Tennessee Williams was born 100 years ago today

Rex Reed said of Tennessee Williams who was born 100 years ago today. "He didn't want to sleep with them, he exalted them in a completely different way." Legendary actresses who brought Williams' characters to life held court with Reed in a panel opening the 25th annual Tennessee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival. As fans mourn the death of Elizabeth Taylor who played Maggie in Cat in the film version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, actresses Shirley Knight, Carroll Baker and Zoe Caldwell shared their recollections of Williams with Reed in a panel discussion at Le Petit Theatre.

Caldwell spoke of her Tony-winning role in Slapstick Tragedy, one of her many Tony Awards, and of Williams' habit of sitting in the balcony, laughing through the sad moments in his plays. "All he did was laugh, with a sort of sweet Heh Heh," she said, adding that he once said the laughter was his protection. Her role in Slapstick Tragedy required that she wear whiteface, and was one of his plays which stymied critics who he sometimes referred to as "the carrion birds" according to Reed, who was both a critic and a friend of Tennessee.

Williams once told Knight (pictured at right) that he wished every play he wrote after Streetcar Named Desire would have been produced without his name attached, to see if the response was different without the filter of what critics expected from a Tennessee Williams play. Streetcar featured the role Knight felt she was born to play, and Williams once told her, "I finally have my Blanche." She also starred in the film version of his Sweet Bird of Youth with Paul Newman, but at the height of her success dropped out of movies to study acting with Lee Strasberg. Reed pointed out that despite looking like a Louisa May Alcott character, "Beth in her last winter," Knight is very, very outspoken. She has been arrested 43 times for marching for civil rights (jailed in Chattanooga), protesting nuclear power plants, and rallying for women's rights. "I can't help it," she told Reed. Knight said her dream role is King Lear, because the men in Shakespeare plays get all the good lines. When Reed suggested a production at Le Petit Theatre, the crowd broke out into applause so there's a suggestion for next year's festival.

A highlight of this year is Al Hirschfeld's drawings of Williams' characters unveiled at the Historic New Orleans Collection. Panelist Louise Hirschfeld Cullman described her late husband's ability to attend opening night of a play and capture the soul of its characters in his line drawings: "He was a journalist who drew."