This is not where visitors should start at the
Actors Chosen for Ayn Rand Roles web site.
Click here to go to the first page.

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Appendix 1:
Is Night of January 16th
the right title of Rand’s first play?

images: detail section and full image of the front side of an advertising handbill for the Broadway run of “Night of January 16th”; the back side of the flyer (not shown here) names Doris Nolan and others, but names neither of the actors who played Regan, making it unclear whether the flyer dates from the first month (when Walter Pidgeon played the gangster) or afterward (when William Bakewell had taken over), although it can be ascertained that this flyer dates from the first five months of the engagement (inasmuch as Nolan left after five months)

    
Is the title “Night of January 16th” (without “The” at the beginning) or “The Night of January 16” (without “th” at the end)? As the above images—from an advertising flyer for the original Broadway run—demonstrate, even the promoters of the original production did not have a single title: the testimonial quote atop the flyer gives the title without “The” but with “th,” yet directly underneath this blurb the large-size version of the title presumably intended as the producer’s chosen title, has “The” but lacks “th” following “16.”

image: catalogue card in the United States Copyright Office. See accompanying text, below.

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Here are some facts:

• The first two copyright registrations for the play under either of these titles were for the “Director’s Manuscript” and “players book” editions, which were both registered December 5, 1936. (Prior to this, the work was protected by copyright through Ayn Rand registering it as “Penthouse Legend” in 1933, and through common-law copyright accorded works which had not been published, even if performed before audiences.) Both copyrights declare the title as “Night of January 16th” and that the work is “a comedy-drama in 3 acts, by Ayn Rand, edited by Nathaniel Edward Reeid.”

The “Director’s Manuscript” edition was not published (so stated in the copyright registration) but the “players book” edition was. Both were registered for copyright by Longmans, Green and Co., and are the editions subsequently reprinted by David McKay Company, Inc., which also filed renewal of these two copyrights on behalf of the author and the editor’s widow. The front cover and title page of the McKay “players book” edition give the title as “Night of January 16th.”

[See above: photograph of the catalogue card for the “Director’s Manuscript” edition of “Night of January 16th” in the Copyright Office of the United States.]

image: entry for “Night of January 16th” in the log book of the United States Copyright Office. These two entries were hand-written in or about 1936. Notice that the entry below records the “The” as the first word of the title, indicating that the lack of a “The” in the title in the entry for Rand’s play is not for a policy of the Copyright Office leaving it off.

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These Longmans editions are the editions which Ayn Rand called the “amateur version of Night of January 16th [which] is not written by me and is not part of my works.” These were editions aimed to “church, school and college groups” and which had been “‘cleaned up’” to remove mentions of any mistress, of the word “Guts” (so that the gangster was renamed “‘Larry’ Regan”), and swearing, as “adapted by the publishing house.” (Quotes from Ayn Rand’s 1968 introduction to her authorized book edition of the play.) Even with these departures from Ayn Rand’s version, it uses the same title word-for-word as Ayn Rand would.

• The book edition of Ayn Rand’s authorized edition of the play uses the title “Night of January 16th,” and as it went to press at a time when Ayn Rand could impose strict contractual and editorial terms on her publishers, it can be assumed the title appeared on hardback dust jackets, on paperback covers, and on the title page word-for-word as she imposed. The hardback published by World Publishing Company in 1968, and the softcover edition published by Signet in 1971 state the title as “Night of January 16th.”

• Ayn Rand’s 1968 introduction to the play, which gives the title throughout its text as “Night of January 16th,” was first published in the April 1968 issue of The Objectivist, which was co-published and co-edited by Ayn Rand, and which did not contain any statements or wording which prior to publication had not been read and approved by Ayn Rand.

• Advertising prepared and/or bought by Al Woods and/or his organization is erratic on the title. As visitors to this web site can ascertain, advertisements for the original production which appeared in The New York Times are inconsistent as to the being given as “The Night of January 16,” or just “Night of January 16” (with neither “The” nor “th”). The same patterns apply to regional productions.

• Uses of the composite title “The Night of January 16th” (with both the starting “The” and the “th” in “16th”) seem to be confined to a very small number of the least authoritative editions: the wholly-unfaithful 1941 movie, the 1936 London production (the program for it gives the title the same way as header of the London Times review seen on this site), and productions even more remote and obscure.

• Evidence gives weight to the title of the play being “Night of January 16th.” However, this web site and the companion video vary the title in accordance with the specific production under discussion. There are places where the title is stated as “Night of January 16” where the accompanying illustrations show it to have been “The Night of January 16”; in these instances, the lack of the “The” should be taken as elliptical syntax, in much the same way as it is appropriate to give a title as Fountainhead where the context makes clear that The Fountainhead is the work under discussion.

