The Theater: Performing Elephant

Variety doped it as a white elephant, for which there are no stables on Broadway. But it was coming this week, anyway—a huge (36 scenes, nine carloads of props) staging of Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days. Producer-Director-Actor-Magician Orson Welles would not be in the Broadway cast, though it had taken all of him to keep the show moving on the road.

In New Haven, when the flicker which opens the show refused to flick, the unperturbed Welles cracked: "This just proves what many of us in the theater have felt right along . . . movies are not here...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!