(Excerpt from The Miracle of the Bells An Observer would ...)
Excerpt from The Miracle of the Bells An Observer would have given this tall figure a second look. Per haps a third. As did several loungers about the platform who were not especially observant. They looked at him instead of at the long train now plunging eastward once more. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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(The author of The Miracle of the Bells has a second story...)
The author of The Miracle of the Bells has a second story which is similar in style and spirit to the earlier book. Its hero is ""Tightpants"" Halka, a young Viennese musician who comes to America and finds a wife of saintly virtue and mystical heritage. Their affinity is the La Celle statue of the virgin at the Cloisters and Halka finds a likeness to the statue in Olga, from Wilkes-Barre, who is trying out for a Ziegfeld chorus when he meets her. Olga's life is bound by legend- and after brief happiness in marriage she dies at the age of twenty-two, the last of the earthly counterparts of the statue. The statue itself responds to the joys and crises of the Halkas with a reddening of the breast once splattered by the blood of a crusader, or with a smile.
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("A melodrama in rhyme")
"A melodrama in rhyme"
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Janney was born on April 14, 1885, in Wilmington, Ohio, the son of Reynold Janney, a high school teacher, and of Ella Dixon. Shortly after his birth the family moved to Chillicothe, Ohio, where his father was high school principal. In 1894 they settled in Keene, New Hamphsire, where the elder Janney opened a bicycle manufacturing business.
Janney attended school in Keene, saw a number of professional touring companies - Keene was a popular stopover between Boston and Montreal - and began writing song lyrics and short sketches as preparation for a theatrical career. Janney continued his writing "hobby" at Yale, and by the time of his graduation in 1906 he had written and produced several plays for his college fraternity.
In 1907 Janney went to London, where he sought to establish himself as a theatrical press agent and free-lance writer. He studied commercial play production with George Edwardes and wrote publicity features for the producer Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree. After returning to the United States in 1910, Janney gained further experience by managing stock companies in Milwaukee and Indianapolis in association with Stuart Walker. He also published short stories in Smart Set and wrote sketches for the Ziegfeld Follies. In 1916 Janney and Walker presented a series of plays in New York City under the name of the Portmanteau Theater, but after a road tour Janney was forced back into publicity to recover his losses. In 1918 Janney and Walker produced a successful adaptation of Booth Tarkington's Seventeen in New York City. Three productions followed - June Love (1921), Marjolaine (1922), and Sancho Panza (1923) - but it was not until 1925 that Janney emerged as a significant producer with the success of The Vagabond King, which was based on Justin Huntly McCarthy's play about the dashing French poet Francois Villon. The Vagabond King was written by Janney and Brian Hooker, with music by Rudolf Friml. It became one of the biggest musical hits of the decade. By 1928 it had been produced in England and Australia and had grossed over $4 million. Janney's original New York production ran for 511 performances. The success of The Vagabond King enabled Janney to divide his time between producing and writing. He backed Ballyhoo (1927), White Eagle (1927), and The O'Flynn (1934). After the death of his longtime friend and business associate, Olga Treskoff, he began working on a novel about his experiences as a press agent and advance man. The result was Miracle of the Bells (1946), a sentimental and hopelessly romantic account of the funeral of a beautiful young actress (Olga Treskovna). By 1950 it had sold 700, 000 copies and generated, according to Janney, 10, 000 letters to the author. As a result of the publicity surrounding Miracle of the Bells, Janney undertook a nationwide speaking tour in 1946 sponsored by the National Conference of Christians and Jews. He lectured on brotherhood and racial and religious tolerance (popular themes in the novel) in thirty-five American cities. Some of his statements came back to haunt Janney when he was selected as the final juror in the 1949 trial of eleven Communist leaders in New York City. Determined to challenge the legality of the Smith Act (1940) and the jury selection process, lawyers for Gus Hall, Benjamin Davis, and other defendants prolonged this trial for 169 days. In the emotional and often chaotic atmosphere, prosecution witness former Communist Herbert Philbrick emerged as a national celebrity (his testimony became the basis for the popular television series I Led Three Lives). Meanwhile, Janney was repeatedly denounced in the press for earlier speeches in which he had condemned Communism for breeding intolerance. Despite the controversy Judge Harold Medina refused to remove Janney from the jury, which ultimately convicted the defendants of conspiring to advocate the violent overthrow of the United States government. Always a private person, Janney was stung by the publicity. His verse drama, The Vision of Red O'Shea (1949), was not well received, nor was his second novel, So Long as Love Remembers (1953). But he retained his sense of humor and lived his last years comfortably, in seclusion with his cats. He died in New York City on July 14, 1963, remembered more for a single novel than for the numerous theatrical ventures that had been his lifework.
(The author of The Miracle of the Bells has a second story...)
(Excerpt from The Miracle of the Bells An Observer would ...)
("A melodrama in rhyme")
After graduation Janney apparently married Edith Cramer, a musical comedy actress; they were subsequently divorced. There is little information about her or the marriage. Their son, William Janney, became a successful radio and motion picture actor.
