Act One

by Moss Hart

The Dramatic Story that Captivated a Generation

With this new edition, the classic best-selling autobiography by the late playwright Moss Hart returns to print in the thirtieth anniversary of its original publication. Issued in tandem with Kitty, the revealing autobiography of his wife, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Act One, is a landmark memoir that influenced a generation of theatergoers, dramatists, and general book readers everywhere. The book eloquently chronicles Moss Hart's impoverished childhood in the Bronx and Brooklyn and his long, determined struggle to his first theatrical Broadway success, Once in a Lifetime. One of the most celebrated American theater books of the twentieth centure and a glorious memorial to a bygone age, Act One if filled with all the wonder, drama, and heartbreak that surrounded Broadway in the 1920s and the years before World War II.

Genres: Biography, Memoir, Nonfiction, Theatre, Autobiography, Biography Memoir, New York

456 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Moss Hart was an American playwright and director of plays and musical theater. Hart recalled his youth, early career and rise to fame in his autobiography, Act One, adapted to film in 1963, with George Hamilton portraying Hart.

Hart grew up at 74 East 105th Street in Manhattan, "a neighborhood not of carriages and hansom cabs, but of dray wagons, pushcarts, and immigrants" (Bach 1). Early on he had a strong relationship with his Aunt Kate, whom he later lost contact with because of a falling out between her and his parents, and her weakening mental state. She got him interested in the theater and took him to see performances often. Hart even went so far as to create an "alternate ending" to her life in his book Act One. He writes that she died while he was working on out-of-town tryouts for The Beloved Bandit. Later, Kate became quite eccentric, vandalizing Hart's home, writing threatening letters and setting fires backstage during rehearsals for Jubilee. But his relationship with Kate was life-forming. He understood that the theater made possible "the art of being somebody else… not a scrawny boy with bad teeth, a funny name… and a mother who was a distant drudge." (Bach 13).

After working several years as a director of amateur theatrical groups and an entertainment director at summer resorts, he scored his first Broadway hit with Once In A Lifetime (1930), a farce about the arrival of the sound era in Hollywood. The play was written in collaboration with Broadway veteran George S. Kaufman, who regularly wrote with others, notably Marc Connelly and Edna Ferber. (Kaufman also performed in the play's original Broadway cast in the role of a frustrated playwright hired by Hollywood.) During the next decade, Kaufman and Hart teamed on a string of successes, including You Can't Take It With You (1936) and The Man Who Came to Dinner (1939). Though Kaufman had hits with others, Hart is generally conceded to be his most important collaborator.

You Can't Take It With You, the story of an eccentric family and how they live during the Depression, won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for drama. It is Hart's most-revived play. When director Frank Capra and writer Robert Riskin adapted it for the screen in 1938, the film won the Best Picture Oscar and Capra won for Best Director.

The Man Who Came To Dinner is about the caustic Sheridan Whiteside who, after injuring himself slipping on ice, must stay in a Midwestern family's house. The character was based on Kaufman and Hart's friend, critic Alexander Woollcott. Other characters in the play are based on Noel Coward, Harpo Marx and Gertrude Lawrence.

After George Washington Slept Here (1940), Kaufman and Hart called it quits. Hart had decided it was time to move on. Throughout the 1930s, Hart also worked, with and without Kaufman, on several musicals and revues, including Face the Music (1932), As Thousands Cheer (1933), with songs by Irving Berlin, Jubilee (musical) (1935), with songs by Cole Porter and I'd Rather Be Right (1937), with songs by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. (Lorenz Hart and Moss Hart were not related.)

Hart continued to write plays after parting with Kaufman, such as Christopher Blake (1946) and Light Up The Sky (1948), as well as the book for the musical Lady In The Dark (1941), with songs by Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin. However, he became best known during this period as a director.

Among the Broadway hits he staged were Junior Miss (1941), Dear Ruth (1944) and Anniversary Waltz (1954). By far his biggest hit was the musical My Fair Lady (1956), adapted from George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The show ran over seven years and won a Tony Award for Best Musical. Hart picked up the Tony for Best Director.

Occasionally, Hart wrote scree

Reviews

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a white-knuckle glimpse into the world of theatre, and what a caveat for those of us who dream about one day writing a play. Novice playwright Moss Hart and Broadway master George Kaufman worked daily for weeks, months, to excise words and scenes, conjure better ones only to toss them out, and ultimately craft a storyline with dialogue that would do that elusive and mysterious of all things: delight a capricious audience.

Hart’s memoir describing his rise to success on Broadway reads like a thriller. A master of suspense, he takes us to the brink--dear God let the audience laugh in the right places, this time--then pulls back to provide several paragraphs of historical background or a philosophical meditation, all intriguing, sure, but seriously, can’t it wait until we find out if...and then when our breath is coming hard, he relents and we stand again at the brink.

It’s a style that reflects one of the lessons he and Kaufman learned as they endlessly rewrote Once in a Lifetime, the first of several plays on which they collaborated in the 1930s: the need to balance onstage noise with quiet scenes that allow the audience to absorb and reflect.

A child of the Bronx, where often there wasn’t enough food for his small family, Hart also provides readers with a view of the grinding hardship of poverty and its psychological consequences. I often had the feeling he was apologizing for his post-success, opulent lifestyle.

One thing his memoir doesn’t do is reflect a playwright’s first obligation, which is to cut unmercifully so only the bones of the story show through. In Act One, Hart indulges in rampant repetition, saying something once, doubling back to say it another way, and then doing it a third time—all part of his bid to extend the suspense. But no matter; it’s all good, exceptionally good. It is the kind of old-fashioned writing I love, with its complex sentences full of sensuous detail.

This book is guaranteed to enchant those who love theatre, words, and a powerful rags-to-riches story.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Act One” by Moss Hart is another book I rated when I first joined Good Reads but never reviewed. If you went to school in New York State you were required to take the Regents exams in order to get a High School diploma. The English Regents asked the usual grammar questions but the last section of the exam required you to either write an essay on some topic or answer twenty out of forty Multiple Guess questions about English literature. If you looked at previous tests there was always a question about “Act One” for some strange reason.

