Sumner Locke Elliott

Elliott was born in Sydney to the writer Sumner Locke and the journalist Henry Logan Elliott. His mother died of eclampsia one day after his birth.[http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A100117b.htm] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070322212947/http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A100117b.htm |date=22 March 2007 }} Elliott was raised by his aunts, who had a fierce custody battle over him, fictionalised in Elliott's autobiographical novel, Careful, He Might Hear You. Elliott was educated at Cranbrook School in Bellevue Hill, Sydney.

Elliott became an actor and writer with the Doris Fitton's The Independent Theatre Ltd. He was drafted into the Australian Army in 1942, but instead of being posted overseas, he worked as a clerk in Australia. He used these experiences as the inspiration for his controversial play, Rusty Bugles. The play toured extensively throughout Australia and achieved the notoriety of being closed down for obscenity by the Chief Secretary's Office.{{cite book|last=Alomes|first=Stephen|title=When London Calls: The Expatriation of Australian Creative Artists to Britain|url=https://archive.org/details/whenlondoncalls00step|url-access=registration|date=11 October 1999|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-62978-2|page=[https://archive.org/details/whenlondoncalls00step/page/35 35]}}

However, Rusty Bugles' place in the history of Australian theatre rests on more than notoriety. Mac is a memorable character in the play, and in the first production, Frank O'Donnell transformed audiences' understanding of the typical Australian 'bludger' or 'scrounger'. To the men in his unit, he appeared a winner even when he was losing, but with the discovery of his wife's infidelity, his fragility becomes apparent.{{cite web|url=http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/elliottsl/elliottsl.html|title=Sumner Locke Elliott|publisher=Middlemiss.org|accessdate=28 October 2014|archive-date=17 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180317023726/http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/elliottsl/elliottsl.html|url-status=live}}

Elliott moved to the United States in 1948, where he ranked in the pantheon of leading playwrights during the Golden Age of live television dramas, writing more than 30 original plays and numerous adaptations for such shows as The Philco Television Playhouse, Kraft Television Theatre, Studio One and Playhouse 90. He also wrote a play, Buy Me Blue Ribbons, which had a short run on Broadway.{{cite web|title=Buy Me Blue Ribbons|publisher=Internet Broadway Database|url=http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=1965|accessdate=28 October 2014|archive-date=28 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141028213600/http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=1965|url-status=live}}

In 1955, he obtained United States citizenship and did not return to Australia until 1974. His TV play The Grey Nurse Said Nothing aired on TV in the US and Australia.{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-australian-tv-plays-the-grey-nurse-said-nothing/|title=Forgotten Australian TV Plays: The Grey Nurse Said Nothing|date=November 17, 2020}}

Elliott's best known novel, Careful, He Might Hear You, won the 1963 Miles Franklin Award and was turned into a film in 1983.

As a gay man during a time when this was socially disapproved of, Elliott was uncomfortable with his sexuality. He kept it secret until nearly the end of his life before coming out in his book Fairyland. Because of these fears, Elliott had affairs but never had any stable relationships.[http://andrejkoymasky.com/liv/fam/bioe1/elli03.html] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060625213135/http://andrejkoymasky.com/liv/fam/bioe1/elli03.html |date=25 June 2006 }}

He died of colon cancer aged 73 in New York City in 1991.

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• Careful, He Might Hear You (1963)
• Some Doves and Pythons (1966)
• Edens Lost (1969)
• The Man Who Got Away (1972)
• Going (1975)
• Water Under the Bridge (1977)
• Rusty Bugles (1980)
• Signs of Life (1981)
• About Tilly Beamis (1985)
• Waiting for Childhood (1987)
• Fairyland (1990)

• Radio Days (1993)

• Storm (1931) (one-act)
• The Folly of It (1938)
• Interval (1939)
• The Cow Jumped Over the Moon (1939)
• The Little Sheep Run Fast (1940)
• Goodbye to the Music (1942)
• Your Obedient Servant (1943)
• The Invisible Circus (1946)
• Wicked Is the Vine (first Australian play to be televised in US){{cite web|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18091672|title=Sydney Morning Herald |date=27 October 1948|publisher=Trove.nla.gov.au|accessdate=28 October 2014}}
• Rusty Bugles (1948)
• Buy Me Blue Ribbons (1951)
• John Murray Anderson's Almanac (1953)

