Old Man Minick

"'''Old Man Minick'''" is a short story by American author Edna Ferber first published in 1922. It was adapted into ''Minick'', a Broadway play staged in 1924, as well as the 1925 silent film ''Welcome Home'', the 1932 film ''The Expert'', and the 1939 film ''No Place to Go''.

==Background== In the 1910s and 1920s, women's magazines published fiction by well-known writers, including Edith Wharton, Somerset Maugham, and Edna Ferber.<ref name="Wood 2014"/> During this era, the short story "Old Man Minick" was one of a variety of works first published serially in women's periodicals and then developed into plays and film.<ref name="Wood 2014">{{cite journal |last1=Wood |first1=Bethany |title=Gentlemen Prefer Adaptations: Addressing Industry and Gender in Adaptation Studies |journal=Theatre Journal |date=December 2014 |volume=66 |issue=4 |pages=559–579|doi=10.1353/tj.2014.0120 |s2cid=143677872 }} {{ProQuest|1641640954}}</ref> Ferber was inspired to write the story after listening to three old men on a park bench in Washington Park in Chicago as they talked about life.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Granger |first1=Bill |title=FERBER'S WRITING JUST ROLLED ALONG Series: CHICAGO"S LITERARY LEGACY. This is the ninth in an occasional series of excerpts and brief biographies of great writers who have used Chicago as the backdrop and, frequently, the soul of their works.|work=Chicago Tribune |date=July 9, 1995}} {{ProQuest|283970662}}</ref>

==Plot== The story is set in Chicago in the early 20th century, where a seventy year-old widower, Jo Minick, has to learn how to live, after the unexpected death of his wife, to whom he had been married for forty years. Following her death he goes to live with his son, George and daughter-in-law, Nettie. He joins a club in Washington Park, where he meets with other widowers. The group is divided in their opinions as to which are happier, those who live with their children and those who live in aged care facilities. One day Minick overhears Nettie telling her friends that she can't have a child because she is looking after her father-in-law. Soon after Minick tells Nettie that he is moving to a nursing home and Nettie realises that he has heard her conversation. The story ends with Minick discovering that he enjoys his life at the old people's home because he has his freedom to do what he wants.

==Play== The story was adapted into the 1924 Broadway play, ''Minick'', by Ferber and George S. Kaufman,<ref name="TIME 1924"/><ref>{{cite news |title=The Great Collaborator |work=New York Times |date=November 13, 1966}} {{ProQuest|117661981}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Goldfarb |first1=Sheldon |title=Critical Survey of American Literature |date=2016 |publisher=Salem Press |page=926|via=EBSCOhost}}</ref> and published by Doubleday, Page & Company, in 1924.<ref name="auto">{{Cite book |last=Ferber |first=Edna |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mY8RMwEACAAJ |title=Old Man Minick. A Short Story. By Edna Ferber. Minick. A Play Based on the Short Story. By E. Ferber and George S. Kaufman, Etc |year=1924 |location=London |via=Google Books}}</ref>

The play had an African American actress, Emma Wise, cast as the Minicks' maid.<ref>Negro Yearbook 1925-26 by Monroe Work Tuskegee Institute 1925</ref><ref name="Meredith 1974"/> This was unusual for plays of the segregation era.<ref name="Meredith 1974">{{cite book |last1=Meredith |first1=Scott |title=George S. Kaufman and His Friends |date=1974 |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=978-0-385-01566-0 |page=228 |url=https://archive.org/details/georgeskaufmanhi00mere}}</ref> O. P. Heggie portrayed Minick in the 1924 show.<ref name="TIME 1924">{{cite magazine |title=New Plays |magazine=TIME Magazine |date=October 6, 1924|via=EBSCOhost}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-01-10 |title=O. P. Heggie |url=https://www.playbill.com/person/o-p-heggie-vault-0000019479 |access-date=2023-01-10 |website=Playbill.com}}</ref>

==Film adaptations== Famous Players–Lasky adapted the play into the 1925 silent film ''Welcome Home'', directed by James Cruze.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Hall |first1=Mourdant |title=Minick |work=New York Times |date=May 18, 1925}} {{ProQuest|103477269}}</ref> Warner Brothers produced the 1932 film ''The Expert''.<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 27, 1932 |title=Old Man Minick |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1932/02/27/archives/old-man-minick.html |website=The New York Times |via=}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=The New Pictures |magazine=TIME Magazine |date=March 7, 1932|via=EBSCOhost}}</ref> In 1939, Terry O. Morse directed the adaptation ''No Place to Go'', starring Dennis Morgan.

==Publication history== The story was republished in Ferber's 1947 short story collection ''One Basket'',<ref name="MacBride 1947">{{cite news |last1=MacBride |first1=James |title=Thirty-One by Ferber: ONE BASKET. Thirty-one Short Stories. By Edna Ferber |work=New York Times |date=February 16, 1947}} {{ProQuest|107847108}}</ref> and the 1955 anthology, ''The Golden Argosy: The Most Celebrated Short Stories in the English Language''.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Golden Argosy: A Collection of the Most Celebrated Short Stories in the English Language door Charles Grayson |url=https://www.librarything.com/work/1204568 |access-date=2023-01-10 |language=nl}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

Category:20th-century American literature Category:1922 short stories Category:Literature first published in serial form Category:Short stories adapted into plays Category:Short stories adapted into films Category:Works by Edna Ferber