Stage Magazine

Articles from Stage Magazine

William Saroyan on William Saroyan (Stage Magazine, 1940)

Hundreds of thousands of people regard me, I believe, as something of a success: A well-dressed, well-fed young writer, famous for his ties, who has moved upward and forward in the world of letters with a speed veering on the imperceptible; an Oriental whose name has become a word in the English language.


SAROYAN, n., one with money, a gentleman, a scholar, an artist; v., to slay, butcher, club, strafe, bombard, or cause to spin; adj., pleasing, ill-mannered, gallant; prep., near-by, within, over, under, toward.

What, however, is the inside story? What is the truth? Who is the real Saroyan? Is he a success or a failure? I will go over the entire saga from there to here chronologically…


Click here to read a Saroyan book review.

Munchkin Gossip (Stage Magazine, 1939)

From the Hot From Hollywood page in STAGE MAGAZINE came this tidbit reporting on the curious events taking place on the sets of ‘The Wizard of Oz’:

The cast was extraordinary, from the stars Frank Morgan, Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley to Toto, the Carin Terrier. But of them all, the most utterly enchanting were the midgets, two hundred and twenty-five of them, with their doll faces, their plastered hair that looked as though it had been painted on their heads, the little felt flowers that grew out of their shoes, the bells that jingled from their sleeves. They, of course, were in costume for the good little Munchkins.


Another article about this incredible film can be read here…

Benny Goodman, The King of Swing, on Park Avenue (Stage Magazine, 1938)

To mark the momentous occasion of Benny Goodman and his Band performing for the ‘corsage clique’ on Park Avenue in 1938, ‘the King of Swing’ wrote this short essay concerning all his good work and the enjoyment that it brought to the Jitterbuggers of the world:

Swing is violent, at least so they tell me. But I’m willing to bet that Society is going to toss aside its toppers and tippers and really cut loose. They’ll all come slumming and stay for dancing.

What’s Next for Eugene O’Neill? (Stage Magazine, 1935)

Stage editor Hiram Motherwell (1888 – 1945) examined the meteoric rise of playwright Eugene O’Neill (1888 – 1953) and asked, What can he do next?

Eugene O’Neill is now forty-seven. His plays have just been enshrined in the definitive edition, handsome, ingratiating, expensive. They are probably more widely discussed than those of any other living playwright. They have been produced in almost every city from Moscow west to Tokyo. They have been translated into more languages. And yet it is evident that O’Neil, standing on the crest of this superb eminence, has completed a cycle; come to a momentous turning in the path his creative genius has followed. Where will the path lead?

April 7, 1933: 3.2 Beer Returns (Stage Magazine, 1933)

This cartoon was created to mark April 7, 1933 – the day real beer was once again permitted to be sold across the country; from sea to shinning sea, one million barrels of the amber liquid was consumed by the citizens of a grateful nation.


Click here to see how weird the first car radios looked.

Irving Berlin (Stage Magazine, 1938)

Here is an article that discusses the surprising relevance that the music of Irving Berlin (1888 – 1989) was playing in the American music world of the 1930s.


Click here to read about Irving Berlin’s theatrical production during W.W. I…

Robert Benchley, Humorist (Stage Magazine, 1934)

New Yorker theater critic, columnist, actor and Algonquin wit Robert Benchley (1889 – 1945) was interviewed for Stage Magazine and photographed by theater shutter-bug Ben Pinchot:

Sometimes he writes digests of the news which The New Yorker calls ‘The Wayward Press’ and signs them Guy Fawkes for some quaint reason…


Click here to read more about the The New Yorker.

Robert Benchley, Humorist (Stage Magazine, 1934)

New Yorker theater critic, columnist, actor and Algonquin wit Robert Benchley (1889 – 1945) was interviewed for Stage Magazine and photographed by theater shutter-bug Ben Pinchot:

Sometimes he writes digests of the news which The New Yorker calls ‘The Wayward Press’ and signs them Guy Fawkes for some quaint reason…


Click here to read more about the The New Yorker.

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