Looking for an old play "Blind Alley"

Cafe Society
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OK, I know this is a long shot, but I can’t think of a better place to start than SDMB.

As a young child, I was in a play called “Blind Alley”, performed at Southwest High School in St. Louis, probably by the YMCA Players, who were headquartered in the downtown YMCA. The play was directed by Irma Schira Tucker, and had a small cast, both male and female adult roles, no music, and some shooting on stage, so I surmise it was a murder mystery.

I’d like to find the text for it just to read what my part was – pure curiosity, nothing else. I had about 3 pages of dialogue and had to appear on stage in my pajamas in one scene. It would have been the start of an illustrious acting career except for…well, that’s a long story for another day.

The best I can pin this production down to is 1952 to 1954.

Some extensive googling suggests there are two plays with the same name about the same time. One, by James Warwick, was written in 1926 and made into more than one movie in the 30’s and 40’s. That might be the script I’m looking for.

But another play of the same name was first performed in the UK in 1953, written by James Popplewell. It appears to have a similar description – small cast, male & female roles, but no mention of a child. While it might be quicker than expected for a 1953 UK play to make it to community theater in St. Louis by 1954, it isn’t impossible – Mrs. Tucker was known for finding obscure plays and performing “experimental” world premieres before the “commercial” theater crowd got their hands on it. It’s theoretically possible that she produced it before London did.

Both the Warwick and Popplewell plays sound like murder mystery thrillers, so that’s no help. And I can’t find any home recordings of the movies, which may have been derived rather than exact copies of the stage play, anyway.

If I can’t get either play from an inter-library lending service, I might just bite the bullet and buy a copy thru the Internet, but the prices are a little high for this unimportant experiment – it’s strictly a personal thing.

Anyone have any ideas or help?

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Ooh this is an intriguing one. Have you tried contacting the HotCity Theater directly? The theater’s dark for the summer, but they may have an archivist around who could just check their history to confirm the date and the play’s author. They might even have a program for you.

But just guessing, I’m going to say your play was the Warwick play. His Blind Alley is about a gangster and his mob taking a psychology professor and his family/students hostage. According to this cast list, there’s a role of the professor’s 7-year-old son, Teddy, who’s naturally put in danger by the gangster/killer. If you scroll down, you can keep reading sections of the play for free, including Teddy’s lines. (He’s supposed to be saying goodnight, which explains the pajamas you were wearing, BTW. :))

Sounds like a pretty interesting yet creepy play! I’m gonna keep an eye out for the Ralph Bellamy version. How old would you have been around this time, Musicat?

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Hey, thanks, choie! How is it you were able to find that script and I wasn’t? I went thru 20 google result pages with many clue words.

Cast list: “Teddy: A winning little boy of 7.” That’s obviously me!

That would put the production ca. 1952-3, which matches my estimate.

I was scared by the loud gun shots on stage, and the stage crew protectively kept me backstage when they were about to happen.

I don’t remember a single line, except I did forget one and the cast helped me thru it. I guess that’s not too bad for the first time on stage, 3 pages of dialogue and 4 performances on school nights.

As far as the HotCity theater group, you are right about their inheritance of the YMCA Players - > George Williams Players - > City Players, but I happen to know most of their archives were destroyed in a fire at the hotel (ca. 1980-90?), and the founder’s possessions were poorly preserved when she died, so I didn’t think that route would be as rewarding as you might hope. Also, an attempt to contact them some years ago wasn’t enthusiastically received – don’t ask.

As far as the play being good, I haven’t a clue, but Mrs. Tucker was pretty well known for theatrical innovation and provocative material. It isn’t likely to be your stock English Drawing Room Farce.

ETA: Wait, wait! Is the link to the cast list the Popplewell play or the Warwick one? Time may run out on my edit opportunities…

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Ah, I see. Your search was with the Popplewell name, but it led to the Warwick one. So it looks like the play I want is the older one, Warwick’s.

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The dialog in that abbreviated script doesn’t ring a bell – not surprising since 60 years have passed, but I do remember having to kiss “Doris,” “a charming and cultivated woman of about 30.” Such sacrifices are necessary if you want to get acting experience. :slight_smile:

This play had smoking, drinking, gunshots, “mature” themes, and it was, above all, a play, which to an ultra-fundamentalist Christian parent, the work of the Devil and reason enough to put her foot down, so my promising career as an actor under a wonderful mentor’s wing was cut short, in spite of my pleading and tears. {sigh} What might have been!

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Hey, you’re very welcome, Musicat. I found the script this way: first, I wanted to see whether either play had a kid’s role. So I looked up a review of the filmed version of Warwick’s play, which mentioned the role of “Dave Shelby,” the professor’s son. Since it didn’t mention the kid’s age – and besides, this could’ve been a new role added to the film adaptation – I did a news search for the play title and the word “son” hoping to find a review that mentioned the part. Sure enough, up popped this preview in a 1943 Milwaukee paper of a local production with a six-year-old boy in the role.

So at that point I figured Warick’s version was definitely correct, but then I thought, hmm, maybe I’ll double-check the other play, just to rule out whether that might have a kid in it, too. Funnily enough, it was only when I did the other search (for “blind alley” and Popplewell) that I came across the Samuel French edition of Warwick’s play. This is the sort of serendipity every researcher loves!

(I never did double-check the Popplewell version, btw. But the pajama thing seemed too spot-on to be a coincidence.)

It’s a real shame that the theater staffer was so unhelpful when you contacted them years ago. Anyway I’m glad you have some memories of the show, even though the script wasn’t that evocative for you. Seven is very young to be reciting all those lines – I bet you were very cute. :slight_smile: Do you have any scrapbook pictures or anything like that? I guess if your parents disapproved of acting / the theater, they didn’t make a fuss about you, huh? Though it does make me wonder how you got involved in the first place! Maybe you can do some volunteering if the theatrical bug still nibbles at you now and then.