Recently, Bill R. of The Kind of Face You Hate did a piece on actors who were/are also writers. I don't remember if he was mentioned but Leslie Howard is a prime example. He wrote plays for Broadway in the twenties and thirties including Murray Hill in 1927 which, as the poster describes, is a Society Farce-Comedy. And I do so love the addition of the word "comedy" after "farce" so the reader of the poster doesn't confuse it with a Society Farce-Drama ("Yes it was profoundly moving social commentary, when I wasn't splitting my sides from the farcical hijinks!").
It was put up as a part of the WPA's Federal Theatre Project in 1940. In the year prior Howard had played the role of Ashley Wilkes in Gone With The Wind, which incidentally turns 70 this year. And on it's 75th anniversary in 2014 it will officially be longer since the movie was made than the end of the Civil War was from the time the movie was released (74 years). Leslie Howard died in 1943 after the plane he was travelling in was shot down by a German bomber over the Bay of Biscay. It's still disputed what happened that night so for a more thorough account of the theories go to the Wikipedia entry on Howard's death here.
11 comments:
I figured you would be climbing up on Murray's sister...Rimshot!
I knew I should have stuck with my original Solsbury Hill title Eagle Flew Out of the Night but then I wouldn't have gotten a comment from you, and that's always welcome.
I initially read that as "WPA's Feral Theatre Project". Kinda changes the connotations.
They tried feral theatre but it was too unpredictable and too many people in the audience had to get rabies shots afterwards.
Sounds like a wild time!
Sometimes, when it was good, the audience would roar with laughter.
Other times, it was a like a jungle out there in the crowd.
And of course, some of the reviews were just savage.
Oh dear, I seem to have released the pun beast.
It's not you, I'm always on the prowl for a good pun and when I find one I pounce!
I'd make a jungle joke here but frankly I'm bushed.
That's why I'm the King of the Pun-gle!
Hello!
Warm greeting from tropical island!
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