Charles Addams for "Anniversary Waltz"

"Anniversary Waltz," a comedy by Jerome Chodorov and Joseph Fields, opened on Broadway in 1954. It starred Macdonald Carey and Kitty Carlisle, and was directed by Carlisle's husband Moss Hart. Reviewers criticized the play for its crude content, but it was a hit. The New Yorker's lukewarm capsule review some seven months into the show's two-year run suggests there may have been better things to see. 

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1954-11-13/flipbook/002/

Why seven months? It was in the "7th hilarious month" that the show's producers began to promote the play with a Charles Addams drawing:

"They laughed their heads off!"
Charles Addams
Promotional art for "Anniversary Waltz" (1954)

The original art shown here was in the collection of the actor Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. It was sold at auction by Doyle New York earlier this month.

Addams worked on Whatman Water Color Board which must have taken his washes well. Affixed to the back of this board is a closely-trimmed, printed clipping of the advertisement showing how the marquee signage had been at some point reworked.

Verso

The printed caption and Charles Addams's signature

The sale took place on November 5. The estimate was $8,000 to $12,000. The art sold for $23,040 including the buyer's premium.

Charles Addams
Doyle New York listing of November 5, 2025

https://www.doyle.com/auction/lot/lot-21---a-charles-addams-theater-advertisement-they-laughed-their-heads-off/?lot=1449814&so=0&st=&sto=0&au=9114&ef=&et=&ic=False&sd=1&pp=96&pn=1&g=1

When the play traveled to Chicago with a different cast, the Addams art was still in use. The writing on the marquee had been further modified.

Peter Arno and Charles Addams theater art

https://www.ebay.com/itm/166881861066

Note:  For Christmas of 1982, Charles Addams personalized a copy of his collection Creature Comforts (1981) to Mary Lee and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. It's in the archives in a post called "Charles Addams: The Flashing Festers." What could such a title portend?

05124

Al Hirschfeld: Chita Rivera, Jerry Orbach, and Gwen Verdon in "Chicago"

Yesterday, items from the estate of Chita Rivera were sold at auction by Bonhams, New York. One of the mementos of her storied theater career was Al Hirschfeld's illustration of her, Jerry Orbach, and Gwen Verdon in the original Broadway production of "Chicago." Hirschfeld made the drawing while Bob Fosse's show was still out of town in Philadelphia. It was published in the Times on June 8, 1975 after the Broadway opening. The Hirschfeld illustration has seven Ninas, but I can locate only six.

The presale estimate was $4,000 to $6,000 dollars. Online bidding was already at $7,500 fifteen hours before the sale ended.

Al Hirschfeld
Bonhams All That Jazz:  The Estate of Chita Rivera listing accessed November 25, 2024

https://www.bonhams.com/auction/31166/lot/15/an-original-al-hirschfeld-illustration-for-chicago-chicago-june-8-1975/

Sold!

[End of auction]

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1975/06/08/issue.html

Chicago

Philadelphia Dress Rehearsal 1975

Still 9:26

04810

Encores: The New Yorkers Autographed Playbill

Cole Porter's musical "The New Yorkers" opened on Broadway in 1930 and ran for 168 performances. The book was by Herbert Fields based on a concept by New Yorker cartoonist Peter Arno and by E. Roy Goetz. No doubt Arno's involvement was publicized by way of the musical's title. In addition to Porter's songs, star Jimmy Durante wrote five songs for himself, an interesting collaboration.

Revivals have been infrequent and the musical is not widely known today, although some of the individual songs may still be familiar. In March of 2017, the show was staged in a concert performance at City Center as part of the Encores! series. A Playbill signed by much or all of the cast was sold on eBay soon after.
 

The New Yorkers
eBay Listing Ended April 1, 2017

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Encores-The-New-Yorkers-Autographed-Playbill-ONLY-ONE-/122414723454?hash=item1c807c717e%3Ag%3AZ0kAAOSw2gxY1guz&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

The New Yorkers
eBay item description

Cole Porter's "The New Yorkers" at New York City Center Encores!

"I Happen to Like New York"

"Night and Day"

"Love For Sale"

04071

Sight Unseen: Edward Gorey's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

You've seen me play this game before. A bookseller offers something seemingly too good to be true It's tantalizing, but without the benefit of a photo who knows what the item really looks like? I make an educated guess and, if inclined, I take the bait. I report on the results here.

T. S. Eliot died in 1965, so we know he couldn't have signed the 1982 edition of Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. It's almost certainly got to be illustrator Edward Gorey who signed this hardcover edition, but could such a thing really be selling for just $15, even from an outfit called Half Price Books, Inc., of Dallas? The listing on AbeBooks furnished only a stock photo of an edition marketing this book as the inspiration for Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Cats: The Musical" (1981). Seeing, as they say, is believing, and I would have to see this one for myself. I placed my order.

