“I am big. Movies are small ones. One of the most famous with this phrase film billy wilder ‘Twilight of the Gods’ (‘Sunset Boulevard’)the main character Norma Desmond and the actress who played her, Gloria SwansonThey justified themselves in front of a Hollywood turning its back on the stars that shaped the film industry in the times of silent movies in 1950. Although the film was a major success, Swanson was not offered any further roles. What did he do then? I’m trying to generate and star in a vMusical version of Wilder’s Broadway movie.
This is an exciting story, but little known. Documentary ‘Boulevard! a hollywood story‘, with Swanson ‘Boulevard!’ reveals the relationship between the authors of the libretto of that musical entitled, and which has never been done. Jeffrey Schwarz’s documentary is on Film starting this Friday!.
Unable to achieve the same success in sound films as in silent films, Swanson settled in New York in 1940 and reinvented himself in the advertising world and as a fashion designer. Wilder and Paramount wanted him ‘for’.twilight of the gods, but then the times of uncertainty returned. Then he met two young musical librarians, Dickson Hughes and Richard StapleyInspired by ‘Time’ magazine, they wanted to play their newly written play ‘About Time’ on Broadway.
Swanson wasn’t convinced, but then Norma Desmond had the idea to turn her fate story into a musical. He sought out the two writers, rummaging through the film rights for a year – it later turned out that Paramount had never really considered giving it to him – and for three months in 1955. The three of them locked themselves in a house in Palm Springs to write the play..
cloudy business
It was a project that was too dark and doomed to fail for musicals at that time. In fact, Wilder had always thought of it as a great tragic opera. But Swanson gave it life, and Hughes (music) and Stapley (lyrics) got to work. Then the same thing happened as in ‘Twilight of the Gods’, where Desmond fell in love with the young screenwriter played by William Holden. In fact, in that house in Palm Springs, Swanson fell in love with the handsome Stapley and tried to get close to him, knowing that he was a couple Hughes.. This messed up the working process. And other things that happened. Swanson bought three chicks, one for each, from a store. One night, wearing her best clothes and stiletto heels, she stepped on him and killed one of the chicks. He then held a ceremony to bury him. The two writers began to worry.
Still, Swanson did get a producer, but Paramount did not renew the rights. Stapley and Hughes’ relationship deteriorated and they parted ways. The project went to hell. It was recorded in a performance on the Steve Allen Show in 1957, in which Swanson sang one of the musical’s themes on piano to the accompaniment of Hughes. Cassettes containing demos of the songs have also been preserved.
If the story is both exciting and moving, then Hughes & Stapley’s story is no less. Secondly, she had minor roles in movies like ‘The Three Musketeers’ and ‘Little Women’ of the ’40s. He married to hide his homosexuality, and one night while drinking with his wife in the bar of the Monterey hotel, he noticed a man playing the piano. Don’t get crushed now. It was Dickson Hughes. since that moment they formed a team of writers to hide that they were a couple.
Andrew Lloyd Weber on stage
After leaving, Stapley returned to London, starred in the television series ‘The Man from Interpol’ and appeared in several European films under the name Richard Wyler. Hughes went to New York in 1957 and began playing in hotels and cocktail bars. He was then a theater music director until he returned to Los Angeles in 1983, the year of Swanson’s death.
I opened the boulevard! in an unopened folder. But in 1993 smart Andrew Lloyd Weber he agreed. He wrote and premiered his musical ‘Sunset Boulevard’, Glenn Close as Norma Desmond. Angry, Hughes signs game ‘Swanson at sunset’is based on the relationship between the three at the time of writing their musical. Stapley looked enraged on opening night. It hasn’t been done more than once. The couple half reconciled. Today his story comes to light.
Source: Informacion
