Jean Kerr

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Jean Kerr
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Kerr c. 1970s
Born
Bridget Jean Collins

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Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.
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White Plains, New York, U.S.
OccupationAuthor
Playwright
Notable awardsTony Award (1961, for King of Hearts)
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​
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(m. 1943; died 1996)​
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Jean Kerr (born Bridget Jean Collins; July 10, 1922[2] – January 5, 2003)[a] was an American author and playwright who authored the 1957 bestseller Please Don't Eat the Daisies[b] and the plays King of Hearts in 1954 and Mary, Mary in 1961.

Early life and education

Kerr was born on July 10, 1922,[4] in Scranton, Pennsylvania to Irish immigrant parents Tom and Kitty Collins,[5] and grew up on Electric Street in Scranton.[6][7] She attended Marywood Seminary, the topic of her humorous short story "When I was Queen of the May." She received a bachelor's degree from Marywood College in Scranton and attended The Catholic University of America, where she received her master's degree in 1945.[2]

A nun at Marywood persuaded her to drop her first name, because "only Irish washerwomen are named Biddie".[8]

Career

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I have two trifling ambitions in the theater: to make a lot of people laugh and to make a lot of money.[9]

— Kerr in Theatre Arts Magazine

The Kerrs worked together on several projects, including a 1946 adaptation of the novel, The Song of Bernadette.[10] They contributed lyrics and sketches to the musical Touch and Go, and co-authored Goldilocks (1958), a Broadway musical comedy about the early days of silent film that ran from October 11, 1958, to February 28, 1959, and won two Tony Awards, for Best Actress in a Featured Role (Pat Stanley) and Best Actor in a Featured Role (Russell Nype).[11][2]

The Kerrs also collaborated on the Tony Award-winning King of Hearts (1954), which ran for 279 performances; he directed the play that she co-wrote with Eleanor Brooke.[2] King of Hearts was adapted for the screen in 1956 under the title That Certain Feeling. The film starred Bob Hope.

Jean Kerr wrote Jenny Kissed Me, which was produced in December 1948. She wrote the hit comedy Mary, Mary, which ran on Broadway from 1961 through 1964, for more than 1500 performances, and was brought to the screen under the same title in a 1963 film, starring Debbie Reynolds and Barry Nelson, which was a big hit.[12][2]

She wrote sketches for John Murray Anderson's Almanac.[2] Her book Please Don't Eat the Daisies was a big success, and it was made into a feature film in 1960.[13] NBC also produced a 58-episode situation comedy starring Pat Crowley from 1965 to 1967, based on the book[2][14] She then wrote The Snake Has All the Lines in 1960.[2]

Kerr's play Finishing Touches ran from February to July 1973. Her other works include the plays Poor Richard (1964) and Lunch Hour (1980). She also wrote the books Penny Candy (1970) and How I Got to Be Perfect (1978). Her last play, Lunch Hour, was staged in 1980, and featured Sam Waterson and Gilda Radner.[10] Kerr was skeptical of casting Radner in the play, but Mike Nichols persuaded her to watch Gilda Live, and Kerr was won over by her performance in the film, and she was offered the part.[15]

Kerr was known to author her manuscripts and articles in longhand, and more than often, they were written in the family car,[8] and her husband then typed them.[9] American author Ernest K. Gann wrote in his book Twilight for the Gods, that "anyone who reads it [Please Don't Eat the Daisies], will consider it the most reasonable thing in the world that she prefers to do her writing seated in an automobile and parked two blocks away from her Larchmont, New York, home".[16]

American cartoonist Dick Hodgins Jr. drew a caricature of Kerr in 1963, which was featured in several newspapers at the time.[17]

Personal life

Kerr was married to New York drama critic Walter Kerr; they were married on August 16, 1943.[6] The marriage lasted until his death in 1996.[2] The couple had six children; Christopher, twins Colin and John, Gilbert, Gregory, and Kitty.[12][9]

The Kerrs bought a house in New Rochelle, New York, and later settled in Larchmont, New York in 1955.[18] Their house in Larchmont was frequently characterized in her writings; it featured a two-story fireplace, turrets, a medieval courtyard, and a 32-bell carillon which played the duet from the opera Carmen at noon every day.[9][c] The house was previously owned by Charles King, who test drove Henry Ford's first car.[8]

