#alfred lunt

[audreyhepburninblackandwhite]

Audrey Hepburn, Mel Ferrer, and director Alfred Lunt pose for a portrait prior to the opening of Jean Giraudoux’s play “Ondine” in New York. February 14, 1954

[citizenscreen]

Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt photographed by Cecil Beaton for Vanity Fair in 1929

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Legendary acting duo Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt in a scene from Robert E. Sherwood's play Idiot's Delight, winner of the 1936 Pulitzer Prize in drama, May 4, 1936.

Photo: Associated Press

[vintage-every-day]

Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne by Edward Steichen, Vanity Fair, August 1925.

[ghw-archive]

Alfred Lunt & Lynn Fontanne, by Nickolas Muray, 20s,

[cladriteradio]

Here are 10 things you should know about Thomas Gomez, born 117 years ago today. The talented character actor enjoyed success on the stage, in pictures and on television.

[lickmystamp]

US postage stamp 1999 Scott #3287 “Performing Arts Series - Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne“ Issued: March 2, 1999 in New York, NY Quantity: 42,500,000 Printed By: Ashton-Potter Ltd (Lithographed) World-famous husband and wife acting team Alfred Lunt (1892-1977) and Lynn Fontanne (1887-1983) performed together in over two-dozen shows, beginning with “Sweet Nell of Old Drury” in 1923, and culminating with “The Visit” in 1960. During the 1920s and 1930s, they were the center of Broadway show-business life. Born in Milwaukee, Lunt attended Carroll and Harvard colleges. He made his debut in 1913 with a Boston acting company, and had his first success on Broadway in “Clarence” (1919). Fontanne, born in Essex, England, made her first stage appearance in 1905. She landed her first New York City acting role five years later. The pair met on Broadway in 1917, and married on May 26, 1922. The couple’s 1924 show “The Guardsman” earned them enthusiastic praise. Among the other plays they starred in were “Design for Living” (1933), “Idiot’s Delight” (1936), and “Amphitryon 38” (1938), a photo from which is shown on this cover. They also performed on television and film, and Lunt directed two operas. In 1958, the Globe Theatre in New York City was renamed the Lunt-Fontanne Theater in their honor.

[shakespearenews]

'The Taming of the Shrew' on the American stage before 'Kiss Me, Kate'

How did Americans engage with this play? Read an excerpt about "The Taming of the Shrew" from "Shakespeare in a Divided America" by James Shapiro.

In February 1940, Lunt and Fontanne returned to Broadway for a one‑week, standing‑room‑only revival of their production, a benefit for the Finnish War Relief Fund, staged as the world slid toward war. One of those involved in mounting it was Arnold Saint Subber...Thirty years later Saint Subber told an interviewer for the BBC that “one of the jobs I had had was as a play reader in the Alvin Theatre where Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne were performing Taming of the Shrew. I was constantly backstage and would listen to Mr. Lunt and Miss Fontanne screaming at each other, in rage, ‘If you ever do that again I will never go on stage with you ever again in my life.’ And then, both appearing onstage cuddly, sweetly, and I thought to myself—that’s quite a sketch.” 

Saint Subber, convinced that this frontstage/backstage drama would make for a great show, “went about peddling the idea of turning Taming of the Shrew into a musical.” Eight years and a world war would pass before Saint Subber assembled a creative team that transformed the seed of his idea into one of the most enduring and successful American musicals, Kiss Me, Kate.