BEFORE JIMMY STEWART

Chase, Mary (1906–1981)

Harvey [1948 Broadway Playbill — Joe E. Brown as Elwood P. Dowd — Marion Lorne]

BEFORE JAMES STEWART MADE ELWOOD P. DOWD A SCREEN ICON, JOE E. BROWN PLAYED HIM ON BROADWAY—WITH FUTURE BEWITCHED STAR MARION LORNE.
An October 1948 Broadway Playbill for Mary Chase's Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy Harvey, with beloved screen comedian Joe E. Brown in the role of Elwood P. Dowd and Marion Lorne as his long-suffering sister, Veta Louise Simmons. The photographic cover shows Brown in character, giving this later Broadway program considerably more visual appeal than a generic Playbill wrapper.

LWOOD P. DOWD BEFORE THE HOLLYWOOD CLASSIC.
The program captures Harvey during its continuing stage life before the 1950 film permanently associated Elwood and his invisible six-foot rabbit with James Stewart. Brown brought his own well-established comic persona to the role, while Lorne—later familiar to television audiences as Aunt Clara on Bewitched—had already accumulated an extraordinary association with the play.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: Original stapled Playbill in pictorial wrappers, the front featuring Joe E. Brown in character as Elwood P. Dowd. Illustrated throughout with period advertisements and theatrical material.

The title and cast pages identify Brock Pemberton as presenter, Mary Chase as playwright, Antoinette Perry as director, John Root as designer, Joe E. Brown as Elwood P. Dowd, and Marion Lorne as Veta Louise Simmons.

Includes extensive 'Who's Who in the Cast' material, with substantial biographies of Brown and Lorne. Advertising provides a vivid cross-section of late-1940s New York consumer and entertainment culture, including Elizabeth Arden, Chesterfield cigarettes with Jane Wyman, Schaefer beer with James Melton, Old Gold cigarettes, Gallagher & Burton whiskey, fashion advertising, Roosevelt Raceway, the Copacabana, Latin Quarter, and other Manhattan entertainment venues.

New York: The Playbill / New York Theatre Program Corporation, 1948. Forty-Eighth Street Theatre. Week beginning Monday, October 11, 1948.

CONDITION: Very Good. Stapled wrappers remain intact with the contents firmly held. Light age-toning and handling consistent with theatrical ephemera of the period, with minor edge and corner wear. Small area of weakness at the head of the spine and some creasing and wear toward the lower rear wrapper. Interior pages remain clean and readily legible. A well-preserved and visually appealing example.

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: BROADWAY BEFORE HOLLYWOOD.
 Mary Chase's Harvey opened on Broadway in 1944 and received the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, becoming one of the enduring American stage comedies of the twentieth century. Its gentle collision of eccentricity, social convention, and the apparently impossible found an audience extending well beyond its original Broadway production.

This October 1948 Playbill documents an important later phase in that theatrical history. Joe E. Brown—already nationally known through vaudeville, Broadway, motion pictures, and wartime entertainment—had assumed the role of Elwood P. Dowd, the amiable man whose closest companion is the invisible rabbit Harvey.

The program is especially appealing in retrospect because it predates the 1950 motion picture starring James Stewart. Stewart's performance eventually became the dominant popular image of Elwood, making this Playbill a tangible reminder that Harvey was already a theatrical phenomenon with other celebrated interpreters before Hollywood transformed it into a film classic.

MARION LORNE — FROM HARVEY TO BEWITCHED.
Marion Lorne provides a second collecting association. Her contemporary biography documents an unusually deep connection with Harvey: after appearing in the London production as Veta Louise Simmons, she continued in the role opposite Joe E. Brown, accumulating hundreds of performances.

Lorne later reached an entirely new audience as the endearingly inept witch Aunt Clara on Bewitched. Her presence gives this Playbill crossover appeal extending beyond Broadway collectors to enthusiasts of classic American television.

POSTWAR NEW YORK IN 44 PAGES.
Beyond the production itself, the Playbill preserves a compact portrait of New York entertainment and consumer culture in 1948. Cosmetics, cigarettes, whiskey, beer, clothing, restaurants, nightclubs and entertainment compete for the attention of Broadway audiences, while advertisements for such venues as the Copacabana and Latin Quarter place the theatergoer squarely within Manhattan's postwar nightlife.

Theater Ephemera, Broadway, Playbills, American Drama, Comedy, Performing Arts, Popular Culture

SUBJECTS: Mary Chase, Harvey, Joe E. Brown, Marion Lorne, Elwood P. Dowd, Forty-Eighth Street Theatre, Broadway, New York Theatre, Pulitzer Prize Drama, Bewitched, Postwar New York, Theater Programs, Advertising

Item #22416

Price: $24.00