Dorothy Parker’s induction into N.J. shrine celebrated

 Dorothy Parker Society founder Kevin Fitzpatrick reads from his book, “Dorothy Parker: Complete Broadway, 1918-1923,” which highlights the life and works of the Long Branch-born essayist, poet and critic.  PHOTOS BY KAYLA MARSH/STAFF Dorothy Parker Society founder Kevin Fitzpatrick reads from his book, “Dorothy Parker: Complete Broadway, 1918-1923,” which highlights the life and works of the Long Branch-born essayist, poet and critic. PHOTOS BY KAYLA MARSH/STAFF LONG BRANCH — She was a poet, critic, crusader and a celebrated New Yorker. Now, after eight years of campaigning by her advocates, Dorothy Parker is a new addition to the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

Born in a summer cottage in the West End section of Long Branch, Parker’s life and works were the topic of a Nov. 13 program held by the Long Branch Arts Council at the Long Branch Free Public Library to celebrate her induction that night.

In a room of around two-dozen people surrounded by glass cases featuring Dorothy memorabilia, Parker was deemed a woman ahead of her time, defying tradition and going against the norms of society.

“Dorothy Parker didn’t get into the

 “Dorothy Parker: Complete Broadway, 1918-1923” “Dorothy Parker: Complete Broadway, 1918-1923” Academy of Arts and Letters for telling jokes,” Kevin Fitzpatrick, author and president of the Dorothy Parker Society, said.

On a night filled with Dorothy Parker trivia, Fitzpatrick noted that Parker was only 24 when she started at Vanity Fair magazine as Broadway’s only female theater critic.

“She was at a time in Broadway theater history that was like no other time before,” he said. “She was going to Eugene O’Neill shows when O’Neill was writing them and helping to cast them.”

During the event, the library outreach manager Lisa Kelly read from Parker’s best-known short story, “Big Blonde.”

“Before I came to Long Branch, I didn’t really know anything about Dorothy Parker, and it just became one of those short stories that I would like to go back and reread every now and then,” Kelly said, calling the story a “high point of her life.”

Long Branch Arts Council member Beth Woolley read from a review of Parker’s on John Barrymore’s “Hamlet,” starring Edwin Booth. Woolley noted that all three individuals — Parker, Booth and Barrymore — “all summered on Ocean Avenue in Long Branch in the same 1890s period” and that Parker was born during a hurricane, while Booth died during one.

Woolley said she was first introduced to Parker when she was 13 and read Parker’s poem “Inventory” in a magazine at a beauty parlor one day.

“I remember thinking I liked that, so I went to the library and took out ‘The Collected Dorothy Parker’ and never realized for years and years that she was born here,” she said.

Reading several critiques of Parker’s from his new book, “Dorothy Parker: Complete Broadway, 1918- 1923,” Fitzpatrick said the five-year journey of completing the book allowed him to gain insight into a different aspect of Parker that he never really knew before.

“I read all the poems. I read all the short stories, but I knew she had been a Broadway theater critic for five years. And I thought that there were probably some real gems in those reviews that weren’t collected, that weren’t on the Internet, that you couldn’t get to,” Fitzpatrick said. “What I found was that it was 150,000 words that had never been collected of Dorothy Parker, and it really added a whole other dimension to what we already know about her and her early life.”

Now that she has been inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame, Fitzpatrick has other ideas on his mind.

“Dorothy Parker Avenue has a nice ring to it,” he said.

— Kayla Marsh