Quote of the Day (Hecht)

“Chicago is a sort of journalistic Yellowstone Park, offering haven to a last herd of fantastic bravos.”—Playwright-screenwriter Ben Hecht, recalling the exuberantly cynical, anything-for-a-story reporters that he and partner Charles MacArthur memorialized in their comedy The Front Page, cited in Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations, compiled by James B. Simpson, 1988.

(The Hecht/MacArthur classic premiered on Broadway on this date eighty years ago, capturing an image of their former profession that, despite technology and changes in reporters’ education and socioeconomic status, has endured to the present day. The play was adapted several times for the big screen and once, even, for TV, notably featuring an introduction by MacArthur’s widow, Helen Hayes. The most notable screen version was His Girl Friday, in which the male characters of editor Walter Burns and star reporter Hildy Johnson were turned into a former couple, embodied by Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell.

Three years ago, at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, I had the pleasure of watching a reworking of this latter version by John Guare, this time staged with real-life husband-and-wife team Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance. It made me hope that the two busy screen-and-TV actors can somehow be persuaded to co-star together on stage again soon.)