Time Comedy by Behrman Samuel (3 results)

Condition: New.

SIGNED BY KATHARINE CORNELL AND LAURENCE OLIVIER. Unpaged - 20 pages including covers. Large staple-bound booklet; H 30.5cm x L 22.75cm. Light yellow front cover mildly soiled with original owner's ink signature at top center; front cover illustrated with left-of-center large b/w portrait image of Cornell as Linda in "No Time for Comedy" with Cornell's ink signature at the photo's lower broad right margin above the title lettering; Olivier's ink signature is at front cover's bottom corner to the immediate left of title lettering. Stronger soiling and some toning to white rear cover; mild curling to bottom corners of publication. A few spots of soiling and smudging to otherwise still fairly clean interior pages. A very good copy. Interior leaves feature an additional 17 b/w photographs of Katharine Cornell in various stage roles for "Little Women," "A Bill in Divorcement," "Will Shakespeare," "Casanova," "Candida," "The Green Hat," "The Age of Innocence," "Dishonored Lady," "The Barrets of Wimpole Street," "Lucrece," "Alien Corn," "Romeo and Juliet," "Saint Joan," and "The Wingless Victory" with explanatory captions regarding her career. The concluding portrait image on the rear cover recto shows Cornell and her prominent stage director husband Guthrie McClintic. Although neither a date nor a publisher are specified, it seems likely that since both the front cover photo and the cover's verso text promote Samuel Nathaniel Behrman's 1939 comic play "No Time for Comedy" the publication was issued as a promotional item for the New York production, perhaps either by the Barrymore Theatre Corporation and/or The Playwrights' Company which was co-producer with Katharine Cornell. "No Time for Comedy" premiered on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on April 17, 1939 and ran through September for a total of 185 performances (one online reference states 179 performances). The stage production starred Laurence Olivier as Gaylord Esterbrook and Katharine Cornell as Linda Paige and was directed by Cornell's husband Guthrie McClintic. A movie adaptation was released in 1940 by Warner Bros. "No Time for Comedy" was one of Olivier's earliest lead roles on the United States and, according to Hollywood-Broadway legend, his casting was arranged by David O. Selznick so that Olivier would not distract future wife Vivien Leigh while filming "Gone with the Wind." Provenance from a Tupelo, Mississippi estate of a deceased owner (with her aforementioned signature at top the front cover's top center) whose attendance at Columbia University may have coincided with the play's 1939 run.…

Paperback / softback. Condition: New. This item is printed on demand. New copy - Usually dispatched within 5-9 working days.