The Sarah Siddons Society Trivia Quiz

Answer: Helen Hayes

"Mrs. McThing" ran for 320 performances on Broadway so it surely didn't qualify as a 'flop' by any means (but Hayes was clearly honored for her career and not so much specifically for that one project). It told the story of a rich woman who was doing her best to turn her young son into a 'Little Lord Fauntleroy' - which seemed to be having the direct opposite results.

The child (played by young Brandon DeWilde, later know for roles in feature films) was basically a thug-in-training more than anything else. Mrs. McThing was a witch who was summoned to get things fixed in this series of dilemmas and misfired expectations and she managed to do so with a lapse or three.

It took a few mobsters and identity tricks to pull it off at the end of things.

It was somewhat mindless fun for all involved - which would have included a youthful Ernest Borgnine playing, what else, a mobster. Miss Hayes [1900-1993] is known "First Lady of the American Theater" (her first role coming when she was just 5 years old) and is one of the twelve people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award as of early 2007.

In addition to that, she has one of the more prosperous theatres in New York City named in her honor. She was a very earthy woman with minimal pretenses and a keen eye for life as it applies across-the-board, despite that her own life was visibly rich in blessings. Her summation of the human condition, made at the age of 73? "The hardest years in life are those between ten and seventy."

Answer: Bernadette Peters

The story of Elliot the actor, Paula the dancer and young Lucy the 'philosopher', as written by Neil Simon, made for quite a successful film in 1977. Without question "The Goodbye Girl" had all the elements required to make for a dazzling musical but, somehow, the translation to the stage did not earn the high marks OR brisk ticket sales it was expected to (it only ran on Broadway for 4 months). Mr. Short, Miss Peters and the show itself did manage Tony Award nominations - but no wins happened. Bernadette Peters, born in 1948, had quite a resume going into adulthood.

She started doing commercials at three, and had several television appearances, years of tap dancing classes, her Actors Equity card AND had made her theatrical debut a bit before she turned thirteen.

It is a no-brainer that her next step was to attend a performing arts high school. By the time she was 52 her career was solid as a rock, having collaborated with Stephen Sondheim to consistent revelry and doing both original musicals and revivals year after year. Prior to celebrating her 50th birthday she had earned two Antoinette Perry Awards (for "Song and Dance" and "Annie Get Your Gun") and seems unstoppable. Critic John Simon once wrote of her: "She not only sings, acts and dances to perfection ~ she also, superlatively, IS!"

Answer: Angela Lansbury

Born in London in 1925, Lansbury was the granddaughter of former Labour Party leader George Lansbury . As a child, her birth father died and her mother married for a second time. By all accounts, the new family situation was disastrous and Angela's mother whisked herself and her daughter off to Canada, the elder woman pursuing her own theatrical interests. Miss Lansbury's first film was "Gaslight" in 1944 and she was Oscar-nominated for her role as a mostly sneaky and not-so-trustworthy house maid. Quite the beauty, her career took off from there (but her roles were generally less than stellar in films at first). Her Broadway reputation exploded with her Tony Award-winning turn in "Mame" in 1966.

She's won three more of those prizes - for "Dear World" (1969), "Gypsy" (1974) and for "Sweeney Todd", the show for which the Sarah Siddons Society recognized her work.

Her most 'popular' success came later in life on television (she's been up for an amazing 18 Emmy Awards so far ~ most of them for a long-running participation in the detective series "Murder, She Wrote"). "Sweeney Todd", a most exciting musical exploration of a murderous barber who turns his customers into 'meat pies', gave Lansbury the perfect opportunity to go over-the-top in a showstopping performance.

Her co-stars in the original staging were Len Cariou and Victor Garber.

Answer: Geraldine Page

The play in question was "Sweet Bird of Youth" by Tennessee Williams which tells the story of a drifter, Chance Wayne (Newman), who returns to his home town with a faded movie star (Page). As in most Williams projects, emotions are laid bare on all sides in short order. Miss Page was one of the lucky Broadway actresses in that she was given the roles in films that she created on stage on several occasions, this being one of them.

