Early years Mosel was born
George Ault Mosel, Jr. in Steubenville, Ohio, to George Ault Mosel, Sr. and Margaret Norman. Raised as a Presbyterian, he was eight years old when his father's wholesale grocery business failed following the stock market crash, and the family moved to the suburbs of New York City. In 1931, George, Sr. launched a successful New York advertising company. Remembering his youth in Larchmont, New York, and New Rochelle, New York, Mosel stated: :My brother and I were given a sense of security. My brother is four years older than I am. We had a good, wonderful home. I had a marvelous mother and father... I adored my mother and father. They were both wonderful parents. In 1997, Mosel recalled: :
Paddy Chayefsky,
Horton Foote,
Sumner Locke Elliott,
JP Miller and all of the group of writers that I knew, we grew up at the same time, and our eyes were on the theater. That was the Emerald City. That was the goal. Now, television came on after World War II, and television was a pauper. It had no money. No "self-respecting writer" would deign to write for television. Even drunken screenwriters wouldn't write for television. So who was there left? It was us. It was kids who would work for 65 cents. And so with a very patronizing attitude you thought, "Well, if I could make a few bucks doing that, it would give me time to write the great American play." It didn't take too much experience to realize that television was a medium all in itself, and that it was a career all in itself, and it was a thrilling one. But we stumbled into it by being snobs if I may say so. They would give anyone a chance. I look back on it, and I think, "Weren't we lucky to be there?" Because it was pure luck that we were there... It was the stillness before you went on the air that was so dramatic because everybody would be in place in plenty of time, but everybody would be silent. Nobody talking, nobody moving--the hands on the keys but not moving. The only thing moving was the second hand on the big clock, and then when it hit the top everybody started to move. It was very dramatic, that peace, that calm before you took the dive into it. It was a great thrilling moment and you suddenly loved every actor, and you just wanted them all to be rich and have children and go to happy graves. Mosel's
All the Way Home premiered in New York November 30, 1960, at the Belasco Theater to critical acclaim. In addition to winning a 1961 Pulitzer Prize, the play was nominated for a Tony Award. A stage adaptation of
James Agee's novel
A Death in the Family, it dramatizes the reactions of a Tennessee family to the father's accidental death in the summer of 1915. The play was also performed several times on television—in 1963, 1971 and 1981. In Denmark it was known as
I havn and directed for Danish television by
Clara Østø in 1959. The movie adaptation of
All The Way Home (1963) was filmed in the same Knoxville, Tennessee neighborhood where Agee was raised. Directed by
Alex Segal, it starred
Robert Preston,
Jean Simmons and
Pat Hingle. Mosel wrote screenplays for the films
Dear Heart, starring
Glenn Ford and
Geraldine Page, with Mosel seen in a cameo appearance as the Man in Lobby, and the popular
Up the Down Staircase, based on the novel by
Bel Kaufman and starring
Sandy Dennis. He was nominated for an
Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series for an episode of
The Adams Chronicles, a PBS drama series based on the lives of presidents
John Adams and
John Quincy Adams and their families. Many of Mosel's plays for television are available for viewing at
The Paley Center for Media in New York City and Los Angeles.
Personal life Mosel's death at age 86 of esophageal cancer came after 18 years of residency at Havenwood-Heritage Heights, a retirement community in Concord, New Hampshire, where he often lectured. He was preceded in death in 1995 by
Raymond Tatro, ''
McCall's'' magazine graphic designer; they were partners for more than 40 years. ==Legacy==