New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman delivered her sixth annual budget message yesterday to the state Legislature, and quoted Dorothy Parker (born in West End, N.J., in 1893). Gov. Whitman announced the $19.2 billion budget plan includes the first installment of $1 billion in tax rebates over five years. She quoted Parker, who once said the most beautiful words in the English language are "check enclosed." Nice to know an elected official is a Parker fan; I wonder if she knows Dottie was born on the Jersey Shore.
Posted by Kevin Fitzpatrick on Tuesday, January 26, 1999 at 5:46 PM | Permalink  
I added the Parker audio clips, ten selections read by Dottie herself. It was not that hard to teach myself how to encode audio using Real Producer. Look for more audio clips soon, but here are some to get you going. As far as I can tell, these are the only Parker audio clips on the Web....Hiked over to West 47th Street, where Harold Ross and Alec Woolcott used to live. It is where Ross formed The New Yorker in 1925. Have some photos and other facts, so that will be going on the site soon.... Also heard from Ed Martin in Los Angeles, who went to a party for Dash and Lilly tossed by A&E (see Jan. 18 item). More details to follow soon from Ed.
Posted by Kevin Fitzpatrick on Monday, January 25, 1999 at 5:00 PM | Permalink
I added a new page called Special Speakeasies. Traipsed over to West 49th Street, and boy, did I look like a tourist! Check it out, the report is all about the great old speakeasies from the 1920s.
Posted by Kevin Fitzpatrick on Wednesday, January 20, 1999 at 11:57 PM | Permalink
A friend in Denver sent me a cassette of An Informal Hour With Dorothy Parker which I have sought for a long time. I want to put this online as soon as possible. It's a nice tape, with Parker herself reading more than two dozen selections. It includes "Resume" and "One Perfect Rose" as well as some greatest hits like "Parable for a Certain Virgin" and "Men" -- so it will be cool if these audio clips can be part of the site. So stay tuned, keep checking back, I have an expert helping me on this.
Posted by Kevin Fitzpatrick on Tuesday, January 19, 1999 at 12:45 PM | Permalink
Good news Dorothy Parker fans: A small-screen Mrs. Parker is coming soon. Bebe Neuwirth, Lilith from Cheers and Frasier, as well as a star in Chicago and Damn Yankees on Broadway, will portray Dottie. A&E's original movie Dash and Lilly is coming out sometime in 1999. Directed by Kathy Bates, it's the story of the relationship between literary icons Dashiell Hammett and Lillian Hellman, starring Sam Shepard and Judy Davis in the lead roles, and Neuwirth as Parker. I wonder how Parker will come across? Given that Hammett loathed Dottie (when she first met him, she kissed his hand). Hellman, a notorious liar and backbiter, turned on her friend Dottie in her later years. If anyone knows anything about this movie, let me know. We'll do an online vote: who is the Most Devastating Dorothy, the Primo Parker, Neuwirth or Jennifer Jason Leigh?
Posted by Kevin Fitzpatrick on Monday, January 18, 1999 at 2:40 PM | Permalink
I took new photos on West 68th Street, where Dorothy lived as a kid. I was not happy with the first batch, they were too dark. Hopefully in the Spring, I'll get some nice one of the exteriors when the lighting is better. I also took another of The Dakota, to show where Yoko Ono lives. If you ever have suggestions or comments about the photos, just drop me a line.
Posted by Kevin Fitzpatrick on Wednesday, January 13, 1999 at 9:40 PM | Permalink
I found a copy of Howard Teichmann's 1976 biography, Smart Aleck, The Wit, World and Life of Alexander Woollcott. A bargain at $4. Woolcott was one of the founders of the Algonquin Round Table. The book is giving me excellent information for more Parker additions. I found out that Woollcott, after the Round Table disbanded and he left the Times, had a radio show on CBS. Dorothy Parker was a guest in the 1930s on his show "The Town Crier" and there is a photo of her and Harpo Marx in the studio. Dorothy is dressed head-to-toe in black; of course with a hat on. Woolcott also pegged Parker with one of the most-used descriptions, frequently quoted: "A combination of Little Nell and Lady Macbeth."
