Career
Kenyon began his post-war career as a press agent with the Stuart Walker Company in both New York and Indianapolis. While in Indianapolis, his first full-length play was produced at the Murat Theater. “Honor Bright” was a comedy written in collaboration with famed Hoosier Meredith Nicholson. Kenyon was next appointed as an instructor in the English department at Columbia University, and was assistant to Hatcher Hughes in teaching playwriting.
Kenyon Nicholson’s first Broadway success was “The Barker,” which was produced by Charles L. Wagner and Edgar Selwyn at the Biltmore Theater in January, 1927. Walter Huston played the lead, Nifty Miller, the manager of a traveling tent show who is surprised when his son quits school to join the show. Claudette Colbert played the part of Lou, a snake charmer who falls for Nifty’s son. Nicholson adapted “The Barker” into a novel, published in 1927.
His next big playwriting success was “Torch Song,” produced by Arthur Hopkins at the Plymouth Theater in 1930. This play centered around a traveling salesman who deserts his cabaret singer girlfriend to marry his employer’s daughter.
“Sailor, Beware!” was Kenyon’s last real success on Broadway; it opened at the Lyceum Theater on September 28, 1933. The idea for this play came to Kenyon and his writing partner, Charles Robinson while they were drinking in a sailor’s hangout in San Pedro. The play is set in Panama. The film rights for “Sailor, Beware!” were sold to Paramount for $76,500. The movie, released in 1952, starred Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.
Kenyon collaborated on many of his plays; some of his writing partners include S.N. Behrman, Charles Knox Robinson, and John Golden. In addition to playwriting, Kenyon wrote for radio, Columbia Pictures, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He also edited numerous collections of short plays.
Read more about this topic: Kenyon Nicholson
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“In time your relatives will come to accept the idea that a career is as important to you as your family. Of course, in time the polar ice cap will melt.”
—Barbara Dale (b. 1940)
“I seemed intent on making it as difficult for myself as possible to pursue my “male” career goal. I not only procrastinated endlessly, submitting my medical school application at the very last minute, but continued to crave a conventional female role even as I moved ahead with my “male” pursuits.”
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“A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)