Whitney Warren

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Douglas, Melvyn [né Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg] (1901–81), actor and director. The suave leading man, who developed into a fine character actor, was born in Macon, Georgia, and made his stage debut in Chicago. He next spent several seasons with Jessie Bonstelle before briefly operating his own company in Madison, Wisconsin. Douglas first appeared in New York as the gambler Ace Wilfong in A Free Soul (1928). His acting in plays landed him a Hollywood contract, but he returned to Broadway in 1934 to play the philandering husband Sheridan Warren in No More Ladies and to win acclaim for his direction of O'Casey's Within the Gates. His next appearances were in failures, and Douglas returned to Hollywood until he re‐emerged after World War II as co‐producer of the ex‐soldier revue Call Me Mister (1946). His post‐war performances of note include newspaperman Tommy Thurston in Two Blind Mice (1949), the callous nightclub owner Wally Williams in The Bird Cage (1950), the middle‐aged bachelor‐father Steve Whitney in Glad Tidings (1951), and the staid banker‐father Howard Carol in the frivolous farce, Time Out for Ginger (1952). Douglas played this part for three seasons, before replacing Paul Muni in 1956 as the Clarence Darrow‐like Henry Drummond in a retelling of the Scopes evolution trial, Inherit the Wind. Following several failures, he won a Tony Award for his portrayal of William Russell, the idealistic presidential candidate, in The Best Man (1960). His last Broadway appearance was as a retired chicken farmer encroached on by suburbanites, the title role in Spofford (1967).

Warren & Wetmore. Successful NYC firm of architects practising from the 1890s to c.1930, founded by Whitney Warren (1864–1943) and Charles D. Wetmore (1866–1941). Warren's Paris Beaux-Arts training was apparent in the New York Yacht Club (1898–9) and the Grand Central Terminal, New York (with Charles A. Reed (1858–1911) and Allen H. Stem (1856–1931)—1903–13). Among other works may be cited the Biltmore Hotel, Madison Avenue/43rd Street (1914), Marshall Field Building, 200 Madison Avenue (1920), Equitable Trust Building, Madison Avenue (1918), the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Honolulu (1927), and the rebuilding of the University Library, Leuven, Belgium (1920— which had been destroyed by the Germans in the 1914–18 war).

Bibliography

Fitch & and Waite (1974);
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, xlv/3 (Sept. 1986), 270–85;
Meeks (1964);
Placzek (ed.) (1982);
K. Powell (1996);
Jane Turner (1996)

Whitney Warren 1864–1943, American architect, b. New York City, studied at the École des Beaux-Arts. He began practice in New York City in 1894. Later he joined with Charles D. Wetmore in a firm that had one of the most extensive practices of its time and was known for the designing of large hotels. Warren and Wetmore's New York works include the Grand Central Terminal (1903–13, built in collaboration with the firm Reed and Stem), the New York Central office building, the Chelsea docks, and the Ritz-Carlton, Biltmore, Commodore, and Ambassador hotels. After World War I they were entrusted with the reconstruction of the historic library of the Univ. of Louvain, Belgium, which had been destroyed by the Germans who again demolished it in 1940.