Customer Reviews

Design for Living: Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne

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4 star:		(1)
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2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne were the greatest star couple of the American theater of the 20th century, probably of all time. Their careers span over a half century and they were beloved within their industry for their great kindness, outgoing friendliness, and awesome talent. Their private lives were quiet, scandal-free, and they seem the least possible of celebrities to write a tawdry book about which doesn't stop Ms. Margot Peters. The heart, if you can call it a heart, of this book is that this legendarily devoted couple were in fact both homosexuals and theirs was an "arranged" marriage. This is old gossip, the type that almost 100 percent of actors who make any sort of name for themselves in show business receives. Peters fails to even name a single same-sex lover of either star but doesn't stop her from pushing this theme. Among her sources: One critic overhears some teenaged bimbo in the 1950's, looking at a theater poster, saying Alfred likes guys and Lynn likes girls. Ms. Peters writes of this incident as if it was a source!! The Lunts had scores of friends, many of them gay, yet Peters cannot find a single person in the loop who acknowledges they were gay. Indeed, Ms. Peters makes the worst sort of homophobic comment when noting their gay friends as some sort of evidence this makes the Lunts gay as if straight people couldn't possibly befriend homosexuals. Nor does she acknowledge it was not really necessarily for a theater star to pretend to be straight in that era when several gay stars (among them Eva La Gallienne and the Lunts' great friend Noel Coward) were able to live in peace since the general public was not as interested in the private lives of theater greats as they were in movie stars. (And Coward's private diaries suggest nothing of any secret life going on with the Lunts which he certainly would have written about there given his other indiscreet remarks on celebrities.) Certainly if the Lunts were gay, wouldn't they spend at least some degree of their time off having romances which could have been carried off with ease, yet they were basically joined at the hip, their devotion as legendary as their talent. Reading some of Peters' comments one can reason she herself doesn't completely believe they were gay but she is not about to let that rumor go since it's a good publicity angle for the book.

And then there's the curious discreet hostility Peters has for Fontanne, yet she can come up with nothing to base this criticism like a rude diva-like personality or anything. Lunt is clearly her favorite of the duo. Worse is Peters constant arm chair psychology, following quotes by the actors with her intrepretation of what they "really" mean.

The Lunts left tragically little recorded work of their talents and sadly their legend grows a little dimmer each year. What a shame Margot Peters has chosen to taken a tabloidish spin on the private lives of two artists the likes of which the theater will likely never see again.

I just finished this book and am fascinated with "The Lunts" and their legacy. I too thought this book was innappropriate regarding the speculations on their intimate lives. No one will ever know this information and to write rumors about them in a biography is a bit irresponsible. Just because they had many gay friends means nothing. If you want to read a tabloid, this is your book and I have to admit that it is a page turner. I also agree with the previous review, that "The Fabulous Lunts" is probably a much better representation of them from a professional standpoint and that Peters favored Alfred in her writing which I think is too bad since they considered themselves a team and should be treated that way by anyone portraying their lives together. I suggest taking a visit to "Ten Chimney's" if you really want to get to know "The Lunts". It is a most charming place and you still feel their magical presence. It is a very memorable experience.

Never having seen Alfred Lunt & Lynn Fontanne onstage, I, like the author, Margot Peters, cannot explain what made them exceptional. Ms. Peters, whose previous book, "The House of Barrymore", is a fascinating and definitive biography of the great theatrical siblings, Ethel, Lionel and John Barrymore, disappointed this reader with her dual portrait of the Lunts.
The author thoroughly documents their triumphs, tours, friendships and quirks, yet their theatrical charm and power eludes her pen and is never found on the page.

Unlike in the previously mentioned bio, here she simply cannot capture the vitality of the times, places and people she is writing about throughout this volume. The author might have checked with Shakespeare for more insight into the truth about actors on the stage: "These our actors,/ As I foretold you, were all spirits, and/ Are melted into air, into thin air...".

