Cornelia Otis Skinner

Cornelia Otis Skinner
Born	May 30, 1899(1899-05-30) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	July 9, 1979(1979-07-09) (aged 80) New York, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, screenwriter
Parents	Otis Skinner Maud Durbin

Cornelia Otis Skinner (May 30, 1899 – July 9, 1979) was an American author and actress.

Biography

Skinner was the daughter of the actor Otis Skinner and his wife Maud (Durbin) Skinner. After attending the all-girls' Baldwin School and Bryn Mawr College (1918–1919) and studying theatre at the Sorbonne in Paris, she began her career on the stage in 1921. She appeared in several plays before embarking on a tour of the United States from 1926 to 1929 in a one-woman performance of short character sketches she herself wrote. She wrote numerous short humorous pieces for publications like The New Yorker. These pieces were eventually compiled into a series of books, including Nuts in May, Dithers and Jitters, Excuse It Please!, and The Ape In Me, among others.

With Emily Kimbrough, she wrote Our Hearts Were Young and Gay, a hilarious description of their European tour after college. Kimbrough and Skinner went to Hollywood to act as consultants on the film version of the book, which resulted in We Followed Our Hearts to Hollywood. Skinner was portrayed by Bethel Leslie in the short-lived 1950 television series The Girls based upon Our Hearts Were Young and Gay.

In 1952, her one-woman show Paris '90 (music and lyrics by Kay Swift) premiered on Broadway. An original cast recording was produced by Goddard Lieberson for Columbia Records, now available on compact disk. In later years Skinner wrote Madame Sarah (a biography of Sarah Bernhardt) and Elegant Wits and Grand Horizontals about the Belle Epoque. She also appeared with Orson Welles on The Campbell Playhouse radio play of The Things We Have on May 26, 1939.^{[citation needed]}

In a 1944 conversation with Victor Borge, Skinner reportedly told the Danish comedian that she decided to drop the term “diseuse" from her act after reading in a Scottish newspaper: “Cornelia Otis Skinner, the American disease, gave a program last night.” ^[1]

Filmography

As an actress

• Kismet (1920)
• The Things We Have (1939)
• The Uninvited (1944)
• General Electric Guest House (1951), episode dated 1 July 1951 (TV Episode)
• Paris '90 (1952)
• The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955)
• Max Liebman Presents: Dearest Enemy (1955) (TV Episode)
• The Alcoa Hour (1956), "Merry Christmas Mr. Baxter" (TV episode)
• The Swimmer (1968)

As herself

• Stage Door Canteen (1943)
• Toast of the Town (later The Ed Sullivan Show) TV episodes #4.7 (1950), #4.14 (1950), #5.32 (1952), and #7.8 (1953)
• What's It For? (1957) TV episode dated 12 October 1957
• What's My Line? (1959) TV episode dated 29 March 1959
• This Is Your Life (1959) Charlie Ruggles (TV episode)

Bibliography

Novels and biographies

• Our Hearts Were Young and Gay (with Emily Kimbrough, 1942) Dodd, Mead and Company Inc.
• Family Circle (1948) - an autobiographical work. Entitled Happy Family in the UK.
• Elegant Wits and Grand Horizontals (1962) - a book about the Belle Epoque in Paris.
• Madame Sarah (1967) - a biography of Sarah Bernhardt.
• Life with Lindsay and Crouse (1976) - a biography of Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse.

Essay compilations

• Tiny Garments (1932)
• Excuse It, Please! (1936)
• Dithers and Jitters (1937)
• Soap Behind the Ears (1941)
• That's Me All Over (1948) - a collection of the best essays from the prior 4 compilations.
• Nuts in May (1950)
• Bottoms Up! (1955) Dodd, Mead, and Company, New York
• The Ape in Me (1959)

Playwriting, screenwriting, scriptwriting

• Edna, His Wife (1937), play based on the 1935 novel of the same name by Margaret Ayer Barnes
• The Girls (1950) TV series
• The Pleasure of His Company (1958) play (adapted as a film in 1961)

Monologues

• The Wives of Henry VIII (1931)
• The Empress Eugenie (1932)
• The Loves of Charles II (1933)
• The Mansion on the Hudson (1935)

Articles

• Skinner, Cornelia Otis (7 January 1950). "Those friends of his". The New Yorker 25 (46): 27–29.  Humorous autobiographical piece.

Source

1. ^ Salt Lake Tribune, June 2, 1944, p. 14

External links

Biography portal

• The Things We Have (audio)
• Cornelia Otis Skinner at the Internet Movie Database
• Cornelia Otis Skinner at the Internet Broadway Database
• Cornelia Otis Skinner at Find a Grave

Persondata
Name	Skinner, Cornelia Otis
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1899-05-30
Place of birth	Chicago, Illinois,U.S.
Date of death	1979-07-09
Place of death	New York, New York, U.S.