Gerald Weales

Contributor

BSR Contributor Since November 18, 2008

Gerald Weales (1925-2013) was a retired English professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a longtime theater critic. He died August 30, 2013.

Gerald Weales (1925-2013) was a drama specialist, a sometimes reviewer of theater (retired from Commonweal after 25 years), author or editor of a great many books, most of which are now out of print (last chance to buy Canned Goods as Caviar, which the University of Chicago Press is letting go out of print). He subsequently wrote a yearly theater roundup for The Georgia Review. He graduated (A.B., M.A., Ph.D.) from Columbia so long ago that the trolleys were still running on upper Broadway when he began there. He lived in University City, Philadelphia.

By this Author

5 results
Page 1

My pal, Rick Santorum

Santorum and me: Oh, the things we'll do!
I've been receiving “Dear Gerald” messages lately from Rick Santorum. Although we've never met and I'm 30 years his senior, the former Senator seems to think we're old buddies.

Gerald Weales

Essays 3 minute read
Cialis commercial: If I could only get out of this tub....

On selling Viagra

The best is yet to be? Or, Selling sex to seniors
These days, when I can barely get out of my chair, my junk-mail warehouse is awash with offers of oral sex aids. My TV promises visual metaphors of sex on beaches and in bathtubs. And then there's my priapic role model, Hugh Hefner.

Gerald Weales

Essays 3 minute read
Guthrie: The unkindest cut.

A new soccer team's fight song

Julia Ward Howe, call your office
Woody Guthrie's “Union Maid,” the unofficial anthem of the American labor movement, has now been appropriated by Philadelphia's new professional soccer franchise. Of course, it could have been worse: They could have chosen "La Marseillaise."

Gerald Weales

Essays 3 minute read
Happy days are here again.

Financial ingenuity in hard times

Making the best of our recession
In these economically trying times, ingenious bankers have found a new opportunity: life settlement insurance policies. If Al Capone were here, he could suggest a way to maximize their return on investment.

Gerald Weales

Essays 2 minute read
They said it couldn't be done.

Life imitates Hollywood

Stranger than fiction
A preposterous incident in the 1939 Howard Hawks film Only Angels Have Wings actually occurred this month. What, if any, are the implications for America’s incoming administration?

Gerald Weales

Essays 3 minute read