Strange because Moss Hart was not exactly a household name even in a family that was as Show Biz savvy as mine was. In “Act One” Hart tells his life story about how he grew up dirt poor in the Bronx in the early 1900s. His family was fairly dysfunctional and he had a rather dotty aunt who loved Broadway and the theater and would rather go to a show than eat. And she often did. When she took Hart to his first show he was instantly hooked and vowed then and there that he was going to work on Broadway.

Hart took menial jobs as an office boy in a booking agency, working as a social director at summer camps, even a short term stint as an actor in “The Emperor Jones” by Eugene O’Neill. None of these jobs were especially fulfilling or rewarding and did not seem to be stepping stones for him to remain in the industry. Looking at his possibilities he realized that his best bet to get his foot in the room and stay there was to write a play.

This he did when he wrote “Once in a Lifetime”. Hart called upon every contact he had and somehow managed to get the play under the nose of George S. Kaufman, a Broadway playwright with a Pulitzer Prize and the golden touch. He offered to co-author it with Hart to get it produced.. This should have guaranteed success but the whole story is how success was no guarantee. All night rewrites of entire acts, the ups and downs of rehearsals, flat performances in out of town previews, were only a few of the problems facing the play leading up to opening night. Hart, I’ve since learned became not only a famous playwright, but a screenwriter (“Gentlemen’s Agreement”) and Broadway director. Years later he directed “My Fair Lady” and at a preview in New Haven one night he had to warm up the audience for a half hour before the show went on because Rex Harrison was backstage having a serious bout of stage fright. Rex Harrison!

All these years later I’ve wondered why “Act One” should be considered a book every high schooler should be familiar with. It’s because the book is about a young man born into poverty overcoming serious obstacles and through determination, willpower and hard work achieving the American dream to become the top of his profession. Seventy years later I’m sure this book has been replaced by more current boot strap tales of success. But “Act One” is the perfect title for the book because if you are to begin a project you need to take a first step. And in writing a play, act one, are the first two words you write. And if you are successful you can look back at your first step as the beginning of a successful career. Act One.

[Thienan Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This autobiography is very much a entrepreneurial inspiration, a period piece and a captivating memoir. Published in 1959, Act One tells the story of Hart's life growing up in poverty in early 20th century New York and his struggle to make it as a playwright. Hart tells how the singular goal and mindset to be involved in the world of theater influenced and shaped his destiny. That fierce dedication was the catalyst that led to such a successful career as a playwright and director. I am at once awed and jealous by the journey described in this memoir which ends with the premiere of his first Broadway hit, Once in a Lifetime, in 1930. Unfortunately there was no Act Two as Moss Hart died soon after the publication of this book.

I definitely felt Hart’s skill as a playwright, one who builds suspense, plays on your emotions, and leads it all to an amazing conclusion. Throughout the book, Hart takes the reader through the many dramatic instances of imminent failure. At once the reader realizes they are listening to a very interesting man with amazing stories to tell. Hart is pragmatic, poignant, smart, engaging, and full of substance. He sometimes has a habit of making generalizations, but is plainly insightful. His insights into human behavior and motivation fills you with empathy and relation to the humanness of his story. At times Hart is uncompromising and quite harsh in his judgement, other times superstitious - a believer in omens, and other times frustrating. Nonetheless, it all rings very true and very human.

The life lessons learned are definitive and powerful. Many lessons are theater specific - for example, the required authority over actors, the syntax and semantics of playwriting, and the inner workings, logistics, and rituals of the theater. There are also subtle lessons to be learned from how Moss confronts his obstacles that can be universally applied.

Hart's devotion as he delved deeper into the world of theater only makes him work harder. He dreamed big, and wanted to soak himself into every crevice of the theater sponge. That immersion led him to where his talents were greatest. He abandoned acting in favor or playwriting and was able to surround himself with people who could help in achieving his goals. He extract lessons from all his experiences and relies upon lucky breaks. So many times he is thrust into a foreign situation, but does whatever it takes, often faking it as he goes along. He learns to sometimes eschew general conventions and was also able to work with celebrated and great talents. While in the thick of it all, he is able to improvise and learn by comparison. During the rough times his is able to perfect the art of survival. In a moment of failure, he had some bleak realizations where his will to continue almost ceased to exist. At the same time a sense of irony rescued him bringing deeper realizations. He is able to develop expert insight into the theater and the psyche of the people in its sphere. All these lessons are things to be picked up and applied to anyone's life.

The book ends with Hart's first big success. When Hart calls his family to leave everything behind the day after his successful Broadway debut, you can't help but want to stand up in admiration and applause. Hart writes,

"I took one quick look around to keep the memory of that room forever verdant and then walked to each window and threw it wide open. The rain whipped in through the windows like a broadside of artillery fire. I watched a large puddle form on the floor and spread darkly over the carpet. The rain streamed across the top and down the legs of the dining room table and splashed over the sideboard and china closet. It soaked the armchair and cascaded down the sofa. It peppered the wallpaper with large wet blotches and the wind sent two lamps crashing to the floor. I kicked them out of my way and walked over to the daybed, which was still dry, and pulled it out into the middle of the room, where a fresh onset of wind and rain immediately drenched it. I looked around me with satisfaction, feeling neither guilty or foolish. More reasonable gestures have seldom succeeded in giving me half the pleasure this meaningless one did. It was the hallmark, the final signature, of defiance and liberation. Short of arson, I could do no more. I slammed the door behind me without looking back."

