Hall of Fame induction, Nutley, N.J.

Frances Goodrich - Nutley Hall of Fame

The next time you watch that Christmas season film "It's A Wonderful Life" you should try to picture small town life in good old Nutley, N.J., about one hundred years ago.

By that time, future screenwriter, author and Pulitzer prize winner Frances Goodrich was already under the spell of our little town. As her nephew David L. Goodrich wrote in "The Real Nick and Nora ..."

"She was born on December 21, 1890, in Belleville, New Jersey, then a pretty village on the Passaic River, where, her mother wrote, "sturgeon leapt and lawns ran down to shining waters." ... the family moved to nearby Nutley, an equally pleasant village within easy distance of New York ... In Nutley, there were green fields, tree-lined roads, big comfortable houses, and another stretch of the clear, unspoiled Passaic...."

Okay, so maybe good old Nutley has changed somewhat. But much of the small town spirit is still here, and the next time you watch Frank Capra's film classic "It's A Wonderful Life," watch how many of the small town references apply to good old Nutley.

You see, by the 1940s, the screenwriting team of Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett had enough hit shows under their belt that Capra called for them to fix the shooting script for "It's A Wonderful Life."

The Goodrich filmography is infused with many of the good things about growing up in Nutley. You just have to look for them. On Sunday, the northeastern New Jersey township of Nutley inducted into its Hall of Fame two Pulitzer Prize winners: Frances Goodrich and Paul Goldberger, and eight other Nutleyites of amazing achievement.

Through myriad twists and turns in the past few months, the family of Frances Goodrich, when told that she would be inducted into the Nutley Hall of Fame, and being unable to attend the function, designated yours truly to accept the award on their behalf.

Apparently the family thought that one writer accepting an award for another writer was fitting.

For my part, I was asked by the HOF committee to say a few words on behalf of Ms. Goodrich, her family and her achievements.

So, through David's comprehensive book I once again tore, looking for nuggets that would enlighten and capture the dynamic spirit of Frances Goodrich and the talent that erupted when she teamed up with husband and partner Albert Hackett.

Four typed pages and several hours later, I was ready for my close up, so to speak. For good luck I carried my copy of David's "The Real Nick and Nora ..." and was soon secreted away to a back room with the other inductees or their award acceptors (three others, besides me.)

Funny, I thought, after all my visits to the Nutley Library, this was the first time I was wandering the back rooms of the second floor.

In the second-floor corner overlooking Vincent Place and Yanticaw Park across the macadam where the colorful downed leaves have fallen onto the hill rolling down to the Third River, we looked around the room, at the audio books on the shelves, at one another, no one really sure what to say to the other inductees.

This back place and the awkward talk among people getting to know each other reminded me a bit of that Twilight Zone episode where several characters were trying to get out of some sort of barrel. Those characters didn't know how they got there or where they were or where they were going.

Face it, if we scanned the press release about the event, we pretty much were trying to make sure they got all the info about ourselves right, and while we were greatly impressed with the credentials of the other awardees, it wasn't like we memorized the salient facts and recorded their profiles on the hard drive between our ears.

We had an advantage over the Twilight Zone characters, we all knew where we were and why we were here. Although we didn't know much about each other, in the next hour or so, we'd know plenty. And, as it turned out, my short chat about Frances Goodrich and her ties to Nutley were the first that the crowd would enjoy.


My concluding comment:

On behalf of Frances Goodrich and her family, thank you for inducting this deserving person-ality into the Nutley Hall of Fame. I’m sure she would have been honored to be so honored.

2005 Hall of Fame Inductees

Carol Blazejowski, Manager of the N.Y. Liberty

Dr. Nicholas L. DePace, Heart Disease Specialist

Ron Fraser of Miami University Fame

Paul Goldberger, Pulitzer Prize Winning Author

Francis Goodrich, Playwright “The Diary of Anne Frank”

Dr. Christine Elizabeth Haycock; Military Pioneer

Dr. Richard J. Jackson; Director Center Disease Controls

Reginald Marsh, A Controversial Artist of His Era

Dr. Andrew L. Pecora; Leader in Stem Cell Research

Dr. Ronald J. Scrudato, Director Environmental Research

The posthumous awards for Reginald Marsh and Frances Goodrich will be put on display in the library along with notes and other items from the 2005 Nutley Hall of Fame induction.

Copyright © 2005 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved.

Commentary and observation is soley that of Anthony Buccino and does not reflect the Hall of Fame judges, administrators or honorees or their families. Buccino is greatly honored to have been asked to represent Frances Goodrich and her family in the ceremony.

