“Forgotten Hollywood”- A Promise to Hemingway…

Posted on January 29, 2019 by raideoman1 | No Comments

Manny P. here… 

“`In 1958, Ernest Hemingway and pal A. E. Hotchner went to see a movie adaptation of The Old Man and the Sea. The novelist was clearly miffed that the production took liberties to alter the thrust of the novel, and with the casting of Spencer Tracy as the protagonist. They left midway through the screening.

“`Later that night, while at Toots Shor’s restaurant (a venue frequented by Joe DiMaggio, Jackie Gleason, and Marilyn Monroe), Hemingway urged Hotchner to do his own adaptation. His friend promised to consider it.

“`Hotchner was a perfect candidate to take the work to the stage: he fished with Hemingway in Cuba,  went to bullfights with him in Spain, hunted with him in Idaho, and wrote the 1966 best-selling biography Papa Hemingway. He also co-created Newman’s Own food company with his neighbor, Paul Newman.

“`Over sixty years later, Hotchner has kept his promise. His stage adaptation of The Old Man and the Sea, a brief novel published in 1952 and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, premieres at the newly renovated Point Park University’s Pittsburgh Playhouse on February 1st. It plays for two weeks.

“`The 101-year-old author and playwright has tried ten previous times to adapt it until his latest effort.  He enlisted his son Tim Hotchner to collaborate and to help transform a draft into a working script. Tim is a documentary filmmaker and writer. The entire show was put together in six months.

“`The elder Hotchner is satisfied with finally following through on a half-century promise to his tempestuous friend, and he is pleased with how it turned out.

“`The spirit of Hemingway must be at peace for the effort.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 29th, 2019 at 6:37 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


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