User:Kenirwin/Nellise Child

Nellise Child was the pseudonym for an American playwright and writer.

Nellise Child Rosenfeld
Born	c. 1902
Died	1981-06-11 Chicago
Pen name	Nellise Child
Occupation	playwright, novelist
Notable works	Weep for the Virgins
Spouse	Abner G. Rosenfeld Frank Gerard
Children	Frank Redfield

This website claims that Nellise Child is a pseudonym:

• http://mysteriouschicago.com/marble-mildred-a-forgotten-murderer/
• "The next story in the book is “The Almost Indesctrucible Husband” by Nellise Child, the pen name of Lillian Gerard, who, two decades before, had become the most famous flapper in Chicago under the name Lillian Collier"
• Much more about this pseudonym allegation: http://mysteriouschicago.com/lillian-collier-mystery-solved/
• That "Nellise Child" is a pseudonym is corroborated by her son's account in The Lost Group Theatre Plays; but he doesn't provide many more details
• partially also corroborated by NYT obit: http://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/26/obituaries/nellise-child.html

Husband - Frank Gerard, automobile sales manager; Child is described as a "mystery novelist and playwright" -- attested in this 1934 NYT article: FILM CASE WITNESS FOUND IN A DAZE: Girl 'Extra' Recognized on Street 8 Hours After She Leaves Suicide Note. TESTIFIED ABOUT PARTY Hollywood Actress Had Appeared for State in Morals Trial -- Distraught From Ordeal. Copyright 1934. by The Associated Press.. New York Times (1923-Current file); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]15 July 1934: 2.

"Nellise Child... once was known as the baby of Chicago's hobohemia. When she was fifteen years old she was a reporter on the Chicago Herald and Examiner under Frank Carson and Walter Howie... Her job was mixed with news stunts. She traveled with a circus and worked as an actress here."

• BOOK NOTES. New York Times (1923-Current file); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]28 Dec 1934: 19.

Plays

Weep for the Virgins

• https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/weep-for-the-virgins-12036
  • Opening Date: Nov 30, 1935
  • Closing Date: Dec 1935
  • Total Performances: 9
  • lots of stories in the NYT
  • included in the book The Lost Group Theatre Plays ISBN: 9781477532546

"the play deals with a San Diego family in poorish circumstances" - NEWS OF THE STAGE: Two Openings Fill This Evening's Drama Larder -- Other Matters of Note. New York Times (1923-Current file); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]30 Nov 1935: 12.

• "Weep for the Virgins concerns three sisters who work in a San Diego fish cannery but are encouraged by their mother to dream of becoming movie stars: all three nearly ruin their lives through their inability to face reality. The power of the Hollywood fantasy machine to distract people from genuine issues remains as potent as ever, and the playwright's depiction of working-class life has an authentic grittiness that is characteristic of the 1930s, a decade when the artistic establishment was unusually receptive to proletarian talent. Nllise Child had worked in a cannery herself, as well as in a soda fountain, a department store, a biscuit factory, and a Western Union office. She knew the people and the milieu she was writing about, and her play throbs with life, anchored by bracingly down-to-earth humor."
• In his memoir of the Group Theatre, founder Harold Clurman writes of Weep:
  • "In almost every way this play became a kind of Group stepchild. WHen it was submitted, I thought it had something: it dealt with one of the least observed or understood sectors of our population -- the backward elements of our working class. The central characters were a depressed family in a fish cannery. Everyone dreamed of escaping from these sordid surroundings -- the father through the fantastic hope of acquiring a frog farm, the mother though her three daughters, who might do something with their lives by the fabled path of Hollywood. The play, in many ways unusual and talented, had a certain wry humor and understanding. It was incompletely organized, however, unsure in technique and point of view.... The acquisition of this play, which might be described as an organizational oversight, is not a reflection on its merits, but the mark of a production that at almost every step was characterized by neglect. I do not remember how it was financed. No one, so far as I can remember, worked on the revision of the script prior to rehearsals.")

Criticism

• "Weep for the Virgins." Nation, vol. 141, 18 Dec. 1935, pp. 722-723.
• "Weep for the Virgins." Time, vol. 26, 09 Dec. 1935, p. 54.
• "Weep for the Virgins." Theatre Arts, vol. 20, Jan. 1936, p. 20.

• NYT: "An aimless portrait of the deluded poor in California. Many of the Group Theatre actors do well by individual parts, but the performance as a whole is shiftless."
  • CAPITOL IMPIETIES: In 'First Lady' Two Makers of Comedy Rattle Some Washington Skeletons. By BROOKS ATKINSON.. New York Times (1923-Current file); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]08 Dec 1935: X3.

