What amazed the audience, it can be gleaned from lobby talk, is that Mr. Power is an engaging, compelling actor with a magnificent voice who has no trouble keeping up with those old stage hands, Judith Anderson and Raymond Massey.

Mr. Power takes things lightly including himself, so he describes this public surprise as a natural consequence of his coming to New York accompanied by "the monster." The explanation was delivered by the actor, looking exactly as handsome as he does on the screen, but more rugged and not so glossy, in his apartment in a hotel bordering on Central Park. There was a protesting squeal from behind a closed door as he mentioned "the monster," but it developed that it came from his 17-month old daughter, whose picture on the mantelpiece indicated there was nothing monstrous about her. Then a slender young woman tripped into the room, and she could not pass for a monster either, she was his wife, the actress, Linda Christian.

The 'Monster'

"Let me explain about the monster," Mr. Power said. "When Charles Laughton, who directed us, talked with me about the way in which we should begin each performance, he said that we had to do something at the outset to get rid of the monster. 'When you come out on the stage,' he said, 'you will be the fellow who is going to recite some stirring lines and portray some interesting characters in Benet's very much admired literary work. But you will also be the monster made up of al the characters you have played on the screen. Many people will come to see that monster. You must go out there an dispose of him with a little speech which demonstrates that you can talk and breathe and move, and then you must draw the people along to an interest in the story we are going to tell.'"

The actor went on to another aspect of his film reputation when the interviewer confessed that he had felt, before seeing "John Brown's Body," some antagonism against Mr. Power simply because he has played so many glamorized characters on the screen. "I often run into that feeling," the actor said. "If I ever get psychoanalyzed it will be found that half the things I do are to try to compensate for reactions like that in people I meet. For instance, I drive my wife crazy insisting that we have to be absolutely punctual about things, I hate to have anyone put out in any way by us."

Mr. Power drew in a contented breath. "Anyhow," he said, I am happy to be here playing this really good thing, what d'you call it, play, recital, reading (?) on the Broadway stage. Have you noticed how deathly quiet the audience is? I come back from the theatre after every performance feeling fine and satisfied because I can feel we've gripped the audience and given them something that touched them deeply. That is a reaction such as doesn't come to you when you're making a picture."

Was it to get this reaction that Mr. Power left his comfortable home grounds in Hollywood and took on the exacting chores of Broadway? "The answer to why I am here," he said, "is exactly the same as the young girl gave when queried about why she married: 'Someone asked me.'"

Amplifying this, Mr. Power said that he had got into a rut in sixteen years of Hollywood acting. "You go to the same studio every morning. You get the same kind of part. The costume will be different and the leading lady different, but you find it hard to get much more of a change than that. When Charles Laughton asked me to do this I'd have gone through almost anything to accept. Fortunately for me, and unlike some other people I know who want to do the same thing, I had not contract to keep me from accepting. The only thing I had to worry about [was playing with Judith Anderson and Raymond Massey because there is an inevitable comparison when you play with actors [of the high caliber as they] are."

He is delighted with the approval of the critics. "When [you have] the supreme confidence of an [actor] and particularly an Irish actor I was not altogether surprised," he said. "But then again maybe I had my misgivings." He was reminded that he had successfully played the title role of "Mister Roberts" in London for six months in 1950, the last time he could steal away from the movies, but he dismissed that with a smack of his right fist into his left palm. "Nothing like bringing this on into New York," he said.

An Ambition

Among the critical notices have been opinions that Mr. Power had the looks and the voice and intensity to play heroic roles in the manner of Sir Laurence Oliver. "I'd be very much interested in getting a play that would revive what might be called the romantic theatre," he commented. "Not romantic in the sense of a romance with a woman. But do you remember the great parts John Barrymore played, that kind of theatre made a great impression on me." (Mr. Power, born 38 years ago in Cincinnati, saw something of the New York stage in his youth when his father, also Tyrone Power, acted here.)

