Evening star., 1946-02-17
Ghost Written Hit Plays
Their Work Is Dictated by Spirit Controls
According to Lindsay and Grouse
By Irudi McCuIIounh
By Trudi McCuIIouoh

by iruoI
Howard Lindsay and Russell
Grouse, Broadwayis most successful
collaborators, behave just like they
write.
These co-authors of Life With
Father" and the current hit, state
of the Union" were being photo
graphed as they were being inter
viewed.
Eliminate my profile" suggested
Grouse. Il look like an anteater from
the side"
"You can take me from the right
SIDE" said Lindsay, 'but you won't
like the left" When pressed, he de-
INJURED again with, II don't get my
teeth back until tomorrow"
The photographer wanted gag
shot. Sure" said Grouse, I'VE have
no shame" He promptly went over
and climbed bookcase.
Grouse, who looks like the late
Robert Benchley, was persuaded to
come down, and your reporter tried
to get in a few licks.
They explained the secret" of
their collaboration: The plays are
dictated to them by spirit controls.
"One of these" said Grouse, lis
an Indian princess, an old Pat
chogue, Long Island, girl, the main
stay of whose vocabulary is 'Ugh!" !"
Unfortunately, he continued,
there are few plays in which the
word 'ughp can be used to advan-
tage."
They really rely on the other
spirit, "who is middle-aged gen.
tleman named Twyford Nudge, an
Elizabethan bartender, who in his
own day kept lot of playscripts in
an empty hogshead and had them
stolen by a barfly named Shake
speafe."
Lindsay, the Actor.
The spirits, however, have Moth
ing to do with their success in other
theatrical fields: Producing, act
ing, directing. Their first producing
venture was Arsenic and Old Lace" :"
the success of which Grouse at
tributes to their both being nuts" I"
II don't want to take much of
the credit on that score" he says,
because I'm not very nuts. Just
a little bit. You'd hardly notice it.
But that Lindsay! He's good and
crazy"
AS an actor, Lindsay is almost
better known than he Is as a play
wright. In Life With Father" his
role as father, roaring paternalism
in a world of commerce, not only
made a celebrity of him but forced
him to break rigid habit. For the
first time since 1928, he was unable
to follow his custom of Sinking
away, like hunted thing, on the
opening night of any show he had
written Crouses custom was to
gayly regale him with kilograms on
the shows reception at 15-minute
intervals.
Crouse's acting includes an ap-
pearance in Gentlemen of the
Press" in which he spoke eight lines,
and a one-night stand in Life With
Father" in which he said How do
you do?"
II retired at the height of my
career" he says.
Since 1921, when he directed
"Dulcy," starring Lynn Fontanne,
directing and acting have shared
equal importance in Lindsay's Ca
reer. Crouse's directing is confined
to the home, where he looks after
four cats, three of them moderately
Persian and the fourth altogether
So"
Insofar as Lindsay and Grouse do
aid and abet the efforts of Twyford
Nudge and the Patchogue princess,
when they get down to writing, the
process goes something like this:
They meet in the wood-paneled
library of Lindsay's home in Green
wich Village about pm.
They Ward Off Work.
Neither of us believes in morn
ings. We have abolished them"
To keep from getting down to the
business at hand they tell each other
everything they have both already
read in the morning papers, all the
gossip they've picked up. Grouse, a
great note -taker, has been known
to list on the back of an envelope
various subjects for discussion, to
ward off the merest mention of
work. Lindsay, a floor r-pacer, has
been caught planting bits of lint on
the carpet to pick up for the same
reason.
Once Grouse is settled at the type
writer, however, and Lindsay starts
his pacing (they estimate he walks
between 1000 and 5000 miles during
the writing of play) they concen-
trnte.
Their collaboration is so complete
that neither of us can point to any
line or any scene of our plays and
say That's Lindsay's' or That's
Crouse's.'' To every line we write, we
bring divergent ideas that, through
some curious mental rapport, sud-
denly merge. Through II years of
work together we have never even
said, Shut up to each other. This