American playwright
James Avery Hopwood (May 28, 1882 – July 1, 1928) was an American playwright of the Jazz Age. He had four plays running simultaneously on Broadway in 1920, namely "The Gold Diggers," "The Bat" and "Spanish Love" and "Ladies' Night (In a Turkish Bath)".
Early life.
Hopwood was born to James and Jule Pendergast Hopwood on May 28, 1882, in Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated from Cleveland's West High School in 1900. In 1901, he began attending the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. However, his family experienced financial difficulties, so for his second year he transferred to Adelbert College. He returned to the University of Michigan in the fall of 1903, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1905.
Career.
Hopwood started out as a journalist for the "Cleveland Leader" as its New York correspondent, but within a year had his first play, "Clothes" (1906), produced on Broadway, with the aid of playwright Channing Pollock. Hopwood eventually became known as "The Playboy Playwright" and specialized in comedies and farces, some of them with material considered risqué at the time. One play, "The Demi-Virgin" in 1921, prompted a court case because of its suggestive subject matter, including a risque game of cards, "Stripping Cupid". The case was dismissed.
His many plays included "Nobody's Widow" (1910), starring Blanche Bates; "Fair and Warmer" (1915), starring Madge Kennedy (filmed in 1919); "The Gold Diggers" (1919), starring Ina Claire in New York and Tallulah Bankhead in London; (filmed in 1923 as "The Gold Diggers", in 1928 as "Gold Diggers of Broadway" and also as "Gold Diggers of 1933"); "Ladies' Night", 1920, starring Charlie Ruggles (filmed in 1928); the famous mystery play "The Bat" (with Mary Roberts Rinehart), 1920 (filmed in 1926 as "The Bat", in 1930 as "The Bat Whispers," and in 1959 as "The Bat"); "Getting Gertie's Garter" (with Wilson Collison), 1921, starring Hazel Dawn (filmed in 1927 and 1945); "The Demi-Virgin", 1921, also starring Dawn; "The Alarm Clock", 1923, translated from the French; "The Best People" (with David Gray), 1924 (filmed in 1925 and as "Fast and Loose" in 1930 with Clara Bow); the song-farce "Naughty Cinderella", 1925, starring Irène Bordoni and "The Garden of Eden" in 1927, with Tallulah Bankhead in London and Miriam Hopkins in New York; (filmed in 1928 as "The Garden of Eden").
Personal life.
In 1906, Hopwood was introduced to writer and photographer Carl Van Vechten. The two became close friends and were sometimes sexual partners. In the 1920s Hopwood had a tumultuous and abusive romantic relationship with fellow Cleveland-born playwright John Floyd. Although Hopwood announced to the press in 1924 that he was engaged to vaudeville dancer and choreographer Rosa Rolanda, Van Vechten confirmed in later years that it was a publicity stunt. Rolanda would later marry caricaturist Miguel Covarrubias.
On the evening of July 1, 1928, at Juan-les-Pins on the French Riviera, Hopwood suffered a fatal heart attack while swimming. He was buried in Riverside Cemetery, Cleveland. His mother, Jule Hopwood, inherited a large trust from him, but he had not made arrangements for the disposition of other items, including literary rights. While she was working through the legal issues with his estate, Jule Hopwood fell ill and died on March 1, 1929. She was buried next to her son.
Legacy.
Hopwood's plays were very successful commercially, but they did not have the lasting literary significance he hoped to achieve.
Hopwood Award.
The terms of Hopwood's will left a substantial portion of his estate to his alma mater, the University of Michigan, for the establishment of the Avery Hopwood and Jule Hopwood Creative Writing Awards. The bequest stipulated: "It is especially desired that students competing for prizes shall be allowed the widest possible latitude, and that the new, the unusual, and the radical shall be especially encouraged." Famous Hopwood award winners include Robert Hayden, Marge Piercy, Arthur Miller, Betty Smith, Lawrence Kasdan, John Ciardi, Mary Gaitskill, Edmund White, Nancy Willard, Frank O'Hara, and Steve Hamilton.
"The Great Bordello".
Throughout his life, Hopwood worked on a novel that he hoped would "expose" the strictures the commercial theater machine imposed on playwrights, but the manuscript was never published. Jack Sharrar recovered the manuscript for this novel in 1982 during his research for "Avery Hopwood, His Life and Plays". The novel was published in July 2011 by Mondial Books (New York) as "The Great Bordello, a Story of the Theatre", edited and with an Afterword by Sharrar.
References.
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