1955 Broadway Theater Playbill-New York,NY

1956 Playbill of Tea And Sympathy at The Ethel Barrymore Theater on Broadway in New York, NY
PLAYWRIGHT: Robert Anderson
A playbill usually includes a list of the cast and production crew. You can also call a playbill a program. At most theaters in the U.S., playbills are handed out to everyone in the audience as they enter.
Tea and Sympathy is a 1953 to 1955 stage play in three acts by Robert Anderson about a male private school student, Tom Lee, who faces accusations of homosexuality. A woman, Laura, who is married to an instructor, opposes the students' shaming of Lee and romantically pursues him so he can prove that he has a masculine character. The title refers to what someone in Laura's position was supposed to offer a boy such as Tom.
Everett Evans of the Houston Chronicle called it "one of the first plays to tackle the then-taboo topic of sexual orientation and related prejudice." Evans stated that the play's final line, "Years from now, when you speak of this, and you will, be kind," is "one of the most quoted curtain lines in stage history".
The play premiered on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theater on September 30, 1953, in a production by The Playwrights' Company, directed by Elia Kazan with scenic and lighting design by Jo Mielziner. The play starred Deborah Kerr, Leif Erickson, and John Kerr. It transferred to the Longacre Theater, and later the 48th Street Theater. The play closed on June 18, 1955, after 712 performances. In the summer of 1954, Joan Fontaine and Anthony Perkins replaced Deborah Kerr and John Kerr in their respective roles.
The play was first performed in London at the Comedy Theater (Harold Pinter Theater since 2011), under membership conditions, because the Lord Chamberlain had imposed an outright ban. The New Watergate Club was founded in 1956 for the staging of plays previously suppressed under the Theaters Act 1843. By these means, the theater premiered Tea and Sympathy in the United Kingdom.
Maria Elisabeth, born December 13, 1924, is a German-born American actress. She worked on television at CBS in the 1950's. She is the daughter of actress Marlene Dietrich, about whom she published a memoir in 1992. She is currently alive at the age of 99.
Before there was an Alan Ladd, there was another furtive-eyed, baby-faced, cigarette-dangling Alan, impacting the movie scene with his various colorless and cold-hearted thugs, mobsters and killers. Dark-haired, bullet-headed actor Alan Baxter earned a noticeable degree of popularity back in the late 1930s and 1940's with his various despicable characters, before his film career lost steam and he sought more and more TV and stage work.
The son of a Cleveland Trust Company vice president, Baxter was born on November 19, 1908, in East Cleveland. Following high school, he studied drama at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where he forged a strong friendship with fellow collegiate and future directing icon, Elia Kazan. Once they graduated in 1930, the duo attended Yale's School of Drama.
Baxter hooked up with the then-fledgling Group Theater in the early 1930's and appeared in such stage productions as "Lone Valley", "The Pure in Heart" and "Waiting for Lefty". His performance in "Black Pit" in 1935, however, was witnessed by a Hollywood talent scout and it was enough to change the course of his career. Immediately heading west to Hollywood, Baxter made an auspicious debut with his strong performance as "Babe Wilson", the unfeeling killer loved by Sylvia Sidney's character in Mary Burns, Fugitive (1935). Three years later, Baxter went on to recreate the role on radio.
With his foot strongly in the Paramount door, he continued playing dangerous, unsavory types in 13 Hours by Air (1936), Big Brown Eyes (1936) and The Case Against Mrs. Ames (1936), until his contract ran out. Continuing to freelance throughout the remainder of the 1930's, he remained on the wrong side of the law in Parole! (1936), Breezing Home (1937), Night Key (1937), Wide Open Faces (1938), Off the Record (1939), My Son Is a Criminal (1939), and Each Dawn I Die (1939).
A solid "B" lead player who appeared in support when it came to "A" pictures, Baxter occasionally broke out of the "bad guy" mold -- but not often. By this time, Alan Ladd was starting to cut in on Baxter's action with his moody and sexy versions of trench-coat-trendy villains. Baxter, nevertheless, continued to roll on, playing outlaw "Jesse James" in Bad Men of Missouri (1941) opposite Dennis Morgan, Wayne Morris, and Arthur Kennedy as the Younger brothers, while adding slick malevolence to such films as Escape to Glory (1940) (with Constance Bennett), Under Age (1941) (with Nan Grey and Mary Anderson), The Pittsburgh Kid (1941) (with Jean Parker), and Rags to Riches (1941) (with Mary Carlisle). This period of filming was topped by an excellent support role in the classic Alfred Hitchcock thriller, Saboteur (1942), in which he, as the meek-voiced, mustachioed, bespectacled, peroxide blond Nazi spy "Freeman", shares a memorable scene with lead Robert Cummings.
Following standard work in China Girl (1942) and Behind Prison Walls (1943), Baxter (at age 35) signed up for the Army Air Force in 1943, and appeared in the Broadway production of Moss Hart's "Winged Victory", which later was turned into the 1944 movie version of the same name, Winged Victory (1944) (also featuring Baxter). Post-war filming grew more dismal with a high majority of "Poverty Row" pictures coming Baxter's way. His last appearance in a strong film was the Robert Ryan boxing pic, The Set-Up (1949), as a mobster involved in fixing matches. Alan decided to return to the challenge of the stage, appearing in such plays as "Home of the Brave" (1945), "The Voice of the Turtle" (1947), "The Hallams" (1948), "Jenny Kissed Me" (1948), "Tea and Sympathy" (1955), and "South Pacific" (1957) (in a non-singing role). TV also became a positive medium, with adventure guest roles on The Rifleman (1958), Wagon Train (1957), Colt .45 (1957) and Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), among the offerings.
By the 1960's, Baxter was seen primarily in incidental film roles, his last being the cult rodent thriller, Willard (1971). Diagnosed with cancer, the twice-married actor died a few years later at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, on May 8, 1976, aged 67.
11" X 14" X 1" comes in frame
stand in photo not included

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