Miklós László
Encyclopedia
Miklos Laszlo was a playwright and naturalized American citizen born in Budapest
, Hungary. He is best remembered for his play Illatszertár, also known as Parfumerie, which was used as the storyline for three movies, The Shop Around the Corner
, In the Good Old Summertime
, and, most recently, You've Got Mail
. The play also was adapted for the Broadway stage as the musical She Loves Me
.
, Hungary in 1903.
Emperor Franz Josef ruled the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Great War was still a few years away, and it had been decreed by the government that all ethnic non-Magyar (Hungarian) citizens should take an indigenous name as part of the "cultural unification" of the population. The name "Laszlo" was chosen. No particular reason is known other than that it was a well-known Hungarian name and that it was similar (vaguely) to the original family name "Leitner". Henrik and Ilona Fischer Leitner therefore gave to their infant son on his birth certificate the name Leitner Laszlo Nicholaus, last name first as is the custom.
Niki grew up in the hustle and bustle of wartime Budapest. His family was in the entertainment business, and he naturally gravitated toward a career in entertainment as well. He was a clever and witty lad, always amusing friends and family with his quips and characterizations. He rubbed elbows with the Hungarian literati of the day including Ferenc Molnár
the playwright whose most famous work Liliom
is known to English speaking audiences as the Rodgers and Hammerstein
musical Carousel
. It only made sense then that Niki was encouraged to put pen to paper and as a young adult began to produce his own little one-scene plays for the various small theatres and cabarets around the city. These "little plays" became his fame and provided spare income to support his "young man with possibilities" lifestyle. It even afforded him the time to work on some larger more comprehensive works which he would eventually complete as full multi-act plays.
Money was no issue for the young Laszlo. His father continued to do very well with his own business endeavors and at one point, anecdotal information describes the father as one of the wealthiest men in Hungary. But tragically, poor management, high living and wild spending brought the family to total destitution. And then unexpectedly, his father died and Nicholas was left as the sole provider for his mother and 8 siblings. Writing was not sufficient to feed a family and pay the bills, so Niki turned to a host of jobs, none too small to earn the pay that was necessary to keep the family afloat. As he told it, he worked as a candy-maker, collar salesman, necktie agent, script typist, clerk and even worked as a laborer in a petroleum factory while siblings grew up and gradually took responsibility for their own lives and livelihoods.
It came then as a great satisfaction that his first three-act play, Legboldogabb Ember, The Happiest Man, an ironically titled play about an embittered factory worker and the dreamworld to which he escapes for solace, won him the prestigious Hungarian Royal Academy Award for Literature in 1934, the Hungarian equivalent of the American Pulitzer Prize
- quite an achievement for a man barely into his 30's.
was approaching, and Hungarians of Jewish extraction knew that the smart money was on leaving the old world behind and heading to America. So in 1938, Nicholaus Laszlo pulled up his stakes and embarked for the USA.
He quickly established himself in the local Hungarian community on the lower east side of New York City, bringing his charm and reputation to an immigrant audience clamoring for all things Hungarian and as everyone else, for relief from the Great Depression
that was gripping the nation. He was, for a time, the "toast of the town", locally at least. He now called himself Miklos Laszlo, a purely Hungarian name giving him full acceptance and cachet within the community. But fame in the insular Hungarian language-speaking community of Yorkville, Manhattan
, New York is not the same as making it as a playwright to a larger English-speaking American audience.
Miklos, that is "Miki", would need to further pursue his opportunities. In the fall of 1939 he married Florence Herrman, an aspiring young actress and the daughter of a successful local entrepreneur, a Cunard Line
travel agent, landlord and financial exchange merchant. On December 28, 1944 he completed the transition and became a fully naturalized American citizen and officially adopted the single name now most frequently referenced, Miklos Laszlo.
During his lifetime he had numerous writing contracts with MGM. A few projects became major motion pictures, most did not. The writing experiments and the accompanying advances though kept Miki and wife Florence able to make ends meet, barely. Again, other jobs became a necessity.
Miklos Laszlo died in New York City in 1973 at the age of 69. His wife Florence died in 1987.
and became the Ernst Lubitsch
motion picture The Shop Around the Corner
(1940), with James Stewart
, Frank Morgan
, and Margaret Sullavan
. A few years later it was re-filmed as In the Good Old Summertime
(1949), a semi-musical showcase for Judy Garland
, starring Judy Garland
, Van Johnson
, and S.Z. Sakall
.
In 1963, the play was produced as a full Broadway musical with book by Joe Masteroff
and was titled She Loves Me
. She Loves Me had music by Sheldon Harnick
and Jerry Bock
(Fiorello!
, Fiddler on the Roof
, The Apple Tree
). She Loves Me, is also often referred to as the "Ice Cream Musical" because of a signature song and performance by Barbara Cook
. She Loves Me was revived in 1993 by the Roundabout Theatre Company
and ran for 354 performances.
In 1998, the play was used once again as the inspiration for a screenplay by Nora Ephron
which became the motion picture You've Got Mail
with Tom Hanks
and Meg Ryan
.
In 2001, the Laszlo/Raphaelson MGM script was adapted for the stage in France and was produced as a straight play La Boutique au Coin de la Rue ("The Shop at the Corner of the Street"). This production was a faithful adaptation of the MGM movie script The Shop Around the Corner and ran for the 2002 season in Paris at the Théâtre Montparnasse
winning top honors. The production garnered five Moliere Award
s, the French equivalent of the American Tony Award
— for Best New Play, Best Adaptation of a Foreign Work, Best Director, Best Set Design, and Best Lighting.
In 2009 "Parfumerie" was finally produced for the first time in the United States as an English-language play. With a new adaptation, the production took the play back to its original roots exploring with equal emphasis, both the story of the young lovers as well as the troubled marriage of the shop owner Mr. Hammerschmidt. The play premiered as "The Perfume Shop" in December 2009 at the Asolo Repertory Theatre
in Sarasota, Florida
. Almost simultaneously, a separate Canadian production, translated, adapted and produced by the Soulpepper Theatre Company
under a Canadian arts grant also premiered in Toronto
.
, Robert Preston
, Danny Thomas
and George Murphy
. The screenplay examined the diversity and underlying unity of human cultures in the microcosm of a New York City adoption.
Only one other of Miklos Laszlo’s plays was ever widely produced in the Americas. Entitled St. Lazar's Pharmacy it is the story of a man learning the lessons of the true value of “home” as compared to the many lures of a false and deceiving world of empty promises. The play starred famed actress Miriam Hopkins
and toured all over Canada and the United States. (The Juilliard library lists a handwritten manuscript of "St. Lazar's Pharmacy" in its catalogue of collections.)
Perhaps the reason we have not seen very many of the plays Miklos Laszlo wrote in his early career and during his life is because they were never effectively translated from Hungarian to English and as such have never really had an opportunity to be viewed by American audiences as they were viewed in the country of his birth. Translations exist for many of his works in French and even German, but few in English. The original Hungarian works continue to be performed to this day throughout Hungary on an ongoing basis.
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, Hungary. He is best remembered for his play Illatszertár, also known as Parfumerie, which was used as the storyline for three movies, The Shop Around the Corner
The Shop Around the Corner
-External links:* Movie: A Journal of Film Criticism, Issue 1, 2010...
, In the Good Old Summertime
In the Good Old Summertime
In the Good Old Summertime is a 1949 musical film directed by Robert Z. Leonard. It starred Judy Garland, Van Johnson and S.Z. Sakall.The film is a musical adaptation of the 1940 film, The Shop Around the Corner, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, and starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan, and...
, and, most recently, You've Got Mail
You've Got Mail
You've Got Mail is a 1998 American romantic comedy film directed by Nora Ephron, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. It was written by Nora and Delia Ephron based on the play Parfumerie by Miklós László. The film is about two letter-writing lovers who are completely unaware that their sweetheart is in...
. The play also was adapted for the Broadway stage as the musical She Loves Me
She Loves Me
She Loves Me is a musical with a book by Joe Masteroff, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and music by Jerry Bock.The musical is the fifth adaptation of the play Parfumerie by Hungarian playwright Miklos Laszlo, following the 1940 James Stewart-Margaret Sullavan film The Shop around the Corner and the...
.
Early life
Nicholaus Leitner (Laszlo) was born in BudapestBudapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, Hungary in 1903.
Emperor Franz Josef ruled the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Great War was still a few years away, and it had been decreed by the government that all ethnic non-Magyar (Hungarian) citizens should take an indigenous name as part of the "cultural unification" of the population. The name "Laszlo" was chosen. No particular reason is known other than that it was a well-known Hungarian name and that it was similar (vaguely) to the original family name "Leitner". Henrik and Ilona Fischer Leitner therefore gave to their infant son on his birth certificate the name Leitner Laszlo Nicholaus, last name first as is the custom.
