Which playwright, whose most famous play had "woods" in the title was ultimately felled by a tree? What had he just been watching and which phobia was related to his death?

lanfranco

Could this possibly be Odon von Horvath, author of "Tales from the Vienna Woods," terrified of a lightning strike, and killed by a falling branch during a thunderstorm? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96d%C3%B6n_von_Horv%C3%A1th Aug 15 05, 8:45 PM

gmackematix

Because you are too good at this Frankie, I'll have to ask for what he had just watched and the specific phobia name before I give the full "yay". Oh yes, and I'm sure you already know on which street his death occurred. :) Aug 16 05, 2:07 AM

lanfranco

Oh, sorry. Let's see, he had just watched "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" in a movie theater on the Champs-Elysees in Paris. I got that, by the way, from Janet Maslin's 1981 New York Times review of Maximilian Schell's film of the "Tales." Occasionally, those NYT sites don't copy well, so I'm not going to try it. Aug 16 05, 7:20 AM

gmackematix

You get your yay, Frankie! You missed out keraunaphobia but I'll let you off. Von Horvath's plays were refreshingly anti-Nazi for the early thirties. Needless to say, having won prizes he came to the attention of Hitler and in 1938, he had to flee Austria to Paris in a hurry. He made it, only to suffer the indignity of possibly the strangest death of a playwright since Aeschylus. There is a play called "The Death of von Horvath" by Don Nigro. Aug 16 05, 4:20 PM

lanfranco

Ahem. For those who are not familiar with Aeschylus' death, he supposedly expired when an eagle (or something similar) dropped a tortoise or stone on his bald head. Considering that he had supposedly fought at Marathon and Salamis, this was, if true, a rather ignominious way to go. Aug 16 05, 4:56 PM