Jim Dandy (1941)

Original Production - Princeton University Theater Intime - November 1941

Producer - Theater Intime

Director - Albert Penalosa

Stage Setting - J.F. Wachob

Original Cast - 

Jim Dandy - Marvin Gray

Jim Crow - Thomas Barbour

Johnny - Lionel Wiggam

Flora - Carol Marcus

Little Johnny - Garrison Ellis

Fishkin - Albert E. Penalosa

Jock - Geoffrey M. T. Jones

Molly - Lee Smith

A Letter Carrier - Charles H. Bur

 

 

Notes

 Written by Saroyan for the The National Theatre Conference, who distributed the rights to colleges around the country. 

 Reviewed by Brooks Atkinson for The New York Times, November 8th, 1941  ("What "Jim Dandy" means in rational terms this courier is unable to say, and he is cynical enough to believe that Mr. Saroyan is not very intelligent about it either. But this courier can further report that although the first act did not interest him very much, the second act was strangely moving, like a sad dance of human beings trying to break out of the dreariness of their ordinary lives into the free air of comradeship and beauty.")

 

Associated Materials:

Script: Jim Dandy, 1941, in original folder, FF-2-8

Script: Jim Dandy, 1941, includes National Theatre Conference release page, FF-2-9

Script: Jim Dandy, 1941, Saroyan's own annotated copy, FF-2-14

Script: Jim Dandy, 1947, carbon copy of original typescript, FF-2-16

Script: Jim Dandy, 1941, Saroyan's annotated mimeographed copy, FF-2-17

Playbill: Jim Dandy, 1941, Eldred theatre performance by the Western Reserve University players, TP-15