Irish Roots of "Harvey"

First of all, Top O’ the Mornin’ to You on this St. Patrick’s Day! I didn’t imagine I’d have anything Irish to blog about today, but you just never know. We random-stuff bloggers have to pick up prompts wherever we can. There is Irish in my family tree, but it may not be the right kind for celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. My Grandpa Wilkin died when I was nine, but one time I did ask him, “Grampy, what are we?” and he replied, “Scotch-Irish”. Does that count as Irish? Probably not, as there is no Catholicism in my family tree.

One gray afternoon last week I popped one of my favorite movies into the DVD player……Harvey (1950), starring James Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd, who claims to have a six-foot white rabbit---a pooka named Harvey---as his constant companion. Harvey is invisible to everyone except Elwood, of course. The delightful, uplifting story is crammed with cleverness and humor, providing me with plenty of therapeutic laughter. The DVD contains “extra” features, one of which is a bio of Mary Coyle Chase (a daughter of Irish immigrants), the newspaper journalist from Denver, Colorado, who authored the Pulitzer-Prize-winning play, Harvey. Mary Chase wrote the play in an attempt to cheer up her grieving neighbor who had lost a son in World War II. That’s cool……her intent was not for fame or monetary gain, but to help her neighbor.

I’m in awe, also, of Mary Chase’s grasp and use of coincidence. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is when the orderly, Mr. Wilson, is looking up the word pooka in the dictionary. It is brilliant! Mary Chase attributed her story-telling abilities to her three Irish uncles. As a child, she would listen to them relate tales of fairies and pookas from Celtic mythology.

Bio of Mary Coyle Chase

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Here is director Alan Bailey’s notes for the 2008 production of Harvey at Commonweal Theater, Lanesboro, Minnesota (I visited the very cozy Commonweal Theater in Lanesboro several years ago when my daughter attended a summer drama camp there.):

Mary Chase was born in 1907 in Denver, Colorado, to parents who immigrated
to the United States from Ireland. In 1942, she began writing Harvey, a play about a
friendly inebriate named Elwood P. Dowd and his invisible companion. The inspiration
for the play came from a dream she had in which a psychiatrist was being chased by a
giant white rabbit. It reminded her of stories her Irish uncles had told about pookas,
mischievous goblins in Irish folklore who appear only to those who believe in them.

The pooka is well-known as one of the most powerful of Irish fairy folk. It is an
adroit shape-shifter, and it may appear as a horse, rabbit, goat, goblin, or dog. Though
the pooka enjoys confusing and sometimes terrifying humans, it is considered
benevolent. It has the power of human speech, and it has been known to give advice
and lead people away from danger. The names of both Puck from A Midsummer Night’s
Dream and Winnie-the-Pooh are said to have derivations in common with the word
"pooka."

Mary Chases's play Harvey enjoyed a phenomenally successful Broadway run,
playing for nearly five years after its 1944 opening. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama,
and the 1950 film version starring James Stewart has achieved iconic status.
The dreamer that lies in each of us should never lose sight of the following ...
this play that has become a classic ...
this play that has endured for generations ..this play that is about one of the most famous dreamers in literature was
created because an artist listened to her dream.

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In my unlearned view, the underlying theme of Harvey seems to be that larger forces are at work to bring joy into our lives, often in ways that seem comical or troublesome. James Stewart’s character, Elwood P. Dowd, is most certainly an oddball at first glance. For reasons never quite made clear, Elwood is completely resigned to the fact that the pooka, Harvey, is his constant companion. Elwood and Harvey prevail at every turn, effortlessly dodging attempts to thwart them. They guide and nudge those around them onto paths that lead to hope and joy. Harvey is most certainly a form of the trickster, about whom myths and tales have been told in many cultures down through the ages. Christians know it is the Holy Spirit, working miracles here and there as He pleases. Elwood never quenched the Spirit's influence……he was in step with it.

May you have a blessed St. Patrick's Day, whether you are properly Irish or not. I will be wearing green just in case my Irishness is legitimate.
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(Harvey---or whoever my trickster is---must have been at work while I was writing this post. I had the whole blogpost finished in Live Writer, but then somehow managed to close the Live Writer window, deleting the whole thing. Evidently, Live Writer does not auto-save as you write, like Blogger does. My husband came in for his noon meal right then, and I’m afraid I was very quiet as we ate, because I was running sentences over and over in my mind so I wouldn’t forget what I had written.)

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May your trickster show kindness to you today!

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