• "Wicked is the Vine"
• "The Crater"{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-australian-tv-plays-australia-on-us-tv-wicked-is-the-vine-and-the-crater/|title=Forgotten Australian TV Plays: Australia on US TV – Sumner Locke Elliott's Wicked is the Vine and The Crater|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|date=September 11, 2022|access-date=23 February 2023|archive-date=23 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230223113548/https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-australian-tv-plays-australia-on-us-tv-wicked-is-the-vine-and-the-crater/|url-status=live}}
• "The Girl with the Stop Watch" (1953)[https://archive.org/details/variety192-1953-10/page/n275/mode/1up?q=%22sumner+locke%22 Review of production] at Variety - this was directed by Arthur Penn and "Beloved Stranger" (1955), for Goodyear Television Playhouse (1955)
• "The Thin Air" (1952), "We Were Children" (1952),[https://archive.org/details/variety186-1952-05/page/n35/mode/1up?q=%22sumner+locke%22 Review of play] at Variety "Fadeout" (1953),[https://archive.org/details/variety191-1953-08/page/n219/mode/1up?q=%22sumner+locke%22 Review of production] at Variety "Before I Wake" (1953)[https://archive.org/details/variety190-1953-06/page/n121/mode/2up?q=%22sumner+locke%22 Review] at Variety and "Friday the 13th" (1954) for The Philco Television Playhouse
• "The King and Mrs. Candle"[https://archive.org/details/variety199-1955-08/page/n229/mode/1up?q=%22sumner+locke%22 Review of production] at Variety and "The Women" (1956)[https://archive.org/details/variety197-1955-02/page/n118/mode/1up?q=%22sumner+locke%22 Review of production] at Variety for Producers' Showcase (1955)
• "Whereabouts Unknown" for The Kaiser-Aluminum Hour (1957)
• "Little Women" (1950), "Babe in the Woods" (1957) and "Love at Fourth Sight" (1957) for Studio One
• "The Count of Monte Cristo" (1958), "The Winslow Boy" (1958) and "The Prisoner of Zenda" (1961) for Dupont Show of the Month
• "Keyhole" (1956), "Daisy! Daisy!" (1956)[https://archive.org/details/variety200-1955-11/page/n327/mode/1up?q=%22sumner+locke%22 Review of production] at Variety and "You and Me and the Gatepost" (1956)[https://archive.org/details/variety202-1956-04/page/n171/mode/1up?q=%22sumner+locke%22 Review of play] at Variety for Playwrights '56
• "I Heard You Calling Me" (1961), for Way Out
• "Mrs. Gilling and the Skyscraper" (1957) for The Alcoa Hour
• "Dusty Portrait" (1952), "Wish on the Moon" (1953), Time Bomb and "Run Girl Run" (1954) for The Philco Television Playhouse.
• "Peter Pan" (1960) starring Mary Martin[https://archive.org/details/variety221-1960-12/page/n116/mode/1up?q=%22sumner+locke%22 Review of production] at Variety
• "Notorious" (1962) and "Spellbound" (1962) for Theatre 62

• Crazy Family (1939) - serial
• Jezebel's Daughter (1941) - serial
• Tradesman's Entrance (1941) - radio serial
• Grand City (1942) - serial
• Scarlet Rhapsody - serial
• The Army Hour (1944)
• Lily Parker
• "Wicked is the Vine" – Lux Radio Theatre (1947)
• Ride a Cock Horse (play)
• "Fade Out" (1953)[https://archive.org/details/variety192-1953-10/page/n43/mode/1up?q=%22sumner+locke%22 Review of production] at Variety for Philco Radio Playhouse

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{{Reflist}}

• [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE5D71130F935A15755C0A967958260 Obituary, The New York Times, June 26, 1991]
• {{IMDb name|id=0254641|name=Sumner Locke Elliott}}
• [http://www.ausstage.edu.au/indexdrilldown.jsp?xcid=59&f_contrib_id=228156 Sumner Locke Elliott Australian theatre credits] at AusStage

{{Sumner Locke Elliott}}

{{Miles Franklin Literary Award}}

{{Authority control}}

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Category:1917 births

Category:1991 deaths

Category:Australian emigrants to the United States

Category:Australian people of English descent

Category:American gay writers

Category:Australian LGBTQ novelists

Category:Miles Franklin Award winners

Category:Patrick White Award winners

Category:Gay novelists

Category:Gay dramatists and playwrights

Category:20th-century Australian novelists

Category:20th-century American novelists

Category:20th-century American dramatists and playwrights

Category:American LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights

Category:American LGBTQ novelists

Category:American male novelists

Category:American male dramatists and playwrights

Category:20th-century Australian male writers

Category:Australian male novelists

Category:20th-century American male writers

Category:20th-century Australian LGBTQ people

Category:Australian gay writers

Category:Australian LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights