Born in Mississippi in 1911, Thomas Lanier Williams (nicknamed "Tennessee" by his St. Louis schoolmates for his thick Southern accent) became one of America's most significant theatrical personalities, by turns lauded and denigrated over the course of his lifetime. In his memoirs, written in 1972, Tennessee regarded his first encounter with the stage: "Then and there the theatre and I found each other for better and for worse. I know it's the only thing that's saved my life."
The short story One Arm was written in Mexico City in 1945, soon after the blockbuster premiere of the play that made Williams's name: The Glass Menagerie (during this same period Tennessee also began work on a play which was at the time titled Blanche's Chair in the Moon). The story for One Arm came out of Williams's fascination with New Orleans's rich and varied sex industry, specifically the male hustlers who occupied many of his idle hours in the Big Easy. Though Tennessee tried for the rest of his life to get the story made into a Hollywood film, he never succeeded due to the highly controversial sexual content.
More than 25 full-length plays, as many shorter ones, two novels, 60 short stories, a book of verse and an original screenplay comprise Williams's oeuvre. His work has been called "scandalous," "disgusting" and "genius." He himself claimed to be the "father of American black comedy," and won Pulitzer prizes for A Streetcar Named Desire (1948) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955). An extensive traveler, Tennessee was familiar with the gay subcultures of most of the world's major cities, and a cruising buddy included Gore Vidal.
Except for a period of deep depression in the 1960s, Tennessee was rarely without a male companion. He was involved in a 14-year relationship with a young man named Frank Merlo, whom he met while working on the premiere of Streetcar in Provincetown. Tennessee described him thusly in his memoirs: "Frank was an inch shorter than I but designed by Praxiteles." Merlo was in some ways the model for many of Williams's gorgeous, sexually charged male characters such as Alvaro in The Rose Tattoo (the published edition of which was dedicated, "To Frankie, In Return For Sicily") and Orpheus Descending's Valentine.
Merlo died of lung cancer in 1961, initiating Tennessee's descent into severe depression and dependencies on alcohol and prescription drugs. He would later refer to the '60s as his "stoned age." In the '70s, he could be seen in the company of Andy Warhol and his retinue of young artists, transvestites and junkies. In spite of his tumultuous personal life, Tennessee maintained a very strict working schedule, rising early every morning and spending at least the first half of the day writing under the influence of black coffee. He died in 1983, choking on the cap from a bottle of phenobarbitals.
- Jack Tamburri, ARTISTIC INTERN