In addition to those numerous Tony Award nods, "Sweet Bird of Youth" got her an Oscar nomination, too - one of an impressive display of seven other such nominations. Luckily and deservedly, she won the Academy Award on her last attempt in 1986 for the deftly written (by Horton Foote) and beautifully acted "Trip to Bountiful".

She passed away suddenly the next year of a heart attack. Married twice, Geraldine Page's second husband was fiery actor Rip Torn to whom she stayed married, often times for worse than for better, for 27 years and they had three children together.

It should come as no real surprise that the family had a country estate and, without hesitation or regrets, they named the place "Torn Page".

Answer: Celeste Holm

Celeste Holm was born in New York City in 1919 to a family both financially sound and artistically rich (her mother was a career portrait artist). Holm studied acting at the University of Chicago before becoming a stage actress in the late 1930s and stealing the show as Ado Annie in the debut of "Oklahoma!" in 1943. Those midwestern America endeavors alone would have made Sarah Siddons' Society proud. That she played the heartfully naive Karen Richards in "All About Eve" where their city's award came to its original inception made her just too perfect a choice to pass up as their 1968 honoree. Holm had won her Oscar some twenty years prior to doing "Mame" (winning for "Gentleman's Agreement" in 1947) but her career, unlike many actresses of a certain age, never really slipped.

It just changed - she took work where it was available and brought a certain savoir faire to it all. She even did a year or two on afternoon TV soap operas in the 1990s to excellent reviews. Miss Holm was married five times, the longest of them lasting a commendable thirty years.

As I was researching this quiz I learned a MOST enjoyable truth about the widowed Celeste Holm ~ on her 85th birthday she decided to try marriage again. Bravo to that ~ one's age should never stop one from enjoying life, should it? The even better part of the story is that the groom was an opera singer less than half her age! I'm sure the suspicions and gossip were flying like runaway birds but all I could think at that news? "You go, girl!" Miss Holm has proven herself a class act for decades.

Answer: John Mahoney

Mahoney didn't join the ensemble at Steppenwolf Theatre until 1979 and has appeared in over 20 productions there including "The Dresser", "Of Mice and Men", "Born Yesterday", "I Never Sang For My Father" and others. He even began directing productions in 1994.

He appeared in Steppenwolf's off-Broadway production of "Orphans", winning both the Theatre World Award and a Drama Desk nomination. His Broadway debut was in Lincoln Center's production of "The House of Blue Leaves", for which he won a Tony Award in 1986. Mahoney's film work has been both numerous and well-received, too, perhaps most notably in "Moonstruck", "The American President" and "In the Line of Fire" - but there have been many others.

The final truth to the matter is that, until he manages to top it, John Mahoney's legacy will be his eleven-year run on TV's outstanding situation comedy "Frasier" that ended in 2004. Martin Crane, retired Seattle cop, was a great part made better with his natural fit into it. Strangely enough, after all those years on the series, Mahoney was only Emmy-nominated for it twice - and he failed to win both times. John was born in 1940.

Answer: Dorothy Loudon

Yes, yes. Carol Burnett did a splendid turn as Miss Hannigan, the horrifically heartless (not to mention generally intoxicated) orphanage mistress in "Annie" ~ but that film came out long after Miss Loudon played her to rave reviews on Broadway and earned a Tony Award as Best Musical Actress in so doing. "The West Side Waltz" only played on Broadway for four months but was a highly anticipated project, specifically as it marked a return to the 'greasepaint' for the revered Katharine Hepburn.

She played an aging and wise-cracking pianist in a dreary West Side apartment that she neighbors with a younger and entirely sanctimonious violinist. Such a set-up made for great repartee and playwright Thompson supplied great words for Kate and Dorothy Loudon to exchange. Dorothy was born in 1933 and was noted for her style, wicked comedic timing and a no-holds-barred singing voice, which she used expertly to deliver a wide range of revue comedy and Roaring Twenties songs.

In the 1970s alone she headlined in "Lolita", "The Women", "Annie", "Ballroom" and "Sweeney Todd" (stepping in for Angela Lansbury and, according to critics, as good if not better than Angela was in that part). Brief forays into television and films were not entirely landmark, her last screen appearance being that of a Southern eccentric in "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" in 1997.