The romantic tradition is not exactly the vogue today, Mr. Power said satirically, and mentioned several noted plays in which the hero is one sort of weakling or another, roles in which one could hardly visualize the strong, well favored, self-assured star. Yet he thinks good plays are still to be written in the older tradition which he likes, and he yearns to play them on Broadway. Talking about this, he seemed to get lost in his won thoughts and he said absently, "There's no security in the bank, the only security for an actor is using his talent."

When the actor started on a light supper, preparatory to the evening use of his talent, the interviewer left. Outside the hotel a squad of young ladies equipped with autograph books stood guard—another incarnation of the monster traveling with Tyrone Power.

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Choral Group Signed

Paul Gregory has signed the Walter Schumann Choral Group for "John Brown's Body," the adaptation Charles Laughton of the Stephen Vincent Benet work which will go into rehearsal soon. Tyrone Power, Judith Anderson and Raymond Massey will have the leading roles in the production. Mrs. Schumann will direct music and effects.

September 30, 1952
Raymond Massey Returned

Raymond Massey and his wife returned yesterday from the England aboard the Queen Elizabeth. The stage and screen actor was elated over the favorable reception accorded his first play, "The Hanging Judge," a dramatization of Bruce Hamilton's mystery novel of the same name. the play opened last Tuesday in London.

Asked if he would write others, Mr. Massey replied: "That's what I’d like to do more than anything else in the world." He said that he would like to start work on a new play with a Canadian setting after he completes his forthcoming tour with Judith Anderson and Tyrone Power in "John Brown's Body." The tour, opening early in November in Santa Barbara, Calif., will cover 36 cities in ten weeks.

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October 17, 1952

Apparently, Paul Gregory is devoting himself exclusively to the dramatic type of reading inspired by the phenomenal success of "Don Juan in Hell." And he is developing this rediscovered branch of the entertainment media to the hilt.

His next offering here presumably will be "John Brown's Body," Stephen Benet's epic poem as adapted and staged by Charles Laughton. The slight reservation concerning its arrival on Feb. 10, probably at the Century , stems from the fact that Tyrone Power, who will appear with Judith Anderson and Raymond Massey, is tied to a film commitment that may compel him to go back to Hollywood on Feb. 3. Interpreting no less than 19 characters, the trio will be supported by a singing and speaking chorus of twenty, trained by Walter Schumann. Oct. 30 will mark the first break in performance in Beverly Hills. A few more of that variety will follow before the tour starts in earnest Nov. 7 in Salt Lake City.

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BENET EPIC STAGED; "John Browns Body" Put On at Santa Barbara Theatre
New York Times, Nov. 2, 1952

SANTA BARBARA CALIF., Nov. 2. "John Brown's Body," based on the epic poem of Stephen Vincent Benet, had its premiere presentation by Paul Gregory Saturday night before an audience that packed Santa Barbara's historic Lobero Theatre.

Mr. Benet's 336 page epic poem was adapted and directed by Charles Laughton. Tyrone Power, Judith Anderson and Raymond Massey, who were co-starred, received personal ovations from an audience that included many Hollywood actors and directors.

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JOHN BROWN'S BODY GIVEN
Stage Version of Poem Bows With All-Star Cast in White Plains
December 16, 1952

WHITE PLAINS, NY, Dec. 15. the new presentation of Stephen Vincent Benet's "John Brown's Body," arranged for the stage and directed by Charles Laughton as a sequel to last season's "Don Juan in Hell," received its premiere in the New York area here tonight at the R.K. O. Keith Theatre.

The capacity audience of 3,000 included several New York theatrical producers, managers and writers. As a poem translated into theatrical form, the "new dimension" show had music and dance, but neither costumes nor scenery. Tyrone Power presented the "romantic viewpoint," speaking in the roles of five men. Judith Anderson was cast in the roles of seven women. Raymond Massey gave the "mature viewpoint" handling the roles of five men. The Walter Schumann chorus of twenty persons provided music, sound effects and atmosphere.

The show, presented here under the Olney management, opened Nov. 1 in Santa Barbara, Calif. It is the second presentation of its kind produced by Paul Gregory.

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BENET'S EPIC POEM BOOKED AT CENTURY
John Brown's Body will Open Feb. 14. with Miss Anderson, Massey and Power
December 24, 1952
Sam Zolotow

In the medium that proved highly effective because of its simplicity with "Don Juan in Hell," Tyrone Power, Judith Anderson and Raymond Massey will be starred in "John Brown's Body," arriving Feb. 14 at the Century under the auspices of Paul Gregory, sponsor of "Don Juan."

The production will dispense with scenery and will feature Walter Schumann's choral group. Told in narrative form, the epic poem of the civil War by Stephen Vincent Benet was staged and adapted by Charles Laughton, who demonstrated his dexterity as the director of “Don Juan."

The arrival of "John Brown's Body" indicates that Rosalind Russell's impending musical, "Wonderful Town," previously announced to open at the Century Feb. 25, will get another house, probably the Winter Garden.

Through Paul Vroom, general manager of "My Darlin' Aida" the manager of "My Darlin' Aida," the Winter Garden's present tenant, Producer Robert L. Joseph has sent word that "if we show straight after the pre-holiday slump, we'll remain right where we are."

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January 9, 1953
COAST CITES 'FOUR POSTER'
San Francisco Critics Call It Best Play There in 1952

San Francisco, Jan. 8. the San Francisco Drama Critics Council today named "The Four Poster" with Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn, as the best play presented here during 1952. Runner-ups were "Darkness at Noon" and "The Lady's Not for Burning."

Victor Moore was chosen as the best actor of the year appearing locally for his work in a revival of Paul Osborn's "On Borrowed Time," and Maureen Stapleton was cited as the best actress for her performance as the Sicilian America wife in Tennessee Williams' "The Rose Tattoo." The Danny Kay Variety Show and Paul Gregory's production of "John Brown's Body" were named as the tope special stage events of the year. The reading of the Stephen Vincent Benet work was Raymond Massey, Judith Anderson and Tyrone Power, preceding a national tour.

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FUND FOR SCHOOL WILL GAIN FEB. 24
Performance of 'John Brown's Body' to aid Masters 75th Anniversary Campaign
January 16, 1953

The Master's School 75th anniversary campaign fund will be the beneficiary of the performance of "John Brown's Body." by Stephen Vincent Benet starring Judith Anderson, Raymond Massey and Tyrone Power, on the night of Feb. 24th at the Century Theatre, which has been taken over by members of the Dobbs Alumnae Association, New York branch. Mrs. Newbold Herrick heads the benefit committee and Mrs. William S. Norton is co-chairman Members of the Alumnae Association of the Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., have formed committees in the branches of the association in all parts of the country to raise funds for the fund, which will be used for a new building at the school aid for students and the teaching fund. Tickets for the performance can be obtained from Mrs. Allen M. Look at 178 East 80th St…"

February 1, 1953
CIVIL WAR DRAMA ARRIVES TONIGHT
Century Gets Laughton's 'John Brown's Body,' With Power, Massey and Anderson
By J. P. Shanley

"John Brown's Body" a dramatization by Charles Laughton of the poem by Stephen Vincent Benet about the Civil War years, will open at 8:30 this evening at the Century Theatre under the sponsorship of Paul Gregory. Tyrone Power Judith Anderson and Raymond Massey, who are co-starred, will do a series of characterizations in the production.

Mr. Laughton has directed the presentation. Music and effects have been provided y Walter Schumann. The cast included Mr. Schumann’s 20 voice choral group. Before coming here, the attraction made a tour of sixty cities, starting in Santa Barbara, Calif. On Nov. Last season Mr. Gregory sponsored the First Gregory sponsored the First Drama Quartette in Bernard Shaw's "Don Juan in Hell."

March 16, 1953
Anne Baxter to Join Tour < br>Anne Baxter, Academy Award winner is the latest Hollywood film personally to decide to return to the stage, a medium from which she has been missing for more than a decade.

