The Gibson Upright

The Gibson Upright by Booth Tarkington

Booth Tarkington was born on July 29, 1869 in Indianapolis, Indiana.  He is one of only three novelists to win the Pulitzer Prize more than once.  When you look through the quality of his work it is easy to understand why. The Magnificent Ambersons, Alice Adams, Penrod, Penrod And Sam – all classics. The Penrod novels depict a typical upper-middle class American boy of 1910 vintage, revealing a fine, bookish sense of American humor. At one time, his Penrod series was as well known andregarded as Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. Much of Tarkington's work consists of satirical and closely observed studies of the American class system and its foibles. Coming as he did from a patrician Midwestern family that lost much of its wealth after the Panic of 1873 the foundations for that outlook are clear. Today, he is best known for his novel The Magnificent Ambersons which contrasted the decline of the old money Amberson dynasty with the rise of new money industrial tycoons in the years between the American Civil War and World War I. In this volume you have an opportunity to read one his plays, The Gibson Upright. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Cast Of Characters

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

CAST OF CHARACTERS

ANDREW GIBSON, a piano factory owner

NORA GORODNA, a piano tester and socialist labor organizer

MR. MIFFLIN, a socialist journalist

CARTER, an elderly factory worker

FRANKEL, a young Jewish factory worker

SHOMBERG, a factory worker

SIMPSON, an elderly factory worker

SALVATORE, an Italian factory worker

RILEY, a truck driver

ELLA, Mr. Gibson's housemaid

MRS. SIMPSON, wife of Simpson

MRS. COMMISKEY, wife of a worker (offstage voice)

POLENSKI, a worker

FIRST WOP and SECOND WOP, workers

ACT I

[ANDREW GIBSON'S office in his piano factory where he manufactures The Gibson Upright. A very plain interior; pleasant to the eye, yet distinctly an office in a factory, and without luxuries; altogether utilitarian.

Against the wall on our right is a roll-top desk, open, very neat, and in the centre of the writing pad a fresh rose stands in a glass of water. Near by is a long, plain table and upon it a very neat arrangement of correspondence and a couple of ledgers.

Against the walls are a dozen plain cane-seated chairs. Near the centre of the room is a sample of the Gibson upright piano in light wood. There is a large safe, showing the word Gibson, and there are filing cases. In the rear wall there is a door with the upper half of opaque glass, which shows Mr. Gibson in reverse; and near this door is a water filter upon a stand. In the wall upon our left is a plain wooden door. The rear door opens into the factory; the other into a hall that leads to the street.

Upon the walls are several posters, one showing The Gibson Upright, a happy family, including children and a grandparent, exclaiming with joy at sight of this instrument. Another shows a concert singer singing widely beside The Gibson Upright, with an accompanist seated. Another shows a semi-colossal millionaire, and a workingman of similar size in paper cap and apron, shaking hands across The Gibson Upright, and, printed: $188.00 - The Price for the Millionaire, the Same for Plain John Smith - $188.00. This poster and the others all show the slogan: How Cheap, BUT How Good!

Nothing is new in this room, but everything is clean and accurately in order. The arrangement is symmetrical.

As the curtain rises NORA GORODNA is seen at work on the sample Gibson Upright. The front is not removed; but through the top of the piano she is adjusting something with a small wrench. NORA is a fine-looking young woman, not over twenty-six; she wears a plain smock over a dark dress. As she is a piano tester in the factory she is dressed neither so roughly as a working woman nor perhaps so fashionably as a stenographer. She is serious and somewhat preoccupied. From somewhere come the sounds of several pianos being tuned. After a moment NORA goes thoughtfully to the desk and looks at the rose in the glass; then lifts the glass as if to inhale the odour of the rose, but abruptly alters her decision and sets the glass down without doing so. She returns quickly and decisively to her work at the piano, as if she had made a determination.

A bell at the door on our left rings. NORA goes to the door and opens it.]

NORA: Good morning, Mr. Mifflin.

MIFFLIN: [entering]: Good morning, Miss Gorodna.

[MIFFLIN is a beaming man of forty, with gold-rimmed eyeglasses and a somewhat grizzled beard which has been, a week or so ago, a neatly trimmed Vandyke. He wears a cutaway suit, not much pressed, not new; a derby hat, a standing collar, and a four-in-hand dark tie; hard, round cuffs, not link cuffs. He carries a folded umbrella, not a fashionable one; wears no gloves; and has two or three old magazines and a newspaper under his arm.]

MIFFLIN: I believe I'm here just to the hour, Miss Gorodna.

NORA: Mr. Gibson has been very nice about it. He told me he would give you the interview for your article. He's in the factory trying to settle some things he can't settle. I'll let him know you're here.

[She goes out by the door into the factory. MIFFLIN, smiling with benevolent anticipation, places his umbrella and hat on a chair, then takes his fountain pen and a pencil from his pocket, smilingly decides to use the pencil, sharpens it without going to a wastebasket over by the desk; then beamingly looks about the room. He is about to strike a chord on