Robert V. Finch – Forgotten Playwright
Robert V. Finch – Forgotten Playwright
Robert V. Finch (1909 – 1959) of Dillon, Mt., was a prominent western playwright during the late 1930’s & 1940’s. He attended the University of Montana and was a student in H. G. Merriam’s writing classes, apparently graduating in 1933. To this day, he is almost unheard of in the town where he went to college. During his short career he was author of numerous plays with a Montana theme, several of which were still being performed years later. His short play “The Desert Shall Rejoice” was made into a short film, “Star in The Night”, which won an Academy Award in 1946 for short films. It was directed by Don Siegel who later became famous as the director of a several films with Clint Eastwood, including “Dirty Harry.” Ironically, Finch’s overall reputation has seemed to suffer because of his reluctance to use the coldblooded fare found in so many later western authors.
After divorcing his first wife, Marjorie Marchesseau of Dillon, he married the author Betty Smith, whose classic 1943 novel ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’ was extremely successful, selling millions. They met at Yale’s Drama School and later collaborated on numerous plays while both lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Finch joined the Army in 1942 and moved away from North Carolina, coming back several years later. Smith stayed there the rest of her life. A biography of Betty Smith[1] stated that after years of corresponding, and other relationships, both ended their unhappy marriages and were married in 1957. The biography also revealed that Finch suffered years of acute alcoholism and was finally unable to subsist without help from friends and relatives. Living for a time back in Missoula and Dillon, Montana, he frequently complained about his circumstances while writing to Smith. Financially successful in her own right, Smith had hoped to rehabilitate him and his career, but was unsuccessful. He died at Chapel Hill in 1959. Interestingly, Smith offered to donate his papers to the University of Montana, but was refused.
Here’s some more irony – The local Missoulian newspaper did not mention Finch’s passing in February, 1959, however, it did feature a large article that month about Dorothy Johnson, another U of M graduate whose western story, ‘The Hanging Tree’, had recently been made into the movie starring Gary Cooper.
Below is an article about Robert Finch from The Great Falls Tribune on February 18, 1959:
Robert Finch, Playwright, Former Montanan, Dies
Robert Finch, former Montana playwright, died suddenly Feb. 4 in his home in Chapel Hill, N. C., on his 50th birthday, according to word received here by William Spahr, with whom he had collaborated on several plays.
At work on a novel, Finch suffered a heart attack and died before a doctor could be summoned. Burial was at Chapel Hill.
Son of the late Dr. and Mrs. Grant E. Finch, he was born in Iowa in 1909. Finch moved to Dillon with his parents and attended schools there and Montana State University, Missoula. He studied dramatics with Eva LeGalliene’s Study Group in New York, where he also appeared on the stage, and at Yale University.
With several others, including Paul Green, famed playwright, and Betty Smith, author of such books as “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” and who later became Finch’s wife, he organized the Carolina Players. Their first production was Finch’s play, “The Desert Shall Rejoice,” which was filmed in 1945 and won an Academy Award.
Returning to Montana in the 1940s after four years’ Army service, Finch taught playwriting at Western Montana College of Education, Dillon, in 1948 and 1949.
An organizer of the Montana Institute of the Arts, he served as chairman of its drama group for two years. His play, “The Gunman,” was presented at the first MIA meeting in Great Falls in 1948 in the Civic Center Theater.
Finch’s published works include over 50 one-act plays, many of them widely translated abroad. One of his full-length plays, “Whistler’s Grandmother,” was produced on Broadway in 1952.
His recent book, “Plays of the American West,” included many of his Montana works, and another, “How to Write a Play,” is a standard text in many colleges and universities.
Recognized as an authority on regional writing, Finch was awarded the Rockefeller Fellowship in 1941 and the National Theatre Conference Playwriting Fellowship in 1947.
Surviving, in addition to his widow, Betty, in Capel Hill, are a sister, Mrs. Helen Dial, Mill Valley, Calif., and two brothers, Fred of Fayette, Iowa, and Eugene, Exeter, N. H.
