Clash by Night (Original photograph from the premiere of the 1941 Broadway play)

N.p.: N.p., 1941. Vintage black-and-white still photograph from the Broadway premiere of Clifford Odets' dark social drama, set in Staten Island, this image showing leads Tallulah Bankhead and Joseph Schildkraut. On the verso is a very detailed mimeo snipe prominently mentioning Odets as the playwright, and stamped 12-25-41, two days prior to the opening of the play.

The play ran for a total of 49 performances at the Belasco Theatre in New York, between December 27, 1941 and February 7, 1942. Basis for the 1952 film noir directed by Fritz Lang, with Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas, and Robert Ryan.

A convergence of many monstrous talents that would shape theatre, acting, and even cinema for the rest of the twentieth century. The snipe at the verso notes that this dance hall impresario Billy Rose's first foray into drama, and though not mentioned, the play's director was Lee Strasberg, a close associate of Odets and the Group Theatre, who would go on to establish the Actor's Studio six years later, in 1947. Strasberg directed a number of Odets' key plays in the 1940s, including "Golden Boy," "Awake and Sing," and "Rocket to the Moon."

7 x 9 inches. Very Good plus, with slight wrinkle at one corner.