Hall of Fame press release

Book Review The Real Nick and Nora - Francis Goodrich and Albert Hackett, Writers of Stage and Screen Classics

Order THE REAL NICK And NORA

Notable Nutley, N.J. Writers

Goodrich Filmograph - IMDb

Up from Zero : Politics, Architecture, and the Rebuilding of New York by Paul Goldberger

Reginald Marsh's New York: Paintings, Drawings, Prints and Photographs by Marilyn Cohen

Old Nutley

The Petite Cafe

REALLY BIG SHOES

I see where a few north Jersey theater groups are putting on live shows that I would be interested in.

Not in any particular order:

The Paper Mill Playhouse will present A WONDERFUL LIFE. They bill it as "A musical adaptation of the Frank Capra film "It's a Wonderful Life." Book and Lyrics by SHELDON HARNICK Music by JOE RAPOSO; Directed by JAMES BRENNAN."

The film has long been one of my favorites, along with Jean Shepherd's A Christmas Story (You'll shoot your eye out, kid!).

An added personal delight to the film version of It's A Wonderful Life is that the screenplay was finished off by a Belleville, N.J.-born and Nutley, N.J.-raised woman named Frances Goodrich. Along with her husband Albert Hackett, she wrote scads of classic sreenplays, including most of the Thin Man series.

Whenever I see George Bailey in that small town, I think of Nutley of about 100 years ago - when Goodrich was a child - with snowstorms, kids sledding into the creek, the bridge over the Passaic River into Lyndhurst. I've got to think that Goodrich took a lot of the small town details from her own childhood in North Jersey.

The Paper Mill is also presenting a musical version of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers based on the film and a play. The Hacketts also did the screenplay for that film.

Kean Stage is putting will present And Then They Came For Me - Remembering the World of Anne Frank. If you recall the movie or the play based on the Diary of Anne Frank, the play and film were created from the book by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. They won the Pulitzer Prize for the play.
Copyright © 2006 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.
The Real Nick & Nora

Frances Goodrich Links

Buccino's Old View of Nutley in Verse

Buccino to read ‘Nutley’ poem 
at anthology launch

Local writer scores a poem about Nutley’s rich history in the new anthology “The American Voice in Poetry: The Legacy of Whitman, Williams and Ginsberg” being published as part of the Distinguished Poets Series at the Poetry Center in Paterson.

The Nutley author weaves a poem around Frances Goodrich, who grew up in town and went on to write the “Thin Man” film series and later won a Pulitzer Prize for the play “The Diary of Anne Frank.”

Buccino’s poem suggests Goodrich’s screenplay for the popular Christmas film “It’s A Wonderful Life” has hints of old Nutley, and that the scene of the angel and George on the bridge may have been inspired by the Lyndhurst bridge over the Passaic River, not far from where Goodrich grew up.

In recalling Nutley of about 100 years ago, Buccino cites Guthrie’s Dry Good Store and some of our famous residents and visitors, including Mark Twain, Annie Oakley and Richard Stockton lining up for that new invention called ice cream.

Frances Goodrich was inducted into the Nutley Hall of Fame in 2005. Buccino stood in for the writer and her family at the ceremony.

Buccino will read “A Wonderful Town” at the book launch and poetry reading by contributors to the anthology on April 10, at 1 P.M., Hamilton Club Building, 32 Church Street, Paterson, N.J. For more information, visit Distinguished Poets Series http://old.pccc.edu/poetry/events.htm

See also:
http://www.oldnutley.org/wonderful.htm


Copyright © 2010 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved.

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A Father's Place, An Eclectic Collection
Sister Dressed Me Funny
Rambling Round, Inside and Outside at the Same Time

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Nutley Hall of Fame - Newest Members

2005 Induction
Formal Ceremonies Scheduled for Nov. 10
During Afternoon Library Reception

NUTLEY, N.J. -- The Nutley Hall of Fame recently announced the names of 10 persons who will be inducted in a Sunday afternoon ceremony Nov. 20 at the Public Library.

The inductees include four doctors, two Pulitzer Prize winners, an artist and two well-known sports personalities.

The selections were made by a panel of judges who reviewed hundreds of pages of material gathered over the past eight months.

The selections were limited to persons “who through significant achievement on a statewide, national, or international level, have distinguished themselves and made their association with Nutley a matter of pride for the community.”

Additionally, candidates must have been born in Nutley, or be a graduate of Nutley High School, or a resident of Nutley for a minimum of 10 years.