Stray Observations:

* Part of the appeal of Act One is the vignette of a foreign world portrayed - the mystique of New York City and the theater world of the 1920s.
* "[The theater] is an inevitable refuge of the unhappy child … something impaled in childhood like a fly in amber.”
* There are several name drops of people from decades ago which I wished I understood to understand the context of the big names he rubbed shoulders with.
* A moment like seeing your distant father shame himself to make money so that a woman he hated had a funeral with decency and respect was quite poignant.
* The sleeping pill is a necessity for the theater profession.
* Hart is a strong believer of concurrent destiny and luck but he also relishes “The unique experience of outwitting life.”
* “Fate is an implacable strategist.”
* The camp utopia chapter was hilarious. The social interactions and culture of 1920s adult summer camps!
* There are rituals in every profession, but those of the theater are remarkable. The theatrical conference. The ritual of the rehearsal.
* I wish I had the experience of getting telegrams. It's probably like getting a letter instead of an email except better.
Rating:

4.5/5. Recommended for all. Can be a slow read in a few spots, but the entirety is well worth it.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. A very engaging, interesting autobiography of the first twenty six years of Moss Hart’s life. The story of Moss Hart’s theatrical apprenticeship. Born in 1904, Moss Hart writes about his first experience of Broadway at age 12, to his success fourteen years later in 1930 with his comic play, ‘Once in a Lifetime’. This play was written in collaboration with the already successful playwright, George Kaufman. Hart writes about his mother, father and brother and their experiences of struggling to feed and cloth themselves. When his father lost his job, Moss felt it was time to find work and he obtained a job as an office boy. Moss Hart worked extremely hard to achieve his success.

The book is populated with vivid characters and poignant scenes such as his relationship with his aunt Kate, the lack of money to celebrate Christmas and the holiday camp director work he undertook.

A highly recommended read.

This book was first published in 1959.

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best autobiographies I have read that I can remember.

Hart is not only a brilliant playwright, he's an entertaining and highly engaging writer.

We vicariously live his journey from belonging to a dirt poor Jewish immigrant family living in a boarding house in the Bronx, and the various jobs he took as a teenager to contribute to the family funds (he took a job stacking animal skins, guaranteeing him plenty of space on the subway).

We are the invisible audience as we watch the risks he took (quitting said job without another prospect lined up), and bluffing his way into a Broadway theater house and getting hired as an office boy. We also watch and sympathize as he gets conned into taking crummy summer camp jobs as a social director. The worst in every way was the one where he had to sleep in a tool shed, with deplorable food and no budget by which to produce the social activities, only to discover at the end, he wasn't getting paid a dime because the owner of the camp absconded with all the money.

He worked those camps for six years, finally getting better and better camps and also better jobs during the year as director of small theater plays with volunteer actors. He spent his day time hours writing plays on the Beach at Coney Island (his family had moved to Brooklyn by then).

After the six years, he submitted a play, first to Theater Director Jed Harris who gave him the runaround, and finally to George S. Kaufman who ran with it.

As interesting as those harsh year, the best part was reading about the process of writing a play as Kaufman and Hart spent hours and hours of each day writing, shredding, writing again.

I assume that Hart must have learned how to write through Kaufman, and also from just doing it. And maybe watching all the countless plays on Broadway his aunt took him to. I say that because he dropped out of school at a young age. So this magnificent writer figured it out without a college or even a high school degree.

Certainly he was a genius, but let's not forget those six years of writing for hours each day on the beach. Also, I think Kaufman must have provided invaluable tutoring.

Also fascinating was the process and transformation a play must go through in order to succeed. Act One provides a rare insight into the nail biting hazards of making a play fly with the audiences. His first play, the one with Kaufman, titled Once in a Lifetime, almost bit the dust before it even launched. The efforts to change and revise and finally succeed should be required reading for any aspiring writer, playwright or not.

Really, the whole book should be required reading for anyone who loves to write for any reason.

[Tom Stamper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Act One begins with Moss Hart growing up in the Bronx to what we would now consider abject poverty, but at the time was so common that it was probably called the typical working-class experience. This early part of the book is dominated by his aunt who lives there with his parents and spends their meager money on trips to the theater. She’s willfully oblivious to damage she causes the family, but she also gives Moss a glimpse at the theater which becomes an obsession and his eventual life’s work. He grows into his teenage years seeking work as an office boy for some theater, but such jobs are never posted. He learns later that those jobs are the fruits of nepotism and when he finally meets a neighbor who works such a job for his aunt, Moss strategically befriends him. The drama with which he writes about his first theater job must be partially fictional as it fits more like a plot point than turning point, but it’s also what makes the book such an entertaining story. From reading about the book elsewhere I learned that the death he gives his aunt is purely fictional so I would expect other embellishments of the Big Fish variety to exist here too.

For 7 years Moss Hart tells us he spends his summers as a camp counselor and entertainment director in places like the Catskills where the young city dwellers comes to vacation and maybe find a spouse. The job sounds horrendous but it’s a chance to do theater and it’s better than blue collar labor and his parents need the bread. He also tries to be a writer and an actor, but as he will tell you his writing is too pretentious at first. When he is told by the agent that he likes the humorous parts of his plays rather than the drama, Moss is somewhat offended. He didn’t intend any humorous parts. But when he realizes that he is good at the humorous parts doors open up to him. His play Once in a Lifetime about theater people going to Hollywood at the dawn of the talking picture era impresses theater producer Sam Harris and Harris hooks him up with Moss’s hero, George F. Kaufman, for a re-write that they work on for months.

The last half of the book deals in detail with Once in a Lifetime. The reader learns all of Kaufman’s quirks and Moss makes us feel as intimidated by Kaufman as he probably once was. Imagine a time when two guys who work together everyday for months still address each other as Mr. Kaufman and Mr. Hart. Or the time he meets Dorothy Parker at Kaufman’s party and she says she is awaiting the arrival of Mr. Benchley and Mr. Sherwood. Hart writes funny small moments like how Kaufman writes for hours without hunger and Moss is bringing Hershey bars to fill his stomach until Kaufman catches on and has his servant start bringing lunch. Why does Kaufman stand so often by the window with his back turned? Oh, it takes him months to realize that Kaufman hates the odor of Hart’s cigar. Two writers with an inability to communicate with one another. And Hart meets all the Algonquin set at the tail end of the era or he would have probably been one of them. And as Moss tells it his big break Once in a Lifetime was nearly dead twice before they resurrected it into a hit. Fame and fortune exist on such a narrow line.