After the Gleaners

• won second prize ($1000) in play contest of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union
  • NYT: PLAYS ARE CHOSEN IN UNION CONTEST: ' Sunup to Sundown' and 'After the Gleaners' Lead Garment Workers' Competition $2,000 PRIZE IS OFFERED Judges to Convene This Week to Decide Winner-Total of 346 Plays Entered; New York Times (1923-Current file); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]05 Jan 1938: 16.
  • NEWS OF THE STAGE: Four Plays Are Ending Their Runs This Evening'Journeyman' Is Opening Tonight Winning Play Selected One Other Opening Next Week
    • "In taking more than three weeks to decide which play should receive first money, the committee of judges was understood to have had many heated discussions."
    • "The terms of the contest provided that the play must deal with social conflicts in contemporary American society and treat of the 'aspirations of the labor movement without, however, involving sectarian criticism of it."

Come to the Dance

NYT: 'COME TO DANCE' OPENS: Play by Nellise Child Bows, Featuring Irene Castle Special to The New York Times.. New York Times (1923-Current file); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]31 Dec 1959: 12.

• Miami Fl - Coconut Grove Playhouse
• play was initially name Bird of Time
• Co-starring Dennis King and Isobel Elsom
• "The plot of Bird of Time develops in a club where older persons appreciate the advantages of useful recreational facilities."

Works

Plays

• Weep for the Virgin, 1935
• After the Gleaners, 1938
• Angel's Flight, 1938
  • NEWS OF THE STAGE: ' Julius Caesar' Closes Tonight-'The Two Bouquets' Only Opening Listed Next Week-Other Items The Mercury Theatre's produc-wrote "Cassandra Kelly," tested The Week-End Schedule Other Items of Theatre

New York Times (1923-Current file); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]28 May 1938: 9.

• Out of this World, 1943
  • "Out of this World" performed by The Actors Company at the Forester, Nov 10, 1943
    • GOSSIP OF THE RIALTO: GOSSIP OF THE RIALTO. New York Times (1923-Current file); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]17 Oct 1943: X1.
• "Mother Furie[s?]" was to be produced by Kermit Bloomgarden, but was dropped from the scheduled season
  • TEAM TO COMBINE STAGE, FILM WORK: Strasberg and Lawlor Firm to Produce Independently, Also Sell to Studios. By SAM ZOLOTOW. New York Times (1923-Current file); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]06 June 1947: 27.

• Sister Oakes, 1949
  • THE THEATRE. J. P. S.. New York Times (1923-Current file); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]25 Apr 1949: 19.
    • Lenox Hill Playhouse, put on by the Experimental Theatre, sponsored by the American National Theatre and Academy
    • "A Story about the determination of a young woman evangelist to replace the snake-bite and mumbo-jumbo school of revivalism with a sane and beneficial form of worship, Sister Oakes has its moments of power and glory. They are non sufficient, however, to sustain interest for the entire length of the play. Even the lively antics... wear thin before the play's message is conveyed.... She proceeds on the principle that 'folks can't die righteous unless they've been living fair.' Tolerance and justice are weapons with which she wins her flock."
• The Happy Ending, (first known under this title 1952, then "Come to the Dance" for a 1959 performance in Miami Fl, rewritten under the original title for Aug 15-27, 1960 performance at Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, PA
  • ELLIS LISTS STARS OF 'HAPPY ENDING': Ruth Chatterton, Pert Kelton and Conrad Nagel to Head Cast at New Hope, Pa.

By SAM ZOLOTOW. New York Times (1923-Current file); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y] 05 Aug 1960: 13.

Novels

• Murder Comes Home, 1933
  • MURDER COMES HOME. By Nellise-Child. 330 pp. New York Alfred A. Knopf. $2.

New York Times (1923-Current file); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]19 Mar 1933: BR12.

• The Diamond Ransom Murders, 1935
  • THE DIAMOND RANSOM MURDERS. By Nellise Child. 285 pp. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. $2.

New York Times (1923-Current file); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]06 Jan 1935: BR16.

• Wolf on the Fold, 1941
  • NYT Review: Woman Evangelist: WOLF ON THE FOLD. By Nellise Child. 384 pp. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co. $2.75.

Feld, Rose. New York Times (1923-Current file); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]02 Nov 1941: BR5.

• If I Come Home, 1943
  • NYT Review: WPA Debutante: IF I COME HOME. By Nellise Child. 311 pp. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co. $2.50.

Hauser, Marianne. New York Times (1923-Current file); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]09 Jan 1944: BR24.

True Crime

• "The Almost Indestructible Husband" in Chicago Murders, 1945

True Crime

"Joseph Bolton, The Almost Indestructible Husband" in Chicago Murders pp. 143-185. Review Quote: "Nellise Child has added another grim and unforgettable figure to the annals of murder." --E., H. "Crime and Punishment." New Republic, vol. 113, no. 7, 13 Aug. 1945, p. 198.