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Eugene O'Neill was born in Manhattan in 1888, attended Princeton and Harvard Universities. He spent two years at sea, has been in business in Central and South America, has been a vaudeville actor, a reporter for a Connecticut paper. He was married in 1918 to Miss Agnes B. Burton of London, England. His plays include: Thirst, Beyond the Horizon (Pulitzer Prize play 1920), Diff'rent, The Emperor Jones, Anna Christie (Pulitzer Prize play 1922), The Hairy Ape.
The public, being the public, is divided. Said Jay E. House, colyumist for the Philadelphia Public Ledger: "It was inevitable, of course, that Mr. O'Neill finally would write a play about marriage between the whites and blacks. He has already written plays about nearly all the other revolting topics . . .
"We write frankly of Mr. O'Neill for the reason that the spectacle of soiled fingers searching a dead man's chest for fleas does not intrigue us. But it is perfectly all right for those who like that sort of thing."
But many folks, notably down East, do not think it is perfectly all right for anybody whether they like it or not. A committee of influential Negroes and others in Boston say that the local censor has agreed to suppress it. The Legislative League of New York has protested. The New York World raised the question as to whether it is legal to enact upon the stage something which is "illegal and punishable as a crime ... in all Southern and border States."
Finally, there are the Art-for-Art people headed by Heywood Broun of The World.
Fata Morgana. Here is The Moon Flower, in which Elsie Ferguson opened the preceding week (TIME, March 10), shifted back to the Hungary whence its hero came to stake his heart at Monte Carlo. In this case, the one night of love is turned on by the woman, who turns off the light. She takes the lead all through this erotic game of tag. She is a sophisticated city woman, temporarily blacklisting her husband. In her pique at him, she flies to a relative's farm and finds a young cousin alone for the night, ripe for her plucking. She decides to make the most of isolation. She enmeshes him; then walks into his bedroom while he stands on one leg.