Theatre World

[longtimelurker2]

Do people still collect these?

[Ed_Mottershead]

I do. I have a complete set starting from the first edition (1944-45).

[longtimelurker2]

Impressive! I used to have a full set but stopped collecting about a decade ago.

[taboo123]

I have a series of them scattered about but never got around to completing the set.

It's the closest thing I have to an encyclopedia (Whatever that is).

[mamaleh]

At the Theatre World Awards a couple of years ago, Tony Sheldon proudly announced that he has a full collection and began collecting when just a boy. That statement earned him lots of applause from the audience.

[After Eight]

I love the ones from the 40's, 50's, and 60's, (or as someone here doesn't realize, the Golden Age), and reread them constantly. In the long ago, I used to await breathlessly the appearance of the previous season's volume. When it appeared, my heart leapt up, and I would then read it again and again, rapt and enraptured.

I also loved how in that era they would choose the portraits of six performers from that season's shows to be on the cover. I was so thrilled to see Barbara Gel Geddes chosen for Mary, Mary, Julie Harris for Forty Carats, and Angela Lansbury for Dear World! I still am, for that matter.

And now to go back and look at the pictures of all those wonderful shows--- it's heaven.

Thank you, thank you, Theatre World, for the treasure you've provided us all.

[GavestonPS]

Well, I'm not going to miss a chance to agree with After Eight. Growing up far from Broadway, in a small city that didn't even get a professional theater until I was a teenager, Theatre World was my link to the world of the New York stage.

I'm not the collector type, but I spent many hours at the library reading those books.