I guess you had to be there during Broadway's great years to understand their alchemy.

I have to echo the comments made by some of the other customer reviewers. Although this book moves along at a more sprightly pace than The Fabulous Lunts, unfortunately Design for Living makes detours into innuendo and sensationalism. All allegations unfounded. It was as if Ms. Peters thought Lynn and Alfred were not interesting or accomplished enough to write about without throwing some salacious gossip about their sex lives! Too bad.

I have given this book three stars. It is a fun interesting read in the way these two shared their art, practiced their craft, amazed theater crowds and fellow actors and went home every night for over 50 years and slept in the same bed. but then the dirt with no name starts. He sleeps with men, she sleeps with women. How do we know this? Well someone once heard someone saying it in front of a theater putting on one of their plays. Shame on the writer for even adding this. Oh and let us not forget that even though the writer can find NO ONE of the same sex that had affairs with them she does have one piece of evidence...The Lunts had gay friends!?! In the arts? I am shocked! My husband and I are both in the arts and also have gay friends. To the best of my knowledge no one has ever accused them of being straight.

The biography was not about this famous couple as real people; rather it was a recitation of their newspaper reviews for each production. I have been to their home and taking the tour brought me firmly into their world. Reading this book did not.

DESIGN FOR LIVING is a biography of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, extremely popular husband and wife stage actors in the first half of the 20th century. Author Margot Peters provides, in exhaustive detail, the histories of the Lunts many successful stage productions, mostly by now underremembered writers like Noel Coward and Robert Sherwood. Throughout their careers, the Lunts enjoyed good reviews from New York critics but were often chastised for choosing inferior plays. Even though I enjoyed learning about the Lunts, I didn't really understand what would have led them to make these choices after reading the book.
Peters also comes up a bit short when discussing the Lunts acting technique... (she shouldn't be faulted too much or this though, working from secondary sources). Repeated references are made to how they made everything seem "fresh" and "spontaneous", but we don't know how they really got their teeth in a character.
Peters notes that other biographers of the Lunts have claimed that both Alfred and Lynn engaged in gay relationships without providing any evidence. Peters also provides no evidence, but also provides no evidence that the Lunts had any intimate life with each other. After reading DESIGN FOR LIVING, I came away feeling that I knew the Lunts well as actors but very little as people. Probably how they would have wanted it.

This book probably deserves three-and-a-half stars, but I'll round it up to four.

Margot Peters clearly did a lot of research for this book, and it shows. If you're interested in learning about the Lunts, this book is more than adequate. But if Jared Brown's "The Fabulous Lunts" were in print, that would be my first recommendation for a biography of the couple.

That having been said, this book is arguably superior in some respects. If you want to learn about the Lunts' private lives, Peters provides far more information than does Brown (even if some of her surmises about the couple's sex life, or lack thereof, are a bit of a stretch). In comparison with "The Fabulous Lunts," here we learn a great deal more about Lunt's family; Ten Chimneys, their estate in Wisconsin; and many of their friendships. (The downside is that some of this is not very interesting.) On the other hand, Brown is generally more thorough in discussing their professional lives, though Peters is more thorough on a few productions (including "The Taming of the Shrew" and Coward's "Design for Living").

To Peters's credit, there are relatively few factual errors (as far as I can tell), and there are extensive endnotes. Unfortunately, even with all the endnotes, there are still some things that didn't get them but should have, and some of the endnotes that are included are more confusing than informative.

Indeed, one of the problems with this book is that Peters's writing is sometimes maddeningly convoluted, occasionally descending into incoherence. This is where Brown scores over Peters most of all: His writing is simple, straightforward, and clear, making "The Fabulous Lunts" a better read than "Design for Living."

Still, for the most part this is a good book, and I can recommend it to those who want to learn about the Lunts.

EDIT: Since I wrote the above, "The Fabulous Lunts" has come back into print.

I reviewed this book 2-3 weeks ago when it first came out. Why hasn't my review been posted?