Final Dress

New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. 359, [1] pages. Signed by the author on the fep. Illus. Footnotes. Postscript. Index. Book One has chapters I through VIII and covers the period 1955 through part of 1964. Book Two has chapter ix through xviii and covers the period 1964 to 1973. The actor-director's third autobiographical volume covers the years 1955-1974 during which Houseman served as artistic director of the American Shakespeare Festival and director of the drama division of Juilliard and created the role of Professor Kingsfield. John Houseman (born Jacques Haussmann; September 22, 1902 - October 31, 1988) was a Romanian-born British-American actor and producer of theatre, film, and television. He became known for his highly publicized collaboration with director Orson Welles from their days in the Federal Theatre Project through to the production of Citizen Kane and his collaboration, as producer of The Blue Dahlia, with writer Raymond Chandler on the screenplay. He is perhaps best known for his role as Professor Charles W. Kingsfield in the film The Paper Chase (1973), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He reprised his role as Kingsfield in the 1978 television series adaptation. Houseman was also known for his commercials for the brokerage firm Smith Barney. He had a distinctive English accent, a product of his schooling. Houseman became the founding director of the Drama Division at The Juilliard School, and held this position from 1968 until 1976. The first class in 1972 included Kevin Kline and Patti LuPone; subsequent classes included Christopher Reeve, and Robin Williams. Derived from a Kirkus review: In this third volume (1955-74) of his remarkable, epic autobiography, Houseman branches out still further--into television, opera, academia, and film-stardom--but his greatest passion, and wit, remain firmly in the theater. Houseman left his comfy mid-1950s position as a Hollywood producer, uprooted his family, and accepted the challenge of taking over the American Shakespeare Festival--with triumphant results; good reviews and good box-office. Houseman resigned in 1959. Already having run the course with TV production, Houseman moved on to a return-bout with Hollywood, peaked and became disenchanted with another theater company, directed opera, moved to Paris, began work on his memoirs. . . and got the invitation to direct the Drama Division of the Juilliard School. He couldn't resist the challenge. Even while coping with the massive problems of students, teachers, auditions, curriculum, and a Juilliard-based acting company, Houseman became deeply involved with other projects: taping the work of Martha Graham, later trying to persuade her to give up performing; helping to guide the APA/Phoenix company led by brilliant, stimulating, bizarrely histrionic Ellis Rabb; and taking, as the director's last resort, that Academy-Award-winning role in The Paper Chase. Houseman is tough on those he's worked with, often tough on himself too. And the result, as before, is the very best kind of show-business memoir: introspective but never morbid, exhilarated but also derisively objective, and dense with exactly the right sort of telling, texturing details.