Thurber Tonight: An encore presentation of "No Standing Room Only" -- with a note on the early career of Vincent Price

THIS FEBRUARY "THURBER TONIGHT"
POST WAS ONE OF MY FAVORITES --

Not just for the piece itself, though I really love "No Standing Room Only." (Thurber himself records that he "brooded about this affair for quite a few days and nights," which was probably never a good thing for people in the potential line of fire when the brooding exploded.) But for "value added," I think DWT readers really got their money's worth here. Unless folks no longer know or care who Helen Hayes and Vincent Price were, which I realize is entirely possible. -- Ken


Ventures Thurber: "I somehow have the idea that Harry Essex, the company manager, didn't really understand what Miss Hayes said." (In this Bernard Hoffman photo for Life magazine, the 37-year-old Helen Hayes works on her makeup during a costume change for a March 1938 tour performance of Victoria Regina.)

"Just how many bewildered people were turned away in all on this sentimental occasion, I don't know, but I'm glad I wasn't the box-office man."

-- James Thurber, in "No Standing Room Only"

by Ken

"No Standing Room Only" appeared originally in The New Yorker of March 20, 1937, and in book form later that year in Let Your Mind Alone!; and Other More or Less Inspirational Pieces.

A 1937 New Yorker reader would surely have known that playwright Charles MacArthur (1895-1956) -- co-author with his frequent writing partner Ben Hecht of the raucous Chicago-newspaper comedy The Front Page -- was the husband of Helen Hayes (1900-1993). (Their son James, who died just this past October, became the busy actor best known now for playing the busily-booking-'em Danno in the original Hawaii Five-O, and their son John was the "John D. MacArthur" of the John D. and Catherine MacArthur Foundation that gives the genius awards.)


WHAT EXACTLY WAS MISS HAYES'S UNUSUAL IDEA FOR
CELEBRATING THE PLAY'S ANNIVERSARY? CLICK HERE


THURBER TONIGHT (including WOODY ALLEN, ROBERT BENCHLEY, BOB AND RAY, WILL CUPPY, WOLCOTT GIBBS, RING LARDNER, S. J. PERELMAN, JEAN SHEPHERD, and E. B. WHITE TONIGHT): Check out the series to date

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