LEST WE FORGET
HAPPY 116TH BIRTHDAY
HELEN HAYES
(October 10, 1900 - October 10, 2016)
FIRST LADY OF THE AMERICAN THEATRE

In 1972, Helen Hayes and her best friend
Anita Loos collaborated on a book about their 'trip back down' odyssey of rediscovering the fabulous New York city that they so loved.
What emerged was Twice Over Lightly: New York Then and Now.

When Ms. Hayes was asked at a luncheon in her honor, "What do you think we're doing on Broadway that's wrong?

Her reflections on the past, present and future of Broadway were shared with the honesty, passion and love of the theatre that she embraced for over seven decades.

IN HER OWN WORDS
       Well, I think we've become too earnest. We've forgotten that the main function of a player is to play.  I wish we'd all relax and put on some gay, glamorous shows with actors wearing beautiful romantic clothes.
        I think Broadway started to slip when we began to take ourselves seriously as Artists, and spelled it out in capital letters.  We strained for what we called 'artistic integrity.' The trouble was that too many of us mistook pretensions for integrity.  We've been sold on the idea that truth has got to be ugly, depressing, vulgar. In recent years we've tried so hard to strip the theatre of beauty that we've stripped some actors of their costumes.  Let's see what can be done to put clothes back on actors.
       Well, I'd like to see our commercial theatre relieved of its phony pretensions to Art. In all the years I've been in the theatre, I can count the number of great artists I've encountered on the fingers of one hand.   But I've worked with plenty of real pros like me. We adored our jobs, developed and used what talents we had to the limit of our capabilities.  If we fell short of greatness we weren't undone by that so long as audiences liked and appreciated us.
       That was the time when we only hoped to please the public who paid to see us. But now they are the last thing we ever think about.  We only aim to please ourselves and to impress other actors or the critics, whom we pretend to despise.
      Time was when there was a love affair between the theatre and the public, and because love creates a magical illusion we loved ones behind the footlights---those dear, kind footlights!--walked in beauty.  People came to the theatre to see us enacting lives of vivid color, in elegant speech and in gorgeous clothes---all in an aura of Du Barry Pink light.  It was not Art; it was not Truth. But it sure was comforting.  I'd love to see a matinee idol again, suave, impeccably tailored, breaking hearts with a light touch. Or an improbably chic Ina Claire changing Chanel creations eight times a performance and never being caught with her wit down.
      Yes, I'd like to see the commercial theatre relieved of the burden of 'Art' and free to caper.
Let's revive our love affair with the public.  If people really care, they'll find their way back to us. If only we can start people caring again, Broadway will come back."