This is just Act One. The book ends with Intermission. It’s likely Moss Hart intended this to be a series of books about his life but he died young and we’ll never know his experiences on You Can’t Take it With You or The Man who Came to Dinner. It’s a shame considering how entertaining this one turned out.

If you’re reading it for the theater elements you might get disappointed in the first half of early struggles at least before those struggles become humorous. If you stick with it you’ll be rewarded with plenty of inside baseball by the latter half.

[Debra Pawlak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moss Hart is a Broadway legend. Act One is about his early years and how he made it to Broadway. There was nothing easy about it, but Hart tells his story with grace and humor. Reading about his contemporaries, like Sam Harris and George Kaufman, is like taking a peak at another era. Hart can be snarky and sarcastic, but he is always funny--never mean. I know that he died about two years after this book was published (1959). It would have been nice to see him continue his story including his marriage to Kitty Carlisle and the many plays he worked on after his first big hit. One thing is for sure--Broadway would not be as bright without the talent of Moss Hart. Thankfully, he left behind the story of his struggles and assured us that nothing can deter real talent and drive. Here's to you, Moss!

[Charlie Lovett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I truly enjoyed this memoir of Moss Hart's early days in the theatre. I had seen the Great Performances broadcast of the Lincoln Center stage version, which I thought was extremely well done. Hart writes beautifully, and it was a treat to have a look at the inner working of the theatre as it was in the 1930s. A lot of the second half of the book is about the long road to Broadway of his first hit, Once in a Lifetime. I was in a production of that play in college, and I can still recall particular line reads that Doug Vass as Laurence Vail (a part originally played by George Kaufman, I discovered) gave. A great book for any old theatre bum like myself!

[Enchanted Prose · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Stage-struck”: From poverty to Broadway (Bronx/Brooklyn, NY, 1914 to 1930): Beautifully written storytelling that stayed on the bestseller list over forty weeks when first published in 1959 – a book with devotees in and out of the theatrical world – is too good for Enchanted Prose to pass up because it’s not fiction. Deeply felt books like this one seem to take on a life of their own, much like Moss Hart said a play has “its own peculiar and separate life.” And like playwriting, blogging does not come with absolute rules. For as much as Moss Hart’s can’t-put-it-down storytelling memoir, Act One, renders a detailed, behind-the-scenes account of a famous playwright’s “lifelong intoxication with the theatre” (he wrote The Man Who Came to Dinner, You Can’t Take it with You, A Star is Born; he directed My Fair Lady, Camelot), it also offers what enchanted fiction ought to do: stir the heart and take us inside the human condition. For those who don’t read enough memoirs, Moss Hart’s elegant prose might change that. Yes, it’s that good.

This new edition (Act One has never gone out of print) coincides with the Lincoln Center’s production currently playing in New York City. Dedicated to Hart’s wife of 15 years, actress/TV personality, Kitty Carlisle, it’s been updated with a moving forward by their son, Christopher Hart, a director/producer.

Act One is as physically alluring – oversized and the cover golden — as the drama it portrays. It is not the whole of Moss Hart’s life, which is why the aptly titled “Act One.” (Dazzler: The Life and Times of Moss Hart by Steven Bach, 2007, presents Act Two, which includes Hart’s battle with manic depression. Sadly, there is no Act Three, Hart dying early at 57 from a heart attack.) Not that Act One, Hart’s coming-of-age story spanning ages 10 to 26, is entirely a happy journey either, but it’s full of triumphs you’ll want to cheer.

Poverty is the backdrop, overshadowing everything. It “dulled and demeaned each day.” Poverty Hart characterized as “thievery,” robbing the vitality out of his unemployed Jewish father (a cigar maker from England) and his also jobless brother. Hart makes the uncommon point that it’s not just the lack of money that degrades and wears down the soul:

“It is hard to describe or to explain the overwhelming and suffocating boredom that is the essence of being poor …. Boredom is the keynote of poverty – of all its dignities, it is perhaps the hardest of all to live with – for where there is no money there is no change of any kind, not of scene or of routine.”

Poverty intensified Hart’s passion for Broadway at a time when it flourished in the 1920s, with some 70 theatres. (His attachment to his eccentric, theatre-loving Aunt Kate, who once lived with his family, another influence.) His addiction for this “devilish profession,” which he claimed is “the most difficult of literary forms to master,” is all-encompassing. Act One, then, is about sometimes “wanting so much it can suspend judgment, intelligence, or plain common sense.” It is always about what it takes to lift oneself out of an unrelenting human condition: the “boldness to dream,” courage, endurance, discipline, talent, “sense of timing,” and good old-fashioned luck.

One explanation Hart suggests for the magnetic appeal of the theatre is that it serves as a “refuge of the unhappy child.” Indeed he is a lonely one, out of sync with most of his family and schoolmates. So we almost expect he’ll drop out of school at a tender age, which he does. And then we root for his burning wish to get his foot in the door of Broadway, which he does. The prose draws us in, so we can picture ourselves seated beside him and his Aunt in the theatre nightly, his theatrical office job coming with the fantastic perk of free tickets. Of course, Hart also desperately needs money. When he finally earns some, slowly and painfully – out-of-town flops, social directing during an interesting era in American culture when “adult summer camps” proliferated – with his first Broadway hit, Once in a Lifetime, he consciously sets himself on a path of a lifetime of indulgences. He makes no apologies for “excess;” he touts it as the purpose of money. While most of his “shopping sprees” go beyond the scope of this first act, we don’t fault him when he gets “clothes drunk.” No, we completely understand.

Much of Act One is a story of mentors and collaborators, the most important being the legendary, Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright, George S. Kaufman. The writing is so well-expressed we can see both men madly pouring over scene fixes for Once in a Lifetime at Kaufman’s brownstone on the Upper East Side. Kaufman is a rather eccentric fellow – rituals of hand-washing, barely ever eating versus Hart’s voracious appetite, proud baker of wicked sugary fudge so the two can stay awake through regular all-nighters. Kaufman’s “surgical” pencil looms very large here.

Considered one of or perhaps “the best book ever written about the American theatre,” Hart makes sure we understand it is like no other. As far as he is concerned, there’s no “other profession as dazzling, as deeply satisfying as the theatre.” For Hart, the “four most dramatic words in the English language [are]: Act One – Scene One,” and the “jolliest sounds in the world” are the “buzz of anticipation of a fashionable audience.” Although he recognizes there are other careers more “noble,” none are as “sweet.” While we might not agree, you’ve got to admire the zealous devotion and fellowship. Hart, though, admits the theatre takes a “tremendous toll” … on “nerves, in strain, in stamina – that it takes as much as it gives.”

Unquestionably, Act One delivers insightful and delightful commentary on playwriting and the “mystique” of the theatre:

“Never again a sound of trumpets like the sound of a New York opening-night audience giving a play its unreserved approval … no audience as keen, as alive, as exciting and as overwhelmingly satisfactory as a first-night audience taking a play at its heart.”

For playwrights and anyone wishing to be part of this artistic world, Act One is a gift of an insider’s observations on a range of theatrical topics – the importance of understanding the anatomy of a play; what makes great actors; sizing up pleased/displeased audiences; cultivating an “esprit de corps;” the promise of auditions and the disappointment of dress rehearsals.

While Hart’s commentary is laden with worries – by nature he’s a “chronic worrier” – let’s put aside these concerns for the moment. Instead, let’s jump for joy when the acclaimed Kaufman magnanimously tells the opening-night audience that the success of Once in a Lifetime is “80%” Hart’s. They have dissected and re-written Hart’s play so many, many times it’s heartbreaking and heartwarming. For you cannot help but be inspired that they don’t just give up. (Kaufman at one point did, leaving it to Hart to find their way back.)

When at long last the collaborators land their Broadway hit, Hart tells us “there is no smile as bright as the box-office man the morning after a hit.” I’d venture to guess that if you were standing in front of that box-office window you’d be smiling brightly too.

Applause! Applause! Lorraine (EnchantedProse.com)

[Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moss Hart was one of the great theater authors and directors, with his first hit in 1930 and his final hits directing My Fair Lady and Camelot in 1956 and ‘59. He’s probably best known for co-writing with George S. Kaufman the classic plays that became classic films, You Can’t Take it With You and The Man Who Came to Dinner. None of that is in this memoir of his young life and his difficult beginnings in the world of theater.
In the end I found the book to be quite interesting, although the first half reads like the biography of a failure. Hart’s bitterness at his poverty and the deadness of life it created was still strong after his successes. It is perhaps useful for us nowadays to read about how difficult it was to earn just enough to eat and to be under the threat of being evicted week after week throughout his life. It is hard to know how Hart became determined to work in the theater. Certainly many people dream of this and then wisely give up on it. He unwisely stuck with it and, after many setbacks and failures, eventually achieved success. It becomes clear in the book, however, just how unlikely this was and how many lucky breaks he got in order for his success to take place. Furthermore, the amount of work he did to make a living before any of that happened is really stupendous.
The second half of the book describes the break in which a producer got him to collaborate with George Kaufman, already a successful playwright and director, to whip his play into shape for Broadway. However, the play needed a lot of whipping and was massively unsuccessful in two sets of tryouts. The story of the collaboration and production is told in detail, which will be fascinating for theater fans though perhaps a bit much for others. Even though we know that Hart will eventually make it, it is unclear whether this play will bomb or become a hit (that is, unclear to those of us who don’t know his work that well). His portrait of Kaufman is wonderful—loving and humorous.
The book could receive a bit of an edit for the modern reader who perhaps doesn’t need to know quite so many details either of theatrical production or of the deadness of life in the Bronx during the depression. Hart is quite honest about his family dynamic, and he experienced the classic childhood of that time in which his parents didn’t really understand him or his career, but only vaguely hoped that he wouldn’t get fired from week to week. However, once I became used to the fact that I was going to get his life in all the details, I relaxed and let myself absorb them, because this is a life that doesn’t exist nowadays but that is a paradigmatic one of success in the 20th century.

[Patrick Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating! I read a small excerpt of this book when I was a freshman in high school. It captivated me, which was a bit surprising, since the topic - a non-sports or even socially oriented, young boy, a future playwrite, captivating his neighbor boys so much which his tales of stories they had never heard, and would probably never read - didn't really fit me at all. But that reading, tucked away over these many years, came out in a powerful desire to find out the rest of the story.

Rewarded I was for my persistence, well, serendipity, at having saved the old yellowed and crumbling, 1960 paperback edition in my book collection for many years and many moves.

Moss Hart's story of growing up very, very poor in the Bronx, developing a goal of becoming part of the theatre, and working out the trying and exhausting means to actualizing not only that, but rising to the pinnacle of Theaterdom with his first Broadway hit (but actually his 7th written play and only 2nd produced) is a tale for the ages. Persistence is but one of his heroic traits.

Along the way, I was rewarded with his frank descriptions of the evils of poverty, and his truly honorable and effective means for combating it.

I believe this book may be an effective weapon to use against those who advocate government programs for the poor, if only as an excellent example of what totally non-governmental, non-coercive willpower, freemarkets, talent and the opportunities and goodwill (not total, but pervasive) can do to right the poverty wrong.

[Jeffrey Seller · Rating 5 out of 5]

When my co-counselor and friend Joel Colman handed me Act One in 1983 when I was an 18-year-old camp theatre director, he said, “It’s the most important book ever written about the theatre.” I soon learned why: Act One isn’t just a memoir of the theatre, it also reads like a great novel in which we have no idea how it’s going to turn out and we’re on the edge of our seats as the story progresses. Moss Hart’s journey from poor kid in the Bronx, to successful playwright of Once in a Lifetime – which premiered on Broadway at The Music Box Theatre in 1930 – is as fun a story as onecould read. It’s still just as pertinent, just as profound, and just as inspiring all these years later than when I originally read it and when Moss wrote it in the 1950s.

[Siobhan Burns · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pure delight. Now I want to be a playwright when I grow up.

(Thankfully, the new edition I read does NOT have an intro by Woody Allen.)

