Character in a play by NF Simpson. The family always bought too much food and employed Mrs Gantry to eat the surplus. I see she was played in the film by Peggy Mount
Different movie then
Elmer Gantry is a satirical novel written by Sinclair Lewis in 1926 and published by Harcourt in March 1927.
Adaptations
* A Broadway play by Patrick Kearney opened on August 7, 1928 at the Playhouse Theatre, where it ran for 48 performances. The cast included Edward J. Pawley (later of Big Town fame) as Elmer Gantry and Vera Allen as Sister Sharon Falconer.
* The 1960 film of the same name starred Burt Lancaster as Gantry and Jean Simmons as Sister Sharon Falconer.
* A 1970 Broadway musical adaptation titled Gantry opened and closed on the same night.
* In November 2007, an opera by Robert Aldridge and Herschel Garfein premiered in the James K. Polk Theater in Nashville. New York Times article on new opera
The basic story is:
The novel tells the story of a young, narcissistic, womanizing college athlete who, upon realizing the power, prestige, and easy money that being a fundamentalist evangelist can bring, pursues his "religious" ambitions with relish, contributing to the downfall, even death, of key people around him as the years pass. Gantry continues to womanize, is often exposed as a fraud, and frequently faces a complete downfall, yet he is never fully discredited and always manages to emerge triumphant and reaching ever greater heights of social standing.
There were calls to ban it in the States and threats to imprison the author
