My Sister Eileen

My Sister Eileen originated as a series of short stories by Ruth McKenney that eventually evolved into a book, a play, a musical, a radio play (and unproduced radio series), two films, and a CBS television series in the 1960-1961 season.

The autobiographical stories originally were published in The New Yorker, then collected and published as the book My Sister Eileen in 1938. It centers on two sisters from Ohio who move to a basement apartment in the Greenwich Village section of New York City in order to pursue their careers. Older, sensible Ruth aspires to be a writer, while Eileen dreams of success on the stage. A variety of oddball characters bring color and humor to their lives.

Adaptations

1940 play

The stories were adapted for the stage by Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov. The Broadway production, directed by George S. Kaufman, opened on December 26, 1940 at the Biltmore Theatre and moved three times before finally completing its run of 864 performances on January 16, 1943. The opening night cast included Shirley Booth as Ruth and Jo Ann Sayers as Eileen, with Richard Quine and Morris Carnovsky in supporting roles.

Eileen McKenney, the inspiration for the title character, and her husband, novelist and screenwriter Nathanael West, were killed in a car accident four days before the Broadway opening.

1942 film

Fields and Chodorov adapted their play for a 1942 film released by Columbia Pictures (their biggest hit of 1942/3). Alexander Hall directed a cast that includes Rosalind Russell as Ruth and Janet Blair as Eileen, with Brian Aherne, George Tobias, Allyn Joslyn, Elizabeth Patterson, Grant Mitchell, and Richard Quine in supporting roles (and The Three Stooges in a very funny cameo at the end).

Russell was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role but lost to Greer Garson for Mrs. Miniver.

1946 radio play, and unproduced radio series

On May 18, 1946, Rosalind Russell and Janet Blair reprised their roles in a half-hour radio adaptation of the 1942 film for the CBS Radio anthology series Academy Award Theater. During the closing credits, show announcer Hugh Brundage stated that a radio series based on the two characters was being prepared by writer Arthur Kurlan. He added that it would star Lucille Ball and it would premiere in the fall. Despite the seeming certainty of this announcement, CBS ultimately turned down the proposed series after an audition record was made.

Then in 1947 CBS began airing a different radio series, My Friend Irma, which contained the same basic premise and characterizations. In response, Arthur Kurlan sued CBS on behalf of himself and Ruth McKenney, ultimately winning compensation from CBS.^[1]

1953 Broadway musical

Wonderful Town, with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and music by Leonard Bernstein, is a musical stage adaptation of the Sherwood stories. Rosalind Russell repeated the part of Ruth for this hugely successful musical.

1955 film

Cover of the DVD release of the 1955 musical film

In 1955, Columbia remade the film as a musical comedy with a score by Jule Styne and Leo Robin. Richard Quine and Blake Edwards wrote the screenplay, and Quine directed. The cast includes Betty Garrett as Ruth, Janet Leigh as Eileen, and Jack Lemmon, Bob Fosse (who choreographed the musical numbers), Kurt Kasznar, Dick York, and Tommy Rall in supporting roles. Richard Quine, who had played the drug store clerk, Frank Lippincott, in the 1940 stage play and the 1942 movie, directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Blake Edwards.

The score includes the songs "Atmosphere," "As Soon As They See Eileen," "I'm Great," "There's Nothin' Like Love," "It's Bigger Than You and Me," "Give Me a Band and My Baby," and "Conga."

The film is available on both videotape and DVD.

1958 TV special

Rosalind Russell starred in a CBS-TV broadcast of Wonderful Town on November 30, 1958.

1960 Television series

A short-lived half-hour situation comedy premiered on CBS at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, October 5, 1960. The cast included Elaine Stritch as magazine writer Ruth Sherwood and Shirley Bonne as her younger sister Eileen Sherwood, an aspiring actress. Jack Weston played Chick Adams, a reporter; Rose Marie starred as Bertha, a friend of the Sherwoods, and Stubby Kaye played Marty, Eileen's agent. Raymond Bailey, later the greedy banker Milburn Drysdale on The Beverly Hillbillies, starred as D.X. Beaumont, Ruth's boss. Leon Belasco appeared as the Sherwoods' landlord, Mr. Appopolous.^[2] Agnes Moorehead appeared too as Aunt Harriet. The storyline closely followed that of Sherwood's book and the subsequent films. The series, produced by Screen Gems (the television subsidiary of Columbia Pictures), ended its one-season run on April 12, 1961. The program aired opposite the then popular Robert Conrad and Connie Stevens series Hawaiian Eye on ABC and Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall on NBC.

References

1. ^ Arthur KURLAN and Marilyn Kurlan, Petitioners, v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Petitioner, v. Arthur KURLAN and Marilyn Kurlan, Respondents.
2. ^ Alex McNeil, Total Television, New York: Penquin Books, 1996, 4th ed., p. 580

External links

• My Sister Eileen at the Internet Broadway Database (1940 play)
• My Sister Eileen at the Internet Movie Database (1942 film)
• My Sister Eileen at the Internet Movie Database (1955 film)
• My Sister Eileen at the Internet Movie Database (1958 TV special)
• My Sister Eileen at the Internet Movie Database (TV series)