Editing Life with Father

{{Short description|1939 play by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox play
| name       = Life with Father
| image      = 
| alt        = 
| caption    = 
| writer     = [[Howard Lindsay]]<br/>[[Russel Crouse]]<br>Based on the novel by [[Clarence Day]]
| chorus     = 
| characters = 
| mute       = 
| setting    = The morning room of the Day house on Madison Avenue in the late 1880s
| premiere   = {{Start date|1939|11|08}}
| place      = [[Empire Theatre (41st Street)|Empire Theatre]]<br>New York City
| orig_lang  = 
| series     = 
| subject    = 
| genre      = Comedy
| web        = 
}}
'''''Life with Father''''' is a 1939 play by [[Lindsay and Crouse|Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse]], adapted from a humorous autobiographical book of stories compiled in 1935 by [[Clarence Day]]. The Broadway production ran for 3,224 performances over 401 weeks to become the [[List of the longest-running Broadway shows|longest-running non-musical play on Broadway]], a record that it still holds.{{Sfn|Schildcrout|2019|p=62}} The play was adapted into a [[Life with Father (film)|1947 feature film]] and a [[Life with Father (TV series)|television series]].

==Book==
Clarence Day wrote humorously about his family and life. The stories of his father Clarence "Clare" Day were first printed in ''The New Yorker''. They portray a rambunctious, overburdened Wall Street broker who demands that everything from his family should be just so. The more he rails against his staff, his cook, his wife, his horse, salesmen, holidays, his children and the inability of the world to live up to his impossible standards, the more comical and lovable he becomes to his own family who love him despite it all. First published in 1936, shortly after his death, Day's book is a picture of New York upper-middle-class family life in the 1890s. The stories are filled with affectionate irony. Day's understated, matter-of-fact style underlines the comedy in everyday situations.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/life-with-father-clarence-day/1007052680|title=''Life with Father'' by Clarence Day|website=Barnes and Noble}}</ref>

==Production==
[[File:Life with Father, Cass Theatre -- Detroit, Mich (69686).jpg|thumb|upright|Postcard showing cast featuring [[Dorothy Gish]]]]
The 1939 Broadway production ran for over seven years to become the [[List of the longest-running Broadway shows|longest-running non-musical play on Broadway]], a record that it still holds.<ref name=life>{{Cite web|url=http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/29266/Life-With-Father/overview|title=Life With Father - Trailer - Showtimes - Cast - Movies - New York Times|date=October 16, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071016232448/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/29266/Life-With-Father/overview|archive-date=2007-10-16}}</ref> It also held the title of the [[List of Broadway shows that have held title of longest-running show|longest running Broadway play of any type of all time]] from 1947 to 1972.<ref name="fiddler2">(19 June 1972). [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2194&dat=19720619&id=PaIyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=nOwFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2314,1173751 Fiddler on the Roof longest running show], ''Ottawa Citizen'' (Associated Press)</ref> It opened at the [[Empire Theatre (41st Street)|Empire Theatre]] on November 8, 1939 and ran at that theatre until September 8, 1945. It then moved to the [[Bijou Theatre (Manhattan, 1917)|Bijou Theatre]] where it ran until June 15, 1947, and finished its run at the [[Alvin Theatre]] on July 12, 1947 for a combined total of 3,224 performances. The play was produced by [[Oscar Serlin]], staged by [[Bretaigne Windust]], with setting and costumes by Stewart Chaney. It starred [[Howard Lindsay]], his wife [[Dorothy Stickney]], and [[Teresa Wright]].<ref>[http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=1720 Internet Broadway Database listing for Broadway production] ibdb.com</ref>

===Cast===
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
*Katherine Bard as Annie 
*[[Dorothy Stickney]] as Lavinia "Vinnie" Day
*John Drew Devereaux as Clarence Day, Jr.
*Richard Simon as John Day
*Raymond Roe as Whitney Day
*Larry Robinson as Harlan Day
*[[Howard Lindsay]] as Father (Clarence "Clare" Day, Sr.)
*[[Dorothy Bernard]] as Margaret
*Ruth Hammond as Cora
*[[Teresa Wright]] as Mary Skinner
*Richard Sterling as the Reverend Dr. Lloyd
*Portia Morrow as Delia
*Nellie Burt as Nora
*A.H. Van Buren as Dr. Humphreys
*John C. King as Dr. Somers
*Timothy Kearse as Maggie
{{div col end}}

== Subsequent productions ==
Concurrent with the Broadway production, the producers sent out 11 touring companies that performed in 214 cities.{{Sfn|Schildcrout|2019|pp=62-63}} The amateur rights to ''Life with Father'' were released in 1948, and the following year saw 187 productions of the play, including a production at [[Theatre in the Round Players]] that included consultation with Warner films on staging.{{Sfn|Schildcrout|2019|p=64}}<ref name=Hilgendorf >{{cite magazine| title=This Week and Upcoming | magazine=[[Star Tribune|The Minneapolis Sunday Tribune]]|date=January 11, 1953 | page=3}}</ref>

In 1953, [[The Ford 50th Anniversary Show]], broadcast live on both the CBS and NBC television networks, opened with [[Oscar Hammerstein II]] introducing a scene from the play featuring original cast members Howard Lindsay and Dorothy Stickney. The Ford show attracted an audience of 60&nbsp;million viewers. Forty years after the broadcast, television critic [[Tom Shales]] recalled the broadcast as both "a landmark in television" and "a milestone in the cultural life of the '50s".<ref>{{cite news|title=Ford's 50th anniversary show was milestone of '50s culture|newspaper=Palm Beach Daily News|date=December 26, 1993|page=B3|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59934494/fords-50th-anniversary-show-was/|via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref>

