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Design for Living: Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne
From the much-admired biographer of Charlotte Brontë, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, and the Barrymores (“Margot Peters is surely now . . . our foremost historian of stage make-believe”—Leon Edel), a new biography of the most famous English-speaking acting team of the twentieth century.
Individually, they were recognized as extraordinary actors, each one a star celebrated, imitated, sought after. Together, they were legend. The Lunts. A name to conjure with. Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne worked together so imaginatively, so seamlessly onstage that they seemed to fuse into one person. Offstage, they brawled so famously and raucously over every detail of every performance that they inspired the musical Kiss Me, Kate . At home on Broadway, in London’s West End, touring the United States and Great Britain, and even playing “the foxhole circuit” of World War II, the Lunts stunned, moved, and mystified audiences for more than four decades. They were considered to be a rarefied taste, but when they toured Texas in the 1930s, the audience threw cowboy hats onto the stage.
Their private life was equally fascinating, as unusual as the one they led in public. Friends like the critic Alexander Woollcott (whom Edna Ferber once described as “the little New Jersey Nero who thinks his pinafore is a toga”), Noël Coward, Laurette Taylor, and Sidney Greenstreet received lifelong loyalty and hospitality. Ten Chimneys, their country home in Genesee Depot, Wisconsin, “is to performers what the Vatican is to Catholics,” Carol Channing once said. “The Lunts are where we all spring from.”
In this new biography, Margot Peters catches the magic of Lunt and Fontanne—their period, their work, their intimacy and its contradictions—with candor, delicacy, intelligence, and wit. She writes about their personal and creative choices as deftly as she captures their world, from their meeting (backstage, naturally)—when Fontanne was a young actress in the first flush of stardom and Lunt a lanky midwesterner who came in the stage door, bowed to her elaborately, lost his balance, and fell down the stairs—and the early days when an unknown and very hungry Noël Coward lived in a swank hotel in a room the size of a closet and cadged meals at their table to the telegram the famous couple once sent to a movie mogul, turning down a studio contract worth a fortune (“We can be bought, my dear Mr. Laemmle, but we can’t be bored”).
We follow the Lunts through triumphs in plays such as The Guardsman, The Taming of the Shrew, and Design for Living; through friendships and feuds; through the intricate way they worked with such playwrights and directors as S. N. Behrman, Robert Sherwood, Giraudoux, Dürrenmatt, Peter Brook, and with each other.
Margot Peters captures the gallantry of two remarkably gifted people who lived for their art and for each other. Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne were once described as an “amazing duet of intelligence and gaiety.” Margot Peters re-creates the fun and the fireworks.
Individually, they were recognized as extraordinary actors, each one a star celebrated, imitated, sought after. Together, they were legend. The Lunts. A name to conjure with. Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne worked together so imaginatively, so seamlessly onstage that they seemed to fuse into one person. Offstage, they brawled so famously and raucously over every detail of every performance that they inspired the musical Kiss Me, Kate . At home on Broadway, in London’s West End, touring the United States and Great Britain, and even playing “the foxhole circuit” of World War II, the Lunts stunned, moved, and mystified audiences for more than four decades. They were considered to be a rarefied taste, but when they toured Texas in the 1930s, the audience threw cowboy hats onto the stage.
Their private life was equally fascinating, as unusual as the one they led in public. Friends like the critic Alexander Woollcott (whom Edna Ferber once described as “the little New Jersey Nero who thinks his pinafore is a toga”), Noël Coward, Laurette Taylor, and Sidney Greenstreet received lifelong loyalty and hospitality. Ten Chimneys, their country home in Genesee Depot, Wisconsin, “is to performers what the Vatican is to Catholics,” Carol Channing once said. “The Lunts are where we all spring from.”
In this new biography, Margot Peters catches the magic of Lunt and Fontanne—their period, their work, their intimacy and its contradictions—with candor, delicacy, intelligence, and wit. She writes about their personal and creative choices as deftly as she captures their world, from their meeting (backstage, naturally)—when Fontanne was a young actress in the first flush of stardom and Lunt a lanky midwesterner who came in the stage door, bowed to her elaborately, lost his balance, and fell down the stairs—and the early days when an unknown and very hungry Noël Coward lived in a swank hotel in a room the size of a closet and cadged meals at their table to the telegram the famous couple once sent to a movie mogul, turning down a studio contract worth a fortune (“We can be bought, my dear Mr. Laemmle, but we can’t be bored”).
We follow the Lunts through triumphs in plays such as The Guardsman, The Taming of the Shrew, and Design for Living; through friendships and feuds; through the intricate way they worked with such playwrights and directors as S. N. Behrman, Robert Sherwood, Giraudoux, Dürrenmatt, Peter Brook, and with each other.
Margot Peters captures the gallantry of two remarkably gifted people who lived for their art and for each other. Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne were once described as an “amazing duet of intelligence and gaiety.” Margot Peters re-creates the fun and the fireworks.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published October 14, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 2, 2014
"We can be bought, but we can't be bored," the Lunts told a film mogul. This bio cures insomnia.
February 16, 2016
Read this book before visiting The Lunts' estate Ten Chimneys in rural Wisconsin. Having read this before my trip made touring their estate even more enjoyable. There is a lot of information about Ten Chimney's and just enough bio on each actor to keep me interested.
September 6, 2021
The famous Lunts needed a dual biography, and I have read other excellent biographies by Margot Peters (on Shaw, on the Barrymores). I enjoyed this book because I like drama and American theater, but there’s also disappointment and sadness in seeing that the Lunts, however excellent they were as actors (and Peters shows that they were the marvel and envy of their age), simply did not appear in that many great or memorable plays. Peters seems to be in the awkward spot of trying to make the most of routine material in conveying the gifts of indisputably talented artists. She does as well any biographer could, I think. Dramatic critics, as Peters shows, eventually began pointing out that great talent was being habitually wasted: “They never played to an empty seat, yet the play [in this case O Mistress Mine by Terence Rattigan] never got a good review.” Their understandable love of successes, long runs, and national tours made them wary of undertaking more challenging, literary works. Brooks Atkinson wondered “what they could do if they selected a script as subtle and skillful as they are” (230). Their reluctance to appear in films has kept later generations from being able to appreciate them, too. You can’t help thinking that somewhere below the surface of such squandered opportunity there’s a real tragedy.
June 4, 2019
An excellent biography! I absolutely loved the accompanying photographs which clearly showed a man and a woman very much in love with each other.
August 5, 2015
Shockingly bad work from someone whose other books I have enjoyed. Peters simply catalogues their performances and makes unfounded innuendoes about their sex lives. Innuendoes, hell. She accuses them of having a "white" marriage. The fact is that the Lunts were married for well over 50 years. The fact is that they appeared only together for the bulk of that marriage. The fact is that no one who knew them doubted their love for each other, and if Peters can't name a single man or woman who claimed to have had an affair with either Alfred Lunt or Lynn Fontanne, hetero or gay, then stop printing statements about their sexual lives that would have left her open to a lawsuit during their lifetimes. I hasten to add that I don't care at all about this. However, it is queasy to read, and would make you wonder about her original research for the book if there was, in fact, any evidence that Peters had done original research. Most of it appears cribbed from earlier biographies, in some cases virtually word for word.
Don't bother.
Could someone please do a good biography of these two?
Don't bother.
Could someone please do a good biography of these two?
July 26, 2009
I didn't read the entire book, just the beginning about the youths of Lunt and Fontanne. I skimmed some of the later parts, and enjoyed the photographs in preparation for a trip to their home, Ten Chimneys, in Genesee Depot, Wisconsin. Frankly, the writing seemed dry, heavy on long lists of people.
August 2, 2011
A sparkling pair of actors, who were the top of the game on the live stage. Its unfortunate they didn't do any film to speak of. They were glamour personified in "Design for Living" and other similar works. The book makes clear their whole life was a stage, so how much of the real people you get to know is hard to say. Well written and researched.
October 24, 2013
Serious theatre fans have heard of the Lunts but because they really only made one movie most of us don't know much about them.
This book was fascinating.
Though there is a lot of guess work here about their personal lives.
(Or maybe the author knew something and didn't want to spell it out)
Anyway as an actor I loved reading about their rehearsal process.
Fascinating.
This book was fascinating.
Though there is a lot of guess work here about their personal lives.
(Or maybe the author knew something and didn't want to spell it out)
Anyway as an actor I loved reading about their rehearsal process.
Fascinating.
March 20, 2007
A bit gossipy but anything about these two treasures of the american theatre is a joy to read. The "Fabulous Lunts," by Jared Brown, is more about acting and theatre (which the Lunts lived for) than this and should be sought out first. But this will do.
February 6, 2008
Renewed my interest in Broadway.
December 12, 2008
A feast for theatre fans...there will never be theatrical stars of this caliber again.
September 10, 2009
Love the Lunts!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews