Photo: Lillian Gish, right, and Grandma Moses, circa 1952, discussing a Playhouse of the Stars TV production of "The Autobiography of Grandma Moses." It was a live production and not recorded. This photo shows Lillian is paying her legendary detail to playing Grandma Moses.
I wrote Schlitz, which sponsored the program, and by the below email they have no records. See my below letter and their corporate email response.
Notes and TV columns on the 1952 production follow:
Variety
March 1952:
CBS-TV’s
“Schlitz Playhouse of the Stars” may not always have the lush sets and
expensive properties featured on some of the other TV dramatic showcases, but
for the warmth and human qualities of its presentations, it is seldom topped.
##
Variety
review of Lillian Gish in “The Autobiography of Grandma Moses,” the
nonagenarian primitive artist. “emerged as a pleasant but lackluster video
entertainment as staged by CBS-TV’s Schlitz Playhouse of the Stars Friday night
(March 28).
Adapted
by David Shaw from Mrs. Moses’ recently-published autobiography, the play had
Lillian Gish in the title role spinning tales to her grandchildren on her early
life and how she won recognition with her colorful American primitives after
she had passed 80. Story flashed back from camera shots of Grandma Moses
paintings to the related incidents in her life, which was a clever technique.
This was one spot, though, where color TV was urgently needed.
With
Miss Gish etching a warmly human characterization of the nice old lady who was
as eager to receive compliments for her strawberry preserves as for her life on
a farm dating back to the days when Abraham Lincoln was President. Sisters
Denise and Jane Alexander were competent as the artist at the ages of five and
12, respectively, and Georgianne Johnson turned in a sympathetic portrayal of
Mrs. Moses at age 26. Russell Hardie was good as her husband, and Sidney Smith
limned an okay role as the art connoisseur who discovered her artistic talents.
Joseph
Scibetta reined both the actors and the cameras through their paces in fine
style. Sets and other production mountings were standout. Durward Kirby again
handled the Schlitz commercials, tying them cleverly with the sets of the play.
Jim
Patterson note:
Lillian liked the role and Grandma Moses. She recalled the role in interviews from the 1960s and until the end of her life. She channeled Grandma Moses for a scene where she is painting in 1987's "The Whales of August."
###
Playhouse of the Stars: The Autobiography of Grandma Moses”
March 26, 1952
1-hour Airwaves by John Lester Nassau Review Star April 3,
1952 Friday night 9 p.m. broadcast
ONE OF THE BIG dramatic disappointments of recent weeks was "The Autobiography of Grandma Moses," the nonagenarian artist, which was
presented on "The Playhouse of Stars" last
Friday from 9 to 10 P.M. (Eastern) on CBS-TV. It was adapted
for TV from Mrs. Moses' recently published book. (Grandma Moses: My History)
Lillian Gish, in the title role, portrayed the celebrated
landscape artist by telling stories of her early life to her grandchildren
dwelling, of course, on how she achieved fame as a painter after she was 90 years
old.
Miss Gish, an experienced and sensitive actress, did her best
but, somehow, she wasn't able to lift the material beyond a level of light, pleasant
entertainment.
This is wherein my disappointment lay.
I expected an hour much richer in personal recollection,
anecdotes and even language. I believe I was right to so expecting unless the whole
Grandma Moses story is a fraud and hoax .. . and that I can't believe.
The TV treatment of the story did recount some of Grandma Moses'
philosophy of life, however, this was charming in its simplicity and quaintness
what there was of it.
Russell Hardie, long-time stage star and famous film idol back
in the '30s and '40s, was Mrs.
Moses' husband and turned in his usual very good performance.
Mrs. Moses, as a child, was portrayed by sisters. Denise, 8 and Jane Alexander,
13. Sets were excellent. Camera
work was likewise fine.
TV News and Programs Buffalo Evening News Jan 3, 1952, Page
24:
Helen Hayes who will costar with Anthony Quinn in
"Dark Fleece'* on Playhouse of Stars tonight at 11:30, will be seen as
Grandma Moses on WBEN-TV around mid-March. Sponsor of the Playhouse has just
obtained one telecast rights to the forthcoming "Autobiography of Grandma
Moses" for $2,500. The purchase is believed to be a record price for
single-time video rights to a book.