Finch was feted in his hometown of Dillon, Mt in April, 1983. A three-day event featured a series of three Finches plays performed by WMC actors, and a talk by the Dillon novelist, Thomas Savage. The Dillon Tribune Examiner provided the following article:
Finch was called Western Twain
Finch’s plays will be presented this week
By Charles Stauffer
A former Dillon resident who gained national eminence as a playwright will be commemorated April 14-16 during presentation of the Robert Finch Play Festival at Western Montana College.
Scheduled each evening at 8 in the WMC auditorium is a trio of one-act Finch vignettes – “Near Closing Time,” “Gone Today” and “The Return” all taken from his acclaimed anthology, “Plays of the American West.”
The Festival productions, directed by Western Prof. Ellen Bush, are being offered in conjunction with “Inspirations of Pen and Palette,” a cultural celebration staged by Dillon Branch, American Association of University Women.
Finch, hailed by leading critics of his era as the “Western American Mark Twain,” was born in Iowa but spent his early life in Dillon where his father, Grant E. Finch, served as training school superintendent for the college from 1909-1923.
After attending elementary and high schools in Dillon, Connecticut and New York, Finch enrolled at the University of Montana before his theatric yen led to studies at Yale Drama School.
He later attended the University of North Carolina and for several years was a member of the famed Carolina Playmakers, where his vast dramatic skills blossomed.
Finch then transferred his talents to New York City where he was an actor in major productions both on and off Broadway, while also doubling as a stage manager. After winning a Rockefeller Scholarship, however, he returned to North Carolina.
Entering the Army in 1942 as a private, Finch attended officers training school and was commissioned a lieutenant. Subsequent assignment to public relations brought him in contact with leading figures from both Broadway and Hollywood during that military stint.
Following discharge, Finch returned to Dillon and served as an interim drama director at Western Montana College. He and his students produced a memorable pageant, “They Came Seeking,” based on the histories of Bannack and Virginia City.
Again lured back to Chapel Hill, N. C., he married Betty Smith, his former Yale classmate and later author of “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” and the couple collaborated on a variety of writing ventures.
Prior to his death there in 1959, Finch had authored 38 one-act and 20 three-act plays, several of which achieved prestigious honors.
His “Whistler’s Grandmother” was produced on Broadway in 1952. “The Desert Shall Rejoice,” released as “Star in the Night,” won an Academy Award as best two-reel movie of 1945.
“Western Night” was voted the coveted Theatre Guild Cup. “From Paradise to Butte” and “Summer Comes to the Diamond O” evolved as successful movies and television shows.
A detailed saga of Robert Finch is now being researched by Bill Spahr, a 1949 WMC graduate who recently retired following an award-winning career as journalism teacher at Great Falls High School.
A former drama student under Finch at Dillon, Spahr wrote two plays with his instructor’s assistance and became both a protégé and close friend of the playwright.
Spahr recalls that Finch was once offered a high-paying position as scriptwriter in Hollywood but declined because of his avowed dedication to Western writing.
“He believed,” Spahr pointed out, “that chroniclers of that era were not doing justice to the West.”
As Finch himself said, “If sometimes someone does not write the truth about the West, the lies will prevail and become its history. That would be tragic!”
That deep-seated conviction resulted in Finch’s plays emerging as significant and lasting works.
His “Plays of the American West,” a volume of 15 one-act gems, is considered the standard in its field.
“He had a rare skill for recapturing the West in a genuine yet intriguing manner,” Spahr notes. “Few authors possessed that ability.”
Many of the playwright’s former friends, including Spahr, will be attending those performances. Also, awaiting his renewed recognition are a former wife, Marjorie, and sister, Helen Finch Dial, both now residing in Dillon.
A brother, Eugene, recently retired following a long tenure as English professor at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire and is the author of a recently-published book. Their older brother, Fred, died in 1969.
The above article appeared in The Dillon Tribune Examiner on April 12, 1983.
http://montananewspapers.org/lccn/sn85053038/1983-04-12/ed-1/seq-9/