Patricia Neal: An Unquiet Life

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41 4 Stock Honestly, I don’t want to get pushed ahead too fast. I am of the mind that one can’t be a good actress until the middle 30s. Before, one is merely trying. —Patricia Neal, 1948 Suddenly, Patricia Neal was news. Another Part of the Forest played to modest audiences throughout December. By January the talk around New York had focused on Patricia’s performance. There were newspaper features about her and Jean Hagen’s friendship dating back to their Northwestern days. Requests for publicity pictures and invitations to important functions kept the young actress busy. Upon seeing Patricia on the street around this time, one young actor recalled, “She was such an impressive person. This big, beautiful girl striding down the street, her chin out from Broadway to Shubert Alley. She was just so beautiful, so healthy, so had-it-all-made.”1 But Patricia didn’t see her height (five feet, eight inches) as an asset. Gloria Stroock, daughter of costumer James Stroock, recalls a heart-to-heart conversation they had after a double date. “Patricia’s name was in lights by now in Forest on Broadway,” Gloria recalled. “When our dates had left, Patricia said to me how lucky she thought I was. This really amazed me as she was so beautiful and successful and in demand. When I asked her why she would think that, Patricia remarked, ‘Because you look so good sitting on the lap of a guy.’”2 Patricia soon found herself falling dangerously in love with the married man, forty-five-year-old Canadian-born film actor Victor Jory. She met Jory when she went backstage to congratulate him after a performance at an actors ’ benefit. Their attraction was immediate. Even though Jory was married and the father of two, he and Patricia were soon dating. Surprisingly, they were never an item in the New York papers. Her relationship with Jory wasn’t her first romantic entanglement in New Facing page: Patricia Neal, 1947. Courtesy of the Barter Theatre, from the author’s collection. Shearer฀book.indb฀฀฀41 3/16/2006฀฀฀12:14:20฀PM 42 Patricia Neal: An Unquiet Life York. When Patricia was still an understudy in The Voice of the Turtle, she fell in love with a young medical intern. The affair came to an end when the young man disclosed that he had gotten married to a woman his family believed would help advance his career. Later Patricia was involved with a young actor, Bruce Hall (later Kim Stanley’s first husband), another relationship that went nowhere. One evening, Tallulah Bankhead attended a performance of Another Part of the Forest. As soon as the curtain came down, the legendary actress quickly forged backstage to congratulate Patricia. Exclaimed Bankhead to Patricia (and the waiting press), “You are as good as I am! And, dahhling, if I only called you half as good as I am, it would be a hell of a compliment!”3 With Tallulah Bankhead’s blessing, Patricia Neal had arrived. In January 1947 Look magazine began an avalanche of accolades by picking Patricia as its Top Stage Newcomer of 1947. “A beauty who is also talented is unusual,” said the article. “Patricia Neal is beautiful and an excellent actress. But more than this, she has an inner quality that can turn a play into an event.” When the February 3 issue of Life magazine hit the stands, it carried a photograph of Patricia on its cover and the headline, “Three Broadway Actresses”; inside was a four-page photo layout featuring Patricia Kirkland, Susan Douglas, and Patricia Neal, along with other Broadway players. Of the group, only Patricia would enjoy sustained success. After Another Part of the Forest played its hundredth performance in February, qualifying it as a bona fide hit, the spate of publicity continued. Write-ups quickly followed about Patricia and the play in Harper’s Bazaar, Charm, Junior Bazaar, and Redbook. Photographs of Patricia soon appeared in such publications as Newsweek and Click. Vogue did a photo shoot with her and fellow cast member Leo Genn. In quick succession she was awarded Billboard’s fourth annual Donaldson Award for Best Debut Performance by an Actress of the 1946–1947 season , Time picked her as the Most Promising Actress of Last Year, and Daniel Blum gave her the 1947 Theatre World Award. The New York Drama Critics Circle gave Patricia its Most Promising Young Actress Award; she had also been nominated...