She will co-star with Tyrone Power and Raymond Massey in the third national tour of Stephen Vincent Benet's "John Brown's Body," which racked up generous box office receipts for Paul Gregory, producer of the attraction on the road and on Broadway last season. Miss Baxter will take over the part originally filled by Judith Anderson.

At the moment, the film actress is appearing before the cameras in Berlin as the star of RKO's "Carnival." When she is through with that assignment, she will confer with Charles Laughton, director of the Benet work, in England. Then, home in preparation for the 20 week tour, which is said to be solidly booked beginning Sept. 20 in Los Angeles. Miss Baxter last appeared on the New York stage in "Madam Capet," presented in 1938.

New York Herald Tribune
New 'Drama Quartet Out with "John Brown's Body"
They'll Tour the Land As 'Don Juan' Did
By Helen Gould
November 1, 1953

Hollywood, Nov. 1. Paul Gregory, the thirty-one-year old entrepreneur who caused a nationwide sensation with his First Drama Quartette reading Shaw's "Don Juan in Hell," is about to launch a second, and equally unusual, project. On Nov. 12 his new drama group will set out to conquer the provinces with Stephen Vincent Benet's "John Brown's Body."

Tyrone Power, Raymond Massey, Judith Anderson and the Walter Schumann choral group comprise the new "quartet." They will cover seventy, seven cities in ten weeks, a feat made possible by matinees, Gregory says, on a route which retraces exactly that of the original quartet, consisting of Charles Laughton, Charles Boyer, Cedric Hardwicke and Agnes Moorehead.

"We will play New York when we see what we have," Gregory said, but he is not intimidated at producing such an unlikely vehicle as Benet's poem. "It has never been done, or if it has, certainly not successfully," he admits. But the timing is fortuitous, he believes, "there is a basic psychology in taking out the 'John Brown's Body' in the Presidential year, when people are very conscious of their heritage.

"This work concerns itself principally with America. 'John Brown's Body' came out of the soil, and it is time the American people know where they came from," says Gregory. "It is like witnessing a moment of birth, when the time has come and nothing can stop it. Benet caught the exact moment when all the elements converged to make America what it is, good and bad. For a moment you put your ear to the ground and hear the [grass] growing. These are thing basic things of America, not the tangible things like the fastest cars or the tallest buildings or the biggest oranges. It is all the things that made America great."

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Laughton Directs

Directed and edited by Charles Laughton, the production is a pure version of Benet. Not one word has been added, but it has been cut to two hours.

Tyrone Power will be the romantic voice of John Brown and America; Raymond Massey, the historic and political voice, and Judith Anderson as the feminine voice. The fourth member is the Schumann choral group of twenty. New songs supplement the spoken word, in that through them you can hear sounds like the wind in the trees.

These are the sole drama elements [__]. Without a set or props, he has formed a frame of an empty stage for the narrative poem.

Laughton was careful not to duplicate any of the devices of "Don Juan in Hell," which he also directed. It had to be as different as the subject matter, yet live up to the standards set for it. It dispenses with the scripts (used as props by the Drama Quartet), the lecterns and the stools.

The new quartet, like the one before it, will travel by private Pullman car and make connections as they can be obtained. They will occasionally play a matinee in one place and then go perhaps sixty miles to make the evening performance in another.

In Salt Lake City, where they tee off, they are booked for six performances at Kingsbury Hall, which seats 2,000. It is by now an axiom that a Gregory production is booked into the largest space at hand; often one has to be improvised, which means using revival tents and even playing the village green. The vast audience Gregory has discovered, drama-hungry in the hinterlands, are primed for his tours. "They make a date with themselves ten months in advance," he says, and the tour virtually sells out when it is announced.

