BroadwayRadio: All the Drama

Episode: “The Time of Your Life”, 1940 Winner, Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Host: Jan Simpson
Guest: Scott Satrakian, President of the William Saroyan Foundation
Date: January 10, 2026

Main Theme & Purpose

This episode of "All the Drama" explores William Saroyan’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Time of Your Life (1940). Host Jan Simpson presents a biography of Saroyan, examines the play’s creation and critical reception, and discusses Saroyan's complex legacy—with key insights from Scott Satrakian, President of the William Saroyan Foundation. The episode delves into Saroyan’s values, influence, notorious decision to reject the Pulitzer, and his enduring impact on American theater and literature.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Historical and Biographical Context (00:32-19:30)

• America in 1940: Unemployment dropping from Great Depression highs, strikes for workers' rights, the specter of WWII (00:32).
• Saroyan’s Early Life:
  • Born in Fresno, CA, to Armenian immigrant parents escaping Ottoman persecution.
  • Endured poverty: spent years in an orphanage, first jobs delivering newspapers and telegrams.
  • Inspired by his late father’s unpublished writings; dedicated early life to fulfilling his father’s literary dream.

"When he read short stories in some of the national literary magazines, he decided that he could write better ones." — Jan Simpson (02:24)

• Breakthrough as a Writer:

  • Achieved critical acclaim and success with "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze" (1933).
  • Became a fast, prolific writer, with stories appearing in prominent magazines.

• Transition to Theatre:

  • First play My Heart’s in the Highlands (1939); short run but critical admiration.
  • Next, The Time of Your Life—famously written in six days—set in a dive bar and populated by a patchwork of outcasts and dreamers.

2. The Time of Your Life: Creation and Reception (10:44-19:30)

• Troubled Production:

  • Creative clashes with cast and crew, director quitting, cast overhauls.
  • Gene Kelly and William Bendix brought in during emergency recasting.
  • Despite out-of-town failures, Broadway opening was a triumphant hit.

• Critical & Prize Recognition:

  • Won both the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award and the Pulitzer; the only play at the time to achieve both.
  • Pulitzer jury called the season "the poorest in years" but saw Saroyan’s play as advancing the art form (12:55).

• Saroyan Rejects the Pulitzer:

  • Declined both the honor and its $1,000 prize, stating,

    "Creative work shouldn't be judged by institutions tied to money... Commerce has no right to patronize art." — Jan Simpson (15:22)

• Continued Career Triumphs and Struggles:

  • Broadway and Hollywood success; yet many later plays did not replicate his early acclaim.
  • Adapted The Human Comedy for MGM—film became a hit, but Saroyan again rejected an Oscar for screenplay.

3. Saroyan’s Enduring Legacy (17:42-19:30)

• The Time of Your Life saw adaptations starring James Cagney, Jackie Gleason, Henry Fonda, Kevin Kline, and Patti LuPone.
• Saroyan remained prolific until late in life, producing memoirs and art, and contributing to music history (co-wrote “Come On-a My House”).
• Notably tumultuous personal life—divorce, estrangement from children, compulsive gambling.

Interview Highlights with Scott Satrakian (19:30-40:05)

The William Saroyan Foundation (19:34-21:26)

• Founded by Saroyan in 1966 to preserve and promote his literary/artistic legacy and support educational/literary causes globally.

Saroyan’s Values and Relevance (21:28-22:39)

• Emphasized “the value of all humanity,” facing adversity with engagement, humor, and love.
• Foundation recently ran programs in Armenia to introduce new generations to Saroyan’s warmth and socially conscious vision.

"Saroyan's values were very much focused on the value of all humanity and the intention of facing adversity with engagement with one's own personal style, and also with a sense of humor and love." — Scott Satrakian (21:39)

Personal Anecdotes: Discovering the Play (22:58-23:59)

• Satrakian’s first interest sparked by baseball owner Bill Veeck’s use of an “exploding pinball machine” in The Time of Your Life as inspiration for an iconic scoreboard.
• First reading as a child felt confusing but later viewed as “an explosion of creativity and interpersonal relationships.”

Ranking & Uniqueness of The Time of Your Life (24:05-26:47)

• Cites Kurt Vonnegut’s 1981 tribute:

  "He was one of only two persons in my own time, I think, who would write plays and stories with equal facility. The other was Somerset Maugham... Saroyan wished to be perceived as a gifted primitive. Neither man was a fake..." — [Read by John Updike at Saroyan’s tribute, originally by Kurt Vonnegut] (24:27)

• Saroyan had a unique cross-medium impact—multiple bestsellers, successful stage scripts, Academy Award winner.