She died of pneumonia in White Plains, New York in 2003.[2]

Books

Plays

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Notes

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  1. ^ Time Magazine, February 1, 17, 2003 Page 8
  2. ^ The book has sold millions of copies since its original publication in 1957.[3]
  3. ^ Kerr with husband and 3 of their 4 sons (top to bottom) Christopher, 12, Johnny, 8, & Gilbert, 5, posing behind ornate door of their home which was once the door of St. Gabriel's Church. Featured in Life, February 1958. Photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt.[19]

References

  1. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Staff Report (November 28, 2017). "Actors Circle to present 'Mary, Mary' by Scranton Native Jean Kerr". Abington Journal. Archived from the original on January 4, 2018. Kerr was born in Scranton on 10 July 1922.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Berkvist, Robert (January 7, 2003). "Jean Kerr, Playwright and Author, Dies at 80". The New York Times.
  3. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Greinacher, Udo (2006). "Suburban Superiority: Hollywood's Depiction of the Central City" (PDF). Getting Real: Design Ethos Now. Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. p. 293. ISBN 9780935502596.
  4. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Wilson, Scott (2016). Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed. McFarland. p. 403. ISBN 978-0-7864-7992-4.
  5. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Vallance, Tom (January 10, 2003). "Obituary: Jean Kerr; Author of 'Please Don't Eat the Daisies'". The Independent. London. p. 18. Template:ProQuest. Born Bridget Jean Collins to Irish immigrant parents in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1922.
  6. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Times-Tribune (August 17, 1943). "Society: Marriage of Collins/Kerr". The Times-Tribune. Scranton, Pennsylvania. p. 14.
  7. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Kerr, Jean". Ann Arbor, Michigan. 2008. Template:ProQuest. Bridget Jean Collins was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on 10 July 1922, the eldest child of Irish immigrants Thomas Collins, Jr, a construction engineer, and homemaker Katherine ('Kitty') Collins, a second cousin of playwright Eugene O'Neill.
  8. ^ a b c Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Mulligan, Hugh A. (April 21, 1963). "For Playwright Jean Kerr: Comedy Begins at Home". The Shreveport Times. Shreveport, Louisiana. Associated Press.
  9. ^ a b c d Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Oliver, Myrna (January 8, 2003). "Jean Kerr, 79; Turned Suburban Life into Broadway Comedies". Los Angeles Times. p. B12.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Crosland, Phillip F. (September 21, 1980). "Jean Kerr: Metamorphosis of an actress into a successful playwright". Fort Myers News-Press. Associated Press. p. 7E.
  11. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Winners". Tony Awards. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  12. ^ a b c Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Jones, Kenneth (January 7, 2003). "Jean Kerr, Playwright Who Scored Big With Mary, Mary, Dead at 80". Playbill.
  13. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1960). "Trailer for Please Don't Eat The Daisies" – via Internet Archive.
  14. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Metro-Goldwyn Mayer Television (1965). "Please Don't Eat the Daisies – Season 1 Intro" – via Internet Archive.
  15. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Stone, Elizabeth (November 16, 1980). "Gilda Takes Another Big Step". The San Francisco Examiner. p. 37.
  16. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Gann, Ernest Kellogg (1958). "Please Don't Eat the Daisies". Twilight for the Gods. New York: Doubleday. p. 480.
  17. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Mulligan, Hugh A. (April 21, 1963). "Jean Kerr: Who Mostly Copes in Her Delightful, Witty, Sophisticated, But Uncomplicated Way". Wisconsin State Journal.
  18. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Silberstein, Judy; Eisenberg, Paula (March 18, 2003). ""Please Don't Eat the Daisies" House on the Market: An Intimate Tour". Larchmont Gazette. Lynxcom New Media. Archived from the original on August 15, 2018. Retrieved May 7, 2010.
  19. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Alfred Eisenstaedt (1958). "Jean Kerr's Family". Life Magazine.
  20. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Skinner, Cornelia Otis; Kimbrough, Emily (1946). Our Hearts were Young and Gay. dramatized by Jean Kerr. Woodstock, Illinois: The Dramatic Publishing Company. ISBN 0-87129-247-5. Retrieved January 10, 2019. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)

Further reading

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Wikiquote has quotations related to Jean Kerr.

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