[NEohioPAL] Berko preview: WINSOR! A FEISTY CABARET, Musical Theatre Project/Beck Center

[Roy Berko]

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WINSOR FRENCH, Cleveland legend, to come alive at Beck Center*

Roy Berko
(Member, American Theatre Critics Association and Cleveland Critics Circle)

On Friday, August 23 and Saturday, August 24, WINSOR! A FEISTY CABARET,
will be produced by The Musical Theatre Project and performed at the Studio
Theater in the Beck Center for the Arts.  The cabaret, with the performers
seated on stools, will star Scott Plate and be directed by Victoria
Bussert.  The topic of the cabaret will be Winsor French.

Who is Winsor French?   From the early 1930s until the late 1960s, Winsor
French, an about-town columnist for the Cleveland News and later the
Cleveland Press, and founder of PARADE magazine, was the darling of
Cleveland society.

French was friends with the likes of Marlene Dietrich, Carole Lombard, Noel
Coward, Somerset Maugham, Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne and John Steinbeck. He
was a constant house guest of Cole and Linda Porter.  He travelled with
them, and wrote articles about his world adventures, and the people he
hobnobbed with, in the local newspapers.

The person most influential in getting French accepted by Cleveland’s elite
was
Leonard Hanna, Junior.  Hanna was a philanthropist, art collector,
theatergoer, patron of the arts, director of the M. A. Hanna Company, and
one of the most powerful movers and shakers in Cleveland until his death in
1957.

Hanna, like French, was gay, but not as openly out.  French often stayed at
the Hanna farm in Mentor, accompanied by Roger Stearns, a well-known local
pianist, his long time companion.

In a time rampant against homosexuality, French was liked and respected.
He had good looks, a remarkable ability to tell stories in his resonant
Baritone voice, most commonly starting his oral tales with his column’s
opening phrase, “You won’t believe this . . . ”.

French, though not a member of their religious faith, was “in” with the
“Jewish Jolly Set,” the most influential Jews in Cleveland.  It was that
group which is credited with showing French the value of philanthropy.
Here was another instance that, in an era of strong anti-Semitism, French
was able to breach the gap, hold his influential position, espouse Jewish
causes due to his connections not only with Hanna, but with Cleveland
Indian’s owner Bill Veeck.

In an era of racism, French often wrote about local Black night clubs and,
in the age of prohibition, told about illegal speakeasies, and even
commented on the cost of their booze.

French was born in Saratoga Springs, NY.  His father, a military man, died
when he was five.  His mother remarried and Winsor became the step-son of
Joseph O. Eaton, founder of Cleveland’s Eaton Corporation.  He was, for a
short time, married to Margaret Frueauff, whose stage name was Margaret
Perry.  The Tony Awards, given for professional theatrical merit, are named
after her mother,  Antoinette Perry, who the co-founder of the Theatre
Wing, which originated the awards.

The bon vivant French will long be remembered, not only for his writing
about “’sepia’ entertainers, Jewish socialites, school children in
wheelchairs, and men who found males more exciting than females,” but for
tooling around the city in a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud.

How did James Wood, the author of four books on the social history of
Cleveland, and a long time CLEVELAND MAGAZINE columnist, come to write a
book about French?

He credits the idea for OUT AND ABOUT WITH WINSOR FRENCH to “Margaret Halle
Sherwin, who loved Winsor French and for a short time—not more than an hour
or two—was engaged to marry this remarkable man.”

As Wood related in a conference call interview, “long time friend,
Margaret, met me for lunch.”  She said, “After you finish the Halle book
[HALLE’S: MEMOIRS OF A FAMILY DEPARTMENT STORE] you need to do Winsor
French.  She kept after me.  The task was daunting.  There appeared to be
no correspondence and archival materials.  One of his sisters eventually
produced a letter file.”  Wood then related that he went back into the many
years of columns and found a treasure-trove of information.  He realized
that what he had was information about “a clever guy, writing with gay
subtext.”  He was fascinated by “what French could do when, as a homosexual
man he should have been in the closet.”

Though the suggestion for the book came in 1985, it took Wood until 2011 to
get it published.

How did the staged version come into existence?  While Wood was
interviewing Winsor’s sister, Martha Hickox, she said, “I wish you were
writing a play, rather than a book.  An actor could portray Winsor better
than a biographer.”

“Eventually, I gave a list of Winsor’s favorite songs to Bill Rudman,
contemporary Cleveland’s connoisseur of musical theatre and cabaret.  I
asked him if he thought they might be the basis for a show.  He said,
‘Maybe, if you would write the script.’”

Though there are no definite plans for anything other than the local staged
readings, Wood, who will be in attendance at all three performances, and
available for post-production talk backs, is interested in hearing how
audiences react.  After that, he states, “Who knows?”

Only time will tell whether Wood, Rudman, Bussert and Plate will “fulfill
Martha’s observation and give life to Winsor through a live theatrical
performance of his favorite music.”

You can be part of history by attending one of the performances.  For $22
tickets call 216-245-8687 or visit musicaltheaterproject.org.

*Post note:  My appreciation to James M. Wood and Bill Rudman for
participating in a conference call on August 4, 2013, which is the basis
for much of this article.  RMB*
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