{
  "title": "ARSENIC AND OLD LACE",
  "category": "[STAGE-PLAY]",
  "article": "Various radio versions of Joseph Kesselring’s stage play…\n[Wikipedia] “The 'murderous old lady' plot line may also have been inspired by actual events\nthat occurred in a house in Windsor, Connecticut, where an older woman took in boarders and\nallegedly poisoned them for their pensions. Kesselring originally conceived the play as a heavy\ndrama, but a friend, reading the half-finished play, convinced him it would be much more\neffective as a comedy.”\n[Brooks Atkinson] “They did not write the original text but the performance had the crack-\nbrained exuberance of the Lindsay-Crouse style.”\n[Skinner] “They were given that name [‘The Beamish Ones’] by Boris Karloff when he was\nappearing in their production of Arsenic and Old Lace. This absurdly gruesome yet gloriously\nfunny comedy (it ran in New York for 1444 performances and in London for 1337, the longest in\nthe British capital for any American play) came about when Joseph Kesselring sent the Lindsays a\ncopy.\n“The two went to work as soon as they had made their agreement with Kesselring. They all but\nrewrote everything, changing many of the situations and introducing some new characters. But\nthey were careful to give full credit at all times to Kesselring.”\nThe 1971 broadcast re-united several cast members from the 1966 London stage production:\nDame Sybil Thorndike, Athene Seyler, and Desmond Walter-Ellis.",
  "origination": "",
  "duration": "",
  "personnel": "",
  "extant_recordings": "",
  "chronology": "LADY ESTHER SCREEN GUILD THEATRE (KNX, HOLLYWOOD—CBS)\n[\nNovember 25, 1946\n“Arsenic and Old Lace”\nCAST: Eddie Albert (Mortimer Brewster), Verna Felton, Boris Karloff (Jonathan\nBrewster), Jane Morgan.\nEXTANT RECORDING\nFORD THEATRE (W???, NEW YORK—NBC)\n[Sunday—5:00-6:00 PM]\nJanuary 25, 1948\n“Arsenic and Old Lace”\n[ST. PETERSBURG TIMES: “…Four members of the original Broadway cast\nof ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ will join the ‘Ford Theatre’…to present a full-\nhour broadcast of the play. Josephine Hull and Jean Adair will portray\nAbby and Martha Brewster, the sisters who see nothing wrong with\nputting a dash of arsenic into after-dinner wine. John Alexander will be\ncast as ‘Teddy’ Brewster, who is quite convinced that he is Teddy\nRoosevelt and is digging the Panama canal down in the cellar. Edgar\nStehli will be heard as Dr. Einstein, an unlicensed surgeon who likes his\nstrong drink without arsenic and serves as the Brewsters’ aide…”]\nCAST: Jean Adair (Martha Brewster), John Alexander (Teddy Brewster),\nJosephine Hull (Abby Brewster), Edgar Stehli (Dr. Einstein), et al.\nBEST PLAYS (W???, NEW YORK—NBC)\n[\nJuly 6, 1952\n“Arsenic and Old Lace”\nSCRIPT: Ernest Kinoy.\nPERSONNEL: John Chapman (host), Fred Collins (announcer), Edward King\n(director), William Welch  (production supervisor).\nCAST: Jean Adair (Martha Brewster), Donald Cook (Mortimer Brewster), Boris\nKarloff (Jonathan Brewster), Wendell Holmes, Ed Latimer, Arthur Matlin, Ted\nOsborne, Edgar Stehli (Dr. Einstein), Joan Tompkins, Evelyn Varden.\nEXTANT RECORDING\nSATURDAY NIGHT THEATRE (HOME SERVICE, LONDON)\n[Saturday—9:15-10:35 PM]\nJune 5, 1954\n“Arsenic and Old Lace”\nSCRIPT: Charles Lefeaux.\nPERSONNEL: Charles Lefeaux (producer).\nSATURDAY NIGHT THEATRE (RADIO 4, LONDON)\n[Saturday—8:30-9:58 PM]\nMay 29, 1971\n“Arsenic and Old Lace”\nPERSONNEL: Graham Gauld (producer).\nCAST: Dinsdale Landen, Prunella Scales, Athene Seyler (Martha Brewster), Dame\nSybil Thorndike (Abby Brewser), Desmond Walter-Ellis (Teddy Brewster), et al.\nEXTANT RECORDING—BBC\n(RADIO 4, LONDON)\n[Saturday—3:05-4:35 PM]\nOctober 9, 1976\n“Arsenic and Old Lace”",
  "sources": "Skinner, Cornelia Otis. Life with Lindsay & Crouse. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976.",
  "gallery": "",
  "images": []
}