Niki grew up in the hustle and bustle of wartime Budapest. His family was in the entertainment business, and he naturally gravitated toward a career in entertainment as well. He was a clever and witty lad, always amusing friends and family with his quips and characterizations. He rubbed elbows with the Hungarian literati of the day including Ferenc Molnár
Ferenc Molnár
LanguageFerenc Molnár was a Hungarian dramatist and novelist. His Americanized name was Franz Molnar...
the playwright whose most famous work Liliom
Liliom
Liliom is a 1909 play by the Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnár. It was very famous in its own right during the early to mid-20th century, but is best known today as the basis for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel.- Plot :...
is known to English speaking audiences as the Rodgers and Hammerstein
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were a well-known American songwriting duo, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age of the medium...
musical Carousel
Carousel (musical)
Carousel is the second stage musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II . The work premiered in 1945 and was adapted from Ferenc Molnár's 1909 play Liliom, transplanting its Budapest setting to the Maine coastline...
. It only made sense then that Niki was encouraged to put pen to paper and as a young adult began to produce his own little one-scene plays for the various small theatres and cabarets around the city. These "little plays" became his fame and provided spare income to support his "young man with possibilities" lifestyle. It even afforded him the time to work on some larger more comprehensive works which he would eventually complete as full multi-act plays.
Money was no issue for the young Laszlo. His father continued to do very well with his own business endeavors and at one point, anecdotal information describes the father as one of the wealthiest men in Hungary. But tragically, poor management, high living and wild spending brought the family to total destitution. And then unexpectedly, his father died and Nicholas was left as the sole provider for his mother and 8 siblings. Writing was not sufficient to feed a family and pay the bills, so Niki turned to a host of jobs, none too small to earn the pay that was necessary to keep the family afloat. As he told it, he worked as a candy-maker, collar salesman, necktie agent, script typist, clerk and even worked as a laborer in a petroleum factory while siblings grew up and gradually took responsibility for their own lives and livelihoods.
It came then as a great satisfaction that his first three-act play, Legboldogabb Ember, The Happiest Man, an ironically titled play about an embittered factory worker and the dreamworld to which he escapes for solace, won him the prestigious Hungarian Royal Academy Award for Literature in 1934, the Hungarian equivalent of the American Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
- quite an achievement for a man barely into his 30's.
Immigration to America
Laszlo could have stayed in Hungary, but World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
was approaching, and Hungarians of Jewish extraction knew that the smart money was on leaving the old world behind and heading to America. So in 1938, Nicholaus Laszlo pulled up his stakes and embarked for the USA.
He quickly established himself in the local Hungarian community on the lower east side of New York City, bringing his charm and reputation to an immigrant audience clamoring for all things Hungarian and as everyone else, for relief from the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
that was gripping the nation. He was, for a time, the "toast of the town", locally at least. He now called himself Miklos Laszlo, a purely Hungarian name giving him full acceptance and cachet within the community. But fame in the insular Hungarian language-speaking community of Yorkville, Manhattan
Yorkville, Manhattan
Yorkville is a neighborhood in the greater Upper East Side, in the Borough of Manhattan in New York City. Yorkville's boundaries include: the East River on the east, 96th Street on the north, Third Avenue on the west and 72nd Street to the south. However, its southern boundary is a subject of...
, New York is not the same as making it as a playwright to a larger English-speaking American audience.
Miklos, that is "Miki", would need to further pursue his opportunities. In the fall of 1939 he married Florence Herrman, an aspiring young actress and the daughter of a successful local entrepreneur, a Cunard Line
Cunard Line
Cunard Line is a British-American owned shipping company based at Carnival House in Southampton, England and operated by Carnival UK. It has been a leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic for over a century...
travel agent, landlord and financial exchange merchant. On December 28, 1944 he completed the transition and became a fully naturalized American citizen and officially adopted the single name now most frequently referenced, Miklos Laszlo.
During his lifetime he had numerous writing contracts with MGM. A few projects became major motion pictures, most did not. The writing experiments and the accompanying advances though kept Miki and wife Florence able to make ends meet, barely. Again, other jobs became a necessity.
Miklos Laszlo died in New York City in 1973 at the age of 69. His wife Florence died in 1987.
Parfumerie
Most famous of all the plays that became produced as a motion picture during this time was Illatszertár also called in translation Parfumerie. This play was adapted as a movie script by Samson RaphaelsonSamson Raphaelson
Samson Raphaelson was an American screenwriter and playwright.Born in New York City, Raphaelson worked on nine films with Ernst Lubitsch, including Trouble in Paradise , The Shop Around the Corner , Heaven Can Wait , and That Lady in Ermine...
and became the Ernst Lubitsch
Ernst Lubitsch
Ernst Lubitsch was a German-born film director. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as his prestige grew, his films were promoted as having "the Lubitsch touch."In 1947 he received an Honorary Academy Award for his...
motion picture The Shop Around the Corner
The Shop Around the Corner
-External links:* Movie: A Journal of Film Criticism, Issue 1, 2010...
