Spotlight on Lee Falk - The Theatre Years
Lee Falk had a passion for the theatre. During his lifetime he ran five theaters, produced about 300 plays and directed about 100 of them. He also wrote many plays including two musicals.
The Cambridge Summer Theatre (1940–1947)
at Brattle Hall (about 495 seats)
The Cambridge Summer Theatre, co-sponsored by John Huntington and Lee Falk, was a resident equity company, supplemented by guest stars from theatre and film, and later, television. The season started late in July and each play ran for one week.
The actors received a "normal" payment to perform but the guest stars often had in their contracts a percentage of profit of the play. A common contract could be 10% of the gross with $750 per week guarantee. Since most of the plays made very little profit most of the guest stars worked for a fraction of what they would normally earn.
How and when Lee Falk got to know John Huntington is hard to find out. But according to Phil Davis, Lee's wife, Louise Kanaseriff Falk, acted in one of the summer stock companies at Connecticut in 1939. Perhaps one operated by John Huntington? Somehow, after reading Lee's play "Festival at Salzburg", John Huntington urged Lee Falk to join in producing summer stock at Brattle Hall.
Then in 1940, both Lee Falk and his wife Louise found themselves in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Louise as an actress in the resident company, and Lee Falk producing, directing and managing the theater.
Alan M Cranston, later US senator from California, was the chief of the Foreign Language Division (OWI). Early in 1942 he hired Lee Falk as chief of their radio section. Later, in 1944, Lee Falk was transferred to the Army Signal Corps.
During these years Lee had little time for his theatre or for writing the scripts for Mandrake the Magician and the Phantom. In his absence Louise Falk took over his work for the theatre.
Returning in 1946 Lee Falk and John Huntington found that they could manage to operate one more summer theatre, if they could produce a play a week at the new Boston Summer Theatre and then move it to Cambridge the next week.
One more thing was that television was beginning to compete with theatre and movies. One way to attract audiences was to bring in complete travelling shows from New York. These shows could easily be booked to play two theatres in two weeks.
The season of 1947 was the last with John Huntington, and Lee Falk decided to drop the Cambridge Summer Theatre.
The Boston Summer Theatre (1946–1958)
at New England Mutual Hall (about 914 seats)
Lee Falk had divorced in 1945 and when he returned in 1946 he fell in love with an actress of the summer stock, Constance J M Lilienthal. They were married in August 1946.
When returning in 1946 Lee started seriously directing and during this and the next seasons he directed a play every week. However, after the 1947 season he found that he could not operate his new summer theatre all by himself and the cartoonist Al Capp became his new silent partner in 1948.
The Boston Summer Theatre was doing well for many years until 1957 when Lee Falk started to lose money. Al Capp had dropped out in 1956 and John Huntington came back for the 1958 season. But sadly, they still lost money and Lee Falk decided to throw in the towel.
The Country Playhouse (1952–1953)
at Framingham Cinema (about 2500 seats)
Framingham Cinema was part of "Shopper’s World", the world’s biggest shopping centre located in Framingham. Lee Falk and Al Capp rented the Cinema for the years 1952–1954 to put up "the second week" of the plays from the Boston Summer theatre.
Marlon Brando, Billy Burke and Ezio Pinza were some of the guest stars playing at the playhouse, but I have not found that they performed at New England Mutual Hall. So it seems that some of the plays were put up only for the Country Playhouse.
The Framingham Cinema cancelled the last year of their contract and the Country Playhouse operated only for the seasons of 1952 and 1953.
The Marblehead Theatre (1954?–1956?)
In 1952 Lee Falk said he had rented the North Shore Music Tent in Beverly, not far away from Marblehead. his might have been the Marblehead Theatre or some other project that wasn't realized.
Very little information can be found about the Marblehead Theatre except for the place it operated from. My guess is that when Lee Falk lost the County Playhouse for the 1954 season he rented a new place in Marblehead for his "second week" of the Boston Summer Theatre. It is a bit uncertain if the theatre was still operating in 1956.
The British Colonial Playhouse (1953–1958?)
at Bahama Playhouse (about 40 seats)
Lee and his wife Connie used to spend parts of the winters in Nassau Bahamas. During February and March there was a small theatre operating at Bahama Playhouse. The British Colonial Playhouse had been operated by Lawrence Langner, Martin Manulis and Charles Bowden for two years without any financial success.
They asked Lee Falk if he would like to operate the theatre, he accepted and in the season of 1953 Lee found himself as the managing director for a small winter theatre. Charles Heston acted in one play in 1957, but if the theatre still was operated by Lee Falk after this season is uncertain.
Other theatres
Lee Falk was the producer and director for the play Winkelberg by Ben Hecht at Renata Theater in 1958.
Sources
- Billboard magazines
- Newspapers