Gregory's enthusiasm for these unusual ventures exerts a mesmeric quality on others. Raymond Massey rushed back for rehearsals for "John Brown's Body" from London, without even waiting for the West End premiere of "The Hanging Judge," which marked his debut as a playwright. He, Tyrone Power and Judith Anderson, accustomed to the comforts of star status, are eager to brave the uncertainties of one night stands and the makeshift accommodation of tank towards the audiences they [will encounter] approach to the theater is the most exciting thing that's happened in my acting experience. From listening to people talk who have seen 'Don Juan in Hell,' it is not true that people do not enjoy being stimulated into thinking. Every one who sits in the audience feels that a tremendous compliment is being paid to him. That's one reason they are so stimulated. If you sit and talk to someone who has a great deal to say, somehow you extend yourself mentally, too."

Fifty Years of Material

As for Gregory, he feels that "nothing is a failure if you want to do it. If I didn't do 'John Brown's Body' I couldn't do anything else. I kept at Laughton for two years about it." He claims that "there is fifty years of material to sustain us." He himself has just finished directing "Elsa Lancaster's Private Music Hall," another show for the road, in which Miss Lancaster sets out to follow the success of her husband, Charles Laughton.

There are fifty television shows of Laughton readings to be filmed soon. And Gregory has also purchased the court martial scene from Herman Wouk's Pulitzer Prize novel, "The Caine Mutiny."

Even invading the South holds no fear for Gregory. Contrary to "John Brown's Body" would meet resistance there he expects "great success in the South—some of our heaviest bookings are there. And anyway, Benet was not anti-South; he loved it. Many Southern universities are breathing down my neck with excitement. This is only natural, since about half of our appearances are under the educational auspices such as these universities."

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It's a Different Power in 'John Brown's Body'
Robert Wahls

Sir Gladwyn Jebb, Britain's United Nations delegate, was backstage at the Century Theatre the other night. He was telling Tyrone Power that he really ought to take "John Brown's Body" to London.

"He felt the British didn't know enough about American history and America aspirations," Ty says. "He thought they'd seen too many American movies of a highly romantic nature."

Curiously enough, seeing Tyrone Power movies does not prepare you for the expert and authoritative performance he is giving in Stephen Vincent Benet's story of the Civil War.

Ty Takes Himself, Career Seriously

And by the same token, you're ill-prepared to sit down and talk shop with this intelligent performer who takes himself and his career so seriously. You have to keep remembering you're not chatting with "The Prince of Foxes" or "An American Guerrilla in the Philippines."

"I've been exposed to a new batch of Americans," Power was saying of his 80-city, prior-to Manhattan tour with "John Brown's Body." "We've been from Brooklyn to Santa Barbara, California and Richmond to Ironwood, Mich.

"Many of them haven't seen a Tyrone Power since my father toured the country. They'd never seen a movie of mine, particularly in college towns and academic circles."

"They come because they love Benet's poetry and, I'm happy to say, many of them come backstage and ask me the name of my next picture because they don't want to miss it."

As far as that goes, Broadway hasn't seen anything but the shadow of Tyrone Power since 1935, when he spent two seasons with Katharine Cornell in "Romeo and Juliet" and Shaw's "St. Joan." He'd just arrived from Cincinnati to make good as an actor.

"I got that first job because the cardboard in my shoes wasn't keeping the January slush out," Power recalls. "You always had to wait hours at the Cornell office. So, I decided I might as well go there and dry out."

Power emerged high and dry. He had his first job as understudy to Burgess Meredith in Miss Cornell's production of "Flowers of the Forest." It led to others in the classic revivals.

A six-footer with a heavy black beard, which even a clean shave can't erase, Power isn't as pretty in life as he is in Technicolor. His face seems much stronger.

"The only time I ever acted with my father," Power was recalling, "was when I was 8 and in California with my mother. I was an Indian kid in the California 'Mission Play.' Dad was Father Junipero Sierra, the star."

Back in Cincinnati, where his aunt ran a drama school and his mother, Patia Power, was a voice coach, Power ushered at the Grand and the Orpheum Theatres, even played bits with the Stuart Walker stock company.