Inductees included:

Francis Goodrich (1890-1984) was born in Belleville, moved to Nutley at the age of two and grew up in the large family home at 187 Nutley Avenue.

It was a home where she would later marry Albert Hackett.

The couple wrote dozens of plays and scripts for Hollywood films.

The first play they competed together, “Up Pops the Devil,” was the first staged production of the Nutley Little Theatre on Nov. 23, 1934.

Francis and Albert became well know for their screenplays on the three “Thin Man” films staring Myrna Loy and William Powell, and on Frank Capra’s “It’s A Wonderful Life.”

But Francis Goodrich and Albert Hackett’s crowning achievement came as playwrights on ”The Diary of Anne Frank” for which they won the Pulitzer Prize.

Another Pulizter Prize winner from town:

A graduate of Nutley High School, Paul Goldberger headed for Yale University, undecided whether he wanted to become an architect or continue with his very early success as a journalist.

While a freshman at Yale, his first piece submitted to the New York Times was published as a cover story in its Sunday magazine.

Three years later with a Yale degree in hand, Paul became the architecture critic for The Times.

In 1990 he was named cultural news editor and in 1994 he became the newspaper’s chief cultural correspondent.

Paul Goldberger won a Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for his architecture criticism, the highest award in journalism.

Read the full press release

Book Review The Real Nick and Nora - Francis Goodrich and Albert Hackett, Writers of Stage and Screen Classics

Order THE REAL NICK And NORA

Notable Nutley, N.J. Writers

Still In Print? Check out these titles

Bloomfield Avenue: A Jewish-Catholic Jersey Girl's Spiritual Journey - Linda Mercadante

Late For Work - David Tucker

The Real Nick and Nora - Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett by David L. Goodrich

Images of America: Belleville - Nicole T. Canfora

The Day I Turned Uncool - Dan Zevin

PUBLISHING CONFIDENTIAL The Insider's Guide to What It REALLY Takes to Land a Nonfiction Book Deal - Paul B. Brown

Unto The Sons - Gay Talese

A Writer's Life - Gay Talese

Growing Up Catholic

More Growing Up Catholic

Were You Always an Italian?

Growing Up - by Russell Baker

Paging New Jersey

New Jersey Curiosities

Everyday People: Profiles from the Garden State

The Meadowlands: Wilderness Adventures

Marching Home by Kevin Coyne

Una Storia Segreta - Lawrence DiStasi

Don't Tell Mama - Regina Barreca

Beyond The Godfather - Italian American Writers on the Real Italian American Experience

Mount Allegro - Jerry Mangione

BEFORE THE ECHO Essays on Nature - Pete Dunne

The Amorous Busboy of Decatur Avenue By Robert Klein

Child of the 50's - Robert Klein

Growing Up Catholic: And Getting over It

Thank You, Sister: Memories of Growing Up Catholic

The Best of Sean Patrick: Memories of Growing Up Catholic

My Angel's Name Is Fred: Tales of Growing Up Catholic

Growing Up Irish Catholic, and Surviving My Mom's Eleven Sisters

Raised Catholic (Can You Tell?) by Ed Stivender

Rambling Round - Buccino

A Father's Place - Buccino

Sister Dressed Me Funny - Buccino

''Buccino takes us where we've all been, in these charming, very readable, accessible essays. It's quite pleasant revisiting the innocence that he creates or remembers in these often wry and witty observations about life. The writing is very good, even, and flows nicely, to make one want to read more.... The author could even be played up a bit on the cover, such as ''New Jersey's 'Garrison Keillor' '' or something to that effect. ... There should be definite regional interest in this book. But Buccino writes well enough to draw a national audience as well ...''

 

The Pen Is on the Other Foot - HOF Revisited

NUTLEY, N.J. -- As a writer I don't like to be interviewed.

Or should I say I'm often disappointed by how what I've said in an interview has been repeated, reshaped and reworded.

It doesn't always happen, some of my favorite interviewers have gotten it right each time. But there are other reporters I've spoken with who had virtually nothing right.

Years ago, one reporter had my age off by 10 years. Another story included almost nothing of what I said.

I guess it wouldn't surprise you that I didn't store multiple copies of these in my scrapbook.

When I look at the recent press coverage of the Hall Of Fame I see that there wasn't much. I know there were people there shooting photos upon photos - but no one, it seems, recorded the things that the inductees or their proxies said. That's too bad, because, as one of the proxies, I was in a great position to hear every word.

And folks, those were words worth hearing. No, I'm not just talking about my own words written about HOF inductee & Pulitzer Prize winner Frances Goodrich.

