Logan J

ORDERBY-NAME: Logan III, Joshua (Josh) Lockwood

BIRTH: 5 October 1908, Texarkana, Texas, USA

DEATH: 12 July 1988, New York, New York, USA

CATEGORY: Fine Arts

DISCIPLINE: Theater, Film

ASSESSMENT:   Josh Logan is remembered for his work directing, writing and producing plays and films such as Annie Get Your Gun, Mister Roberts, South Pacific, and Picnic.

LANGUAGE: English

EDUCATION:           Princeton University

ACHIEVEMENT:      1948 Tony Award Best Author for Mister Roberts

                                    1948 Tony Award Best Play for Mister Roberts

                                    1950 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for South Pacific

                                    1950 Tony Award Producer (Musical) for South Pacific

                                    1950 Tony Award Best Musical for South Pacific

                                    1950 Tony Award Best Director for South Pacific

                                    1953 Tony Award Best Director for Picnic

                                    1955 Golden Globe Award Best Director for Picnic

MAJOR-WORK:        Directed the play Annie Get Your Gun,

Coauthored and directed the play Mister Roberts,

Coauthored, directed and co-produced the play and directed the movie South Pacific

Directed and co-produced the play and directed the film Picnic

PARENTS:     Joshua Lockwood Logan and Susan McHenry Logan Noble

SPOUSE:        O’Neil, Barbara (1940-1941)

                        Connolly, Grace (Nedda) Harrigan (1945-1988)

SIBLINGS:     Logan, Mary Lee

                        Noble, Marshall Hays (half brother)

                        Smith, Lois Noble (step-sister)

CHILDREN:  Logan, Thomas Heggen

                        Logan, Susan Harrigan

DETAILS:      Joshua Logan went to Princeton University in 1927 hoping to join a theater group called the Triangle Club.  The Triangle Club was not open to freshmen, so Logan ended up joining the University Players instead.  The University Players were a group of students from Harvard, Smith, Yale, Radcliffe, Vassar and Princeton who put on plays in Cape Cod during the summer.  Logan became friends with fellow Players Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart in the summer of 1928.  From 1928 to 1935 Logan acted in, staged and directed a variety of plays with the University Players. 

Before graduating from Princeton, in January of 1931 Logan went to Moscow with a friend to study method acting with <studied under> Stanislavsky* at the Moscow Art Theatre.  Logan was surprised when Stanislavsky advised him to avoid the method acting technique and instead create a method of his own. 

After directing two professional theatrical productions in New York in 1935, Logan received a call to go to Hollywood. David Selznick hired Logan to work as a dialogue director on his epic movie The Garden of Allah, starring Marlene Dietrich and Basil Rathbone. The film was not successful, nor were the next two films Logan directed.  When his contract expired Logan returned to New York to work in the theater.

In 1938 Logan worked for the first time with composer/producer Richard <worked with> Rogers* and lyricist/producer Lorenz Hart, directing their musical I Married an Angel.  It was a hit and the beginning of a long-standing relationship between Logan and Rogers.  Logan collaborated with Rogers and Hart on two further musical productions, Higher and Higher and By Jupiter.

In April of 1940 Logan began seeing Barbara O’Neil, an actress friend from his University Player days and in June, 1940 they married.  On their honeymoon they realized that the marriage was a mistake.  They separated as friends, but decided not to divorce, to avoid embarrassing their families.  Barbara went to Hollywood to work in films while Logan stayed in New York to work on the play Charley’s Aunt. 

In November,1940 Logan suffered a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized briefly in New York.  Unhappy with his doctor and his treatment, he left.  He found a new psychiatrist, Merrill Moore, and was diagnosed with manic depression, now known as bipolar disorder.  Logan admitted himself to the Pennsylvania Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases under Dr. Moore’s care.  After six months of inpatient then outpatient care he recovered and returned to New York.  Logan’s wife Barbara had requested a divorce during his hospitalization.  He agreed and they divorced in 1941.

The Army drafted Logan in 1941 to serve in World War II.  He wanted to be a combat soldier, but he was initially pulled for a special assignment to work with Irving Berlin directing a review called This is the Army.  After the show opened, Logan was transferred to Miami Beach where he entered officer’s school.  He completed Intelligence School in Pennsylvania.  He was stationed as an intelligence officer in a variety of posts across England, then later in Paris, France.  

After the war Logan returned to New York and married Grace “Nedda” Harrigan.  Between 1946 and 1949 Logan worked with Rogers and Oscar <worked with> Hammerstein II* (Rogers’ new partner) on four musicals.  These Rogers and Hammerstein musicals were some of Logan’s biggest successes.  The first, Annie Get Your Gun, was based on the life of Annie Oakley.  Irving Berlin wrote the songs, Logan directed, Rogers and Hammerstein produced, and Ethel Merman starred as Annie.  The show was an enormous hit, and is still widely regarded as a classic. 

Next, Logan co-wrote and directed a play called Mister Roberts based on a novel of the same name by Thomas Heggen.  Heggen and Logan worked together to adapt the novel into a script.  Logan directed the play in 1948 with his old friend Henry Fonda in the title role.  Mister Roberts was a popular and critical success: in 1948 Logan won Tony awards for Best Author and Best Play.

Logan read James Michener’s book Tales of the South Pacific, and approached Rogers and Hammerstein in 1948 with the idea of turning the stories into a musical.  They loved the idea.  When Hammerstein got writer’s block after working on the script for months, Logan made a quick trip to his farm to help with the dialog. He ended up staying, and they finished the script together in 10 days.  South Pacific was born.

After a brief run in Boston to fine-tune the production, South Pacific opened in New York on April 7, 1949.  The show was such a hit they formed a company called South Pacific Enterprises to produce South Pacific scarves, dolls, perfume, underwear, sheets and pillowcases.

In addition to their financial success with South Pacific, Logan, Rogers and Hammerstein won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, as well as Tony Awards for Producer of a musical, Best Musical, and Best Director.  Although South Pacific was even more successful than Annie Get Your Gun, Logan never worked with Rogers and Hammerstein again due to contract disputes over his director’s credit and royalties.

On his own, Logan continued to work successfully on Broadway as an author, director and producer.  He won another Tony Award in 1953 for his direction of the play Picnic. He returned to Hollywood to work on several films, including the film version of South Pacific.  In 1956 he won the Golden Globe for the film of Picnic.  He wrote an autobiography entitled Josh, My Up and Down, In and Out Life in 1976.  In 1978 he followed up with a collection of memoirs called Movie Stars, Real People, and Me.

EXTRA CONNECTIONS: None

ONELINER: Joshua Logan, Broadway director

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Ellis, D. (1994). Biographical note. In Joshua Logan a register of his papers in the

Library of Congress. Retrieved October 1, 2004 from http://www.loc.gov/rr/mss/text/logan.html

Internet Broadway Database. (n.d.). Joshua Logan. Retrieved October 1, 2004 from

http://www.ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=6987

Internet Movie Database. (n.d.). Joshua Logan. Retrieved October 1, 2004 from

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0517597/

Logan, Joshua. (1976). Josh,my up and down, in and out life. New York: Delacorte

Press.