Dalrymple, Jean (1910–1998)

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Dalrymple, Jean (1910–1998)

American theatrical publicist, producer, and director who was a driving force behind the New York City Center. Born in Morristown, New Jersey, on September 2, 1910; died in New York City, on November 15, 1998; daughter of George (a businessman) and Elizabeth (Collins) Dalrymple; attended public school in Newark, New Jersey, for six months; tutored at home; married Ward Morehouse (a drama critic for the New York Sun), in 1932 (divorced 1937); married Major-General Philip de Witt Ginder, on November 1, 1951 (died 1968); no children.

One of the most respected women in the American theater, Jean Dalrymple was a driving force behind the New York City Center for three decades. The antithesis of the hard-driving, cigar-chomping male producer usually associated with Broadway's heyday, Dalrymple was once described by a reporter as "fragile as a Fragonard painting, but hep with a sense of timing like a Garrand rifle." She apparently could lure just about anyone into performing on her terms and convinced a host of stars, including Gertrude Lawrence, Helen Hayes , Jose Ferrer, and Maurice Evans, to appear at the City Center for salaries considerably lower than they might otherwise command. "Jean always had a kind of solid serenity about her," said producer Robert Whitehead. But "she had a great determination to get things done."

Raised in the well-to-do suburb of Morristown, New Jersey, Dalrymple attended public school for only six months, then was tutored at home by a cousin and governess. She began writing stories at an early age and decided to become a stage director after seeing her first play, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. At age 16, after completing a secretarial course, Dalrymple landed a plum job at a Wall Street brokerage house but left after four years to tour in a vaudeville act she had created with her boyfriend Dan Jarrett. She and Jarrett subsequently collaborated on a play, Salt Water, which was produced by John Golden. It was Golden who recognized her potential and launched her career, hiring her to work in his office as a general assistant in all aspects of the play production business.

In 1940, Dalrymple opened her own publicity office in New York, out of which she handled publicity for such hit plays as Mr. and Mrs. North, The Green Pastures, Porgy and Bess, One Touch of Venus, The Voice of the Turtle, and Anna Lucasta. In addition, she managed and publicized such stars as Lily Pons, Vera Zorina, Tallulah Bankhead, Mary Martin , Leopold Stokowski, and Norman Bel Geddes. She also served as a concert-tour manager, accompanying singer Grace Moore and the pianist Jose Iturbi on several visits to South America and Europe. In 1945, Dalrymple produced her first play, Hope for the Best, a comedy by journalist William McCleery. The production, starring Franchot Tone and Jane Wyatt , ran for three months, after which Dalrymple produced the John Cecil Holm comedy Brighten the Corner, which starred Charles Butterworth in his last Broadway role. A successful production of the comedy Burlesque, with Burt Lahr and Jean Parker , followed.

Dalrymple's next production, Jean-Paul Sartre's Red Gloves, adapted by Daniel Taradash and starring Charles Boyer, proved to be one of her most controversial, provoking a storm of protest from the French playwright and his supporters who claimed that it was "vulgar" and contained a strong anti-Communist bias. Although Sartre even brought suit against his agent for authorizing the translation without permission, Dalrymple went ahead with her production, contending that the American version captured the tone and key points of the original play.

Meanwhile, Dalrymple was also involved in the New York City Center, which was established in 1943 by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and City Council president Newbold Morris who wanted to found a "temple for the performing arts." (The City Center was housed in the old Shriner's Mecca Temple that had been taken over by the city for nonpayment of taxes.) Her early work with the Center was as a volunteer public relations director and board member, but she soon began taking an active role in producing for the Theater and Light Opera Companies.

During her long tenure with the City Center, Dalrymple produced the plays of Shakespeare and Shaw, as well as more contemporary works. She also brought to the stage revivals of the musicals by Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Frank Loesser, Rogers and Hart, and Rogers and Hammerstein. One of her earliest productions at the City Center was Porgy and Bess (1944), which she was able to book after it completed a national tour. In 1961, she mounted another production of Porgy and Bess, this time restoring the work to its original operatic form exactly as George Gershwin and DuBose Heyward had intended. In her 1975 memoir, From the Last Row, Dalrymple recalled that although she was proud of the production, it got mixed notices. "Howard Taubman of The New York Times, who had formerly been that paper's music critic and editor, loved it. Judith Crist of the Herald Tribune said she liked 'the old Broadway version better.' I wrote and told her she had a tin ear."

Dalrymple was married for five years to Ward Morehouse, drama critic for the New York Sun, with whom she collaborated on the screenplay It Happened in New York, produced by Universal. She divorced Morehouse in 1937 and later married Major General Philip de Witt Ginder, who died in 1968. A lifelong resident of New York City, Dalrymple lived in a brown-stone across the street from the City Center. She died there in 1998, at the age of 96.

Although Franchot Tone once characterized Dalrymple as "the tenderest little lady," she was nonetheless a powerful force in the theater world. Much of her success can be credited to a missionary's zeal for bringing theater to the public. "I can do absolutely nothing I don't believe in," she once said, "but I can do anything I do believe in."