Blog Posts: Commentary and Images for Every Episode

In the newspaper advertisement, published in the Philadelphia Inquirer of November 1915, we can see how the movie The Birth of a Nation was marketed to the public. In fact, the PR team for the film used techniques that any theater publicist of …

  Above, vacationers stroll along the Atlantic City boardwalk in front of the entrance to the Savoy theater, which was advertising a grand concert in September of 1909. It looks like the weather had turned a bit autumnal and breezy, because …

It's a busy time of year for us, so we don't have a lot of time to make one of our usual extended blog posts! But here are a few photos and newspapers clippings about our interview subject in Episode 60, Penelope Reed:First, an April 1954 article ab…

Above, photo from a promotional brochure of the Theatre of the Living Arts, dating from Fall 1966. Caption: "Pointing the way to good theatre are Southwark Theatre Company campaigners (left to right) Deborah Sussel of Merion, who plays a role in the…

Above, a candid shot of the Philadelphia audience - which I believe is from the opening night of Poor Bitos in February of 1966, at the moment when the lightbulbs flashed in their eyes to momentarily distract them during the set change at the end of…

A photo of Celia Silverman and Jean Goldman, sitting in the seats of the newly-created Theatre of the Living Arts. This was the opening page of an article about the TLA in the Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine on February 28th, 1965. Below, a page from…

Above, an architect's conception of the new permanent building for  the Playhouse in the Park in 1958. The old "sheep barn" - which had acted as a summer "little theater" in the 1920s - is in the foreground. In the upper left corner of the imag…

Bernard Havard in his office at the Walnut Street Theatre, looking at a wall of historical theater artifacts and personal memorabilia.  He seems to be looking at a copy of a newspaper cartoon from the 1850s, showing Edwin Forrest (in costume as…

Philadelphia Mayor Samuel Davis Wilson being kissed by two women, at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new Florsheim shoe store - March 20, 1937. (Image courtesy of Explore PA History)It's nice to find a photo of Mayor Wilson looking happy, because …

Above, Producer Earl Carroll Signs up a local dancer to be in the touring production of his show Earl Carroll Vanities, 1925. Below, the dancer - and Carroll's current girlfriend - Kathryn Ray on the cover of racy publication The National Police Gaz…