The Theater: Substitute for Mother

Seven nights a week the dusky, barnlike basement of Manhattan's 44th Street Theater is crammed and crawling with pleasure-seekers. No liquor is served, but there is dancing to hot name bands, with pretty show girls and such movie stars as Bette Davis and Janet Gaynor waiting to be picked off as partners. On the walls are gay murals by the theater's top scene designers—Jo Mielziner, Donald Oenslager, Raoul Pène du Bois, Gertrude Lawrence, Eddie Cantor, the dancing De Marcos, the Quiz Kids with Tallulah Bankhead as Quizmaster, are part of the endless floor...

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