AMERICAN SHORT STORY, THE: RING LARDNER'S "THE GOLDEN HONEYMOON" (TV)

Summary

One in this series of dramatized American short stories. Series host Henry Fonda introduces this adaptation of Ring Lardner's "The Golden Honeymoon." Set in 1922, the story opens as Lucy and Charlie Tate leave Trenton, New Jersey, by train to celebrate their fiftieth anniversary in Florida. Charlie is an incessant talker with a highly competitive nature, whom the patient and gracious Lucy puts up with -- for the most part. In the burgeoning senior citizen community of St. Petersburg where they stay, Lucy has a chance meeting with the snobbish Cora Hartsell of Michigan, who happens to be married to Frank Hartsell, a man who proposed marriage to Lucy fifty-two years earlier. The Hartsells have just enough money, education, and social sophistication to feel superior to the Tates, and not enough class to refrain from pointing this out in various ways. The two couples begin seeing each other socially while in St. Petersburg, and as they take part in the oddly childlike pastimes (checkers, shuffleboard, horseshoes, etc.) of such a community, the underlying tensions among them are heightened. While Lucy enjoys the company of the Hartsells, Charlie grows increasingly hostile -- constantly criticizing Cora's card-playing and maligning Frank's career as a veterinarian. Matters come to a head when Charlie, jealous and insecure, publicly insults Frank for not being man enough to keep Lucy, and Lucy finally blows up at Charlie. "The Golden Honeymoon" is followed by an interview, conducted by series executive producer Robert Geller, with the writer Ring Lardner, Jr. about his father's work.

Details

• NETWORK: PBS WNET New York, NY
• DATE: December 4, 1980 Monday 9:00 PM
• RUNNING TIME: 0:58:56
• COLOR/B&W: Color
• CATALOG ID: T:17541
• GENRE: Drama
• SUBJECT HEADING: Drama
• SERIES RUN: PBS - TV series, 1977-1980
• COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

• For "The American Short Story":
• Robert Geller … Executive Producer, Interviewer
• Brian Benlifer … Producer
• Paul Morgan … Producer, Director, Writer
• Marjorie Lebow Rutimann … Associate Producer
• Phyllis M.G. Bishop … Associate Producer
• Calvin Skaggs … Literary Advisor
• Henry Fonda … Series Host
• Ring Lardner
• Ring Lardner
• For "The Golden Honeymoon":
• Robert Geller … Executive Producer
• Whitney Green … Producer
• Dan McCann … Producer
• Calvin Skaggs … Associate Producer
• Noel Black … Director
• Steve Lim … Direction (Misc.), First Assistant Director
• Frederic Hunter … Writer, Teleplay by
• Ring Lardner … Writer, Based on the story by
• David Spear … Original music by
• James Whitmore … Cast, Charlie Tate
• Teresa Wright … Cast, Lucy Tate
• Stephen Elliott … Cast, Frank Hartsell
• Nan Martin … Cast, Cora Hartsell
• Lynn Baxter … Cast, the Nurse
• Anne Butler … Cast, Mrs. Kroft
• Don DeFina … Cast, the Bystander at Train
• Annamary Dickey … Cast, the Singer
• Joe Gilbert … Cast, Ed Weaver
• Irving Krone … Cast, the Emcee
• Richard Lake … Cast, the Conductor
• Ralph Linn … Cast, the Ventriloquist
• Laurie Logan … Cast, Edie Kramer
• Larry Loonin … Cast, John Kramer
• Doreen Stenzel … Cast, the Lady with Dog
• Dutchess Tomasello … Cast, the Bird Call Lady