Edward Gorey
AbeBooks listing accessed June 15, 2022

https://www.abebooks.com/signed/Old-Possums-Book-Practical-Cats-Eliot/31217539199/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=viewbook_low

The book arrived in yesterday's mail. Here it is:

The book is indeed signed by Gorey on an illustrated "Mystery!" bookplate, a nice one. I would have thought a book dealer would want to mention such a thing. Anyway, the book is well worth the price, I believe.

And I'm not alone. AbeBooks lists another copy, also bookplate signed. Check out the price:

Edward Gorey
AbeBooks listing accessed June 21, 2022

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31127712521

03994

Hans Stengel: A Prince of Broadway

Hans Stengel's original illustration of an entertainment mogul hawking Broadway tickets was published in The New Yorker, an obvious profile illustration with a corresponding art department stamp on the verso. It would have had to appear in print some time between the magazine's founding in 1925 and Stengel's morbid suicide in early 1928, a fact noted by jrpostman, the eBay seller of this art. Postman's contention that it illustrates an A. J. Liebling piece on Jed Harris seems impossible on two counts; Harris was just in his twenties when Stengel died and Liebling didn't arrive at The New Yorker until 1935. 

So just who is this aging impresario of the theater district? As it happens, the subject's name, Joe Leblang, is written right on the front of the drawing. The seller must have misread it as Liebling. Leblang was a discount ticket seller who was profiled in The New Yorker of January 2, 1926. No doubt he sold tickets to some Jed Harris productions.

Joe Leblang
Hans Stengel
Original Profiles illustration
The New Yorker, January 2, 1926, page 11

Verso

Hans Stengel
eBay listing ended December 15, 2021

https://www.ebay.com/itm/274900580377?hash=item400159f819%3Ag%3A-e8AAOSwrKFhCZFP&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Hans Stengel
eBay item description

Joe Leblang
Hans Stengel
Original Profiles illustration
The New Yorker, January 2, 1926, page 11

A cartoon by Carl Rose and an illustration by Hans Stengel

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1926-01-02/flipbook/010/

Incidentally, the gorgeous drawing by Carl Rose demonstrates why no one today mourns the two-speaker caption:

03901

Roz Chast: Poster for "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife"

Charles Busch's comedy "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife" directed by Lynne Meadow and starring Linda Lavin, Tony Roberts, and Michele Lee opened on Broadway at the Barrymore Theatre in 2000. The production's poster was illustrated by Roz Chast. Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc., of Gloucester City, New Jersey, has both an unsigned copy of the poster and one signed by the playwright and the full cast.

Roz Chast:  Poster for "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife"
AbeBooks Listing Accessed June 2, 2020

https://www.abebooks.com/Theatrical-Poster-Tale-Allergists-Wife-New/30644596425/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=readmore_low

Roz Chast:  Poster for "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife"
AbeBooks Listing Accessed February 19, 2022

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30644594655&searchurl=kn%3DThe%2BAllergist%2527s%2BWife%2BPoster%26sortby%3D17&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title2

"The Tale of the Allergist's Wife"

2001 Tony Awards

03882

License Plate for an Emotive Thespian?

Is the pronunciation indicated by this vanity license plate a tad overdemonstrative or does it merely signify a love of great entertainment? The car was spotted just last week in New York, making me want to break into song. But for some reason I didn't.

"THE8TRE"
New York License Plate

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02804

Sheet Music from Murray Anderson's Almanac

Rare sheet music from "Murray Anderson's Almanac," a 1929 Broadway revue, has found its way onto eBay. The show's creators include Noel Coward, Rube Goldberg, and Peter Arno. Imagine a time when being a famous cartoonist got you invited to work with Noël Coward on Broadway! But let's have Arno's biographer Michael Maslin tell you about it:

Michael Maslin. Peter Arno: The Mad, Mad World of The New Yorker's Greatest Cartoonist, New York:  Regan Arts, 2016, page 64.

Google Books

"I May Be Wrong (But, I Think You're Wonderful)" is a lovely sentiment marred only perhaps by a superfluous comma. I trust your uke is in tune:

"Murray Anderson's Almanac"
eBay Listing as of September 24, 2017

http://www.ebay.com/itm/152715280302?ul_noapp=true

"Murray Anderson's Almanac," 1929
eBay Item Description

Peter Arno advertised for Camel cigarettes in the show's Playbill:

Playbill
"Murray Anderson's Almanac," 1929
Peter Arno advertisement for Camel

http://www.playbill.com/playbillpagegallery/inside-playbill?asset=00000150-aea3-d936-a7fd-eef752740009&type=InsidePlaybill&slide=1

A 1929 recording of the song

Note:  I may be wrong, but I think you're wonderful too. And I'm not just saying that to get you to send me rare images of the art of Peter Arno and Rube Goldberg.

A completely different edition of "Murray Anderson's Almanac" opened on Broadway in 1953.

Michael Maslin's 2016 biography Peter Arno: The Mad, Mad World of The New Yorker's Greatest Cartoonist is available on Amazon and at other places where fine books are still sold.

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02320