The Marriage Radio Program

Oct. 13 1953 Ohio news clipping citing The Marriage.


Al Hirschfeld Illustration for The Fourposter


Hirschfeld's inspiration for his The Fourposter Illustration


Original Playbill for The Fourposter Stage Play

Background

This entire article could have just as easily have been about the marriage of Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, as about the Radio program, The Marriage. The graphics could have remained the same in any case--and been just as appropriate; and any emphasis on the program details could very well have been simply incidental to a discussion of this remarkable couple's 52 year marriage--both to each other, and to their craft.

But to fully appreciate this wonderful Golden Age Radio gem, one must understand its back-story, the dynamics between its two principal actors, and the Stage, Film, Radio and Television events of 1951 through 1954 that surrounded the incremental stages of the program's development and ultimate production. The selection of the title itself was prescient, to say the least--and on so many levels. Its two principal actors' lives together--interwoven as they were for 52 years--could very well be called 'The Marriage' of the 20th Century--in the arena of The Performing Arts, at the least. Such was the marriage of the marvelous couple that performed in The Marriage, that it absolutely epitomized the very nature of the project's entire premise.

NBC's inspiration for The Marriage, was the marvelous--and moving--stage chemistry between Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy in Jan de Hartog's hit play, The Fourposter [titled The Four Poster for Broadway]. Not surprisingly, Cronyn and Tandy weren't picked to perform the same roles in the 1952 movie adaptation, since the 632 performances of the stage play hadn't fully run their course until May, 1953, by which time the movie was already in wide distribution, and nominated for three Academy Awards. This also serves to explain the year-long gap between The Marriage audition and its production run. As it was, Stanley Kramer and Jan de Hartog instead tapped Europeans Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer for the starring roles in the movie adaptation.

The Four Poster comes to Radio as The Marriage

Needless to say, Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy didn't view this turn of events as a setback--by any means. As shown in the sidebar to the left, the couple purchased an entire West Indies island with the advance they received from NBC for the audition and production episodes of the Radio version of The Marriage alone.

The premise of The Marriage isn't nearly as cerebral--or adult-oriented--as The Four Poster, nor is it set immediately before and after the turn of the 20th century. About the only truly enduring similarity between the inspiration for The Marriage and its Radio incarnation is the wonderful chemistry between Cronyn and Tandy. The Marriage is more typical1950s American Domestic fare, as were most of the Radio and Television family comedies of the era.

But the more clever and literary moments between Cronyn and Tandy are as magical as any of the couple's lighter stage work, and in that respect Ernest Kinoy interweaves some wonderfully clever wordplay between the two primary protagonists into every script. Even the interaction between The Marriotts as parents and their two precocious children is a cut above the bland slapstick of many of The Marriage's contemporary rivals--on Radio or Television. Indeed, Cronyn and Tandy's supporting cast members were clearly drawn from many of the couple's stage work peers. As with many of NBC's productions--from 1953, especially--no expense was spared in attracting the finest talent for their Radio--and Television--offerings. The production values are equally a cut above for the era, and as noted above and below, the writing was superb throughout.

The Marriage endures as a lighter than usual vehicle for Cronyn and Tandy, but not so light that their mutual intelligence doesn't shine through. A more apt comparison would be between The Marriage and The Halls of Ivy, also a one-off, series-long collaboration performed by a successfully married acting couple--Ronald Colman and Benita Hume.

As with The Halls of Ivy, The Marriage remains an historically important--but equally entertaining--prism through which to view the values and aspirations of Post-War America. And the scripts and performances of all 24 available episodes leave the listener wishing it might have continued for at least one more season.

Well actually . . . it did continue for one more season--but not on Radio. NBC's Television Series, The Marriage, was the first Television series to be telecast in color. Though it ran for only one season, it goes a bit further to help understand how Cronyn and Tandy managed to purchase an entire West Indies island on their NBC advance money, alone. And that's . . . . the rest of the story.

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances:

All above cited provenances agree for the most part. The episode names have evolved anecdotally. As has become commonplace, the episode names and details derived from the 'OTR' community are plagued with misspellings and inaccuracies. This was an historical program, albeit only 26 episodes in length. Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy are an important couple in the History of the Performing Arts of the 20th Century, and this unique, series-long collaboration of the two of them over Radio remains historically significant in several respects. Their efforts should be accorded more commensurate respect and due diligence by Golden Age Radio archivists. The most helpful provenance--as usual--was the log of the RadioGOLDINdex.

The anecdotal title for the Audition episode should be more helpfully titled 'How Ann Caldwell Met James Wallace', since the names of the principal characters were changed by the time the production scripts were written a year later. This is a similiar situation as that of the evolution of My Favorite Husband, which auditioned with the family name Cugat (based as it was on the light novel, The Cugats), but went into production with the family name Cooper. Another familiar example was The Smiths of Hollywood, which auditioned as The Smiths of San Fernando.

The anecdotal title of episode #9 should be Emily Pledges the Omega Chi Sorority, vice Emily Pledges Omega Chi--while at the same time suspending belief at the logic of a 15-yr old entering college.

The anecdotal title for episode #8 should be 'Thanksgiving visit from Fred Hetzell...from Kansas', thus capturing the appropriate Thanksgiving theme of the seasonal episode. In addition, the friend from Kansas is named Fred Hetzell, not Fred Hertzell.

The anecdotal title for episode #13 is more aptly, Fantasies of A Literary New Year's Eve, since this more appropriately captures the theme of the episode--both seasonally and as to its premise.

The anecdotal title for episode #26 should be Ben Arranges a Date for Emily with Harold Burns, not Ben Arranges a Date for Emily with Herold.