 
Another proposed Woods title

The text of this web site reports (with substantiation from newspaper stories reproduced in accompanying illustrations) various titles which had been announced as the title of the play. One of the titles announced by Woods eight months before the premiere was “The Night Is Young.” An idea proposed by Woods after the play had premiered and had already proven a box-office success, was a constant change of title. Here is the idea:

“A. H. Woods is thinking of nothing less than a daily change of title of his melodrama ‘Night of January 16,’ the new policy to go into effect on Feb 1. ‘Night of Feb. 1 (2, 3 &c.),’ is the way it would go.” (The New York Times, January 17, 1936, pg. 15)

Given the date of the announcement, Woods had figured that the performance on January 16th—the date in the title—needn’t be the only performance each year on the date in the title.

The Times item recognized that “a lot of changes in the dialogue” at each performance would be entailed in “keeping the show strictly up-to-date.”

 

 

Appendix 2:
Casting ideas for Atlas Shrugged

 
This table lists choices considered by Ayn Rand.
 
RoleActorSource of reportCitation
Dagny Taggart Farrah Fawcett Arline Mann V 461
Lauren Bacall Arline Mann V 461
Raquel Welch Susan Ludel V 401
Michael Jaffe V 516
Katharine Hepburn [when young, e.g., 1930s] Allan Gotthelf V 344
Catherine Deneuve Cynthia Peikoff V 556
Barbara Stanwyck Ayn Rand L 497
Erika Holzer H 282
Faye Dunaway Erika Holzer H 282
Dagny? [These names appear on a list hand-written by Ayn Rand on which she does not indicate character name; it is being guessed from other remarks, actresses’ star status, and actress personas, that all were considered for Dagny.] Farrah Fawcett-Majors [AR underlined this actress] Ayn Rand B 115
Genevieve Bujold [AR underlined this actress] Ayn Rand B 115
Kate Jackson Ayn Rand B 115
Julie Christie (“Heaven Can Wait” [1978]) Ayn Rand B 115
Charlotte Rampling “?” Ayn Rand B 115
Carrie Fisher [AR wrote “Princess from ‘Star Wars’” without naming the actress] Ayn Rand B 115
Hank Rearden Roy Schneider Ayn Rand B 115
Clint Eastwood Michael Jaffe V 516
Erika Holzer H 282
Robert Stack Erika Holzer H 282
Francisco d’Anconia Hans Gudegast
(a.k.a. Eric Braeden)
Arline Mann V 461
Harry Binswanger S ---
Cynthia Peikoff S ---
Peter Strauss (“Rich Man, Poor Man”) Ayn Rand B 115
Tom Selleck? [handwriting reads like “Tom Sennett”] Ayn Rand B 115
John Justin [of “Breaking the Sound Barrier”] Erika Holzer H 282
Alain Delon Susan Ludel V 401
Eddie Willers Martin Sheen Ayn Rand B 115
James Taggart Vincent Price Harry Binswanger V 602
Erika Holzer H 283
Ned Beatty (“Network”) Ayn Rand B 115
Lillian Rearden Lee Remick Cynthia Peikoff V 556
Claire Bloom Erika Holzer H 283
Dr. Robert Stadler Hume Cronyn Erika Holzer H 283
Cuffy Meigs Rod Steiger [of “In the Heat of the Night”] Erika Holzer H 291
Midas Mulligan Spencer Tracy Arline Mann V 461
John Galt Robert Redford Erika Holzer H 282
 
Sources
 

V = 100 Voices: an Oral History of Ayn Rand, by Scott McConnell (New American Library, 2010)

B = Ayn Rand, by Jeff Britting (Overlook Duckworth, 2004)

H = Ayn Rand: My Fiction-Writing Teacher, by Erika Holzer (Madison Press, 2005)

L = Letters of Ayn Rand, edited by Michael S. Berliner (Dutton, 1995)

S = Ayn Rand: a Sense of Life, 1998 movie, out-take on DVD second disc

The citations in the fourth column provide the page number following a single letter matches to the source (see key immediately above). In the case of the documentary film outtake, there obviously is no page number. A mnemonic for the sources is that citations to Ayn Rand herself always come from Jeff Britting’s book, citations to Erika Holzer always come from her book, and all others go to 100 Voices, except for the two for the Ayn Rand: a Sense of Life supplement, which in turn are from friends of Ayn Rand who are also interviewed in 100 Voices.

Brackets indicate content added by me, guided by knowledge of some of Ayn Rand’s favorite films. Content in parentheses were Ayn Rand’s own remarks written alongside the actors’ names. Content inside neither parentheses nor brackets are Ayn Rand’s. Thus, where “Tom Selleck? [handwriting reads like ‘Tom Sennett’]” appears, the question mark is Ayn Rand’s (positioned on her list immediately after the actor’s name, just as it is here), but the remark inside the brackets is mine, in this case a remark indicating that her handwriting (reproduced in Britting’s book) was not clear enough for certainty. I checked for an actor named Tom Sennett and came away empty.

Ayn Rand (Overlook Duckworth) by Jeff Britting, pg. 115, also shows that Ayn Rand thought of Jill Clayburgh for a role, then wrote “no” next to her name.