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books that I've ever read. When I finished reading it, I decided to reread it right away.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Been mulling this over in the couple of days since I finished it— it’s really staying with me. One of the top five autobiographies I’ve ever read.

[Hannah Glass · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't put this down; it had me enthralled in every moment. I guess it helps to be a successful writer and storyteller when you're writing your autobiography. While probably not 100% accurate to reality, due to hubris and the one-sided viewpoint that every autobiography holds, I couldn't care less. Hart's flair for the dramatic and romantic way of viewing the world and storytelling reminded me of my own (embarrassingly) dramatic, romantic inner dialogue. The most thrilling thing about this autobiography was how animated and current it felt. I often forgot that the majority of it took place over the 1910s and 1920s. Hart's descriptions of people, relationships, and emotions were authentic and highlighted the unchanging commonality of being human across time, an experience I love to have as it serves to humanize and bring to life the past in deeply personal and beautiful ways.

To be sure, I am a lifelong fan of the theatre and all its idiosyncrasies. I think this love and respect made this book even MORE enjoyable to read, although I believe even those that have never stepped foot inside a theatre would enjoy Hart's personal account of chasing his dreams and literally rising from rags to riches.

As a sidebar (a note to myself, a thought on how even the purely secular can be used to give glory to God): what it means to take a leap of faith and to be whole-heartedly committed to something. For me, this actually encouraged me in my faith and relationship with Jesus (although Hart was not in any way ever connected to the Church nor are there any spiritual elements to his book). He has to decide between making sure his backup options are all in line (and for good reason: he financially supported his family) or being all-in on this career and on his manuscript. The point of no return. It reminded me of the leap of faith, the all-bridges-burned kind of trust that Jesus calls for those who want to follow Him. Am I going to jump? Am I going to put all my eggs in one basket, going to commit my safety, reputation, career, etc. to one place? Somehow Hart's revelation of his heel-dragging and precarious commitment to playwriting and his dogged devotion to this art despite the promise of supposed better pay and stability elsewhere moved me to actively reflect on my depth of trust and devotion to the Lord.

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has been on my list for so long. For whatever reason, I had it in my head it would be a dry slog, which makes no sense in retrospect. It very much is not. This is a highly engaging autobiography. His voice is hilarious. There were times I was reading at my desk and had to excuse myself because I couldn't stop laughing. It's also an inspiring story and a nice look into his partnership with George Kaufman. Learning about the process of bringing a show to Broadway at that time and the seemingly endless revisions for Once in a Lifetime was fascinating, as was his time working in camps.

I'm glad I finally got around to it. It's a classic for a reason.

[Ray LaManna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book by far is the best memoir about a Broadway life ever written. Moss Hart, one of the greatest 20th-century playrights, does not indulge in any sort of trivial comments about theater professionals. He engages in quite a bit of thoughtful reflection about all that goes into writing and performing a play. I was especially impressed of how much importance he gave to the audience. If you only ever want to read one book about the American theater...this is it!

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Call it 3.5 stars. This autobiography of Hart's life and early career is very interesting and amusing for the most part but flattens out toward the end, thus the half-star deduction. Covers period up to about 1932 and the production of his first hit play.

[Harriett Milnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moss Hart grew up in the Bronx. Born in 1904, his family was very poor. He became interested in theatre and drama very early. This autobiography follows him through his early jobs in the fur vault, working for a Broadway producer, working with little theatre groups, working for adult summer camps, straight through to writing and presenting a play with George S. Kaufmann. I learned a lot about theatre in the 20s and presenting the play out of town, rewrites, rehearsals. Interesting autobiography.

[Mary Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good insight into what goes on in a playwright’s mind. Good picture of what NYC was like in the early 20th century.

[Carolin Kopplin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moss Hart's partial autobiography covers his childhood and early adulthood in Brooklyn up until his first big success "Once in a Lifetime". Enjoyable and insightful.

[DW · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book because it was recommended by Lin Manuel Miranda in a NY Times article. I definitely wouldn't have picked it up otherwise, because I'd never heard of the author, knew nothing about plays in the 1920s and 30s, and I don't like the typeface (I feel like I've struggled through some classics written in this typeface, so I associate it with "boring").

Anyway, just as you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, neither should you judge it by its typeface. This story grabbed me from page one. I don't think I particularly like the author as a person, but the book is well written and the story is fascinating. If anything the book is too perfect - did he really quit his job on a whim, then go to visit his friend who had also quit that day and get hired on the spot? Did he really get fired and bump into another friend in the elevator leaving the building and get offered another position? Did the show really go from nothing to raining money in one night? Or was that artistic license?

Thoughts: he was way too lenient on his grandfather and aunt, who both seemed to be selfish and cruel (but they doted on him). He also came off as offensively arrogant in spots, for instance when he was flat broke and had to borrow money from an acquaintance, he framed it aggressively as a business proposition instead of as he had been cheated out of his wages and was about to be homeless. And the person he'd never met to whom he said "You'll like that book" was perfectly right to say "How do you know?". Not to mention him vandalizing places he was leaving, just out of spite. Also, he disdains people who fawn over celebrity and then a few pages later describes poring over the "famous initials and names" on the editorial page in the New York World. I was also surprised that even though the time period of the book includes World War I and the Great Depression, he mentions neither (his father lost his cigar-making job, but I think that was in the 1920s).

But still, it was a fascinating story and interesting to compare to today. He had to leave school after eighth grade to work. He lived with his parents and younger brother through the whole book, even when he was well into his 20s, and it was accepted as perfectly normal and natural. He was hired for several jobs on the spot, without no training expected or required (or perhaps that still happens in some industries? But I don't think office boys exist anymore.) The story of his second summer as a camp entertainment director, when all the staff was cheated out of most of the summer's pay (and having to hitch-hike back to New York because they had no money at all), was jaw-dropping . I hope stuff like that doesn't happen now. Also, him mingling with the crowd at intermission and seeing the second half of shows for free - I guess I don't know if that's possible now. I never thought to try it. But then the idea of him and his friend working all night to write down the acts from memory afterwards (or later having a paid stenographer sit next to him) - now every audience member has a cellphone that could record video and audio of whole show.

