The Toffee stories were similar to the Topper stories, but Toffee wasn't a ghost. She was a thought creation.
Henry Farrell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Henry Farrell | |
|---|---|
| Born | Charles Farrell Myers September 27, 1920 Madera County, California, U.S. |
| Died | March 29, 2006 (aged 85) Pacific Palisades, California, U.S. |
| Spouse(s) | Molly Dodd (? - 1981) (her death) |
Henry Farrell (September 27, 1920 – March 29, 2006) was an American novelist and screenwriter, best known as the author of the renowned gothic horror story What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, which was made into a film starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.
Life and work
He was born Charles Farrell Myers in California, and grew up in Coalinga. Under the name "Charles H Myer", he wrote the "Toffee" short stories. Later taking the pseudonym Henry Farrell, his first novel was The Hostage, which was published in 1959.
With Lukas Heller, Farrell co-wrote the screenplay for Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), starring Davis and Olivia de Havilland. It was based on a story he wrote entitled Whatever Happened to Cousin Charlotte?, and the script earned Heller and Farrell a 1965 Edgar Award, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Best Motion Picture Screenplay. He wrote the original screenplay for What's the Matter with Helen? (1971), which starred Debbie Reynolds and Shelley Winters.
His wife was actress Molly Dodd, who died in 1981. Dodd appeared in small roles in two movies written by Farrell, the TV production How Awful About Allan starring Anthony Perkins and Julie Harris and What's the Matter with Helen?
French director François Truffaut's 1972 movie Une belle fille comme moi was based on Farrell's 1967 novel Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me.
In 2002, Farrell tried his hand at writing the book for a stage play, the musical version of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? The world premiere of the show was on October 9 in Houston, Texas, with Millicent Martin in the title role and Leslie Denniston as Blanche.
Henry Farrell died in his Pacific Palisades, California, home at age 85. According to his obituary, he completed another novel, titled A Piece of Clarisse, shortly before his death [1]. There is currently no word on publication.
Novels
Stories
- Whatever Happened to Cousin Charlotte?
- The Eyes of Charles Sand
- Where Beauty Lies
- The Do-Gooder
Screenplays
Teleplays
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955) (TV program) (one episode)
- Bus Stop (1961) (TV program) (one episode)
- The House that Would Not Die (1970) (made-for-TV movie)
- How Awful About Allan (1970) (made-for-TV movie)
- The Eyes of Charles Sand (1972) (made-for-TV movie)
See also
External links
* * *
Toffee was a "dream girl", and in her first adventure made a reference to being welsh, which was actually a reference to welsh rarebit. The story being that eating that before you went to bed would give you wild dreams.
The man who dreamed Toffee up was Marc Pillsworth. In the first story he was engaged to a blonde named Julie, who he married in a sequel. Julie never seemed to recognize Toffee from one story when she saw her in another, and even Marc didn't always seem to remember Toffee when another adventure began.
Editor William Hamling claimed to have "discovered" Charles Myers, although Ray Palmer was still the editor when the series began. Both made frequent comparisons to Thorne Smith in the their editorial columns, so it was clear that that any resemblence was purely intentional.
Somehow I like Toffee better. I was never really a Thorne Smith fan.
Toffee as depicted by MaCauley from IMAGINATION October 1954
Toffee as depicted by MaCauley on he covers of IMAGINATIVE TALES and IMAGINATION
The man's face is modeled after editor Hamling, who took credit for discovering Charles Myers.
Modern reprinting of the complete adventures of Toffee in one volume, with original cover illustrations on the cover.
THE HISTORY OF A WILD DREAM
Toffee was said in her first adventure to have come from a dream following a meal of Welsh Rarebit. The idea that wild dreams were inspired by Welsh Rarebit was used as the basis of a famous comic strip by Windsor McCay.
The story goes even further back than that, and is said to have been popular around the turn of the last century.
Charles Myers wrote WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? as Henry Farrell. Bette Davis starred in he 1962 movie version.
Charles Myers & Me ( Richard Lupoff ):
http://efanzines.com/EK/eI5/index.htm
Charles Myers:
http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/archives-cc/app/details.php?id=7735&return=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bu.edu%2Fphpbin%2Farchives-cc%2Fapp%2Fbrowse.php%3Fletter%3DF%26sort_column%3Dcomposite_name%26sort_direction%3DASC%26per_page%3D10%26offset%3D0%26set_page%3Dnext
Charles Myers ( Angelfire ):
http://www.angelfire.com/film/locationbooks/myers.htm
Charles Myers Obituary:
http://articles.latimes.com/2006/apr/07/local/me-farrell7
DREAM OF A RAREBIT FIEND ( comic strip ):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_of_the_Rarebit_Fiend
http://www.comicstriplibrary.org/browse/results
Pulp Mags Yahoo Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PulpMags/
Thorne Smith:
http://www.thornesmith.net/
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