Why the Pulitzer for The Time of Your Life? (27:19-28:50)

• Saroyan was "the man of the moment"—brilliant, progressive, red-hot in literary New York.
• Dramatic story: salvaged an out-of-town flop, recast, co-directed, and turned it into a smash—compelling narrative for the Pulitzer committee.

The Pulitzer Rejection (29:02-31:57)

• Saroyan’s public rationale was keeping art separate from commerce, but Satrakian suspects it was a spur-of-the-moment, “bad boy” move—more about tweaking the establishment.
• Saroyan’s family later felt that this public dismissal affected his chances for major international literary honors, e.g., the Nobel Prize.

"I don't think that his decision to reject the Pulitzer was very well considered. I actually think, you know, he was kind of a bad boy. He was cutting his way through the literary scene and I think he originally did it just to kind of tweak the nose of the establishment... I kind of think that was a little bit of an ex post decision, not one that was actually driving the reason for it." — Scott Satrakian (29:17)

Saroyan’s Declining Popularity and Critical Fortune (32:28-35:03)

• Wrote very quickly, sometimes to the detriment of quality.
• Postwar American tastes shifted: optimism, “muscular” Hemingway-type fiction, less interest in Saroyan’s sentimental focus on the dignity of the overlooked and the poor.
• Not all later plays were as strong; some were written out of spite or lacked the freshness of his early work.

Personal Struggles Impacting Legacy (35:18-39:36)

• Saroyan’s gambling addiction devastating—at times wagered the equivalent of $1.2 million per day, which contributed to later financial and familial ruin.
• In later years, churned out work for any publisher (including lower-tier magazines) to recover financially; harmed his critical standing.
• Notoriously difficult and prickly personality. Family and biographical accounts (e.g., by his son, Aram) confirm he was often unfriendly, perhaps at odds with the image in his work.

"He was a very addicted gambler... During this period... he was arguably making more money than almost anybody in the world and certainly anybody in the literary arts. He was making a fortune. He was also gambling astonishing amounts of money." — Scott Satrakian (35:18)

• Reputation suffered as a result of both personal behavior and relentless output to pay debts, but a late-life resurgence brought some critical redemption.

Notable Quotes

• "Commerce has no right to patronize art." — William Saroyan, via Jan Simpson (15:22)

• "It’s just a sensational, really spectacular kind of explosion of creativity and interpersonal relationships. It’s really amazing." — Scott Satrakian on The Time of Your Life (23:54)

• "The backstory of both the career that was in flight and also the way he had taken over this production and taking it from a disaster to a massive hit must have been just like catnip for the Pulitzer board. Right? That’s just such a great story." — Scott Satrakian (28:18)

• "He was a very addicted gambler... He was making a fortune. He was also gambling astonishing amounts of money... at the racetrack in Los Angeles in the early 40s, today's equivalent of $1.2 million. A day." — Scott Satrakian (35:18)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:32 — Historical and family background of Saroyan
• 08:15 — Transition from prose to theatre
• 13:00 — The making (and saving) of The Time of Your Life
• 15:22 — Saroyan rejects the Pulitzer Prize
• 19:30 — Interview: Introduction of Scott Satrakian
• 21:39 — Saroyan’s values and their contemporary relevance
• 23:00 — Satrakian’s first encounter with the play
• 24:27 — Kurt Vonnegut’s tribute at Saroyan’s memorial
• 28:18 — The play’s dramatic backstory and critical success
• 29:17 — Motivations behind the Pulitzer rejection
• 35:18 — Saroyan’s gambling addiction and its effects
• 39:09 — Saroyan's difficult personality and legacy

Memorable Moments and Takeaways

• Saroyan’s creative process was astonishingly rapid and prolific, sometimes at the cost of consistent quality.
• His generosity and humanist values shine in his work—contrasted by personal demons (gambling, family estrangement).
• His decision to reject the Pulitzer became both a badge of independence and a potential long-term liability for his reputation.
• The Time of Your Life endures as a testament to kindness, dreams, and the possibility of redemption, both in its story and its creator’s own journey.

For Further Listening & Reading

• Check out Saroyan’s The Time of Your Life, his short stories collection The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze, and his autobiographical works.
• Explore more about mid-century American theater and literary trends for context on Saroyan’s style and shift in critical favor.

End of Summary