Albert Ruddy, on page 511 of 100 Voices, indicates his casting choices for an Atlas Shrugged movie (which he negotiated to produce) to have been Faye Dunaway as Dagny, Clint Eastwood for Rearden, Alain Delon for Francisco, Robert Redford for Galt. He repeats this same list in the interview transcription published in Ayn Rand and the Prophesy of Atlas Shrugged: the Complete Documentary Interviews (a companion volume to the similarly-titled documentary film), pg. 105. The record of other people who knew Ayn Rand shows that Ayn Rand had thought of and approved those same actor choices (see table above).

 

 

Appendix 3:
Midnight Lady and its variations

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In viewing the second clip from Midnight Lady, viewers may have surmised that the “notorious woman” whom Padden is talking about is herself, that the young man she is talking to is one of the children she abandoned fifteen years earlier, that she knows he is her son, whereas he does not. Some people who have seen many 1930s movies may sense that they’ve seen this story before, but may not be sure they’ve seen this particular film. They would be right to question whether this is a new film to them. Hollywood in the first decade of sound films presented many stories of mothers who left their children, faced trial, sacrificed their futures to prevent shame from visiting their children, and never divulged their maternal connection to the children is whose adulthood a reunion occurred. Here are several films which mixed these plot elements:
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Madame X (1929) was the first sound film version (following a 1908 theatrical play and later silent film versions), and cast Ruth Chatterton as the neglected wife and mother whose affair results in her husband casting her out of their home. Her lover’s death soon thereafter leads her into a loveless life of progressively more-degrading environments, the discovery by a blackmailer of her real identity, her murder of him, and her refusal at trial to identify herself so as not to sully the reputations of her husband and son, the latter of whom has grown up to be the lawyer defending her without knowing what she knows: that he is her son. M-G-M.

Sarah and Son (1930) has Ruth Chatterton as a wife whose husband takes their son with him when he deserts her. The prospect of a reunion a decade later fails for her, when she is told about her son’s whereabouts, but the adoptive parents deny that their son is hers. More misfortune follows. Paramount.

Caught (1931) gives the pivotal role to Louise Dresser (who, like Sarah Padden, was usually a supporting player, here given a rare chance at a lead) as a middle-aged Old West saloon owner who comes to suspect that the calvary lieutenant visting town to investigate crime is her long-lost son, forfeited by her when she left Eastern civilization for a rugged life. Though she recognizes that her guilt over cattle rustling will be discovered by him, and although her crime partner urges her to kill the lieutenant, she seeks to learn more about him. Engaging him in conversation, she realizes that he is her son, although he never suspects. She sacrifices her business to keep him from being killed, escaping town, knowing she is now a fugitive and won’t ever see him again. Paramount.

The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931) has Helen Hayes as a young mother who had become pregnant by a man who bends to his parents’ will that he marry someone else; she raises her son in poverty while this is possible, then puts her son into foster care while attempting to better herself, ultimately losing any opportunity to reunite when she is imprisoned for crimes she did not commit. When her son is an adult, she spurns any reunion plans (lest she stigmatize him) but instead secretly finances his college education. When they do meet, she knows who he is, he doesn’t know her. M-G-M (completed after Caught was released).

Midnight Lady (1932) is Sarah Padden as a wife and mother who abandons family when no longer able to endure her mother-in-law. She comes to run a successful speakeasy, meeting her now-grown children in the establishment, but doesn’t let known who she is, letting them maintain their belief that she is dead. When evidence points to her daughter being guilty of killing the daughter’s scoundrel boyfriend, and knowing who really killed the man and that this woman has too thoroughly escaped detection, the mother accepts blame and in court doesn’t defend herself properly. Chesterfield.

Frisco Jenny (1933) has Ruth Chatterton (again!) as an unwed mother without family, surviving through vice, leaving her infant son with foster parents who come to bond with him so thoroughly that the mother realizes it would be wrong to reclaim the child. She rises in the underworld of illegal commerce, but follows her now-adult son’s progress in newspaper stories about his successes. Mother and son are brought together when he is the district attorney who prosecutes her. She allows him to prevail, even though it means her being sentence to death. William Wellman directed for First National.

The Secret of Madame Blanche (1933) puts Irene Dunne through its story of motherhood under circumstances which compel the young mother to surrender her infant son to her wealthy father-in-law, denied the opportunity even to see the child. Two decades later, sheer chance bring mother and son together, she knowing his identity, he not, she at first disgusted by his morals, then becoming maternal towards him. A murder and a trial follow, mother sacrificing herself to spare her son. There is a twist at the end unlike that in the other films. M-G-M (released a month after Frisco Jenny).

Midnight Mary (1933) is much the same story as Madame X and Frisco Jenny insofar as the central character refuses to divulge information in court which would prevent her being found guilty. This time, though, she has no son, but sacrifices on behalf of an adult man she loves and whom had loved her in the past. Loretta Young enacts the hard-luck story, wherein she undertakes more suffering so as to hold together the marriage of the man to the woman he had not yet met when he had parted with Loretta. Willaim Wellman directed for M-G-M (filmed when Frisco Jenny was already in release).