Since 1936, as you know, he's been a main asset at 20th Century Fox with just two stage jobs. He played "Liliom" at Westport, Conn., with ex-wife Annabella, and did six months of "Mr. Roberts" in London two years ago.

And where was his wife, Linda Christian?

"She's in the next room with her sister an dour daughter," Ty reported. "We're expecting a second youngster."

He says his main difficulty on the road was having a clean dress shirt every night. He hurdled the shirt-stud-loss problem by wearing soft fronts and button.

He has two pictures to make this Summer, another tour with "John Brown's Body" and another summer film in 1954.

He’d like to alternate between stage and movies.

After all, it took the stage to get him out of doublet and hose and into a dinner jacket. And that's something he's been bucking for at 20th Century Fox ever since he was mustered out of the Marines.

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New York Herald Tribune
Summer Tour Set for Tyrone Power
To Give Reading of Benet Poem 'John Brown's Body'
March 12, 1953

Hollywood, Calif., March 12. Tyrone Power will take to the road this summer, covering seventy-seven towns from Maine to California, reading Stephen Vincent Benet's narrative poem "John Brown's Body," on tour which will not include a Broadway stand. Norman Corwin is adapting the poem and is joining Charles Laughton in staging the production for Paul Gregory Associates. Raymond Massey is being sought for the role of Lincoln.

This show is the first of three Mr. Gregory expects to have on the road within eighteen months as a follow-up to his successful First Drama Quartet reading of "Don Juan in Hell" and the recent "Bible and Classic" readings of Charles Laughton. "Caesar's Circus," probably starring James Mason as Brutus and Basil Rathbone as Cassius, will follow Mr. Power's troupe.

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March 25, 1953
"John Brown's Body," in which Tyrone Power Judith Anderson and Raymond Massey are appearing will wind up its stand at the Century on April 11. On the Century on April 11. On that date, the "reading" presentation, adapted and staged by Charles Laughton, will have been performed 65 times here. Sponsor Paul Gregory is planning to send the attraction on a cross-country tour next season.

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Power Going 'Long-Hair'
Will Tour the Country Reading 'John Brown's Body': 'It's a Challenge'
By Aline Mosby

Hollywood, May 27 [1953] Tyrone Power, handsome screen lover, said today he's temporarily giving up his movie romancing to read a long-hair classic around the country.

Ty is known primarily to film fans as a heavy-browed leading man and the owner of a nearly nude statue of his shapely wife, Linda Christian.

But impresario Paul Gregory, who launched Charles Laughton’s "Readings" and the famed "Drama Quartet," thought Power had a grit reading voice.

So Gregory signed the actor to read the classic, "John Brown's Body," in auditoriums, armories, arenas and concert halls in 74 cities next fall.

"I hope audiences will be surprised," says Power. "It's a little different view of me for them. It’s a great challenge."

Raymond Massey will play Abraham Lincoln in the famous story. Two choruses, one speaking and one singing, will help in the reading with Power serving as narrator and conductor.

Theatre starved citizens of small towns are so excited about "John Brown's Body" as they were when the Drama Quartet, Laughton, Agnes Moorehead, Sir Cedric Hardwicke and Charles Boyer, read George Bernard Shaw on tour.

"Power's first engagement isn't until November 1, but already the towns are writing for pictures of the chorus," says Gregory.

The impresario picked Power "because I saw him do a good job with a long speech in a movie once." Other stars have asked Gregory to hire them since he originated Laughton’s successful reading tour.

The Drama Quartet alone has grossed more than five million dollars, and begins its fifth tour next fall.

"Shelley Winters wants to read something for me," says Gregory, who at 31 has reaped a fortune from the tours.

"Helen Hayes, Greer Garson, Ronald Colman and James Mason are interested, too. I already have something lined up for Mason."

"Picture stars are interested because they have almost as much movies. And the tour is guaranteed, unlike a gamble on a Broadway play.

"It's a safe way to do something they enjoy."

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