(1940), with James Stewart
James Stewart (actor)
James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...
, Frank Morgan
Frank Morgan
Frank Morgan was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of the title character in the film The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:...
, and Margaret Sullavan
Margaret Sullavan
Margaret Brooke Sullavan was an American stage and film actress. Sullavan started her career on the stage in 1929. In 1933 she caught the attention of movie director John M. Stahl and had her debut on the screen that same year in Only Yesterday...
. A few years later it was re-filmed as In the Good Old Summertime
In the Good Old Summertime
In the Good Old Summertime is a 1949 musical film directed by Robert Z. Leonard. It starred Judy Garland, Van Johnson and S.Z. Sakall.The film is a musical adaptation of the 1940 film, The Shop Around the Corner, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, and starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan, and...
(1949), a semi-musical showcase for Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
, starring Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
, Van Johnson
Van Johnson
Van Johnson was an American film and television actor and dancer who was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios during and after World War II....
, and S.Z. Sakall
S.Z. Sakall
Szőke Szakáll , known as S.Z. Sakall, was a Hungarian film character actor. He was in many films including In the Good Old Summertime, Lullaby of Broadway, Christmas in Connecticut and Casablanca in which he played Carl, the head waiter.Chubby-jowled Sakall played numerous supporting roles in...
.
In 1963, the play was produced as a full Broadway musical with book by Joe Masteroff
Joe Masteroff
-Career:Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Masteroff graduated from Temple University and served with the United States Air Force during World War II...
and was titled She Loves Me
She Loves Me
She Loves Me is a musical with a book by Joe Masteroff, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and music by Jerry Bock.The musical is the fifth adaptation of the play Parfumerie by Hungarian playwright Miklos Laszlo, following the 1940 James Stewart-Margaret Sullavan film The Shop around the Corner and the...
. She Loves Me had music by Sheldon Harnick
Sheldon Harnick
Sheldon Harnick is an American lyricist best known for his collaborations with composer Jerry Bock on hit musicals such as Fiddler on the Roof....
and Jerry Bock
Jerry Bock
Jerrold Lewis "Jerry" Bock was an American musical theater composer. He received the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama with Sheldon Harnick for their 1959 musical Fiorello! and the Tony Award for Best Composer and Lyricist for the 1964 musical Fiddler on the Roof with...
(Fiorello!
Fiorello!
Fiorello! is a musical about New York City mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia, a reform Republican who took on Tammany Hall. The book is by Jerome Weidman and George Abbott, drawn substantially from the 1955 volume Life With Fiorello by Ernest Cuneo, with lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and music by Jerry Bock...
, Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in Tsarist Russia in 1905. It is based on Tevye and his Daughters by Sholem Aleichem...
, The Apple Tree
The Apple Tree
The Apple Tree is a series of three musical playlets with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and a book by Bock and Harnick with contributions from Jerome Coopersmith...
). She Loves Me, is also often referred to as the "Ice Cream Musical" because of a signature song and performance by Barbara Cook
Barbara Cook
Barbara Cook is an American singer and actress who first came to prominence in the 1950s after starring in the original Broadway musicals Candide and The Music Man among others, winning a Tony Award for the latter...
. She Loves Me was revived in 1993 by the Roundabout Theatre Company
Roundabout Theatre Company
The Roundabout Theatre Company is a leading non-profit theatre company based in New York City.-History:The company was founded in 1965 by Gene Feist and Elizabeth Owens and now operates five theatres, all in Manhattan: the American Airlines Theatre ; Studio 54 ; the Stephen Sondheim Theatre The...
and ran for 354 performances.
In 1998, the play was used once again as the inspiration for a screenplay by Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, novelist, playwright, journalist, author, and blogger.She is best known for her romantic comedies and is a triple nominee for the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay; for Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally... and Sleepless in...
which became the motion picture You've Got Mail
You've Got Mail
You've Got Mail is a 1998 American romantic comedy film directed by Nora Ephron, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. It was written by Nora and Delia Ephron based on the play Parfumerie by Miklós László. The film is about two letter-writing lovers who are completely unaware that their sweetheart is in...
with Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks worked in television and family-friendly comedies, gaining wide notice in 1988's Big, before achieving success as a dramatic actor in several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title...
and Meg Ryan
Meg Ryan
Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra , professionally known as Meg Ryan, is an American actress and producer. Raised in Bethel, Connecticut, Ryan began her acting career in 1981 in minor roles, before joining the cast of the CBS soap opera As the World Turns in 1982...
