Session: 123456789101112131415161718192021         Page 48495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100101102103104105106107 of 1029

to do a play called “The Hairy Ape,” which featured a girl named Carlotta Monterey, who became Mrs. Eugene O'Neill.

Was he able to write under the influence of drink? I mean some people can.

No, he would be in a blackout for a while. In fact, during his first marriage--Gene had three or four wives--he woke up one day in some flop house with a girl in bed next to him. He said, “Who the hell are you?" She said, “You married me last night.” He actually had married her. In disgust he signed up on a boat and went on a seven-month trip, and that's where he wrote The Seven Plays of the Sea: all those wonderful one-act plays. He was running away from this tramp he'd married.

You were talking about these cocktail parties at Liveright's in the evenings...

That's when I began meeting all these people.

What about Robert Benchley, for instance? He had a problem with drinking, I understand.

Oh, he was a teetotaler next to O'Neill. O'Neill was a drunk. Benchley played at it. He'd get a little stiff. You know, he'd say, “Get me out of this dry suit and into a