Kevin C. Fitzpatrick's Blog
July 7, 2017
Los Angeles Vicious Circle Show A Smash, Gets Extension
Congratulations to playwright Steven Vlasak and the entire cast of his comedy Nights at the Algonquin Round Table. It has been a smash success in Los Angeles and audiences love it. The show has been extended after winning multiple awards. A message from Steven today, who also runs the Dorothy Parker Society Los Angeles Chapter:
From: Steven Vlasak
To: Our Supporters
Thanks for attending the Hollywood Fringe Festival’s Roaring Twenties breakout hit comedy, Nights at the Algonquin Round Table....
June 30, 2017
Capital Fringe Festival has Mrs. Parker Production
A new Dorothy Parker show is coming to Washington, D.C.
WIT & WRATH: The Life & Times of Dorothy Parker
Written and Performed by Claudia Baumgarten
SHOW LOCATION:
PURSUIT WINE BAR. 1421 H Street, NE
PERFORMANCES:
Thursday, July 6 @ 9:45 pm
Saturday, July 8 @ 4:00 pm
Sunday, July 9 @ 8:15 pm
Tuesday, July 11 @ 7:30 pm
Wednesday, July 12 @ 5:30 pm
ABOUT THE SHOW
Dorothy Parker was a wit, a social observer with an acid tongue, a critic of the rich and a compassionate advocate for the less fortun...
April 13, 2017
Algonquin Party Held for Dorothy Parker Mink Coat
Several of the backers of the Kickstarter crowd funding campaign to purchase one of Dorothy Parker’s mink coats came together last weekend for a party at the Algonquin Round Table. These were the folks who pledged enough money to actually wear Mrs. Parker’s mink; model Dandy Dillinger was the first.
It was an early morning crowd. A little too early. We met at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, much to our chagrin the bar didn’t open until noon, due to the city blue laws. The group had to wait until the ap...
March 31, 2017
Dorothy Parker’s Mink Coat Back in Manhattan
The members and friends of the Dorothy Parker Society successfully funded the Kickstarter campaign to bring Dorothy Parker’s vintage mink coat back to Manhattan, where it belongs. These are the folks that backed the campaign. Some of them will actually be wearing the mink at a special backers party at the Algonquin Hotel Round Table in April. In the fall, the coat will come out of cold storage and make appearances around New York, where fundraising will allow more fans of Mrs. Parker to wear...
March 6, 2017
In Lost 1953 Speech, Dorothy Parker Rips Hollywood
The year 1953 was a major one in the life of Dorothy Parker. She was living in Manhattan again after years spent in California. In June she was subpoenaed by Senator Joseph McCarthy, along with Lillian Hellman and Rockwell Kent. On August 22 Parker turned sixty. In October her last Broadway play, The Ladies of the Corridor, co-written with Arnaud d’Usseau, opened to critical praise but weak ticket sales. In 1953 Parker delivered a blistering speech about life in Hollywood. The location and au...
February 13, 2017
Lost Dorothy Parker 1916: Why I Haven’t Married
An appropriate “lost” piece for February. When Dorothy Parker wrote this for Vanity Fair she was 23 and in the first year of her staff job on Vogue. In 1917 she married Edwin Pond Parker II before he left for Army service in the Great War.
Why I Haven’t Married
Sketches of My Seven Deadly Suitors
By Dorothy Rothschild
Vanity Fair, October, 1916
I. Ralph, Whose Place Was in the Home
You see, this was the way it happened. The first one of them all was Ralph. His was one of those sweet, unsullie...
February 1, 2017
Dorothy Parker’s Mink Coat
Dorothy Parker, considered one of America’s greatest writers and renowned for her wit, adored the finer things in life. She famously said, “Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves.” This Kickstarter project is simple: to purchase Mrs. Parker’s vintage mink coat from a collector and bring it back to her hometown, New York. Backers can WEAR the coat.
Mrs. Parker wore this coat from World War II until her death on June 7, 1967 at age 73. Her furrier, J. Licht...
January 17, 2017
Hemingway and Parker Lost Book Review
For Whom the Bell TollsIn 1940 Ernest Hemingway and Dorothy Parker had known each other socially for perhaps fifteen years. The two writers had crossed to France on an ocean liner with friends. Two of Hemingway’s pals, Robert Benchley and Donald Ogden Stewart, were Algonquin Round Table core members. The beloved expatriate couple Gerald and Sara Murphy had both Americans to their Côte d’Azur villa. Hemingway had asked for Mrs. Parker’s help to support a documentary about the Civil War in Spai...
December 12, 2016
Lost Dorothy Parker Christmas Story
In December 1916, one hundred years ago, Dorothy Parker was 23 and on the staff of Vogue. She would not be married until 1917, so she was still Dorothy Rothschild. This was her first year working for Condé Nast, her first professional job. Down the hall was Vanity Fair, which accepted this piece of writing. It has not been published since then. In 2017, the fiftieth anniversary of Dorothy Parker’s death, more lost gems such as this one will be published here.
The Christmas Magazines
And the I...
October 17, 2016
French Filmmaker Adapts Dorothy Parker Story
Akil Wingate and Ségolène Point in “Life Together.”
We are pleased to present an interview with French filmmaker . He is the producer/director of an independent feature film, Life Together, that was filmed in Paris. A component of the movie is an adaptation of the Dorothy Parker short story, “The Sexes.” The movie was shot in English and is currently in international film festivals.
I’d like to thank Bruno for taking the time to answer these five questions in English fo...