Most Precious Thing in Life (1934) has Jean Arthur as the young wife who leaves husband, baby son, and her parents-in-law, then is thrown together with her now-adult son by sheer chance. As the cleaning woman of her son’s college room, she tries to reverse the bad traits ingrained in her son by his father and grandfather, while allowing her son to continue believing his mother to be dead. Columbia.

Madame X (1937) with Gladys George in the story of the wife having an affair while not realizing that by not attending to her child, she wasn’t there to nurse him as he develops illness, thereby earning the wrath of her husband, who asks her to leave the house. She works locally for awhile, then sails across the Atlantic to America, where she sinks into depravity. Her murder of a blackmailer who has learned of her past, and would hurt her husband and now-adult son were her fate to become known, results in her being defended by her son, he being unaware of who she is. This version eliminates the mother-in-law’s role in the woman’s downfall, and makes the husband (Warren William) remorseful over his banishing his wife, having sought to get her back just as she has concealed her location. M-G-M.

In later decades, Madame X was remade again: in 1948 in Britain (as The Trial of Madame X), in a glossy American production of 1966, and in a 1981 TV version with Tuesday Weld. Outside the English language, there was a 1954 Greek version of Madame X. A well-mounted, top-name-talent version, the 1966 version has the mother-in-law element of some of the films listed here other than the 1929 and 1937 versions: generally following the established plotline, Lana Turner is the neglected wife who takes on a lover, is forced by her mother-in-law to flee to prevent scandal embroiling the family, and then falls into dissoluteness, necessitating her being put on trial, whereat her lawyer is her own son, who never suspects who the woman is who is not giving her real name.

This list is confined to the films most likely to be confused. Omitted from this list are variations with fewer common elements, such as Stella Dallas (1925 and 1937 versions), where the child is raised by both parents and is considerably older when the mother surrenders custody, doing so for different reasons than in Madame X; and Blonde Venus (1932), where the parents reunite while the child is still very young.

 

 

Appendix 4:
“Continuity” meant … what?

In the section discussing Universal’s “Black Pearl” project, it is reported that Ayn Rand was assigned to “continuity.” This detail-oriented form of writing, where creativity is discouraged when not forbidden, had been pioneered by 1914, reputedly by prolific producer Thomas Ince, and arose from deficiencies in filmmaking practices which had given too much freedom to directors to shoot without effiencies in the use of key personnel and without regard to additional costs incurred when all filming to be shot at one location isn’t shot at the same time.

Ince’s methods remain standard practice a century later. The travel and set-up time spent at a given location away from the studio doesn’t happen more often than the minimum possible, and sets don’t remain standing when not in use (occupying studio space that could serve another production) while the director intends to return after an interim.

The most desirable performers may be paid by the week or even by the day, their salaries continuing until all their scenes have been shot, and their availability may be limited by other commitments, so it becomes incumbent that all of such an actor’s scenes be scheduled to be shot in consecutive blocks of time. A continuity script is an aid to scheduling talent and locations, to on-set behind-the-camera personnel in knowing whether specific physical items are needed and where they are to appear on screen, and to related matters.

What was once called a “continuity girl” and is also called a “script clerk” or “continuity person,” looks for details which may be misplaced or which may inadvertently move location between shots. Such a person works on a film that actually goes into production. The “Black Pearl” project, despite background film being shot for it, never went so far as to have performers enact a script before a camera at Universal, so Ayn Rand could not have worked continuity in that sense.

Oddly enough, two industry year books of the early 1930s don’t have entries for “continuity” in their glossaries.

“The detailed continuity script was standard practice by 1914. Continuity scripts and associated paperwork varied little from studio to studio owing to their standardization through trade paper discussion of the formats. … Each of [one] firm’s production scripts had a number assigned to it which provided a method of identifying the film even though its title might shift. …

“[It] listed all exterior and interior sites along with shot numbers, providing efficient cross-checking and preventing lost production time and wasted labor. … Each shot was numbered consecutively; included were the shot’s location and a brief description of sets, properties, and costumes. Camera distances were specified, as well as any unusual effects in the lighting or cinematography. Scenes were broken into separate shots, and cross-cutting was fully detailed. All action was specified. … Since these scripts were often used on the set, penciled over each shot was a scribble marking the completion of that shot …

“Although the companies might hire famous writers to compose original screenplays, their material was then turned over to these technicians who put it into continuity format. These writers knew not only the continuity format and stylistic demands of the film but also the particular needs of the individual studios in terms of cost of sets, standing sets, star and stock personalities, directorial and staff areas of skill, and so on. Such a tactic provided the studio with a standardized script whose format was familiar to everyone and which was most likely to utilize the studio’s physical capacities and labor force to best advantage.” (American Film Industry, edited by Tina Balio (University of Wisconsin Press, 1976), pgs. 189-190)

A continuity script has to be distinguished from a cutting continuity, which at quick glance may appear to be a script, but which is actually a transcript of the finished film, breaking down the actors’ lines and primary actions to blocks of text appearing alongside specific details on the types of shots (“close up,” “long shot,” etc.) and the durations of shots in seconds and frames. Cutting continuities are prepared to assist distribution offices and exchanges with repair of damaged prints, inspection of prints returned from theaters, and legal matters. Obviously, Ayn Rand could not have produced one of these for “Black Pearl” for Universal, because the studio never made the film.