Jim
Patterson note: If this article is accurate, it appears Helen Hayes was
initially expected to be in “The Autobiography of Grandma Moses.” Perhaps a
busy schedule led Miss Hayes to suggest Lillian Gish for the production. It was
a live performance and it is not believed a film or kinescope was made of the
broadcast. I've written the sole surviving cast member, Jane Alexander, for her thoughts on the filming.
###
In the below 1962 article, Lillian recalled playing Grandma Moses:
In
December 23, 1962 Joan Crosby wrote “Silent Star Back” for The Knickerbocker
News, Albany New York,
“Miss Gish, who doesn't look within 15 years of her
65, had a marvelous time making the show. In a droll, holiday-season play
titled "Grandma TNT," she'll portray Louise Clarendon, a sweet little
old lady—albeit a bit daffy—who tries to rob a bank.
The elder of the famous Gish sisters, who were both
winning hearts as little tykes in some of the most famous epics of the silent
screen, was doubly pleased with her Defenders assignment because the script was
written by David Karp
Years
ago, I appeared in another script of his, and it was a joyous experience. I
played Grandma Moses, and it was the first time I had ever been asked to
portray a living woman. The show made me quite a fan of the lady, who had such
spirit. I stood before one of her paintings recently and counted 50 shades of
green in it, and that made me realize what there was about her that spoke of
such greatness. She was a woman of the soil—American, simple and uncluttered,
and we've lost so much of that.
In her six decades as an actress—"Goodness
me," she exclaims, "be sure to tell them I'm not 80 years
old!"—she has been through the whole cycle, from road-company melodrama in
her pre-teen days, the silent films when she was known as the "First Lady
of the Screen," and now the theatre and television of today.
Lillian Gish, who gained screen and stage fame with
her sister Dorothy, made her film debut in New York City as an extra in 1912.
She was then 16 years old.
Miss Gish's other activities these days involve
voluntary work with the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and her strong
advocacy of a Secretary of Arts and Sciences in the federal government, with
Cabinet rank.
You know, we are the only people in the country who
can't take our problems to Washington," she said. "A farmer can, a
businessman, labor and management can, but we have no court of appeals.
###
In
a non-bylined 1962 article in The Binghamton (New York) News titled “Lillian
Gish Stars in Defenders,” about Lillian’s role as “Grandma TNT” episode for the
CBS-TV series “The Defenders.” The title of the episode may have been suggested by Lillian and it was intended, I believe, to show that older women, Lillian Gish, make powerful TV characters, powerful film stars, powerful Broadway stars, and, like Grandma Moses, powerful artists. End note.
In one of her infrequent television appearances. Miss
Gish, whose credits are virtually endless and run the gamut from the epic film,
'The Birth of a Nation" (1915) to stardom on Broadway in "All the Way
Home" and "The Trip to Bountiful," appears in The Defenders as
Louise Clarendon, a maiden lady of charm and grace who lives with her elderly
maiden sisters in a faded Brooklyn brownstone. Portraying Miss Gish’s sisters,
Elspeth and Genevieve, are Enid Markey and Mary Finney, respectively.
In "Grandma TNT” it is apparent from the start
that the dainty if slightly daffy Clarendon sisters have seen better days,
financially speaking. Hanging over them is a city tax lien on their home in the
amount of $1,342.76.
In
desperation – she’s unwilling to accept charity – Louise enters a plush Fifth
Avenue bank
and
startles a woman teller with the note "Please hand me $1,349.76 or else.”
When asked,
"Or
else what?” she says, “I’ll blow up the bank.”
The sisters, select Lawrence and Kenneth Preston
(series stars E. G. Marshall and Robert Reed) as their attorneys, by closing
their eyes and sticking a pin in a name in the telephone book.
Also
in the cast, are Kermit Murdock as District Attorney Larkin, Elisabeth Fraser as
Mrs.