Each honoree spoke kindly of this town and its long-lasting influence on their success. It's just too bad the scribes weren't there to record it. For better or for worse, that is.



Copyright © 2005 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved.

Order THE REAL NICK And NORA
Notable Nutley, N.J. Writers
Goodrich Filmograph - IMDb
Up from Zero : Politics, Architecture, and the Rebuilding of New York by Paul Goldberger
Reginald Marsh's New York: Paintings, Drawings, Prints and Photographs by Marilyn Cohen
Old Nutley
The Petite Cafe

Earlier Posting on this subject

Copyright © 2005 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission. Updated May 2008

Nutley = Bedford Falls?

Wouldn't it be curious to compare the film It's A Wonderful Life and the small town atmosphere with the town where one of the screenwriters grew up, good old Nutley, N.J.

Until we get to that point, local blog viewers might want to note that Sunday - the Nutley Litle Theatre will present a treatment of the seasonal favorite.

The Reader’s Theater group of Nutley Little Theatre will perform a reading of the Frank Capra holiday classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” on Sunday, Dec. 11, 7:30 p.m., at the NLT Barn, 47 Erie Place, Nutley.

Vicky Chalk of Nutley will direct the production, which is free and open to the public. Reader’s Theater features dramatic readings of new and established plays, supplementing NLT’s regular, fully staged performances.

Those attending last month's Nutley Hall of Fame induction heard first-hand from a number of dignitaries that Nutley resident (the late) Frances Goodrich wrote the screenplay for the orignal film classic of "It's a Wonderful Life." Goodrich also won a Pulitizer Prize for writing the stage play "The Diary of Anne Frank."

Earlier blog on Hall of Fame

Copyright © 2005 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission. Updated May 2008

Nutley Little Theatre

Buccino: Nutley Notables Autograph Party Sunday Afternoon

A NEW BOOK FOR NUTLEY HISTORY LOVERS 
NUTLEY NOTABLES: THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO MADE 
A MEMORABLE IMPACT ON OUR HOME TOWN, NUTLEY, NEW JERSEY 
BY ANTHONY BUCCINO 

 Nutley Notables invited to afternoon group-autograph session 
at coffee clatch on Sunday afternoon, Jan. 18, at Jarets Stuffed Cupcakes 

NUTLEY, NJ – In a new twist to the author signing and book launch for his new book Nutley Notables, the Men and Women Who Made a Memorable Impact on Our Home Town, Nutley, New Jersey, local author Anthony Buccino is inviting all the people mentioned in the 200-plus pages of biographical sketches about Nutley people to come and sign their profile page at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2015, at Jarets Stuffed Cupcakes, 231 Franklin Avenue, Nutley, N.J.

Nutley Notables include Old West sharpshooter Annie Oakley who has a street here named in her honor; home-diva Martha Stewart who grew up on Elm Place and often writes of growing up in Nutley but has no street named for her; and others who may have to wait a while for street naming honors.

Featured individuals run the gamut from politicians to high school coaches and athletes; from notorious personalities to beloved entertainers to the fellow in the local shop to the artists and writers who toiled long ago and today. Their images and stories document the unique contributions they've made that shaped Nutley today. Even the most ardent Nutley historian will find new surprises in this collection.

 The book launch will be at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2015, at Jarets Stuffed Cupcakes, 231 Franklin Avenue, Nutley, N.J. For more information, visit NutleyNotables.com. A limited supply will be available on site.

The book is available online at Amazon.com

 About the Author 

Nutley writer and author Anthony Buccino has published more than 15 books including four essay collections and three military history books. Buccino's writings won 2014 Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism Awards. His stories of the 1960s and his transit blog earned earlier SPJ Excellence in Journalism awards.

 For more information visit Nutley Notables

Who’s Who in Nutley Notables 

More than 200 Nutley notables are mentioned in Nutley Notables, the Men and Women Who Made a Memorable Impact on Our Home Town, Nutley, New Jersey, by Anthony Buccino.

 Here is a partial list of some notables you may or may not know:

Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful Life

Did you know that the screenplay for this film was written by Frances Goodrich and her husband Albert Hackett. She was born in Belleville, N.J. and moved at an early age to Nutley, N.J. The two were top screenwriters from the 1930s to the 1950s when they won the Pulitzer Prize for their play The Diary of Anne Frank.

And the pair worked on Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life" but it wasn't a pleasant experience for even the seasoned Hollywood screenwriters.

Check out The Real Nick and Nora