“My ten favorite plays.” №. 152.—
F. Scott Fitzgerald:
F. Scott Fitzgerald, who achieved a startling success with “This Side of Paradise,” who added to his prestige with “The Great Gatsby” (which Owen Davis dramatized) and whose latest (and some readers say best) novel is “Tender Is the Night,” writes from Park avenue, town of Baltimore, listing the following as his outstanding impressions in the theater:
1—Charles Chaplin in “The Pilgrim.”
2—Performance of an obscure stock company actor in Gillette’s “Secret Service,” about 1906.
3—My own performance in a magicians’ show at the age of nine.
4—Greta Garbo in her first big role.
5—E. H. Sothern as Lord Dundreary in “Our American Cousin.”
6—George M. Cohan in “The Little Millionaire.”
7—Ina Claire in “The Quaker Girl.”
8—The Theatre Guild actress who played the stage role in “Grand Hotel” that Joan Crawford played in the movies. I’ve seen her twice and I think she’s one of the greatest actresses in the world.
9—Ernest Truax’s face when he was carrying through bravely in a flop of my own that opened cold in Atlantic City.
10—David W. Griffith’s face as I imagine it during the filming of “A Birth of a Nation” when he was “forging in the smithy of his soul” all the future possibilities of the camera.
Published in New York Sun newspaper (10 September 1934).
Not illustrated.