else,” and also “as a sort of refusal to recognize the reality.” letter from Miller to Jackson Bryer, 3/7/89, published in The Eugene O’Neill Review, Vol. 17, Nos. 1 & 2, Spring/Fall 1993.

  despite, as he later wrote, “that first awful production.” Ibid.

  add his “cheers to all the others.” 4/29/49, Texas, private.

  “Young Gene has just committed suicide.” “Love and Admiration and Respect.”

  in a voice “blazing with anger.” Ibid.

  O’Neill “lapsed into silence and he never mentioned Eugene again.” A/BG interview with CM (slightly augmented by SP interview).

  no such meeting took place. 2/25/50, Yale, SL.

  unfaithful to her and occasionally struck her. A/BG interview with RL.

  “He told me he had tried to kill himself once, in New Haven.” Ibid.

  “He also started drinking heavily, more than I realized at first—although I never saw him really drunk.” A/BG interview with FM.

  “He told me we’d have a baby, and I could leave my hair blond, although he preferred me as a brunette,” Ruth said. A/BG interview with RL.

  “I can’t get back.” A/BG interview with FM.

  “There was insanity in his eyes.” A/BG interview with RL.

  “I told her Gene had killed himself. Ibid.

  he paid all the expenses. letter, CM to Winfield Aronberg, 10/26/50, Yale, SL.