AMERICAN MASTERS: HELEN HAYES: FIRST LADY OF THE AMERICAN THEATRE (TV)
Summary
One in this documentary series that explores the lives
and achievements of America's most celebrated
native-born and adopted artists and performers. This
edition--narrated by Jason Robards and using archival
photographs, performance clips, and
interviews--examines the life and career of actress
Helen Hayes. Hayes begins with a story about watching
actress Ada Lewis prepare to appear on stage each night
and describes the circumstances behind first seeing her
name in lights on a Broadway marquee. Actor Jose
Ferrer, artist Al Hirschfeld, and producer Robert
Whitehead discuss her early success, and Hayes tells
why she was forced to learn to play the piano. She
then explains her desire to develop her talent beyond
ingenue roles, her study and challenges as a young
woman, and the sequence of events leading to her
marriage to playwright Charles MacArthur. In a sequence
devoted to Hayes' early film work, Sam Marx describes
how Irving Thalberg made many changes in her first
major movie role, allowing her to win an Academy Award
for best actress in the 1931 film "The Sin of Madelon
Claudet" (shown in part in a clip). Hirschfeld and
actress Pat Carroll talk about how Hayes' restrained
acting style in a period of sentimental overacting
garnered her praise and was especially suitable for
movie roles. Hayes recalls studying people in everyday
life in order to portray characters more realistically,
as well as her interpretation of Mary Stuart and the
feeling that for the first time she totally embodied a
character. Ferrer, Carroll, and actors Colleen
Dewhurst, James Stewart, and Eli Wallach explore Hayes'
ability to connect with her audiences. Next, Hayes'
discussion of her work in film is interspersed with
clips from her work in "The White Sister" (1933), "A
Farewell to Arms" (1932), "Vanessa, Her Love Story"
(1935), and "What Every Woman Knows" (1934). She
explains why she and her husband left Hollywood to
return to New York and characterizes her method of
acting as concentrating on craft and the display, rather
than the feeling, of emotion. Hayes reveals the key to
the character of Queen Victoria in her signature role in
the play "Victoria Regina" and recites a scene from the
script. Whitehead, Ferrer, and Dewhurst discuss Hayes'
commitment to touring with her plays in order to allow
people all over the country to experience theater. They
also describe audiences' response to her lack of
pretense and "Americanness of character." One of Hayes'
rare television performances is shown in a clip of the
1955 production of "The Skin of Our Teeth," followed by
an interview of the same year on Edward R. Murrow's
"Person to Person." Hayes talks about her daughter
Mary's death from polio and remembers her eventual
return to work in the 1952 movie "My Son John," a clip
of which is shown. Her return to films once again after
her husband's death is seen in the 1956 "Anastasia."
Hirschfeld, Dewhurst, and actress Angela Lansbury give
insight into the changes occurring on the Broadway stage
in this period, and Hayes explains her reasons for
quitting live theater after performing in "Long Day's
Journey into Night" in her hometown of Washington, D.C.
Next follows a segment about her latest wave of film
(and television) work with scenes from "Airport" (1970),
"Herbie Rides Again" (1974), "The Snoop Sisters" (1972),
"Harvey" (1972), and "A Family Upside Down" (1978),
accompanied by brief comments by Carroll and actor
James Stewart. The program ends with Hayes reading
aloud from a letter by George Bernard Shaw about looking
back on a lifetime of work.
Cataloging of this program was made possible by
Rosalind P. Walter, 1999.
Details
- NETWORK: PBS WNET New York, NY
- DATE: July 1, 1991 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:55:37
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:58850
- GENRE: Arts documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Actors; Theater; Biography; Acting
- SERIES RUN: PBS - TV series, 1986-
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- For "American Masters" series:
- Harlene Freezer … Coordinating Producer
- Diane Dufault … Associate Producer
- For "Helen Hayes: First Lady of the American Theatre":
- Susan Lacy … Executive Producer
- Reuben Aaronson … Producer, Director
- Timothy Marx … Producer, Director
- Stephan Chodorov … Producer, Writer
- Betti Brown … Associate Producer
- Jim McQuillan … Production (Misc.), Production Manager
- Tom Snow … Music by
- Robards, Jason (See also: Robards, Jason, Jr.) … Narrator
- Pat Carroll
- Colleen Dewhurst
- Jose Ferrer
- Helen Hayes
- Al Hirschfeld
- Angela Lansbury
- Ada Lewis
- Charles MacArthur
- Mary MacArthur
- Sam Marx
- Edward R. Murrow
- George Bernard Shaw
- James Stewart
- Irving Thalberg
- Eli Wallach