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.
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.
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.