 

 

Appendix 5:
About the Actors

The remarks about the actors in this project focus on what traits and abilities they would bring to their roles. The objective is to allow visitors to gauge, to assess the actors’ suitability for the roles for which they were considered. Some will object that the comments on Leonard Bernstein make no mention that he advocated for and funded far-left political causes. The passage on Mickey Knox makes no mention of his being blacklisted. Were such comments to have been incorporated into the main text, there would be a precedent for identifying non-Objectivist beliefs of still further performers, until such identifications were being placed in the remarks of performers only slightly removed from the mainstream. Rather than that happen, a decision was made that no such remarks appear. The point of this site is to celebrate talent. In selecting scenes to appear as film clips on this site, a few policies were followed. (1) The first was that I had to be legally allowed to use the video. (2) The film excerpted should be as near the time of the actor’s association with his Ayn Rand role as possible. (3) It was great when I found a scene of an actor expressing the same kinds of emotions as his Ayn Rand character would be in that role, but failing that, (4) the actor should be in an emotional moment, so that we can see how deeply the actor’s inner being gets engaged in a performance. (5) It was great when I found the dialogue that the actor had conveyed ideas expressed in Ayn Rand’s works, and I’d thought it unlikely there would be much, yet I was surprised by how often I came up with a clip which fit this criterion and all the others.

 

 

Appendix 6:
Reunions, Earlier Partnerings, and Different
Combinations of Actors in Other Films

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Murder by Invitation (1941), it is noted in the section on revivals, reunited Sarah Padden (the maid in “Night of January 16th” on Broadway, and in Boston, Chicago and Pittsburgh) and J. Arthur Young (the judge in those same Broadway and Boston productions, repeating that role and essaying the role of attorney in the play elsewhere). Moon Over Burma (1940), it is noted in this web site’s text, joined the leading man of the “Night of January 16th” film (Robert Preston) with the original leading lady of the play on Broadway (Doris Nolan). These were far from the only reunions and different-production partnerings in other films.

“The Unconquered” (the stage version of We the Living) had Eugenie Leontovich as Kira and Dean Jagger as Andre when the play premiered in Baltimore. The play was not filmed, so we don’t have a record of how these two performers interacted with each other as lovers whose relationship hinges on one partner’s scorn. However, we can get an idea of how they interacted, because these same two actors graced the same sound stages in California seventeen months later, when they played the third-billed and fourth-billed roles in The Men in Her Life (1941), a feature film released by Columbia. The storyline has their characters in conflict, as each has different intentions for the film’s main character, played by Loretta Young.
 

Exiled to Shanghai (1937) contains a mother-load of actors who at some time in their careers played an Ayn Rand character. William Harrigan (“Guts” Regan in Bronxville) is excerpted in scenes from that film elsewhere on this web site. However, the film also has William Bakewell (“Guts” Regan for five of the play’s original six months on Broadway) and Sarah Padden (the maid on Broadway) as characters who cooperate toward a common goal, with Bakewell coming into contact with Dean Jagger (from The Unconquered), Jonathan Hale (later to play Guy Francon in The Fountainhead film), and Charles Trowbridge (member of Wynand’s board of directors of The Banner in The Fountainhead).
   Charles Trowbridge is the one actor of the six who is least likely to be recognized by web visitors who have gone through this site up to here. On the board of directors (of The Banner) who urge Wynand to “give in” by denouncing Roark to appease the mob, Trowbridge plays the member who remarks, “We’ve lost all our advertisers.” With the camera closer, he states, “We’ve got to come out against Roark.”

Click to see excerpts of these six actors, and watch them interacting with one another (in combinations of up to four actors in one scene).

Exiled to Shanghai doesn’t hold the record for the most actors discussed on this site appearing in one film. A couple of “all star” films of the 1940s hold that record. However, Exiled to Shanghai does seem to have the record for the most number of actors who actually did play an Ayn Rand role, as against having a higher number achieved by counting actors who were considered for roles that they ultimately did not play.

Warner Bros. gathered a large roster of their contract players and put them in Hollywood Canteen (1944), many of these stars appearing briefly, typically in a single scene which limited their interaction with the other stars. Hollywood Canteen has Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Alexis Smith, Eleanor Parker, Joan Crawford, Robert Shayne, and Kitty Carlisle, as well as Jonathan Hale (who would play Guy Francon in The Fountainhead).

Variety Girl (1947) was Paramount’s effort at the same kind of film. It has Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Cecil Kellaway, Burt Lancaster, Lizabeth Scott, Ray Milland, and Paulette Goddard (also: Russell Hicks of The Fountainhead—he’s the one who tells Wynand, “we’re your board of directors”). (Note: in both of the above films, not all actors were contract players. Some were “free agents” who contracted single films or were connected with that studio at the time without the actor taking on a long-term association with the studio.)

 
Karen Andres together

Gloria Stuart, Fay Wray, and Rose Hobart all played Karen Andre in Eastern U.S. productions during the late 1930s. Six decades later, all three appeared as interviewees in Universal Horror (1998), a documentary allowing them to talk about their early careers in horror films, interspersed with film clips from Universal’s horror films. Note: the horror films identified in Actors Chosen for Ayn Rand Roles as the classics in which Rose Hobart and Fay Wray appeared, were made by RKO, Paramount and Fox, not Universal.

Barbara Bedford was the original Karen Andre (Bedford played Andre in Hollywood prior to there being a Broadway production), and Rose Hobart played Andre later. Mr. & Mrs. North (1942) has both actresses (also in the cast: future “Alvah Scarret” Jerome Cowan of The Fountainhead).

 
“Woman on Trial” reunions

E.E. Clive produced and directed “Woman on Trial” (the original title under which “Night of January 16th” was produced), and Barbara Bedford was selected as leading lady. Their careers would intersect again, with both performers appearing in two films: Three Kids and a Queen (1935) and The First Hundred Years (1938) (both also have Jonathan Hale).

 
Broadway cast together before and after

Members of the Broadway cast of “Night of January 16th” came together and were separated many times. Edwin Maxwell would not play on Broadway, nor in any East Coast productions of “Night of January 16th” so far as is known, yet he turned up in the same films as Broadway cast members. The next list is principally devoted to listing where Broadway cast members appear in the same movies, but Maxwell is named where he turns up. (Maxwell’s name is italicized to emphasize his not having acted alongside these cast mates in an Ayn Rand role.)

Before “Night of January 16th” was produced on Broadway, 1930 saw All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) with William Bakewell, Edmund Breese, and Edwin Maxwell. The Gorilla (1930) has Walter Pidgeon and Edwin Maxwell (as well as Lila Lee, who in 1936 would be a juror in Hollywood). Top Speed (1930) has Edmund Breese, Edwin Maxwell.

In 1931: The Great Meadow (1931) has William Bakewell and Sarah Padden. Mata Hari (1931) has Sarah Padden and Edmund Breese. Edwin Maxwell turns up in the casts with two of the Broadway cast: with Sarah Padden in The Yellow Ticket (1931) and with William Bakewell in Daybreak (1931).

In 1932: Grand Hotel (1932) has Sarah Padden and Edmund Breese, along with Edwin Maxwell, Joan Crawford (who failed to get cast on film as Dominique), and Charles Trowbridge (board member in The Fountainhead). Cross-Examination (1932) again has Sarah Padden and Edmund Breese.

In 1933, Duck Soup (1933) has Louis Calhern (announced for “Guts” Regan on Broadway) as the main villain, and Edmund Breese and Edwin Maxwell both cast as members of the same cabinet of a mythical nation. The leader of that nation is played by Groucho Marx, who would be a showy juror in Hollywood in 1936 (where from a seat on stage he watched Maxwell perform). Women Won’t Tell (1933) has Sarah Padden and Edmund Breese. A Man of Sentiment (1933) has William Bakewell and Edmund Breese. Ann Vickers (1933) has Sarah Padden and Edwin Maxwell (as a lawyer).

As the Broadway production of “Night of January 16th” neared, Edwin Maxwell was a cast mate of Edmund Breese in Dancing Man (1934), and of William Bakewell in Happiness C.O.D. (1935).

Following the Broadway premiere of the play, Big Brown Eyes (1936) has Walter Pidgeon and Edwin Maxwell. Rich Man, Poor Girl (1938) has Sarah Padden, Edwin Maxwell, and Barbara Bedford (from the 1934 Hollywood stage production). Blossoms in the Dust (1941) again has Walter Pidgeon and Edwin Maxwell.

The aforementioned Murder by Invitation (1941) is from the same year as Blossoms in the Dust, but Murder By Invitation has a reunion: Sarah Padden and J. Arthur Young.

I Live on Danger (1942) has William Bakewell and Edwin Maxwell.

Broadway cast members Clyde Fillmore and Sarah Padden were in 3 Is a Family (1944), produced by Sol Lesser, who had been a Hollywood juror of the play.

Clyde Fillmore was also in Wilson (1945), as were Arthur Space (from the Chicago and Pittsburgh productions), Edwin Maxwell (putting his oratorical skills, already put to use as prosecutor in “Night of January 16th,” to work as William Jennings Bryan), Vincent Price (Ayn Rand’s choice to play James Taggart), and Thurston Hall (before he declared in The Fountainhead, “I play the stock market!”).

Week-End at the Waldorf (1945) (a lame remake of Grand Hotel, listed above) has Walter Pidgeon and Clyde Fillmore (both veterans of the Broadway cast), along with Keenan Wynn (from a production in Maine).

Oh! Susanna (1951) reunited (again!) William Bakewell and Sarah Padden.

 
San Francisco/Hollywood reunions

It has been demonstrated how frequently Edwin Maxwell (the District Attorney in the San Francisco and 1936 Hollywood productions) appeared in the same films as members of the Broadway cast. Not listed until now is his appearance in films which also feature one (or more) of his cast mates from San Francisco and Hollywood.

Parole Fixer (1940) has three members of the San Francisco/Hollywood cast: Edwin Maxwell, Charlotte Wynters, and John Gallaudet (also Russell Hicks of The Fountainhead). Wynters and Gallaudet also appeared in another film, released the following year: Dive Bomber (1941). It has Wynters, Gallaudet, Alexis Smith (fresh from “Night of January 16th” in a Los Angeles college production), and Fred MacMurray (announced for “Guts” Regan in the 1941 film) (also: Moroni Olson from The Fountainhead—he’s the man who offers Roark the bank commission, provided Roark accepts a compromise).

 
Jurors alongside the actors they saw perform on stage

The celebrities who accepted roles as jurors in the Broadway and 1936 Hollywood productions sometimes were witnessing performances by actors with whom they had acted in movies. Sometimes, the actors whose performances the jurors were witnessing from the jury box were actors with whom they would later work in movies.

Personal Maid (1931) had Charlotte Wynters long before she played in the San Francisco and 1936 Hollywood productions. In that film also was Pat O’Brien, who would be a juror at one of her Hollywood performances.

The People’s Enemy (1935) has Herbert Rawlinson (defense attorney in San Francisco and Hollywood) and Lila Lee, who would be juror listening to his arguments in Hollywood. Also in the cast: Melvyn Douglas, one of the actors considered for “Guts” Regan in the 1941 movie.

Una Merkel refused jury service in the 1936 Hollywood production, but the context of her doing so suggests she nonetheless had shown up at the theater and had remained to see the play from within the audience. In so doing, she would be seeing a cast mate from her film Wicked (1931): Edwin Maxwell.

The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936) had been shot at the end of 1935, so Charlotte Wynters had completed it before embarking on playing in “Night of January 16th” in San Francisco and Hollywood. Sitting in the jury box in Hollywood was Fred Stone, from that same movie. Near the top of the cast of the movie was Fred MacMurray, ultimately to be passed over for the role of “Guts” Regan in the 1941 movie which started out to be an adaptation of the play.

The Devil’s Playground (1937) was the year after the Hollywood production. John Gallaudet (“Guts” Regan in that production as in San Francisco) was in the cast that also featured Dolores Del Rio, who had been a juror during his stage performance. (Also in the film: Pierre Watkin, who in The Fountainhead snarled, “You’ll find you can’t sue us.”)

Back in Circulation (1937) cast Herbert Rawlinson as District Attorney (he had been defense counsel in San Francisco and Hollywood). Pat O’Brien had watched him perform from the jury box, but now O’Brien played the starring role. The movie cast also has John Litel, who had played district attorney in the Boston production of “Night of January 16th.”

Gallant Sons (1940) has Charlotte Wynters and an actress who been juror in Hollywood, Gail Patrick.

Knute Rockne—All American (1940) has John Gallaudet (San Francisco/Hollywood), John Litel (Boston), and a star actor who had been juror for Gallaudet in Hollywood: Pat O’Brien (in the title role) (plus: Charles Trowbridge of The Fountainhead). Gallaudet and O’Brien would be cast mates again in Flight Lieutenant (1942), which also has Jonathan Hale before The Fountainhead.

Forty-three years after Walter Pidgeon played “Night of January 16th” on Broadway, he was in a film with his long-ago juror George Raft, in Sextette (1978).

As Raft had been juror on Broadway whereas Edwin Maxwell had played in the San Francisco and 1936 Hollywood productions, their paths didn’t cross in connection with the play. Nonetheless, the film that established Raft as a movie star, Scarface (1932), has both Raft and Maxwell.

 
Boston reunion

The Mystery of Marie Roget (1942) has John Litel (district attorney in the Boston production) and Clyde Fillmore (a veteran of the Broadway production who repeated the role in Boston).

 
Chicago/Pittsburgh reunion

The Man from Down Under (1943) has both Arthur Space and Richard Carlson, who both had appeared in the Chicago and Pittsburgh productions of 1936.

 
How many “Guts” Regans (would-be or actual) can you fit in one place?

The Farmer’s Daughter (1947) has three actors who played “Guts” Regan: William Bakewell (Broadway, Boston), William Harrigan (Bronxville), and John Gallaudet (San Francisco/Hollywood). Also in this movie are three actors who played other Ayn Rand roles: Don Beddoe (London), Rose Hobart (Maine), and Joseph Cotten (Love Letters).

The Bad and the Beautiful (1953) has Broadway’s “Guts” Regan (Walter Pidgeon) along with the first known actor (apparently) sought for the role (Louis Calhern). The film stars Kirk Douglas, who co-starred in I Walk Alone, the film which ultimately resulted from a screenplay Ayn Rand was first to work on.

The following year, these same two “Guts” Regans (Pidgeon and Calhern) can be seen sitting on the same corporate board in Executive Suite (1954). Also in the cast: Dean Jagger (Andrei in “The Unconquered”) and Barbara Stanwyck (passed over for “Night of January 16th” and The Fountainhead).