Hunt;
Lou Jacobi as Schwartz, the neighborhood. druggist, and Sam Capuano as
Straffucci, a
junk
dealer.
"Grandma.
TNT" was written by David Karp and directed by Elliott Silverstein.
The
Troy, New York, listing for the broadcast:
—The Defenders, "Grandma TNT." a comedy
drama about a sweet little old lady charged with trying to rob a bank. Guest:
Lillian Gish
An unbylined article on “Grandma TNT” in The Buffalo
Evening News on December 22 1962 page 14:
“Nowadays Miss Gish makes infrequent television
appearances in between sea voyages to distant ports with sister Dorothy.
Miss Gish's other activities involve voluntary work
with the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and her strong advocacy of a
secretary of arts and sciences in the Federal Government, with Cabinet rank.”
TV Listing in Yonkers New York Herald Statesman
December 22, 1962:
The Defenders. "Grandma TNT. " The wispy,
otherworldly grace and consummate skill of actress Lillian Gish, sets the stage
for David Karp's "Alice in Wonderland" type story of a genteel lady
robber and her dealings with the law. The funniest episode in the play is her
perfect and in character escape from prison. In fact, except for the
out-of-character, soap opera ending, this is an ingenious and amusing romp.
Harry Harris Screening TV column in The Philadelphia
Inquirer December 24, 1962
With nary a reference to Christmas, Saturday’s The
Defenders " episode, "Grandma TNT, " was aglow with the yule
tide spirit.
David Karp's yarn about a sweet little old lady — once
wealthy, now in genteel poverty —who threatened to blow up a bank (with a jar
of calf's-foot jelly) unless the cashier handed her exactly $1342.76 to pay an
overdue tax bill, provided an amusing, heartwarming change of pace for the
series' lawyer heroes—and its viewers.
Chucklelsome twists involved a jailbreak (she merely
accompanied touring do-gooders out the door, to lunch and home); a single
dented toaster that the charity shunning old girl had been swiping from a
drugstore and selling to a junkman every week for four years (with the
connivance of neighborhood stores, the resultant $7 kept her, her two maiden
sisters and a friend in necessities), and the lady's eventual confession that
she'd known about her neighbors' kindly plot all along.
In the title role, silent movie veteran Lillian Gish
was delightful—sometimes droll, sometimes most touching. Enid Markey was fine
as the less ineffectual of her sisters, and there were also first rate
performances, under Elliott Silverstein's direction, by Lou Jacobi and Sam
Capuano, as the toaster's owner and buyer, and —in more frolicsome mood than
usual — series regulars E C Marshall and Robert Reed
###
Final note, in Lillian's last film, "The Whales of August," she has a scene where she is sitting outside and painting a landscape. She brought some physical items to the film's set, including a photo of her mother. She also brought with her the memory and gift of friendship from Grandma Moses for what was her last film.
Lillian Gish learning from Grandma Moses.
In her autobiography with Ann Pinchot, The Movies, Mr.
Griffith and Me (Prentice-Hall, 1969), Lillian wrote (page 363):
“One of the highlights of those early television years for
me was my meeting with the great primitive artist Grandma Moses, whose life I portrayed
on television. Grandma Moses was pure spirit. She may have had little knowledge
in the worldly sense, but she possessed great intuitive wisdom. She was all
affirmation. After the production, she gave me one of her paintings, which
hangs to the left of my living room fireplace alongside another Grandma Moses,
a treasured gift from Helen Hayes.”
Jim Patterson note: The black and white photograph of
Lillian and Grandma Moses in this blog post is included in Lillian’s book.
In Dorothy and Lillian Gish (Scribner’s, 1973), page
256, the below photograph appears with heading: Grandma Moses: 1952. Caption: “It
was my good fortune to play the engrossing life of the great American artist. Both of her ancestors came over on the
Mayflower.” Schlitz Playhouse, CBS, 1952, March 1952. Photograph, IBM, courtesy
Galerie St. Etienne.:
Grandma Moses and actress Lillian Gish. See credit above.
