Eileen Darby Photo Assignments
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John Henry
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December 30, 1939 |
Starring Paul Robeson in the title role at the Colonial Theatre in Boston. The show opened on Broadway 11 days later on January 10th, 1940 at the 44th Street Theatre. Despite its short run this was the show that marked the beginning of Eileen Darby's Theatre photography career, the images of which were her first published in the NY Times Photo Section in 1940 by photo editor Victor Talley. |
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Two On An Island
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January 13, 1940 |
The Elmer Rice comedy about a boy from Ohio who meets a girl from New Hampshire while trying to find success on the island of Manhatten. The show featured a very large cast of over 90 performers including Betty Field and John Craven as the young lovers. Set design by Jo Mielziner. The show ran for 96 performances. |
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images available upon request
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There Shall Be No Night
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March 27, 1940 |
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images available upon request
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Return Of The Vagabond
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May 8, 1940 |
George M. Cohan reprises his role as the vagabond made famous in the 1920 play "The Tavern". The play was a terrible flop, closing after only 7 performances, and causing Mr. Cohan to sadly remark, "They don't want me no more." It was his last appearance on Broadway. Widely noted as opening on May 17th, the play actually opened on May 13th and closed on May 18th. |
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images available upon request
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Flight to the West
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December 13, 1940 |
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images available upon request
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My Sister Eileen
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December 23, 1940 |
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Louisiana Purchase
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circa 1940 |
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images available upon request
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Carmen Amaya
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January 20, 1941 |
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images available upon request
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Native Son
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March 5, 1941 |
Based on the fantastic award winning novel by Richard Wright and directed by Orson Welles only two months before the release of his film masterpiece Citizen Kane. Starring Canada Lee as Bigger Thomas, a tormented black man in the slums of South Side Chicago wanted for killing a white woman. A powerful commentary on the American racial environment. |
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Boys and Girls Together
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March 21, 1941 |
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images available upon request
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Night Before Christmas
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March 29, 1941 |
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images available upon request
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Betsy Blair / Betsy Allen
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May 21, 1941 |
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Mister Big
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September 4, 1941 |
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Candle In The Wind
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September 13, 1941 |
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Jooss Ballet
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September 23, 1941 |
images available upon request
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The More the Merrier
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September 26, 1941 |
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images available upon request
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Anne of England
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September 27, 1941 |
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images available upon request
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Mata and Hari
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October 10, 1941 |
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images available upon request
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Macbeth
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October 22, 1941 |
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images available upon request
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Spring Again
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October 26, 1941 |
A successful comedy directed by Guthrie McClintic featuring Grace George and C. Aubrey Smith. The plot tells of a long suffering wife subjected to constant stories of her husband's Civil War hero father at Shiloh who decides to recount his families real true story as a dramatized radio serial. |
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images available upon request
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Theatre
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November 15, 1941 |
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images available upon request
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High Kickers
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circa 1941 |
The 171 performances hit starring George Jessel and Sophie Tucker. A burlesque troop is arrested in Ohio, but manages to get off by exposing the mayor's wife as an old trooper. |
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images available upon request
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Let's Face It!