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[Date, title, and episode column annotations in red refer to either details we have yet to fully provenance or other unverifiable information as of this writing. Red highlights in the text of the 'Notes' columns refer to information upon which we relied in citing dates, date or time changes, or titles.]

The Marriage Series Log

The Marriage Biographies

"If you're doing the devil, look for the angel in him. If you're doing the angel, look for the devil in him." -- Hume Cronyn

And in parting advice for all of us:

"The whole business of marshaling one's energies becomes more and more important as one grows older."

The Tandy's enrolled their precocious daughter as a teenager at the Ben Greet Academy of Acting, showing immediate promise. She made her professional Stage debut at 16, when she appeared as Sara Manderson in the play "The Manderson Girls." Shortly after, she was invited to join the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. Two years later, in 1929, Miss Tandy was debuting in her first West End play, "The Rumour" at the Court Theatre, and her London outing in "The Matriarch" at the Longacre Theatre--in 1930. Jessica Tandy's first celluloid role was as a maid in 1932's The Indiscretions of Eve.

Jessica met and married British actor Jack Hawkins in 1932 after performing together in the play "Autumn Crocus." The couple had one daughter, Susan, before parting ways in 1940. Tandy was later quoted as observing that, "Jack Hawkins is a wonderful actor, but a rotten husband!". Her somewhat unconventional beauty--with her deeply piercing, intelligent, mischevious, clear blue eyes--and sharper, leaner features cost her several roles as a leading lady in British Film. The British taste for more ersatz, full-figured lead females drove her to focus more on a Transatlantic career for the mid-1930s to mid-1940s.

But her dramatic stature only increased by depicting a succession of William Shakespeare's female protagonists--Titania, Viola, Ophelia, Cordelia, etc. She was also enjoying great personal success in the plays, "French Without Tears," "Honour Thy Father," "Jupiter Laughs," "Anne of England" and "Portrait of a Madonna."

It was at that juncture in her quickly arcing career that she gave life to Blanche DuBois. When Tennessee Williams' masterpiece "A Streetcar Named Desire" opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947, Jessica Tandy's name became forever associated with the archetypal, entrancing Southern belle character. The role propelled her to her first critical American Theatre acclaim, winning the covetted Tony award for her characterization of Blanche DuBois. That role also propelled her to national significance on the American Stage--but critical acclaim in Film still eluded her.

Indeed, while every other significant protagonist from the Stage Cast of "Streetcar"--Brando, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden--appeared in Elia Kazan's stunning, black and white 1951 Film rendition of A Streetcar Named Desire, Jessica Tandy was bypassed, altogether. Vivien Leigh, who played the Stage role in London, leveraged her celebrity as that other famous Southern Belle, Scarlett O'Hara, into the role that Jessica Tandy had already immortalized on the American Stage. And while Leigh created an almost perfect Film portrayal of Blanche DuBois--going on to win The Academy Award for Best Actress, along with Best Supporting Actor and Actress Awards for Malden and Hunter--the disappointment was almost unbearable for Tandy. And understandably so.

But 1942 had brought her a second marriage, with actor/producer/director Hume Cronyn. The resulting, a 52-year union produced two children--Christopher and Tandy, the latter an actor in her own right. But their union brought her a great deal more. Both remarkably successful actors in their own right, Tandy and Cronyn absolutely loved performing in each other's company.

Their first Stage triumph came with 1951's "The Fourposter", eventually running 632 performances, and leading to their own Radio Program, The Marriage, and a follow-on Television Series--the first ever telecast in color over NBC--The Marriage.

Shortly after, there followed resounding success in 1959's "Triple Play", 1962's "Big Fish, Little Fish", 1963's Richard Burton production of "Hamlet", playing Gertrude to Cronyn's Polonius, and 1963's "The Three Sisters" and "A Delicate Balance." Their first breakout Film success was 1944's The Seventh Cross. And in the 1946 film, The Green Years, Tandy, who was actually two years senior to Cronyn, played his daughter! On through the 1950s and 1960s the couple built a breathtaking reputation as "America's First Couple of the Theatre."

1963 brought Ms. Tandy a film appearance in Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 classic, The Birds portraying the brittle, high-strung, overbearing mother of protagonist Rod Taylor. But after The Birds, it was another 18 years before the couple would take Hollywood by storm with a series of wonderfully received, and often critically acclaimed popular Films.

Coupled with Cronyn, she delighted movie audiences with Honky Tonk Freeway (1981), The World According to Garp (1982), Cocoon (1985) and *batteries not included (1987). But it was in 1989, that--now octogenarian--Tandy would deliver the senior actress role of a lifetime as the prickly Southern Jewish widow, Miss Daisy, in the boxoffice blockbuster, Driving Miss Daisy (1989). The role brought Jessica Tandy The Oscar, Golden Globe and British Film Awards, among others, for her extraordinary portrayal in the film that also won "Best Picture". Finally Hollywood Royalty now, she was instantly at the top of the A-List for elderly female film roles, and garnered yet another Oscar Nomination only two years later for 1991's Fried Green Tomatoes.

But Ms. Tandy's Twilight Years didn't slow her Stage success in the least, gaining Tony awards for "The Gin Game" (1977) and "Foxfire" (1982). Nor did it shake her confidence in the least. Indeed, in an expression of supreme self-confidence for an octogenarian, Tandy allowed herself to be filmed nude for one of her last films, Camilla (1994). Although diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1990, Jessica Tandy resolutely--and professionally--continued working with Emmy-winning distinction on Television. She finally succumbed to ovarian cancer September 11, 1994, but her last two critically acclaimed films, Nobody's Fool (1994) and Camilla (1994), were released posthumously.