1917 | Theater, Film
Theater, Film
Theater: The Burghers of Calais (Die Bürger von Calais) by Georg Kaiser 1/29 at Frankfurt-am-Main's Neues Theater is an impassioned appeal for an end to the war; Johnny, Get Your Gun by Edmund Laurence Burke (revised by Dorothy Donnelly) 2/12 at New York's Criterion Theater, with Everett Butterfield, 160 perfs.; Sorina or the Child Murder (Die Sorina oder Der Kindermord) by Georg Kaiser 3/6 at Berlin's Lessing Theater; The Willow Tree by J. H. Benrimo and Harrison Rhodes 3/6 at New York's Cohan and Harris Theater, with Los Angeles-born actress Fay Bainter, 24, Harold De Becker, Shelly Hull, Richard Tabor, 103 perfs.; The Old Lady Shows Her Medals and Seven Women by James M. Barrie 4/7 at London's New Theatre, with Jean Cadell in the first, Irene Vanbrugh in the second, 68 perfs.; From Morn to Midnight (Von Morgens bis Mitternachts) by Georg Kaiser 4/28 at Munich's Kammerspiele, with Vienna-born actor Max Pallenberg, 39; The Temptation (Die versuchung) by Georg Kaiser 5/31 at Hamburg's Thalia-Theater; Right You Are—If You Think You Are (Cosi e (se vi pare)) by Luigi Pirandello 6/18 at Milan's Teatro Olimpio; The Silken Ladder (La scala di seta) by Luigi Chiarelli 6/28 at Rome's Teatro Argentina; Polly with a Past by George Middleton and Guy Bolton 9/6 at New York's Belasco Theater, with Ina Claire, Louise Galloway, Cyril Scott, 315 perfs.; Lombardi, Ltd. by Frederic and Fanny Hatton 9/24 at New York's Morosco Theater, with English-born actor Percival Vivian, 27, Danville, Ky.-born actress Marion Abbott, 40, Leo Carillo, Columbus, Ohio-born ingénu Warner Baxter, 18, 296 perfs.; Tiger Rose by Willard Mack 10/3 at New York's Lyceum Theater, with Mack, Thomas B. Findlay, Lenore Ulric, 384 perfs.; The Centaur (Der Zentaur) by Georg Kaiser 10/23 at Frankurt-am-Main's Schauspielhaus; Dear Brutus by James M. Barrie 10/17 at Wyndham's Theatre, London, with Gerald du Maurier, Norman Forbes, 363 perfs.; The Coral (Die Koralle) by Georg Kaiser 10/27 at Frankfurt's Neues Theater is the first in Kaiser's Gas trilogy; In the Zone by Eugene O'Neill 10/31 at New York's Provincetown Playhouse (one-act play); The Long Voyage Home by O'Neill 11/2 at the Provincetown Playhouse (one-act play); Parlor, Bedroom, and Bath by C. W. Bell and Mark Swan 12/24 at New York's Republic Theater, with French-born actress Francine Larrimore, 19, New York-born ingénue Helen Menken, 15, 232 perfs.; Why Marry? by Illinois-born playwright Jesse Lynch Williams, 46, 12/25 at New York's Astor Theater, with English actress Estelle Winwood, 34, Shelly Hull, 120 perfs.
Showman William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody dies bankrupt at Denver January 10 at age 70; actor Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree at his native London July 2 at age 63; theater manager William Kendal at his native London November 7 at age 73; actor Walter Hale at New York December 4 at age 48.
The Empire Theater at Montgomery, Ala., installs the first theater air conditioning (see architecture [Carrier Corp.], 1915). Within 40 years, every major U.S. theater will be air conditioned, even those in northern cities.
New York's Rivoli movie theater opens at 1620 Broadway in Times Square. Designed by Thomas W. Lamb and S. L. "Roxy" Rothafel for the Rialto Theater Corp., it has 2,206 seats and fills the east side of Broadway between 49th and 50th streets with an austere façade resembling that of a Greek Doric temple, precluding the need for an extravagant electrical sign such as the one used on the Rialto that opened last year (see Capitol, 1919; air conditioning, 1925).
Films: D. W. Griffith's Hearts of the World with Lillian and Dorothy Gish (financed by London to arouse U.S. sympathies against the Germans but released after U.S. entry into the war); Marshall Neilan's Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm with Mary Pickford, screenplay by San Francisco-born writer Frances Marion (originally Owen), 30, who has become Pickford's closest friend and signs a contract with Famous Players-Laski that pays her $10,000 per week plus a share in the profits and lets her control casting and editing; Clarence Badger's Teddy at the Throttle with Wallace Beery, Chicago-born actress Gloria Swanson (Gloria May Josephine Svensson), 19; Charles Chaplin's The Cure with Chaplin.
President Wilson appoints veteran New York stage and motion-picture producer William A. Brady, now 53, to head a committee whose task is to organize the film industry for war propaganda.