Posted by Kevin Fitzpatrick on Monday, January 11, 1999 at 5:55 PM | Permalink
Lynda Engstrom writes to tell me: "There's a photo plate facing page 236 in "What Fresh Hell Is This?" of Dorothy in 1903 on the steps of the Soldiers and Sailor's monument .... West 89th Street near Riverside Drive..." When the weather improves, I will get some photos of the park.
Posted by Kevin Fitzpatrick on Thursday, January 07, 1999 at 5:56 PM | Permalink
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Honoria Murphy Donnelly dies at age 81. Mrs. Donnelly, whose book about her parents, Sara and Gerald Murphy, was published in 1982, died of liver cancer Dec. 22 at a hospice in Palm Beach, Fla. Mrs. Donnelly was described as one of the last links to the generation of writers that included Dorothy Parker, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. Her wealthy parents, who befriended and entertained a steady stream of artists and writers in the south of France during the 1920s, were the models for Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night. The Murphys were close friends of Parker, and she lived with them for a year in Switzerland. In 1926, Parker was a guest of the Murphys with Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda. The Murphys' golden expatriate life ended with the 1929 stock market crash, and the family returned to the United States. Mrs. Donnelly later graduated from the Spence School in New York, studied acting and worked for theater production companies in New York. Mrs. Donnelly, who lived in McLean, Va., from the early 1960s to around 1980, wrote her memoir, Sara and Gerald: Villa America and After, with Richard N. Billings. It described her parents' relationships with major figures in the arts such as Pablo Picasso, Archibald MacLeish, Cole Porter and Dorothy Parker. Mrs. Donnelly also lectured before literary societies, academic groups and civic organizations. She volunteered in the 1968 presidential campaign of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and with the Democratic National Committee. Some obituary information from The Washington Post
Posted by Kevin Fitzpatrick on Wednesday, January 06, 1999 at 5:58 PM | Permalink | Comments
![[MALASHOCK PHOTO]](http://www.dorothyparker.com/images/malashock01.jpg) Together in the Fires of Delight will be performed in San Diego in January. Photo: ML Hart.If you live in Southern California, you may want to get tickets for an interesting show that includes some of Dorothy Parker's work in it. According to the production manager, "The Sexes" -- Mrs. Parker's 1927 short story gem about a party couple who can't communicate -- will be a section of Together in the Fires of Delight. John Malashock will debut his new work Together in the Fires of Delight with four performances at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego's Balboa Park on January 19, 20, 26 and 27, 2001. Together in the Fires of Delight is a multi-disciplinary, multi-sensual portrayal of primary relationships through language, dance, music and song featuring duets of fathers/sons, sisters/brothers, mothers/daughters, spouses/lovers, and friends/enemies. "I find personal relationships to be the cornerstone of my work and, over the years, have found that duet work is the form where I seem to express myself most completely," Malashock said. "I have decided to create this concert to celebrate the foundation of creation and growth -- the human relationship." Works of prominent contemporary poets, novelists, playwrights and journalists such as Calvin Trillin, Harold Pinter and Dorothy Parker will be featured. The music will span classical, folk, art-song and tango by artists like Maurice Ravel, Astor Piazzola and Leonard Cohen. According to Malashock, " Together in the Fires of Delight will be touching, funny, sad and moving. It will be very entertaining and everyone in the theatre will relate to it on some level. Actors and dancers will join me and my wife, Nina, in this series of pairings that let us glimpse an almost endless variety of personal interactions." Malashock is artistic director of Malashock Dance where he has created nearly 30 original choreographic works. Last year's world premiere of Blessings & Curses at the Jewish Community Center in La Jolla recently won the San Diego Dance Alliance's Tommy Award for Outstanding Performance of the Year. Tickets for Together in the Fires of Delight are available through the Old Globe Box Office at 619-239-2255. For more information, contact Malashock Dance at 619-260-1622 or visit their Web site.
Posted by Kevin Fitzpatrick on Saturday, January 02, 1999 at 11:38 AM | Permalink
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