A 1952 publicity photo of Audrey Hepburn in the Broadway production of Gigi (online collection of the New York Public Library).
Below, an ad from the Inquirer for the world premiere tryout run of the play at the Walnut Street Theatre.
Joseph Kramm (1907-1992), author of The Shrike, was one of the most reclusive playwrights who ever won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This AP wire photo was published in newspapers when the honor was publicly announced by the Pulitzer committee in 1952, but I've never come across any other. The onstage death of his wife, Isabel Bonner (1907-1955) got considerably more publicity, at the time.
Below left, a cartoon from the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, showing actor/director Jose Ferrer and actress Judith Evelyn in The Shrike, accompanying its review of its world premiere at the Walnut, from January 8, 1952. (" . . by turns interests, weirdly fascinates, and even frightens the audience - then ends by leaving them bewildered.") To the right, a composite photo of Ferrer and Evelyn in their roles, showing how the wife Ann was psychologically torturing her husband Jim.
The eventual 1955 movie of The Shrike, in which June Allyson played Ann, considerably softened her character - and at the end of the film the couple are seen outside of Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, walking arm and arm down the street to "give their marriage another try." The full movie is available on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZxwtCW_eRk
Costume designer Lucinda Ballard (1906-1993) with two of her designs for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Below, Barbara Bel Geddes, Ben Gazzara and Burl Ives in costume for the original 1955 production - followed by a drawing of the show's set, by designer Lee Mielziner. (Collection of the New York Public Library)
A compilation of photos of Walter Matthau with actresses from the cast of Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? - followed by a clipping from Henry Murdock's review of the show in the Inquirer. The scene in which Jane Mansfield gets an onstage massage - wearing only a towel - was especially sensational at the time.
Below, a January 1956 newspaper photo of Julie Andrews, who would soon be arriving in Philadelphia for the tryout run of My Fair Lady. The caption below the photo was: "Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Scott, members of the committee for the benefit performance of 'My Fair Lady,' arranged for the World Affairs Council at the Erlanger on Feb. 21, visit backstage during a New York rehearsal and enjoy a chat with Julie Andrews (center), who co-stars with Rex Harrison in the musical."
The Scotts also had their special connection to theater history, of course - they were regarded as the models for the principle romantic couple in Philip Barry's 1939 play The Philadelphia Story.
Above, a newspaper ad for A Raisin in the Sun at the Walnut Street Theatre in January 1959, along with a publicity photo of Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee.
Below, a photo of the creative team of Fiorello! - George Abbot, Jerome Weidman, Sheldon Harnick, and Jerry Bock - from the Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine in October 1959.
A cartoon by "Norkin" that appeared in the Sunday Evening Bulletin. (Caption: "Fighting Candidate for Congress is Tom Bosley as La Guardia in the title role of the new musical 'Fiorello!' opening at the Erlanger, Wednesday. Behind him, from left: Mark Dawson, Pat Stanley, Pat Wilson and Howard Da Silva.")
Amazingly, I did not manage to work Gypsy into this podcast, even though it had its own world premiere at the Shubert Theatre in Philadelphia in April of 1959. Here is, at least, a photo of Ethel Merman as Mama Rose from the Inquirer, and Doug Andersen's Sunday edition cartoon of the production.
