Sara Allgood's Memories: Untold Stories of the Abbey Theatre and Early Hollywood [Hardcover]

Sara Allgood'sMemorieslets the reader see, feel, and hear what life was like both backstage and onstage at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin in the nineteenth-century. It also details Allgood's move to Hollywood to pursue a career in film as she worked with the then new director Alfred Hitchcock.Sara Allgood, Abbey Theatre actress, Hollywood contract player, Inghinidhe na h?ireann member, and early film performer, wrote this autobiography, entitledMemories, towards the end of her life, encouraging readers to acknowledge the roles of performers and theatre-makers in the creation of the Abbey. The book allows readers into the worlds of late nineteenth-century Dublin, the early Abbey, the Easter Rising, both World Wars, Hitchcock's first films, and early to mid-century Hollywood.In her engaging voice, Sara Allgood shares intimate memories of well-known Abbey and theatrical figures like William Butler Yeats, Lady Gregory, Maud Gonne, J. M. Synge, Willie and Frank Fay, and Sean O'Casey; her account stresses the roles of important working-class contributors to the Abbey like Ellen Bushell, the charwoman, and Sean Barlow, stage manager. Allgood'sMemoriestells the story of the Abbey from the perspective of a young North Dublin woman who had to sneak out after work to attend rehearsals; her account recovers connections between the early nationalist and feminist movements in Dublin, the founding of the Abbey, political activism, and British and American film. Allgood sees the denizens of the Abbey as we have not seen them before and brings us into her childhood home as well as the sets of 1940s Hollywood films. HerMemorieswill allow theatre, film, and political historians, students, and general readers to hear a new and refreshing voice that will inspire many to reconsider what they know of the Abbey, Dublin, and early film.Introduction: Sara Allgood's Memories: Untold Stories of the Abbey Theatre and Early Hollywood1. Early Life Part One2. Early Ll³¼