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First edition of the famed comedic playwrights' first collaboration (a vaudeville act heads to Hollywood), with the publishers' colophon on the title page. A very good hardcover with the gilt titling somewhat faded to spine, in a "good" dust jacket -- still showing original $2.00 price to front flap -- which jacket is missing the bottom inch of its own spine. Originally sold at Traver's BookStore, Trenton, N.J. Such copies generally price in the $300 range, even if unsigned. But in 1934, someone at New Jersey's Lawrenceville prep school -- possibly Theater Club president & director Sanford Brooks -- bought this copy to present to Mrs. McPherson, who had served as wardrobe mistress for the school production of this play. (Simon John McPherson had been headmaster from 1888 till his death in 1919 -- exact relationship to the costumier -- widow? daughter? -- unknown) and decided to have every member of the cast sign it. Who played "Ernest"? Hamish Forbes, later Major Sir Hamish Stewart Forbes, 7th Baronet, MBE, MC, KStJ (1916-2007), a British Army officer who served in the Welsh Guards in the Second World War, spending five years as a German POW. (Yes, he attended Lawrenceville -- as well as Eton.) A battalion intelligence officer in France in 1940, Forbes was captured by the Germans leading a reconnaissance patrol near Arras in May. He proceeded to initiate 10 escape attempts -- the last successful -- and was later awarded the Military Cross. He signs next to his character name, a short distance above the signature of the lad who played "The Bishop," that being William H. Masters (1915-2001, class of 1934), later human sexuality researcher and co-founder of the Masters & Johnson Institute. "The Porter" was played by Lorton Livingston, who graduated Lawrenceville in 1935 and Princeton in 1939. During the war, "Lorty" rose to the rank of major. His battalion landed on D-Day and was involved in the fierce fighting that resulted in the breakout at St. Lo. He participated in the liberation of Paris (Aug. 25, 1944), and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Wounded on Jan. 28, 1945, he was awarded three Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart. Lorty later became a stockbroker and co-owner of Morgan's Inc. and owner of Atlantic States Personnel, Savannah, Ga. "The Bridesmaid" (obviously, young men had to take most of the female roles at the boys' school) signs as Warren Ackerman, possibly (we're not sure) legendary Beverly Hills business leader Warren Ackerman, who was a member of the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors for 60 years and received its "Lifetime Achievement" award in 2007. Signing as the "2nd chauffeur" was Edward L. Katzenbach Jr., older brother of Nicholas de B. Katzenbach, the younger brother later to become Attorney General of the United States. A former Defense Dept. official, Edward Katzenbach was a suicide in 1974. "Mr. Flick" was played by Mac Raymond (who here signs his full name -- Macpherson Raymond), president of his graduating class at Lawrenceville, where his grandfather (mentioned above) had been headmaster. Mac -- as proficient at football as at academics -- served as president of the Princeton Class of 1940 in each of his undergraduate years. There are 29 signatures in all -- surely a unique time capsule from the formative years of what some have called (even if thereby ignoring the years 1760-1820) "The Greatest Generation." Theater, drama. 236 pp. Reduced from $685.
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