Doomsday Circus: A Dramatic Chronicle

New York City, Ny: Contemporary Play Publications, 1938. 1st Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. Near Fine/Poor. 133 Pp. Red Cloth, Gilt. First Edition. Near Fine, Gilt Bright. Dust Jacket Worn, Spine Entirely Perished. Inscribed By Author To New York Attorney Morris Ebenstein. Emjo Basshe (Born Emmanuel Iode Abarbanel Basshe Or Emanuel Joseph Jochelman (1898 -1939) Was A Lithuanian-Born Jewish American Playwright Of Spanish Descent, A Recipient Of A 1931 Guggenheim Fellowship, And One Of The Initial Members In 1935 Of The Communist Party-Founded League Of American Writers. He Immigrated To The United States In 1912, Graduating From Columbia University In 1919. He Began His Theatrical Career With The Provincetown Playhouse And, In 1920, Went To Massachusetts, Working With Boston's Peabody Playhouse, Then Chelsea Arts Theatre And Cambridge's Castle Square Players, All During 1920-22. Returning To Provincetown Playhouse, He Remained Until The Premiere In 1925 Of His Play, Adam Solitaire, Directed By Stanley Howlett, And Featuring 19-Year-Old John Huston. Basshe Then Moved To Pennsylvania, Becoming Director Of The Stage Repertory Of Philadelphia, Where His Three Short Plays, The Bitter Fantasy, The Star And Soil Were Presented. Again Returning To New York, Basshe Co-Founded, With Four Others, The New Playwrights Theatre, Initially Finding A Temporary Home At The 52Nd Street Theatre, Where It Premiered, On March 9, 1927, His New Play, Earth, Directed By Russell Wright And Hemsley Winfield. On November 29, 1927, Basshe's New Play, Centuries, Set Among Jewish Residents Of A New York City Tenement House, Had Its Premiere. Directed By The Author, The Production Had A Cast Of 27, Including Future Film Star Franchot Tone, And Lasted For 39 Performances. Continuing As A Director, Basshe Next Helmed The Playhouse's Production Of Upton Sinclair's Prison-Based Drama, Singing Jailbirds, Which Featured Future Character Star, Lionel Stander, As One Of The Prisoners. Premiering On December 6, 1928, The Play Lasted 79 Performances. Provincetown Playhouse Dissolved In April 1929 And Basshe Pursued His Career As A Broadway Director At Other Venues, Co-Supervising North Carolina Playwright Paul Green's Musical Drama, Roll, Sweet Chariot, Set, According To Its Description, In "A Negro Village Somewhere In The South". The Production Premiered At The Cort Theatre On October 2, 1934 And Lasted 7 Performances. Another Green Play Directed By Basshe, Turpentine, Opened June 26, 1936 And Closed In August, Following 62 Performances. On May 13, A Month Before The Premiere Of Turpentine, Basshe's Anti-War Satire, The Snickering Horses, With A Cast Of 34, Was Staged At Daly's 63Rd Street Theatre As The Concluding Presentation Of Works Progress Administration's Federal Theatre Project Experimental Theatre Three-Performance Cycle Of Three One-Act Plays, With The Other Two Being George Bernard Shaw's Great Catherine: Whom Glory Still Adores And, Condensed Into One Act By Alfred Saxe, Molière's The Miser. In January 1939, Basshe Staged A Production Of Three One-Act Plays: Paul Vincent Carroll's The Coggerers (Later Renamed The Conspirators), Jean Giraudoux's Mr. Banks Of Birmingham And Josephinna Niggli's The Red Velvet Goat, Which Opened At The Hudson Theatre On January 20, 1939 And Closed The Following Day. The Sf Encuclopedia Says That In General His Plays Can Be Understood As Agitprop, And Seem To Have Been Particular Successful At The Heart Of The Great Depression, Before The New Deal Began To Rescue America From The Effects Of Unmonitored Capitalism. Of Sf Interest Is Doomsday Circus: A Dramatic Chronicle (1938), Seemingly Un-Produced During His Lifetime, An Expressionist, Hortatory Burlesque With Some Similarities To Elmer Rice's The Adding Machine, In Which The Coming Near Future Ownership Of The World By A Single Multi-Tentacled Corporation Is Rendered As A Circus.