Daisy, Daisy (TV play)

5th episode of the 1st season of Playwrights '56

"Daisy, Daisy (TV play)"

Playwrights '56 episode
Episode no.| Season 1
Episode 5
Directed by| Arthur Penn
Teleplay by| Sumner Locke Elliott
Original air date| November 22, 1955 (1955-11-22)
Running time| 60 mins
Guest appearances

* Tom Ewell as William Bingham
* Jane Wyatt as Glenda Bingham
* Al Checco as Trigger Fogel
* Agnes Doyle as Mrs. Mays
* Edith Meiser as Mother-in-law
* Jane Moultrie as Rosy Sedgewick
* James Reese as Adrian Terhune
* Lou Vernon as Mr. Smith

Daisy, Daisy is a 1955 American television play by Sumner Locke Elliott that aired as an episode of Playwrights '56. It was based on the Ern Malley hoax making the play one of the few works on American television at the time to draw inspiration from Australian culture.[1]

## Plot

[edit]

William Bingham is an unsuccessful "artistic" writer married to Glenda, who loves best sellers.

Willie spends eight hours one night writing a cliche-ridden book. It is meant to be the confessions of a 17-year-old Australian girl named Daisy Smith who has recently died.

The book is accepted by a publisher and becomes a best seller.

Glenda becomes convinced that William knew a Daisy Smith when he was a GI in Australia. Then Albert Smith turns up claiming to be Daisy's father.

## Production

[edit]

It was Tom Ewell's first live television play in three years.[2]

Sumner Locke Elliott was Australian and based the script on the Ern Malley hoax. The writer had a generally excellent relationship with Fred Coe. However he says he had his only argument with the producer over casting during the making of this play. Elliott said comedy was not Coe's "forte" and the play was a "mess".[3]

## Reception

[edit]

Variety said "Starting off with a promising but familiar premise" Elliott "had the choice of either developing that premise logically but risking the problem of an overfamiliar theme, or developing in an offbeat direction and making the outcome of the play a non-sequitur. He chose the latter, and not only did the concluding portion not follow the promise of the beginning but became rather ponderous and dull."[4]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Vagg, Stephen (September 11, 2022). "Forgotten Australian TV Plays: Australia on US TV – Sumner Locke Elliott's Wicked is the Vine and The Crater". Filmink.
2. ^ "Tom Ewell gets 'Daisy' for live TV 'comeback'". The Indianapolis Star. 22 November 1955. p. 21.
3. ^ "Sumner Locke Elliott interviewed by Hazel de Berg in the Hazel de Berg collection [sound recording]". National Library of Australia. 5 May 1970.
4. ^ "Daisy, Daisy review". Variety. 30 November 1955. p. 40.

## External links

[edit]

* Daisy Daisy at IMDb

* v
* t
* e

Works of Sumner Locke Elliott

Novels|

* Careful, He Might Hear You (1963)
* Some Doves and Pythons (1966)
* Edens Lost (1969)
* The Man Who Got Away (1972)
* Going (1975)
* Water Under the Bridge (1977)
* Signs of Life (1981)
* About Tilly Beamis (1984)
* Waiting for Childhood (1987)
* Fairyland (1990)
* Radio Days (1993)

Plays|

* The Cow Jumped Over the Moon (1937)
* The Folly of It (1938)
* Interval (1939)
* The Little Sheep Run Fast (1940)
* Goodbye to the Music (1942)
* Your Obedient Servant (1943)
* The Invisible Circus (1946)
* Wicked Is the Vine (1948)
* Rusty Bugles (1948)
* Buy Me Blue Ribbons (1951)
* John Murray Anderson's Almanac (1953)

TV scripts|

* Wicked Is the Vine (1949)
* The Crater (1949)
* Pengallen's Bell (1949)
* Of Human Bondage (1949)
* Jane Eyre (1949)
* The Willow Cabin (1950)
* The Passionate Pilgrim (1950)
* The Shadow of a Man (1950)
* Little Women (1950)
* The Rose Garden (1951)
* The Devil in Velvet (1952)
* The Thin Air (1952)
* Dusty Portrait (1952)
* Miss Hargreaves (1952)
* We Were Children (1952)
* Elegy (1953)
* Wish on the Moon (1953)
* Before I Wake (1953)
* The Shadow of a Man (1953)
* The Girl with the Stop Watch (1953)
* Moment of Panic (1954)
* Friday the 13th (1954)
* Buy Me Blue Ribbons (1954)
* The King and Mrs. Candle (1954)
* Time Bomb (1954)
* Run Girl Run (1954)
* The Women (1955)
* Beloved Stranger (1955)
* The King and Mrs. Candle (1955)
* Peter Pan (1955)
* Daisy, Daisy (1955)
* You and Me and the Gatepost (1956)
* Keyhole (1956)
* Company Manners (1956)
* Peter Pan (1956)
* Love at Fourth Sight (1957)
* Whereabouts Unknown (1957)
* Mrs. Gilling and the Skyscraper (1957)
* Babe in the Woods (1957)
* The Count of Monte Cristo (1958)
* The Winslow Boy (1958)
* We Haven't Seen Her Lately (1958)
* The Laughing Willow (1958)
* The Grey Nurse Said Nothing (1959) (US)
* Peter Pan (1960)
* The Grey Nurse Said Nothing (1960) (Aust)
* The Prisoner of Zenda (1961)
* Notorious (1961)
* Spellbound (1962)

Adaptations|

* Rusty Bugles (1965)
* Water Under the Bridge (1980)
* Rusty Bugles (1981)
* Careful, He Might Hear You (1983)
* Edens Lost (1989 TV mini series)

Radio|

* Crazy Family (1939)
* Tradesman's Entrance (1941)
* Jezebel's Daughter (1941)
* Grand City (1942)
* Girl of the Ballet (1942)
* The Man in the Dark (1944)
* The Army Hour (1944)
* Lily Parker (1947)
* Scarlet Rhapsody (1947)
* Wicked Is the Vine (1947)
* Ride a Cock Horse (1948)
* The Crater (1948)
* The Rose Garden (1950)
* Dusty Portrait (1953)
* The Thin Air (1954)
* We Were Children (1954)
* Friday the 13th (1955)

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