ARSENIC AND OLD LACE
[STAGE-PLAY]
Various radio versions of Joseph Kesselring’s stage play…
[Wikipedia] “The 'murderous old lady' plot line may also have been inspired by actual events
that occurred in a house in Windsor, Connecticut, where an older woman took in boarders and
allegedly poisoned them for their pensions. Kesselring originally conceived the play as a heavy
drama, but a friend, reading the half-finished play, convinced him it would be much more
effective as a comedy.”
[Brooks Atkinson] “They did not write the original text but the performance had the crack-
brained exuberance of the Lindsay-Crouse style.”
[Skinner] “They were given that name [‘The Beamish Ones’] by Boris Karloff when he was
appearing in their production of Arsenic and Old Lace. This absurdly gruesome yet gloriously
funny comedy (it ran in New York for 1444 performances and in London for 1337, the longest in
the British capital for any American play) came about when Joseph Kesselring sent the Lindsays a
copy.
“The two went to work as soon as they had made their agreement with Kesselring. They all but
rewrote everything, changing many of the situations and introducing some new characters. But
they were careful to give full credit at all times to Kesselring.”
The 1971 broadcast re-united several cast members from the 1966 London stage production:
Dame Sybil Thorndike, Athene Seyler, and Desmond Walter-Ellis.
[CHRONOLOGY]
LADY ESTHER SCREEN GUILD THEATRE (KNX, HOLLYWOOD—CBS)
[
November 25, 1946 “Arsenic and Old Lace”
CAST: Eddie Albert (Mortimer Brewster), Verna Felton, Boris Karloff (Jonathan
Brewster), Jane Morgan.
EXTANT RECORDING
FORD THEATRE (W???, NEW YORK—NBC)
[Sunday—5:00-6:00 PM]
January 25, 1948 “Arsenic and Old Lace”
[ST. PETERSBURG TIMES: “…Four members of the original Broadway cast
of ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ will join the ‘Ford Theatre’…to present a full-
hour broadcast of the play. Josephine Hull and Jean Adair will portray
Abby and Martha Brewster, the sisters who see nothing wrong with
putting a dash of arsenic into after-dinner wine. John Alexander will be
cast as ‘Teddy’ Brewster, who is quite convinced that he is Teddy
Roosevelt and is digging the Panama canal down in the cellar. Edgar
Stehli will be heard as Dr. Einstein, an unlicensed surgeon who likes his
strong drink without arsenic and serves as the Brewsters’ aide…”]
CAST: Jean Adair (Martha Brewster), John Alexander (Teddy Brewster),
Josephine Hull (Abby Brewster), Edgar Stehli (Dr. Einstein), et al.
BEST PLAYS (W???, NEW YORK—NBC)
[
July 6, 1952 “Arsenic and Old Lace”
SCRIPT: Ernest Kinoy.
PERSONNEL: John Chapman (host), Fred Collins (announcer), Edward King
(director), William Welch (production supervisor).
CAST: Jean Adair (Martha Brewster), Donald Cook (Mortimer Brewster), Boris
Karloff (Jonathan Brewster), Wendell Holmes, Ed Latimer, Arthur Matlin, Ted
Osborne, Edgar Stehli (Dr. Einstein), Joan Tompkins, Evelyn Varden.
EXTANT RECORDING
SATURDAY NIGHT THEATRE (HOME SERVICE, LONDON)
[Saturday—9:15-10:35 PM]
June 5, 1954 “Arsenic and Old Lace”
SCRIPT: Charles Lefeaux.
PERSONNEL: Charles Lefeaux (producer).
SATURDAY NIGHT THEATRE (RADIO 4, LONDON)
[Saturday—8:30-9:58 PM]
May 29, 1971 “Arsenic and Old Lace”
PERSONNEL: Graham Gauld (producer).
CAST: Dinsdale Landen, Prunella Scales, Athene Seyler (Martha Brewster), Dame
Sybil Thorndike (Abby Brewser), Desmond Walter-Ellis (Teddy Brewster), et al.
EXTANT RECORDING—BBC
(RADIO 4, LONDON)
[Saturday—3:05-4:35 PM]
October 9, 1976 “Arsenic and Old Lace”
[SOURCES]
Skinner, Cornelia Otis. Life with Lindsay & Crouse. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976.