Bill Text: CA SR122 | 2017-2018 | Regular Session | Enrolled
Bill Title: Relative to the 65th anniversary of the death of Eugene Gladstone O’Neill
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Passed) 2018-08-23 - Read. Adopted. (Ayes 39. Noes 0. Page 5629.) [SR122 Detail]
Download: California-2017-SR122-Enrolled.html
|
Enrolled
August 24, 2018 |
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Passed
IN
Senate
August 23, 2018 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2017–2018 REGULAR SESSION
| Senate Resolution | No. 122 |
| Introduced by Senators Hertzberg and Glazer |
August 08, 2018 |
Relative to the 65th anniversary of the death of Eugene Gladstone O’Neill
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SR 122, Hertzberg.
Digest Key
Bill Text
WHEREAS, Eugene Gladstone O’Neill was born on October 16, 1888, in a hotel room in New York to the famous actor James O’Neill and his wife, and he would grow up to be America’s Shakespeare and the most honored American playwright; and
WHEREAS, Spending most of his young life at a boarding school, O’Neill found a release from his chaotic family life and schoolwork through literature; and
WHEREAS, O’Neill discovered freedom by turning to a life at sea, where he ultimately came to grapple with the hardships of poverty and loneliness, and even attempted suicide. These experiences resonated with O’Neill and later surfaced through his plays; and
WHEREAS, O’Neill wrote 38 plays, as well as numerous one-act plays, and he received three Pulitzer Prizes within his lifetime for his works: Beyond the Horizon, Anna Christie, and Strange Interlude; and
WHEREAS, Struggling with the debilitating effects of Parkinson’s disease and believing his career as a writer was over, O’Neill moved to California with his wife, Carlotta, where they lived in Danville at Tao House, now a national historic site; and
WHEREAS, Reinvigorated by his years in California, O’Neill would write the three greatest plays of his storied career: The Iceman Cometh, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten, the second of which posthumously earned him a fourth Pulitzer Prize and is often listed as the greatest American play ever written; and
WHEREAS, In 1936, O’Neill became the first, and to this day, the only American playwright to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. His plays are continuously in performance all over the world; and
WHEREAS, On November 27, 1953, unable to write for 10 years and suffering from health complications, Eugene O’Neill died at 65 years of age in a hotel room by the Charles River in Boston; and
WHEREAS, In 1976, O’Neill’s California home, Tao House, was established as a national historic site; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate of the State of California,That Eugene Gladstone O’Neill be honored on the 65th anniversary of his death at 65 years of age for his influence as a playwright on the American theatre, his extraordinary California plays, and his unparalleled contributions to literature and drama; and be it further
Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.