The Beginning or the End (1947) has John Gallaudet (who did play “Guts” Regan) and Brian Donlevy (who didn’t get the role in the movie). Also in the cast: John Litel (the prosecutor in the Boston production) and five actors destined for The Fountainhead: Jonathan Hale, Moroni Olsen, Russell Hicks, Charles Trowbridge, and Paul Harvey (Harvey tells Roark he won’t get a commission from the opera company). The Beginning or the End is the film for which M-G-M bought Hal Wallis’s project “Top Secret,” which Ayn Rand was writing.

Three films which preceded Paramount’s male cast announcements on their “Night of January 16th” movie, have two would-be “Guts” Regans: Mary Burns, Fugitive (1935) has Brian Donlevy and Melvyn Douglas. In Old Chicago (1938) has Brian Donlevy and Don Ameche (also: Russell Hicks long before he was in The Fountainhead). Men with Wings (1938) has Fred MacMurray and Ray Milland (also: Jonathan Hale a decade before playing Guy Francon in The Fountainhead).

 
Three jurors together

In Caliente (1935) was released the year prior to “The Night of January 16” being performed on stage in Hollywood under that title, and has three actors who would be jurors in that production: Dolores Del Rio, Pat O’Brien, and Leo Carillo.

 
Combinations of leading men and leading women considered for Paramount’s 1941 movie of “Night of January 16th”

When Paramount shot their in-name-only adaptation of “Night of January 16th” for 1941 release, it did not have major stars in the lead roles just as it didn’t have much of the play, not even a role equivalent to that of “Guts” Regan. Earlier plans had called for the gangster of the play being performed by a major male star. It is possible today to see what kind of screen chemistry would have come from the various combinations possible of the star actresses and star actors announced for the film.

Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray were teamed in The Gilded Lily (1935) (with Ray Milland in a supporting part), The Bride Comes Home (1936), Maid of Salem (1937) (with “Woman on Trial” producer E.E. Clive and Guy Bates Post (juror in 1936 Hollywood)), No Time for Love (1943), Practically Yours (1944) (with Edwin Maxwell and Cecil Kellaway), The Egg and I (1947), and Family Honeymoon (1949) (with John Gallaudet and The Fountainhead’s Paul Harvey).

Claudette Colbert and Ray Milland were teamed in Arise, My Love (1940) and Skylark (1941).

Claudette Colbert and Melvyn Douglas were teamed in The Wiser Sex (1932) (with Paul Harvey long before he spoke for the opera company in The Fountainhead), She Married Her Boss (1935), and I Met Him in Paris (1937).

Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche were teamed in Midnight (1939), Guest Wife (1945), and Sleep, My Love (1948) (with Robert Cummings of You Came Along and Ralph Morgan, whom Al Woods announced for the Broadway production).

Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray were teamed in Remember the Night (1940), Double Indemnity (1944), The Moonlighter (1953), and There’s Always Tomorrow (1956).

Barbara Stanwyck and Brian Donlevy were teamed in The Great Man’s Lady (1942) (with Thurston Hall of The Fountainhead). Stanwyck and Ray Milland were teamed in California (1947) (with Don Beddoe). Stanwyck and Melvyn Douglas were teamed in Annie Oakley (1935) (with Moroni Olson of The Fountainhead playing Buffalo Bill Cody).

Paulette Goddard and Fred MacMurray were teamed in The Forest Rangers (1942) (also with Harry Woods, who in The Fountainhead plays the supervisor at the granite quarry), Standing Room Only (1944), and On Our Merry Way (1948).

Paulette Goddard and Ray Milland were teamed in Reap the Wild Wind (1942) (under Cecil B. DeMille’s direction, with Robert Preston, Raymond Massey (future Gail Wynand of The Fountainhead) and Harry Woods (also of The Fountainhead)) and The Lady Has Plans (1942) (with Cecil Kellaway).

Paulette Goddard and Brian Donlevy were in Hold Back the Dawn (1941).

Patricia Morison and Fred MacMurray were in Rangers of Fortune (1940) and One Night in Lisbon (1941). Morison and Ray Milland were in Untamed (1940).

Two of the actresses announced as the defendant in the “Night of January 16th” movie were together in So Proudly We Hail! (1943): Claudette Colbert and Paulette Goddard. In the cast also was John Litel.

The materials examined for this web resource don’t indicate whether, at the time Colbert and Goddard were considered for the role of defendant, the role name of Karen Andre was to be retained from the play, or whether the substitute name of Kit Lane had already been decided. Had Barbara Stanwyck played the role with the new name, it would be a repeat for her, as in Shopworn (1932, Columbia Pictures, not Paramount) her character was named Kitty Lane.

The actress who finally did play Kit Lane—Ellen Drew—had roles in films with actors announced for “Guts” Regan: with Fred MacMurray in Sing You Sinners (1938) (which also has an actual Regan: John Gallaudet), with Melvyn Douglas in Our Wife (1941), and with Brian Donlevy in The Remarkable Andrew (1942) (which also has Clyde Fillmore).

 

New content © 2013 David P. Hayes