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circa 1941 |
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images available upon request
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American Theatre Wing Stage Door Canteen Opening
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March 2, 1942 |
images available upon request
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A Kiss For Cinderella
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March 8, 1942 |
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images available upon request
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Silvia Weld
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May 26, 1942 |
images available upon request
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Laugh Town Laugh
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June 4, 1942 |
The Broadway vaudeville show featuring Carmen Amaya, Jane Froman, and starring Ed Wynn. The show was Miss Froman's last before her tragic plane accident that crushed both her legs in Lisbon, Portugal in 1943. |
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images available upon request
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Eve of St. Mark
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September 3, 1942 |
The very well received Maxwell Anderson war play about the journey of Quizz West (William Prince) from a young farm boy to a soldier in the jungles of the Philippines. The play was adapted into a film featuring Vincent Price in 1944. |
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images available upon request
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Maid In The Ozarks
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September 14, 1942 |
A farce staged by Jules Pfeiffer. The play about Kentucky hillbillies migrated from Los Angeles to Chicago and was roundly panned by critics. Tenaciously, the producer kept the show running until it was purchased by two Chicagoans who better marketed the show with a panache that drew theatre-goers and brought the play to profit. After five successful years traveling the country the play finally made it to Broadway in 1946. |
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images available upon request
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Show Time
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September 17, 1942 |
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images available upon request
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Wine Women And Song
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September 26, 1942 |
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images available upon request
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The Great Big Doorstep
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October 27, 1942 |
Dorothy Gish and Louis Calhern head an impoverished Cajun family caught in a Louisiana flood, when the doorstep of a patrician mansion floats on to their property. The doorstep installed at the entrance to their shack fuels their desires for a grander life, in this comedy by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. |
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images available upon request
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Yankee Point
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November 7, 1942 |
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images available upon request
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The Great Big Doorstep
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November 11, 1942 |
Dorothy Gish and Louis Calhern head an impoverished Cajun family caught in a Louisiana flood, when the doorstep of a patrician mansion floats on to their property. The doorstep installed at the entrance to their shack fuels their desires for a grander life, in this comedy by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. |
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images available upon request
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The Sun Field
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November 14, 1942 |
The short-lived baseball comedy by Milton Lazarus, based on the novel by Heywood Broun. The flop ran for 5 performances and was called by one critic, "A lengthy anecdote." |
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images available upon request
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Counsellor-at-Law
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November 20, 1942 |
A successful revival of one of Elmer Rice's most popular plays about an attorney who prefers the warmth of his secretary to the cold indifference of his wife. Paul Muni recreates his original role from the 1931 production. |
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images available upon request
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The Three Sisters
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November 26, 1942 |
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images available upon request
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The Russian People
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December 12, 1942 |
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images available upon request
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Dark Eyes
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December 16, 1942 |
Three destitute Russian actresses in New York write a bad check and hope to be rescued by accepting an invitation to a Long Island estate. Writer/actresses Elena Miramova and Eugenie Leontovich are joined by Ludmilla Toretzka to complete the madcap trio that finds rescue in finance and romance in this popular farce directed by Jed Harris. The show ran for 230 performances. |
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images available upon request
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Something For The Boys
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December 17, 1942 |
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images available upon request
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This is the Army
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circa 1942 |
Irving Berlin's revue, written as a benefit for the U.S. Army Emergency Relief Fund. The play was turned into a film version in 1943, successfully raising $9.5 million, becoming the most profitable film of that year. All of the cast and production team of the Broadway show were former or current members of the armed forces. |
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images available upon request
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The Patriots
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January 21, 1943 |
The first play produced by The Playwrights' Company for a playwright who was not a founding member of the group. Written by Sidney S. Kingsley and starring his wife, Madge Evans. The play explores the philosophic differences between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton on the future of the United States. |
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images available upon request
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Counterattack
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January 23, 1943 |
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images available upon request
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Men In Shadow
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March 10, 1943 |
Originally an English play in 1942, the show was brought to Broadway in 1943. A flop that ran for 21 performances, the drama revolves around the hiding of three American airmen in an old French mill house. Written by Mary Hayley Bell, wife of renown actor John Mills, and produced by Max Gordon. |
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images available upon request
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Dancing In The Streets
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March 12, 1943 |
Mary Martin's first starring role in a Broadway play, that never made it to Broadway. The play closed in Boston. |
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images available upon request
