AS UNSEEN ON TV: - SCHULTZ, O'NEILL, AND HEMINGWAY

'MURDER, SHE WROTE'
"FOR WHOM THE BALL TOLLS"

The setting:
Nolan Wash's pub on the lower East Side

The Gillrich Brothers were intent on knocking down three brownstones to build a more modern complex, and Nolan's pub would be included in the rubble.  Homicide ensues.

In hoping to stop the juggernaut of the bullzdozers, Jessica Fletcher did some research.  It turned out that the table picture above was where Eugene O'Neill did the rewrites for his play "Strange Interlude".

From Wikipedia:
"Strange Interlude" is an experimental play in nine acts by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. O'Neill finished it in 1923, but it was not produced on Broadway until 1928, when it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Lynn Fontanne originated the central role of Nina Leeds on Broadway. It was also produced in London at the Lyric Theatre in 1931. It was included in Burns Mantle's The Best Plays of 1927-1928. Because of its length, around five hours if uncut, the play has sometimes been produced with a dinner break or on consecutive evenings. The play's subject matter, very controversial for the 1920s, led to it being censored or banned in many cities outside New York.

"Strange Interlude" makes extensive use of a soliloquy technique, in which the characters speak their inner thoughts to the audience.

So I figure that O'Neill returned to the rewrites of the play at that table at some point in those intervening five years between the first draft and its Broadway debut.  Since the pub used to be a speakeasy during the Prohibition years, which ran from 1920 to 1933, then the televersion of O'Neill was basically breaking the law by frequenting the speakeasy to rewrite the play.

Because of Mrs. Fletcher's research, I don't think that table was placed on that exact spot when O'Neill was scribbling away.   That's because the table was situated where Dutch Schultz once had his office.

From Wikipedia:

Dutch Schultz (born Arthur Simon Flegenheimer; August 6, 1901 – October 24, 1935) was a New York City-area Jewish-American mobster of the 1920s and 1930s who made his fortune in organized crime-related activities, including bootlegging and the numbers racket. Weakened by two tax evasion trials led by prosecutor Thomas Dewey, Schultz's rackets were also threatened by fellow mobster Lucky Luciano. In an attempt to avert his conviction, Schultz asked the Commission for permission to kill Dewey, which they refused. When Schultz disobeyed them and made an attempt to kill Dewey, the Commission ordered his murder in 1935.

And to top it all off, JB pointed out that Ernest Hemingway kept the apartment on the top floor.  This was not Jessica's first encounter with the legacy of Hemingway.  She also once saw the cork from a bottle of wine polished off by the writer which was a treasured souvenir for the bartender who once served Papa Hemingway.

One last time, from Wikipedia:
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works. Additional works, including three novels, four short story collections, and three non-fiction works, were published posthumously. Many of his works are considered classics of American literature.

I think Jessica was gulled by an urban myth about Hemingway actually living in New York City.  At best, he and his wife Hadley visited the Big Apple on a few occasions, probably to meet with his publisher.  And it could be he was given the use of that apartment during his stays, somewhere near Broad and Wall Street.  

But by October of 1923, as he told Gertrude Stein in a letter back to the Paris he missed, Hemingway had already made up his mind about New York City: "Wouldn’t live in it for anything."

Due to the events which played out in the episode, I think that pub, a bastion of American culture was probably spared the wrecking ball since the main developer's heart was no longer in the project.

BCnU!