It's interesting you should mention the 1945 Glass Menagerie in this context. Betty Corwin, who founded the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive in 1969, saw Laurette Taylor in that production. The fact that there was no lasting record of it for people to see in later years was a major inspiration for her to found TOFT. (She said as much, on several occasions.) She also saw Katharine Cornell on stage, and it troubled her that Cornell's reputation faded with time, since she starred in no films.
A few of the titles cited in this thread -- such as the original 'Ragtime' -- were preserved on video by TOFT. And while we all know that's not the same as being there in person, it's a significant record of the production, in any case. |
