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Hart, Moss
Born: October 24, 1904, in New York, New York
Died: December 20, 1961, in Palm Springs, California
Literary Vocations: Playwright, Screenwriter

Geographic Connection to PA: Aquetong, Holicong, New Hope, Bucks County

Keywords: Broadway, George S. Kaufman, Pulitzer Prize, Bucks County Playhouse, James A. Michener Museum, My Fair Lady, Hollywood, Tony Awards

Abstract: Born in New York City on October 24, 1904, Moss Hart was a playwright most famous for his work with George S. Kaufman. The plays they produced were Broadway staples during the 1930s and early 1940s; You Can't Take It With You won the 1936 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Both Hart and Kaufman owned farms in Bucks County, where they would retreat to write. Hart also had success as a solo playwright, screenwriter, and director, before passing away in Palm Springs California on December 20, 1961.

Biography:

Moss Hart was born on October 24, 1904, in a tenement on 105th street in New York City to Barnett Hart and Lillie Solomon Hart. He married actress Kitty Carlisle on August 10, 1946, with whom he had two children, Christopher and Cathy.

Hart began his career as a playwright in 1924, working under traveling producer Gus Pitou. Hart's first comedy The Hold-up Man, which was re-titled The Beloved Bandit, was a flop, losing Pitou roughly $45,000 and Hart his job. Despite this early failure, Hart continued to write plays, though still without any commercial success, for several years. He worked as an actor and director until 1929, when one of his plays, Once in a Lifetime, caught the attention of Broadway producer Sam H. Harris, who paired Hart up with George S. Kaufman.

The greatest part of Hart's literary legacy is the collection of plays he wrote in collaboration with Kaufman. Once in a Lifetime was a great success, earning praise from critics during its two-year, 300-performance stint on Broadway. Their next play, Merrily We Roll Along, was also successful, but it paled in comparison to You Can't Take It With You, which won the 1936 Pulitzer Prize in Drama and ran for over 800 shows on Broadway. The latter years of their collaboration saw mixed success: 1937's I'd Rather Be Right, which satirized President Roosevelt's New Deal, and 1939's The Man Who Came to Dinner were both quite well-received by audiences and critics alike; however, The Fabulous Invalid and The American Way were not. Their final full-length collaboration was the unsuccessful George Washington Slept Here, a comedy set in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Though they remained good friends, after 1940 they no longer collaborated in a professional capacity.

Throughout their years of collaboration, Bucks County was a sanctuary for Hart and Kaufman. Hart would retreat to Fairview Farm—an 87-acre estate in Aquetong—which was just down the road from Kaufman's Barley Sheaf Farm in Holicong. While isolated and serene, these farms were not too far from New Hope, where the arts thrived during this period. The pair found Kaufman's residence, which earned the nickname Cherchez La Farm, to be a very suitable place to work, without the noise and distractions of the city. Also, the Bucks County Playhouse proved to be a good creative outlet for the duo. The theater ran "amateur" productions of Hart-Kaufman plays such as The Man Who Came to Dinner and George Washington Slept Here, which would often have the duo acting or directing. They were sometimes accompanied by Harpo Marx or other famous actors who frequented the New Hope area. In the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, there is a Kaufman-Hart room where the writers' connection to Bucks County is commemorated.

After his creative split with Kaufman in 1940, Hart broadened his professional horizons. He continued to write plays with moderate success—1941's Lady in the Dark was well-received critically and had a good run on Broadway. He also delved into screenwriting. He had tried his hand at the craft in the early 30s with some moderate success—Broadway Melody of 1936 had even earned him an Academy Award nomination—but he had not written a full screenplay since then. The bulk of his screenplays were adaptations of his stage plays, both Hart-Kaufman collaborations and solo efforts. He earned Writer's Guild nominations for Hans Christian Andersen in 1952 and for A Star is Born in 1954. Beyond his career as a writer, Hart also had success as a director. He won a Tony Award for his direction of My Fair Lady in 1956. His production, which featured Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison in the lead roles, ran for several years on Broadway and visited London.

Hart spent his latter years living with his wife and children in Palm Springs, California, where he wrote his autobiography, Act One. He died of a coronary on December 20, 1961, at the age of 57.

Works:

Plays with George S. Kaufman

Once in a Lifetime: A Comedy in Three Acts. New York: Samuel French, 1933.
Merrily We Roll Along. New York: Random House, 1934.
You Can't Take It with You: A Play. New York; Toronto: Farrar & Rinehart, 1937.
I'd Rather Be Right. New York: Random House, 1937.
The Man Who Came to Dinner. New York: Random House, 1939.
George Washington Slept Here: A Comedy in Three Acts. New York: Random House, 1940.

Plays

Lady in the Dark. New York: Random House, 1941.
Christopher Blake. New York: Random House, 1947.
The Climate of Eden: A Play. New York: Random House, 1953.

Screenplays

Broadway Melody of 1936. MGM, 1935.
Hans Christian Andersen. RKO, 1952.
A Star Is Born. Warner Bros., 1954.

Sources:

Atkinson, Brooks. Broadway. New York: Macmillan, 1970.
Bach, Steven. Dazzler: The Life and Times of Moss Hart. New York: Knopf, 2001.
"Moss Hart." The Gale Literary Database: Contemporary Authors. The Gale Group. Thomson Corporation. 2002. <www.galenet.com>.
Meredith, Scott. George S. Kaufman and His Friends. Garden City: Doubleday, 1974.
"The Arts in Bucks County." The James A. Michener Art Museum. November 2003. 15 December 2003. <http://www.michenerartmuseum.org/about/artsbucks.php>.

For More Information:

Bach, Steven. Dazzler: The Life and Times of Moss Hart. New York: Knopf, 2001.

Scudder, John Whitney. "Moss Hart." The Literary Map of Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Center for the Book. December 2003. <URL>