My Fair Lady – Opened in 1956. A revival is playing at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in Lincoln Center. A wonderful, fast paced production. A less ambiguous ending than previous versions. After patting Henry Higgins face affectionately, Eliza leaves.
Rosemary Harris – In 1956, she played Desdemona opposite Richard Burton in Othello at the Old Vic. In this production of My Fair Lady, she played, to a wonderful reception, Henry Higgins’ mother.
Helen Gahagan Douglas – Ran for the US Senate in California in 1950. The seat in front of us at the Beaumont bore her name. She was an extraordinary, multi-talented woman. She acted on stage and screen, toured internationally as an opera singer, married actor Melvyn Douglas, and was a California Congresswoman.
Gahagan Douglas’s political career is instructive. Encouraged to wait until 1952, she ran in 1950 against an incumbent Democrat. He withdrew in favor of a third candidate, who she defeated in the primary.
The general election was another story. The incumbent endorsed the Republican. A Massachusetts Congressman, John F. Kennedy, gave money to the Republican. The incumbent had accused her of being a Communist sympathizer. The Republican made her supposed Communist sympathies the central theme of his campaign and defeated her handily. Richard M. Nixon made a career for himself with that campaign.
Lessons for Democrats. Patience can be a virtue. Losses produce dangerous opponents