Their father is the guy who wrote Rosemary’s
Baby and the Boys from
Brazil and Stepford Wives
and A Kiss Before Dying
- as well as plenty of other scary things. Isn’t it hard to imagine him enjoying an ordinary, pleasant board
game with his sons?
“People were surprised sometimes,” says Jed Levin. “especially if they didn’t know him, or
if they only knew about some of his work.
He was a mild, nice man. He
was our father. I didn’t think of
him as a horror writer. For one
thing, he wrote in plenty of other genres too. He wrote comedy and even a musical. He was a writer, not a certain kind of
writer.”
Jed and his brothers spent Wednesdays and alternate weekends
with their father after his parents divorced. Sometimes the four of them would spend the weekend with
Ira’s parents, who lived in a comfortable house outside the city. The photo was taken at Ira Levin’s
parents’ house. Jed’s grandmother
was a good cook. His grandfather
was an amateur painter (although Jed doesn’t think his grandfather painted the young woman
gazing at Ira from out of a painting behind him).
This monopoly evening must have taken place in 1973 because
Ira Levin is wearing a shirt with “Veronica’s Room” printed across the chest.
The play, Veronica’s Room, is one of his scary ones.
“Someone in the cast must have had tee shirts printed up,”
Jed said.
Tee shirts announcing his father’s work, and chats with cast
members in their dressing rooms, and opening parties at Sardi’s were part of
Jed’s childhood. He and his
brothers were involved in all sorts of other aspects of Ira Levin's many plays, and
books, and movies from books, and television productions.
Jed’s got good stories. And they’re coming soon.
One of Jed’s brothers set up this very complete website
Veronica’s Room
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