Arnold Gurtler chose Patricia Neal and Peter Cookson as the leads. Donald Woods was engaged to play the lead in the final play of the season, The Two Mrs. Carrolls, because of Peter Cookson’s prior commitment to play a leading role in the play Washington Square in New York. Woods was a favorite with Elitch audiences, having been the leading man in 1933, 1934, 1939 and 1941.
Patricia Neal came to Elitch from playing a season on Broadway as Regina in Lillian Hellman’s hit play, Another Part of the Forest. Her performance in that role earned her numerous awards. The New York drama critics selected her as one of the “most promising young actresses,” and Look Magazine called her the year’s “most promising newcomer.” She was also awarded one of the Antoinette Perry Memorial Awards by the New York Theater Wing. She was reported to have turned down a $50,000 movie contract to play at Elitch.
[Borrillo, Theodore A., (2012). Denver’s historic Elitch Theatre : a nostalgic journey (a history of its times). pp. 210.]
Prior to her appearance at Elitch, Patricia Neal had fallen in love with the ty five-year-old actor Victor Jory. She had met him at an actors’ benefit where he a performed. They were attracted to one another. Notwithstanding his being married they soon began dating.
At Elitch, her leading man was Peter Cookson. He had appeared on Bro Y and was considered a promising young actor. He was thirty-four and strikingly handsome.
Upon her first glimpse of Cookson, Patricia knew immediately her affair with Victor Jory was over. Within days, Patricia contacted Jory in California and broke off their romance, her sights Cookson – who was married and had two children.
Cookson’s marriage was on the rocks. He and his wife, Maureen, had separated that spring, and that summer they were attempting a reconciliation, taking a house along with their two children in Denver. That effort was doomed once Cookson met his young and beautiful leading lady.
When Maureen learned about her husband’s affair with Patricia Neal, she left him. In a biography of her life published in 2006, Patricia Neal recalled with shame the horrible scene when Maureen and the children left Denver, about midway through the summer season. She stated that “It was the only time in my life that I wrecked a marriage, but in those days I had no conscience.”
Following the season at Elitch, Patricia and Cookson spent time together in New York and joined the Actors Studio, which trained actors in the style later to become known as “method” acting. Patricia later received a contract offer from Warner Brothers which she accepted and arranged to go to California to sign the contract and to prepare for work on her first film.
Peter Cookson was committed to the run of a play and could not accompany her. Their affair had begun to wane already, as Cookson had grown melancholy over the separation from his children. Still, the farewell at Grand Central Station the second week of December 1947 was a tearful one.
In Hollywood, Patricia was invited to various functions around Hollywood and soon was surrounded by new friends.
At the same time, Patricia and Peter Cookson’s relationship was more than strained. It was only then when he notified her that he was divorcing his wife that Patricia knew she couldn’t put off the inevitable. She wrote a letter telling him, “I am sorry, Peter, I really am, but it’s not right and we’re not right.” He never responded.
[Borrillo, Theodore A., (2012). Denver’s historic Elitch Theatre : a nostalgic journey (a history of its times). pp. 211.]
Seasons at the Theatre
- 1947
Elitch Theatre Productions/Roles:
Notable Roles, Awards, and Other Work:
Elitch Theatre Connections:
- Patricia Neal appeared with alumna, Anne Kimbell, in A Roomful of Roses.
Wikipedia Link:
