Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1975 - 37

unfortunately the case that Mr. Ward's visuals simply do not do
justice to the text, and since a visual art form is the subject of
Ward's discussion, it is a great disappointment to see this reversal
of priorities. However compact, informative and delightful to read,
the visual defects of Art and Design in Textiles seem to imply
that Mr. Ward is a writer on textile design rather than a textile
designer.
Sylvalya Eichen
Toronto

THE ARTS AND THE WORLD OF BUSINESS
A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
by Charlotte Georgi.
Metuchen: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1973.
xii, 13-123 pp.
$5.00
As an arts administrator myself, I had awaited the publication of this bibliography with a great deal of eagerness. True,
its predecessors, two multilithed lists, The Arts and the Art of
Administration (1970) and Management and the Arts (1972).
were strictly inhouse documents of the Graduate School of
Management of the University of California Los Angeles. But, I
reasoned, a publisher would surely demand a broader and more
useful perspective. Unfortunately this was not the case.
With some few exceptions, all materials described are
located in UCLA Libraries, particularly the Graduate
School of Management Library. For the most part, the
books included are recent imprints and are English language, primarily American, publications.
This is clearly a librarian's bibliography rather than a practioner's;
"The result of something over three years of work in locating,
acquiring, and processing the materials cited." What frightens
me not only in her explanation but in her organization of the
material is the absence of the verb "to use." A collection in any
meaningful sense is the working tool of a scholar or a group of
scholars. Ms. Georgi has served the function of an administrative
cu rator for a single program thus missing the splendid opportunity to provide a basic resource for all similar programs. On
the other hand, this is a starter for those in arts management
and as such must be applauded.
The material is organized under a series of twenty-two topic
headings, e.g., "Business, Economics, and the Arts," "Labor
Unions and the Arts," and "Society and the Arts." A particular
title because of its content or scope may appear in two or more
of the topic headings. Because the individual entries are not
identified by number, a system, by the way, which would have
made cross-referencing quite simple, a total number of entries
was difficult to ascertain, but there are roughly five hundred
titles. I frankly do not understand the rationale for an organization by topic headings, an organization which leads to
multiple repetitions which must then be assembled under an
alphabetical author index. A far more practical format would
have been a straight alphabetical listing, cross-indexed at the end
by categories. This would have avoided multiple entries and
would have permitted identification by code or number a la
Duckles' MUSIC REFERENCE AND RESEARCH MATERIALS.
Obviously the number of pertinent titles will increase enormously
in the near future. An alphabetical listing would allow for this
increase without a proportionate expansion in the amount of
printing necessary.
As with all such efforts, there are a questionable number of
omissions. In the section on the performing arts why, for example,
are only two titles mentioned from the entire series of UNESCO
Studies and Documents on Cultural Policies? In the section on
music I do not understand why Reinhard Pauly's book on opera
is included when similar efforts on dance, musical comedy and
operattes are omitted. Some seventy titles in my recent "Publications on the Arts and Society - A Preliminary Checklist"
(Arts in Society, Vol. 10, No.3) are not included, a fate also
shared by entries in Administration in the Arts: An Annotated
Bibliography of Selected References (1973) by Prieve and Allen.
And finally do we even need a section called "Novels about
Business and the Arts"? If so, should it not also include books by

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and about impresarios? Clearly a basic reference of sources dealing
with the arts and society does not yet exist, but the groundwork
continues to be laid. The scope of the task is massive and I thank
Ms. Georgi for her contribution. Hopefully she will continue to
expand and refine her work. In the meantime I urge you to
purchase this version. You will find it most helpful in understanding the world in which the various arts must survive and
grow.
Robert H. Cowden
University of Nebraska at Omaha

LIFE AMONG THE PLAYWRIGHTS
by John F. Wharton
New York: Quadrangle, 1974
ISBN 0-8129.{)442-7
X+336 pp., iIIus. $15
Mr. Wharton's book is aptly titled as it is a semi-autobiographical account of his experiences working with the Playwrights
Producing Company. It is an unusual book in that it provides a
close view of the process of producing plays from an angle people
seldom see - thllt of a theatrical lawyer. Mr. Wharton was a legal
representative for movie producers, actors, and playwrights
before he helped organize and run the Playwrights Producing
Company. As a member of the board, he performed such varied
tasks as writing contracts, arranging business deals, raising money,
reading new plays and offering criticism, attending out-of-town
try-outs, and even giving direction to actresses. The style of the
book is easy and pleasant, and Mr. Wharton presents an excellent
picture of the goals, problems, and achievements of the company.
There was a great deal of excitement and enthusiasm in 1938
when Sidney Howard, Robert Sherwood, Elmer Rice, S.N.
Behrman, and Maxwell Anderson decided to form a company to
produce their own plays. They were chiefly interested in establishing a situation in which the five playwrights would work
together to produce high quality plays, with the playwright
haVing the final say on all production questions.
In the first season, they produced Sherwood's Abe Lincoln
in Illinois, Anderson's Knickerbocker Holiday, Behrman's No
Time for Comedy and Rice's American Landscape, the first
three of which were very successful. No play was produced by
Sidney Howard in the first season and he was killed in a tragic
accident as he was completing Madam Will You Walk for the
second season. It was the first of many tragic events which affected the company. The problems of the next 21 years are
described in anecdotes which are sometimes moving and sometimes quite funny. For example, Alfred Lunt had a great deal of
trouble directing Audrey Hepburn and her film star fiancee, Mel
Ferrer in Ondine. After the opening, a woman naively asked Lunt,
a top actor and director of long experience, if he had learned
anything from directing a film star like Ferrer. He immediately
answered, "Yes, madam, I learned that you cannot make a knighterrant out of a horse's ass."
In the 40's and 50's the company had many successful productions, but faced continual difficulties, such as inflation,
McCarthyism, and the death of members and friends. Writing in
1950, four-time Pultizer Prize winner Robert Sherwood said,
The terrible fact is that unless you can turn out a Life
With Father, Oklahoma!, Harvey, or South Pacific, you
may as well be dead. Why anyone should now invest in
the theatre - except to promote a cutie or add to the
losses on the income tax or both - is beyond me.
Despite the difficulties, Sherwood kept writing, but he never had
another success. Three days before his death in 1955, he wrote,
"When I try to write I feel I am going to die." By 1959 Anderson, too, had died, Behrman had resigned, and by the end of the
50's the company was chiefly producing plays by outside writers.
Following the production of Gore Vidal's hit show The Best Man
in 1960 a Certificate of Dissolution was filed, and the Playwrights
Producing Company was no longer in existence.
Despite the difficulties encountered by the company, Wharton
encourages other playwrights to form producing organizations.

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

WINTER,1975

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1975