.
In 2001, the Laszlo/Raphaelson MGM script was adapted for the stage in France and was produced as a straight play La Boutique au Coin de la Rue ("The Shop at the Corner of the Street"). This production was a faithful adaptation of the MGM movie script The Shop Around the Corner and ran for the 2002 season in Paris at the Théâtre Montparnasse
Théâtre Montparnasse
The Théâtre Montparnasse is a theater at 31, rue de la Gaîté in the 14th arrondissement of Paris.-History:The present structure was built in 1886 on a site that had been dedicated to theatre since 1817...
winning top honors. The production garnered five Moliere Award
Molière Award
The Molière Award is the national theatre award of France decided by the Association professionnelle et artistique du théâtre and given out every April or May since 1987, during a ceremony called La Nuit des Molières . The award was created by Georges Cravenne, who was also the creator of the...
s, the French equivalent of the American Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
— for Best New Play, Best Adaptation of a Foreign Work, Best Director, Best Set Design, and Best Lighting.
In 2009 "Parfumerie" was finally produced for the first time in the United States as an English-language play. With a new adaptation, the production took the play back to its original roots exploring with equal emphasis, both the story of the young lovers as well as the troubled marriage of the shop owner Mr. Hammerschmidt. The play premiered as "The Perfume Shop" in December 2009 at the Asolo Repertory Theatre
Asolo Repertory Theatre
The Asolo Repertory Theatre or Asolo Rep is a professional theater in Sarasota, Florida. It is the largest Equity theatre in Florida, and the largest Repertory theatre in the Southeastern United States. Asolo Rep is a resident regional theatre company which also invites in guest artists...
in Sarasota, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. Almost simultaneously, a separate Canadian production, translated, adapted and produced by the Soulpepper Theatre Company
Soulpepper Theatre Company
Soulpepper Theatre Company is a Toronto, Ontario-based theatre company dedicated to presenting classic plays.-History:Soulpepper was founded in 1998 by twelve Toronto artists who dreamed of a company that would produce lesser known theatrical classics. Soulpepper has since become an important part...
under a Canadian arts grant also premiered in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
.
Other plays and screenplays
In the early 1940s he also wrote a screenplay Katherine which was picked up by MGM and became the motion picture The Big City (1948) starring Margaret O'BrienMargaret O'Brien
Margaret O'Brien is an American film and stage actress. Although her film career as a leading character was brief, she was one of the most popular child actors in cinema history...
, Robert Preston
Robert Preston (actor)
-Early life:Preston was born Robert Preston Meservey in Newton, Massachusetts, the son of Ruth L. and Frank Wesley Meservey, a garment worker and billing clerk for American Express. After attending Abraham Lincoln High School in Los Angeles, California, he studied acting at the Pasadena Community...
, Danny Thomas
Danny Thomas
Danny Thomas was an American nightclub comedian and television and film actor, best known for starring in the television sitcom Make Room for Daddy . He was also the founder of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital...
and George Murphy
George Murphy
George Lloyd Murphy was an American dancer, actor, and politician.-Life and career:He was born in New Haven, Connecticut of Irish Catholic extraction, the son of Michael Charles "Mike" Murphy, athletic trainer and coach, and Nora Long. He was educated at Peddie School, Trinity-Pawling School, and...
. The screenplay examined the diversity and underlying unity of human cultures in the microcosm of a New York City adoption.
Only one other of Miklos Laszlo’s plays was ever widely produced in the Americas. Entitled St. Lazar's Pharmacy it is the story of a man learning the lessons of the true value of “home” as compared to the many lures of a false and deceiving world of empty promises. The play starred famed actress Miriam Hopkins
Miriam Hopkins
Ellen Miriam Hopkins was an American actress known for her versatility in a wide variety of roles.Hopkins was born in Savannah, Georgia, and raised in Bainbridge, a town in the state's southwest near the Alabama border...
and toured all over Canada and the United States. (The Juilliard library lists a handwritten manuscript of "St. Lazar's Pharmacy" in its catalogue of collections.)
Perhaps the reason we have not seen very many of the plays Miklos Laszlo wrote in his early career and during his life is because they were never effectively translated from Hungarian to English and as such have never really had an opportunity to be viewed by American audiences as they were viewed in the country of his birth. Translations exist for many of his works in French and even German, but few in English. The original Hungarian works continue to be performed to this day throughout Hungary on an ongoing basis.
External links
- Playscripts.com Amateur and Professional Production Rights
- The Marton Agency Broadway, Off-Broadway, West End and First Class Touring company Production Rights