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Apology
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March 18, 1943 |
Produced and Directed by Lee Strasberg, the play ran for only 8 performances and tells the story of a man who chooses not to marry his childhood sweetheart, instead marrying another woman. |
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images available upon request
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Three's A Family
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April 22, 1943 |
Written by the husband and wife team of Phoebe Ephron and Henry Ephron, the parents of Nora Ephron. A three act farce about an extended family crammed into a small Manhattan Upper West Side apartment. The play ran for 497 performances, well into the next season. |
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images available upon request
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First Million
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April 26, 1943 |
An Ozark hick family of bank robbers resolves to save every penny until they accumulate their first million, only to be thwarted by the honesty of their own turncoat son. The play was a flop and ran for only 5 performances. |
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images available upon request
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Sons o' Fun
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May 1, 1943 |
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images available upon request
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Early To Bed
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May 6, 1943 |
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images available upon request
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Early To Bed
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May 22, 1943 |
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images available upon request
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The Student Prince
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June 10, 1943 |
An operetta revival with music by Sigmund Romberg and directed by Jacob J. Shubert, featuring perennial Shubert favorite Everett Marshall as Dr. Engel, Frank Hornaday as Prince Karl Franz, and Barbara Scully as Kathie. The show was toured endlessly in revivals by the Shuberts, who considered it a guaranteed moneymaker. A young Prince falls in love with a barmaid whilst studying at Heidelberg with his tutor, Dr. Engel. |
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images available upon request
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Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus)
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July 6, 1943 |
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images available upon request
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Chauve-Souris
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July 20, 1943 |
A Russian musical revue that was a sensation on Broadway in several incarnations throughout the 1920's as staged by it's master of ceremonies, Nikita Balieff. This short lived revival was mounted by arrangement with his widow. The show featured colorful Russian costumes, settings, dance, acrobatics, and song and was a wonderful spectacle. The performance featured Dania Krupska, who later became an assistant to Agnes de Mille and an accomplished choreographer. |
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images available upon request
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Tomorrow the World/Elissa Landi
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August 30, 1943 |
A major hit drama about a well-meaning typical American family that adopts a Nazi youth who attempts to indoctrinate them toward his warped values. The play made stars of Skippy Homeier as the 12 year old Nazi youth and Joyce Van Patten as young American daughter Patricia Frame. Written by James Gow and Arnaud D'Usseau. |
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images available upon request
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A New Life
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September 13, 1943 |
Produced by The Playwrights' Company and written and staged by Elmer Rice. Nightclub singer Edith Charles (Betty Field) marries Captain Robert Cleghorne (George Lambert), scion to a wealthy Arizona family, after a short and wild romance. After Captain Cleghorne disappears at sea, Edith gives birth to his son at the exact moment of the Captain's unexpected return. A battle ensues between Edith and The Captain's family when they seek to remove the son back to Arizona for a privilaged upbringing, ultimately failing. The play was roundly panned by critics and went on to 70 performances. |
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images available upon request
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Kiss And Tell
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September 16, 1943 |
A comedy staged and produced by George Abbott, and starring Jessie Royce Landis and Robert Keith as the parents of teenager Corliss Archer (Joan Caulfield). It also marked the Broadway premiere of Richard Widmark as Lieutenant Lenny Archer. The show was a situation comedy staged around the friends, neighbors, and love interests of Corliss Archer, and was a big success at 956 performances. |
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images available upon request
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Othello
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September 18, 1943 |
Margaret Webster and the Theatre Guild's presentation of Othello, starring Paul Robeson in the title role, Uta Hagen as Desdemona, and Jose Ferrar as Iago, in what would become Broadway's longest running staging of the Shakespearean classic at 296 performances. It was a particularly unusual performance in that the role of the Moor, Othello, was played by an African-American on a Broadway stage. It received rave reviews, lauding Robeson, Ferrar, and Hagen equally. |
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10 images »
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One Touch of Venus
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September 22, 1943 |
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images available upon request
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Winged Victory
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October 8, 1943 |
A poignant play by Moss Hart with an enormous cast of armed forces men, and uniquely, women. The show was written by order of General Arnold of the U.S. Army, with all proceeds benefiting the Army Relief Fund of 1943. It told the story of the growth of the Air Force, following six soldiers from civilian life to battlefield flight. Hart traveled 28,000 miles with Air Force men to research the project. It later became a 20th Century Fox film, retaining most of the original cast members. |
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images available upon request
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Get Away Old Man
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November 23, 1943 |
A comedy written by William Saroyan, produced and directed by George Abbott. Starring Richard Widmark as the self-aggrandizing writer Henry Bird, who is hired by a Hollywood producer (Ed Begley) to create a script for a film about "all mothers everywhere." Saroyan wrote the show upon his return from Hollywood, where he wrote "The Human Comedy." |
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images available upon request
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Storm Operation
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November 24, 1943 |
A Maxwell Anderson play produced the The Playwrights' Company. Anderson spent significant time on the North African front with General Eisenhower researching for the work, which was ultimately panned by critics and ran only 23 performances. Oddly, the play was selected by the Burns Mantle annual as one of the season's 10 best plays. |
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images available upon request
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