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Massive vintage matte-finish 39 x 60 profile portrait of John Barrymore by Maurice Seymour of Chicago, signed and inscribed in fountain pen, "To the Selwyn—Thanks—in memory of a delightful Engagement—and with sincere thanks for Everyone connected with the Theatre—John Barrymore.” In very good condition, with bumps to the corners, dings to the edges, and some minor surface scuffing.
Barrymore starred in 'My Dear Children' at Chicago's Selwyn Theatre in 1939, ad-libbing and cursing throughout the play, with occasional audience interaction. The New York Times reviewed the act on September 10, 1939: 'When and if John Barrymore takes 'My Dear Children' to Broadway, he is perfectly contented to present it exactly as he has been presenting it so profitably in Chicago, namely as a peep-show, a spiritual strip-tease with himself as a sort of Gypsy Rose John. He realizes that his Hamlet days are done and that he is henceforth an exhibition, not a great actor. He is now as reckless of his artistic reputation as of his money; the past can care for the first, a valet-companion is caring for the second…
Not a performance goes by in the Selwyn Theatre without him interjecting some wholly extraneous name into the text, usually the name of one of the 'Loop-hounds' with whom he caroused in his Chicago engagements twenty or thirty years ago. He may halt the play while he recites anecdotes of these boon companions. He may halt it to point out from the footlights an actor friend who has stopped over in Chicago to see the show. He enjoys heaping fond curses and chuckling profanity upon these visitors' heads, while the crowd stands up in its chairs to see how the victims take it. Sweet-tempered, utterly good-humored, vastly pleased by the size of his audiences ('My Dear Children' has averaged better than $12,000 a week at the Selwyn), he sighs contentedly after a show, 'My cast laughs at me, I laugh at my cast, and the crowds laugh at us, so it must be all right.''
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