The only major New York revival occurred in 1967 in a limited run at [[New York City Center|City Center]], starring [[Leon Ames]] and Dorothy Stickney. Critic [[Vincent Canby]] called the revival "a quaint, pretty picture postcard."{{Sfn|Schildcrout|2019|p=64}} Although professional revivals are now rare, ''Life with Father'' continues to be produced by amateur companies such as the American Century Theatre in Virginia (2009) and the Victorian Players in Ohio (2014).{{Sfn|Schildcrout|2019|p=65}}

==Critical reception==
The ''New York Times'' critic [[Brooks Atkinson]] wrote in his review "Sooner or later every one will have to see ''Life with Father'', which opened at the Empire last evening. For the late Clarence Day's vastly amusing sketches of his despotic parent have now been translated into a perfect comedy by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, and must be reckoned an authentic port [sic] of our American folklore."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1939/11/09/112723779.html?pageNumber=26|title=THE PLAY: Clarence Day's 'Life With Father' Dramatized by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse|publisher=The New York Times, November 9, 1939|website=timesmachine.nytimes.com}}</ref> When ''Life with Father'' surpassed ''[[Tobacco Road (play)|Tobacco Road]]'' as the longest-running Broadway play, [[Elliot Norton]] of the ''Boston Post'' celebrated the play as "warmly human and heartily comical and completely inoffensive," thus restoring his faith in the theatre-going public.{{Sfn|Schildcrout|2019|p=54}} Contemporary scholar Jordan Schildcrout describes ''Life with Father'' as "a comedy in which characters challenge and ultimately win over a figure of authority," which allows the play to appeal to nostalgia for more conservative times, while also finding pleasure in gentle subversion and anti-authoritarianism.{{Sfn|Schildcrout|2019|p=59}}

==Adaptations==
[[File:Life With Father 1954.JPG|thumb|180px|[[Leon Ames]] and [[Lurene Tuttle]] in the television version, 1954]]
''Life with Father'' was adapted for the November 6, 1938, broadcast of CBS Radio's ''[[The Mercury Theatre on the Air]]''. The cast included [[Orson Welles]] (Father), [[Mildred Natwick]] (Mother), [[Mary Wickes]] (Employment Office Manager), [[Alice Frost]] (Margaret) and [[Arthur Anderson (actor)|Arthur Anderson]] (young Clarence Day).<ref name="Welles TIOW">{{cite book |last1=Welles |first1=Orson |author-link1=Orson Welles |last2=Bogdanovich |first2=Peter |author-link2=Peter Bogdanovich |last3=Rosenbaum |first3=Jonathan |author-link3=Jonathan Rosenbaum |title=[[This is Orson Welles]] |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] Publishers |location=New York |date=1992 |page=[https://archive.org/details/thisisorsonwelle0000well/page/347 347] |isbn=0-06-016616-9 }}</ref><ref name="Museum of Broadcasting radio collection">''Orson Welles on the Air: The Radio Years.'' New York: [[Paley Center for Media|The Museum of Broadcasting]], catalogue for exhibition October 28–December 3, 1988. p. 52.</ref>

The theatrical adaptation of ''Life With Father'' was made into a [[Life with Father (film)|film in 1947]], directed by [[Michael Curtiz]] and starring [[William Powell]] and [[Irene Dunne]] as Clarence and his wife, supported by [[Elizabeth Taylor]], [[Edmund Gwenn]], [[ZaSu Pitts]], [[Jimmy Lydon]] and [[Martin Milner]]. Six years later, the film was adapted into a television series, starring [[Leon Ames (actor)|Leon Ames]] and [[Lurene Tuttle]], which ran from November 1953 until July 1955 on the [[CBS Television]] network.<ref>[http://www.tv.com/life-with-father/show/28595/summary.html tv.com listing for ''Life with Father'' television show]</ref> The series was the first live color program for network TV to originate in Hollywood.<ref>{{cite book|title=[[The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946-Present]]|date=2003 |publisher=Ballantine Books|isbn=0-345-45542-8|pages=685}}</ref> The film (not the series) and its audio entered the public domain in 1975.<ref>New York Times, Life With Father</ref>

==References==
;Notes
{{Reflist}}

;Bibliography
*{{Cite book|title=In the Long Run: A Cultural History of Broadway's Hit Plays|last=Schildcrout|first=Jordan|publisher=Routledge|year=2019|isbn=978-0367210908|location=New York and London}}
*Skinner, C. Otis (1976). ''Life With Lindsay and Crouse''. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Life With Father}}
* {{IBDB show|5379}}
* {{Playbill production|s/life-with-father-empire-theatre-vault-0000003959}}
* {{IMDb title|qid=Q109270361|title=Life With Father|description=(television series)}}

{{s-start}}
{{succession box
| before = ''[[Tobacco Road (play)|Tobacco Road]]''
| title  = [[List of the longest-running Broadway shows#Timeline of longest-running Broadway shows|Longest-running Broadway show]]
| years  = 1947–1972
| after  = ''[[Fiddler on the Roof]]''
}}
{{s-end}}

{{Lindsay and Crouse}}

[[Category:1939 plays]]
[[Category:Broadway plays]]
[[Category:Fiction set in the 1880s]]
[[Category:Plays by Lindsay and Crouse]]
[[Category:Plays set in New York City]]