She died of cancer in 2003, leaving no survivors. Without question, however, she left behind a legion of grateful fans.

Answer: Lily Tomlin

Tomlin was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1939, the daughter of a factory worker and a housewife, who had moved to Detroit from Paducah, Kentucky during the Great Depression. After completing college, Tomlin hit the comedy club circuit doing stand-up in Detroit and soon made her way to New York City. Her first television appearance was on "The Merv Griffin Show" in 1965 and her regular role on the TV show "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" (memorable as Edith Ann perched in a giant rocking chair or Ernestine the Operator with a pinched face and very ironic speech problem) highlighted her obvious star quality in 1969.

She has won a Grammy Award, five Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards and managed to earn an Oscar nomination in the process as well. When given the chance, it is clear that Miss Tomlin can do anything, and do it quite well. "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe", the show that The Sarah Siddons Society singled out, was a one-woman show full of a kaleidoscope of both odd and endearing characterizations and was written by Tomlin's long-time collaborator and friend Jane Wagner.

Answer: Lynn Redgrave

She was born in 1943 as Lynn Rachel Redgrave in London. Her parents were esteemed actor (and former schoolmaster) Sir Michael Redgrave and actress Lady Rachel Kempson. Her siblings are the glorious actress Vanessa and brother Corin - who is/was not only an actor but dabbled in politics, too. If that weren't enough, Lynn is the aunt of Natasha Richardson, Joely Richardson and Jemma Redgrave, all noteworthy thespians in their own right. Lynn Redgrave's stage debut came in the role of Helena in "A Midsummer Night's Dream", directed by Tony Richardson (Vanessa's husband) in January 1962 which led to her first film role in "Tom Jones" (1963). Co-starring with James Mason in "Georgy Girl" in the mid 1960s earned her much public notice, excellent reviews and an Oscar nomination for Best Actress all at once.

She's worked steadily since. "Shakespeare for My Father" opened in New York in April 1993 and ran for 270 acclaimed performances. It was put together by Lynn and her husband and most advised that she ought NEVER take it to Broadway as it was not the sort of commercial project that would succeed there and to put such a personal program up like that and to fail could have devastating consequences.

She proved the naysayers wrong and the "memory and message" play gave her the chance to slip in and out of the Shakespearean characters that marked her father's life up until the time he died of Parkinson's Disease. The show also gave her the opportunity to forgive him for his essential failure(s) as a parent and left its audience fully aware that all great men aren't always necessarily perfect people. In fact, perhaps it is from that imperfection in total that greatness comes to be born?

Answer: Yes

Yes, Mrs. Siddons was very much alive! She just happened to be that way around the time of the Revolutionary War. She was born Sarah Kemble in 1755, her family being in Wales and essentially an acting company among themselves. As a child Sarah acted along with all her siblings but, as adulthood approached, she broke with her father's demands that she NOT look at the stage as a profession (he found theatre, oddly enough, a less-than-respectable profession for a grown woman).
Sarah married another actor (William Siddons) at 18 and got busy "seriously" building her career. She debuted at Drury Lane in 1775 as Portia in "The Merchant of Venice" and a louder noise had rarely been heard at that theatre. Problem was, it was the wrong noise - Sarah Siddons was a TOTAL disaster, the scorn of other actors and audiences all-around. She was feisty, she held her head up, she kept trying...and her next Drury Lane appearance (in 1782) could not have possibly been more successful. She was an immediate sensation! It was the beginning of twenty years in which she was the undisputed "Queen of Drury Lane"! Her celebrity status has been called 'mythical' and 'monumental', and by the mid-1780s Siddons was solidly established as a cultural icon and remained one until her death in 1831.

I'm sure that's why Joseph L. Mankiewicz used her legendary stamina when he was writing the screenplay for "All About Eve" in the 1940s. Sarah Siddons was the perfect example of what it takes to survive in the theatre: talent, a very large dream, a fierce stubbornness, skin thicker than tree bark, what can only be called unreasonable 'pluck' and, yes, a little bit of luck in ending up at the right place at the right time. Miss Siddons 'was' what the theatre itself means. And the award bearing her name honors those that, successes or failures aside, kept the dream alive and chased it down without looking back. Bravo, I say, bravo!