The story of his collaboration was instructive. For one thing, it's easy to watch a movie or play or a piece of music, and think that it was inevitable. So the fact that he got the first act right, but then had to rewrite the second and third acts over and over and over again was a good reminder that even though good art looks effortless, it actually requires a great deal of work and time and effort. What did puzzle me was that it seemed that he simply wrote plays out in sequence, from Act One to Act Three. Didn't he make a beat sheet or at least an outline, to know where the play was going? Also, the final insight, that "Once in a Lifetime" was too "noisy" a play because the audience never had a chance to rest, is an observation that I read in a book about screenwriting. (The screenwriting book criticized "Bringing Up Baby" for being unrelentingly high-energy, even though "Bringing Up Baby" was a hit. Anyway, I guess the point was that Moss Hart learned it without formally studying playwriting.)

I thought it a bit odd that he went from dirt-poor through most of the book to fabulously wealthy in the last chapter, and then the book stops abruptly. This is where it seems like he stuck to the simple story arc for the sake of telling a good story. I guess that's why the book is called Act One ... it seems like he could have written an Act Two and talked about his life when he was more successful, but I don't think he did.

[Cara · Rating 5 out of 5]

The acclaim for Moss Hart's autobiography is well deserved. The prose is lively and engaging, and frequently very funny. What comes through most clearly is Hart’s love for the theater and those who work in it.

But there is poignancy, too, in Hart's discussion of the poverty that marked the first 26 or so years of his life. Hart sees nothing noble in poverty, nor does he appear to paint a worse picture than his family experienced. They were not, for example, homeless (well, they were for a very brief period of time), and they did not starve. But Hart focuses on the bleak sameness of it all--the difficulty of escape from often living hand to mouth (and sometimes nothing more than on credit from neighborhood grocers and butchers)—and the absence of things that the more privileged (even lower middle class) might take for granted, such as privacy. His relationship with his immediate family was strained for most of his childhood/young adulthood, though, with time, he was able to understand (if not always like) his family members a bit more. There are two sections concerning his father, in particular, that I found quite moving. First, the first Christmas after his beloved Aunt Kate no longer lived with his family, in which his father clearly wanted to buy his son a present but couldn’t afford one. Second, his father’s blossoming as he worked in a canteen at an awful summer camp where Hart was social director. What sets these sequences apart is Hart’s recognition that his father was more than the ineffectual and apparently-emotionally distant man that his maternal family’s dynamics seems to have forced him into.

The first part concerns Hart’s life up to the time he was about 20 or 21. Its primary focus is his enduring love of the theater—how it developed (through his Aunt Kate), his dedication to making it his career, how luck played a significant role in his eventual success, and the people he met/became friends with who themselves were devoted to the stage. Hart is explicit that he was often lucky, but it was his hard work and willingness to take risks that put him in position to receive the benefits of a lucky break or acquaintance. Even during some of the darkest moments, Hart tells his story with a combination of self-effacement, humor, and huge affection for those who, like him, loved the stage.

In the second part, Hart focuses in on about a year or so in which he wrote his first successful play, Once in a Lifetime, a 1930 farce about the early sound era in Hollywood. The chance to collaborate with George Kaufman, with whom he wrote his most famous works, came about through the determined offices of a friend who appears to have desired the role of “tastemaker.” Hart describes this first collaborative effort in detail, and his stories about his working sessions with Kaufman, who doesn’t seem to have ever figured out that Hart’s far-greater appetite required more sustenance than a light afternoon tea, are funny (though I imagine that they are not particularly illuminating if the reader is a would-be playwright hoping to glean insight into how to write a successful farce). Once in a Lifetime’s success resulted from hard work by both playwrights, and significant determination from Hart, who—because this was his first “real” play (his prior terrible melodrama written under a pseudonym)—was more desperate to get it done when hurdles arose.

After I finished Act One, I did some further research and learned that Kaufman commented that he expected much of the book to be fictionalized. And there is evidence to support that. First, in a diary written around the same time as he wrote his autobiography (but not available for review until after his wife’s death in 2007), Hart appears to have been (at least at times) quite vicious about some of the people Hart praised in Act One: The Bitter Barbs of the Hidden Moss Hart Diary | Vanity Fair”. What is a reader to make of his odes to these individuals in his autobiography? Was he intentionally lying? Determined to put a good face on his various interactions? Attempting to reimagine his life and his theater family like the Vanderhof-Sycamore-Carmichael clan of You Can’t Take It With You? Accurately remembering them as he thought of them then, not as he thought of them, almost 30 years later, when he wrote Act One? It’s hard to know, but, given the warmth and hope I was left with at the end of Act One, I hope it was the latter (unlikely as that may be).

Second, Hart is completely silent about his sexuality—indeed, any sexuality on his part. Based on some further reading, it’s apparent that Hart was a closeted gay man. It’s possible—given his marriage and the resulting children—that he was bisexual, but he may have been in such deep denial that he entered into marriage without any actual sexual desire for his wife. There’s nothing in Act One that hints at any same-sex attraction, but, notably, there’s nothing in the autobiography that hints at Hart being attracted to women. In fact, the autobiography is largely free of any references to romance or sex. The only reference to any kind of true-life romance is Hart’s explanation that young men and women attended the summer camps in the hope of meeting life partners (and he hints quite generally that illicit sexual liaisons often occurred). Hart portrays Kaufman as an apparently-happily married man and whose social life appeared to be largely intellectual. But Kaufman was an inveterate womanizer, and it’s hard to believe that, in the year or so that they worked together on this first play, Hart saw no evidence of that. Did Hart leave out that side of his collaborator because it didn’t fit into the largely-wholesome image depicted in his autobiography, or because talking about it would highlight the absence of any discussion about Hart’s romantic/sexual adventures? I suspect both reasons contributed to the decision. It saddens me that a man who writes with such love and joy of the theater could not be honest with his public (or, perhaps, himself) about his other desires.

