Abstract
There are surprisingly few plays about fictional presidents. Surprising because there are so many films, including Gabriel Over the White House (1933), Fail-Safe (1964), Dr. Strangelove (1964), First Family (1980), Dave (1992), The American President (1995), My Fellow Americans (1996), Air Force One (1997), Wag the Dog (1997), Primary Colors (1998), and The Contender (2000). Television produced the successful series, West Wing, as well at others featuring female and African-American presidents.
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Notes
Malcolm Goldstein, George S. Kaufman: His Life, His Theater, New York: Oxford University Press, 1979: 227
Scott Meredith, George S. Kaufman and His Friends, Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Co., 1974: 518.
Brigid C. Harrison, Women in American Politics: An Introduction, Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2003: 174.
Katharine Dayton and George S. Kaufman, First Lady, New York: Random House, 1935: 66.
Brooks Atkinson, “Capitol Impieties,” New York Times, Dec. 8, 1935: X3; “New Plays in Manhattan,” Time 26 (Dec. 9, 1935): 52
Joseph Wood Krutch, “Drama: Cat Fight,” The Nation 141 (Dec. 11, 1935): 694–95.
For example, see Frank S. Nugent, “The Screen,” New York Times, Dec. 23, 1937: 25.
Brooks Atkinson, “Helen Gahagan and Edna Best Appear in ‘First Lady’ at the City Center,” New York Times, May 29, 1952: 18.
Frank Rich, “A Kaufman Revival,” New York Times, Jul. 16, 1980: C17.
Casper H. Nannes, Politics in the American Drama, Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1960: 223.
Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, State of the Union, New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1945: 8.
Howard Barnes, “The Theater Has a Winner,” New York Herald Tribune, Nov. 16, 1945: 16
Brooks Atkinson, “State of the Union,” New York Times, Sept. 8, 1946: XI
Wolcott Gibbs, “Brief Thanksgiving,” The New Yorker 21 (Nov. 24, 1945): 48
Harold Clurman, “Nightmares for a Prosperous People,” in Marjorie Loggia and Glenn Young (eds.), The Collected Works of Harold Clurman: Six Decades of Commentary on Theatre, Dance, Music, Film, Arts and Letters, New York: Applause Books, 1994: 54.
Jack Gould, “Television: State of the Union,” New York Times, Nov. 17, 1954: 45.
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay}, The Federalist Papers, New York: Pocket Books, 2004: 61.
Gore Vidal, The Best Man, Boston: Little Brown and Co., 1960: 7.
Gore Vidal interview, Theater Talk #703, Sept. 15, 2000, New York Public Library, Theater on Film and Tape Archive; and Gore Vidal, Palimpsest: A Memoir, New York: Random House, 1995: 337.
Vidal 1960: 28. This stereotype was harder to put across in more recent revivals. Vidal did change at least Sue-Ellen Gamadge’s physical appearance, omitting the description of her as “small, plump, elderly” (21) from the script for the 2000 Broadway revival in which she was played by the still glamorous Elizabeth Ashley. See Gore Vidal, The Best Man, New York: Dramatists Play Service, 2001: 13.
Brooks Atkinson, “The Best Man Arrives,” New York Times, Apr. 1, 1960: 39;
Brooks Atkinson, “The Best Man,” New York Times, Apr. 10, 1960: X12; “New Play on Broadway,” Time 75 (Apr. 11, 1960): 85
Henry Hewes, “November Song,” Saturday Review 43 (Apr. 16, 1960): 343.
Elysa Gardner, “Gore Vidal Still Outwits Politics,” USA Today, Sept. 15, 2000: 2E.
Adam Nagourney, “The Bard of American Politics, Still Campaigning,” New York Times, Sept. 3, 2000: Section 2, p. 8
Fintan O’Toole, “Still the ‘Man’ of the Hour,” New York Daily News, Sept. 18, 2000: 43
Margit Peterfy, “Gore Vidal’s ‘Public’: Satire and Political Reality in Visit to a Small Planet, The Best Man, and An Evening with Richard Nixon,” Amerikastudien 45 (Jan. 2000): 214.
David Mamet, “Why I Am No Longer a ‘Brain-Dead Liberal,’” The Village Voice, Mar. 12–18, 2008: 19.
David Mamet, November, New York: Vintage Books, 2008: 7.
Joe Dziemianowicz, “Expletives Depleted in Prez Plot,” New York Daily News, Jan. 18, 2008: 43
Eric Grode, “Race to the Bottom,” New York Sun Jan. 18, 2008: 13
Jeremy McCarter, “David Mamet’s November Spins the White House for Laffs,” New York, Feb. 4, 2008
John Lahr, “Presidential Pratfalls,” New Yorker 83 (Jan. 28, 2008): 84.
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© 2010 Bruce E. Altschuler
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Altschuler, B.E. (2010). Fictional Presidents. In: Acting Presidents. The Evolving American Presidency Series. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230115316_4
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