Once in a Lifetime

Summary

This BBC production of Once in a Lifetime, an American comedy by Moss Hart and George Kaufman, featured film excerpts.

Theatre play

Once in a Lifetime by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart [more information]

Play synopsis

'The satirical comedy focuses on the effect talking pictures have on the entertainment industry. When the New York City vaudevillean team of Jerry Hyland, May Daniels, and George Lewis find themselves in a faltering vaudeville act, they decide to head west and present themselves as elocution experts in the hope someone will hire them to train actors unaccustomed to speaking on screen. On the train they meet gossip columnist Helen Hobart, who introduces them to megalomaniac film mogul Herman Glogauer when they arrive in Hollywood. The trio’s misadventures include encounters with Lawrence Vail, a New York City playwright driven to distraction and eventually a sanatorium by studio bureaucracy and a lack of work to keep him busy; silent screen beauties Phyllis Fontaine and Florabel Leigh, whose voices sound like nails on a blackboard; two pages in 18th century dress who periodically arrive carrying placards with announcements about Glogauer’s latest doings; a ditzy receptionist who wears an evening gown to work; and aspiring actress (and proverbial dumb blonde) Susan Walker and her chaperoning stage mother. Dimwitted George becomes a director who shoots the wrong script, forgets to turn on the soundstage lights, and audibly cracks nuts during filming, yet his movie is called a masterpiece and he’s declared a genius by trend-conscious journalists who believe he’s ahead of his time’ (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_in_a_Lifetime_%28play%29).

Production history

'Hart had written the play himself in 1929 and invited Kaufman to work with him on several rewrites. The original Broadway production, directed by Kaufman, opened at the Music Box Theatre on September 24, 1930 and ran for 406 performances’ (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_in_a_Lifetime_%28play%29).

Date of transmission

Monday 6 December 1937

Time

3.04pm (94 mins)

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Eric Crozier (1914-1994)

Playwright

Moss Hart

Playwright

George S. Kaufman

Adaptor of Script

Eric Crozier (1914-1994)

Conductor

Hyam Greenbaum (BBC Television Orchestra)

Director of Orchestra

Boris Pecker

Cast

Chris Castor
David Denbigh
Oscar Ebelsbacher	Kammerling
Charles Farrell	George Lewis
Guy Glover
Edmund Gray
Joseph Greenspun
Frank Henderson
Hannah Johns
Kay Lewis	Susan Walker
Joan Miller (1910-1988)	May Daniels
Janet Norton
Arthur Powell
Douglas Seale
Elaine Wodson	Miss Leighton

Additional details

Later transmissions

Broadcast again at 9.00pm on Friday 10 December 1937; at 9.00pm on Saturday 29 January, 9.00pm on Wednesday 2 February and at 3.00pm on Monday 26 December 1938; and at 9.10pm on Wednesday 4 January 1939.

Notes

The Radio Times for 3 December 1937, p. 19 notes that ‘the timings you see for it in the programme columns are not misprints - the show really has been allocated ninety minutes. As far as I can remember, no television producer has yet sat on duty in the control-room for as long as an hour and a half’. The same article is informative on the unusual (for the time) rehearsal process and the use of studios and sets at Alexandra Palace.

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

American drama; comedy; film, as theme; theatre or acting, as theme

Print sources

Title

Adventure in Vision: The First Twenty-Five Years of Television (Book)

Author/creator

John Swift (Author)

Reference

London: John Lehmann, 1950

Linking notes

p. 98

Title

BBC Television Programme Records: vol. 1, 1937-38 (Book)

Reference

London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1938

Linking notes

listing on p. 100

Title

Broadcasting: Televised Drama (Newspaper review)

Author/creator

Anon.

Reference

The Times, 13 December 1937, p. 18

Title

Radio Times, 25 March 1938 (Magazine)

Linking notes

one-column picture on p. 18 with Guy Glover and Joan Miller in this production

Title

Radio Times, 3 December 1937 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing and article, ‘Play that Lasts Ninety Minutes’, on p. 19

Title

The Intimate Screen: Early British Television Drama (Book)

Author/creator

Jason Jacobs (Author)

Reference

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000

Linking notes

p. 36