Jim Patterson on Lillian Gish's September 29 1937

On September 29, 1937 Miss Lillian Gish opened in The Star Wagon at the Empire Theater in New York. The play was set in Eastern Ohio and ran for 223 performances. The production closed in April 1938. (Almost the 80th anniversary of this premiere.)

. Lillian lecturing President Ronald Reagan and Secretary of State George Shultz on, what else, the arts. Kennedy Center honors 1983. Washington DC Photo courtesy the Reagan Presidential Museum. 

The play was produced by Guthrie McClintic and written by Maxwell Anderson; Musical Director was Albert Pearl. Staging was by Guthrie McClintic; Scenic Design by Jo Mielziner; Assistant to Mr. Mielziner: Walter Jagemann; General Manager: Stanley Gilkey; Company Manager: William G. Tisdale; Stage Manager: James Neilson; Assistant Stage Mgr: Alan Anderson; Press Representative: Richard Maney

Plot:

The Star Wagon about a poor and eccentric inventor who escapes his wife’s crankiness via his titular time machine. The inventor escapes to his youth, at a time when he feels he should have married a pretty rich girl rather than his wife. The evergreen theme is that if you could live your life over again would you have made better choice?  

Casting was as follows:

Lillian Gish	Martha Minch
Burgess Meredith	Stephen Minch
Evelyn Abbott	Christabel
Alan Anderson	Ripple
Whitner Bissell	Park
Jane Buchanan	Hallie Arlington
Russell Collins	Hanus Wicks
Charles Forrester	2nd Thug
Howard Freeman	Apfel
William Garner	Oglethorpe
Barry Kelley	1st Thug
Mildred Natwick	Mrs. Rutledge
Edmund O'Brien	Paul Reiger
John Philliber	Misty
Edith Smith	Della
Kent Smith	Duffy
Muriel Starr	Angela
	Herb Woman
J. Arthur Young	Mr. Arlington

Additional Notes:

N.Y. Times, Jan. 7, 1938: “The purchase of Maxwell Anderson’s ‘The Star Wagon’ was made today by Selznick International as a vehicle for Janet Gaynor. The play, which is being given on Broadway, will go before the cameras in the Autumn.” Gaynor retired her film career with The Young in Heart, released in November 1938, and the motion picture was never made.

Link to the plot for The Star Wagon which was filed as a movie and TV program in later years.  https://books.google.com/books?id=ciwdL9jp0OoC&lpg=PA48&ots=zApfhUkmvr&dq=plot%20of%20Broadway's%20The%20Star%20Wagon&pg=PA48#v=onepage&q=plot%20of%20Broadway's%20The%20Star%20Wagon&f=true

About James Patterson

Jim Patterson was a friend of Lillian Gish and he has written over 500 articles on their friendship, correspondence and her films and writings. Patterson is a Washington DC based writer and speaker and travels internationally on assignments such as introducing Miss Gish’s films, lecturing on her writings and reading and commenting on their correspondence. Contact: JEPDiplomat@gmail.com