Third, and this may be the most poignant for me, is Hart’s fiction regarding an important family member. Hart’s Aunt Kate is critically important as the person who exposed him to the theater and who powerfully communicated to him her love of it. Hart writes movingly of her ejection from his family apartment after years of selfish behavior on her part and his reconnection with her some years later as a young man with a foot just barely inside the theater world, even as she lived in what seems fairly desperate circumstances. According to Act One, Aunt Kate dies while Hart is at an out-of-town tryout of his doomed melodrama. In actuality, Aunt Kate lived on and was a destructive presence in Hart’s adult life. Per Frank Rich (in his New Yorker article, “The Greatest Showbiz Book Ever Written”: “Aunt Kate was not a colorful, poignant eccentric so much as a destructive psychotic. Contrary to Act One’s narrative, she lived on long after her eviction from the Hart household and resurfaced in a spiteful criminal incident aimed at Moss after he achieved success.”

Fourth, nothing in Act One hints at the debilitating mental illness Hart suffered, which appears to have been manic depression. Hart must have endured at least some of the symptoms in the first quarter or so of his life (they often manifest in late adolescence, if not before), but the self-picture he paints is one of great determination and forward-movement, even if he has to acknowledge that he could be more “timid” than some of his bolder friends.

Even with these (very significant) departures from absolute truth, I think Frank Rich has the right of it (taken from “The Greatest Showbiz Book Ever Written” in New Yorker magazine):

“You’d think that to reread Act One in the context of this diary and Dazzler [n.b. a 2001 biography] would be disillusioning for anyone who has spent much of a lifetime admiring the “Moss Hart” of his memoir. But that’s not the case. While Hart sometimes fictionalized his own story, “it didn’t matter if it was literally true,” as [a later biographer] wisely concluded, because the book’s core is true. Hart’s self-mythologizing is within a long-established tradition of American letters dating back to the mythmaking of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and Samuel Clemens’s reinvention of himself as Mark Twain. . . .
That Hart wrote a book showing that it was possible to escape so horrific a childhood—at least until Intermission—is a gift to lonely and troubled kids everywhere. And it was not an easy gift to deliver, since it required him to quarantine the sadness of his second act to keep it from contaminating his genuine joy and pride in his escape at the end of the first. Adult readers, if not young ones, will recognize that the happy ending is by definition provisional anyway. No one can escape the scars of childhood simply by slamming the door. But that’s another story.”

[Michael Emond · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won’t give a play by play of the life of Moss but will say it is a perfect TRUE tale of rags to riches. The kind you would think was too fake if someone had tried to make it up. Inspired by his Aunt at an early age to love the theatre, Moss first works as a helper for a play producer, then writes a play overnight, gets it produced, has it flop, works as a social director, then again as a social director (this time for an evil man and a horrid camp, then we fast forward five years and Moss is THE BEST social director for summer camps, and finally we focus on him writing Once in a Lifetime. All of it expertly told by a master storyteller. At 450 pages there are points in the book where I did get a little bored and wished it would speed up a bit. It is also telling (to me) he NEVER discusses girls or his social life. I also kind of wished to know HOW he became the most sought after Social director after his summer of hell. And I wished to know the actual play because it is fascinating the last fix of a “quiet: scene was all that was needed to save the un-savable third act of this eventual hit. I think it would be like a course in playwriting.
Having said that there were so many gems that make this book a classic. The coincidences that pile on each other to get Moss to where he would end up – coming into the office the day someone quit to get a job on Broadway, meeting his friend Joe Hyman who would save him from near financial ruin, the stray word of producer Sam Harris to remark the play was too “noisy”, the fact his friend (Lester) mailed the play to Sam Harris (and Max Siegel) who would do it if George S Kaufman agreed to help with the writing (he did), which was done after Jed Harris (a horrible villain) had given Moss the runaround. The insightful writing of Moss that lets us know his life warts and all. And of course, the fairy tale ending. Just a wonderful autobiography. It is interesting and makes you rethink your own life.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ann Patchett recommended this book at ALA this year. I didn't know who Moss Hart was. This autobiography chronicles his early impoverished years through the success of his first Broadway play, "Once in a Lifetime". It was a little slow going at first but once I made it to his stories about working as a social director at a ramshackle summer camp I was hooked. I laughed out loud. I struggled along with him as he tried to perfect his play and cheered when he ultimately found success. This is a book about the life of a playwright, family loyalty, perseverance, mentoring, luck, timing, hard work, and success. I loved it.

[Mabel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It was the first one I read after a year in which I was forced to read books off an approved list and then write about the "hidden meaning". One of the gems was "The House of the Seven Gables". I hated all of them and it almost turned me against reading period, something I had loved all my life. This terrific book brought me back to the fold and I've been reading every since. I still remember lots of things from it, like going to the theater with his aunt and getting there super early to watch all the "swells" enter the theater because she wanted to "Get all there was to get".

[Brigitta · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the ultimate portrayal of the Great American success story, going from rags to riches from pure hard work and passion. A must read for any theater junkie, especially those into the golden age of Broadway. Only gets 4 stars as it lags in certain parts, but if you persevere, the reward is great at the end. I actually picked it up based on a recommendation in Julie Andrew's memoir (Moss Hart staged My Fair Lady). It is a shame this book has gone out of print, as it highlights a wonderful American success with great story telling.

[Garry Klein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some books are enjoyable and some are like a really nice confection. In the department of autobiography, this is one of my favorite recent reads. The writing style is engaging and the story is compelling. I would recommend this to any aspiring playwrights as a lesson in persistence and pursuing your dreams. For those who like knowing more about the immigrant experience, this may be for you as well. Moss Hart may no longer be seen among the greatest of the greats in his profession, but his autobiography definitely is worth reading.

[Kellen Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

In all of the horrors, thrillers, mysteries that I'm bound to read over the years, I'm not sure I'll ever feel more suspense than I do during the final few chapters of this book, wondering if Moss and George will finally fix the the third act of their troubled play out-of-town. This is a book I come back to every few years, whenever I need a reminder of why theater is the most exciting business in the world. It always does the trick.