The Great Magoo

New York: Covici-Friede. Very Good+. (c.1933). First Edition. Hardcover. (no dust jacket) [a good sound clean copy, minor wear to the extremities]. (color stage design drawings) This "simple and slightly uncouth saga" of backstage romance and shenanigans (which opens in Coney Island) is further described by its subtitle: "A love-sick Charade in three Acts and something like eight Scenes, recounting the Didoes of two young and amorous Souls, who nigh perished when they weren't in the Hay together." Produced by Billy Rose and staged by George Abbott, the play opened -- and closed -- at New York's Selwyn Theatre in early December 1932, chalking up a mere eleven performances. The tepid audience and critical response notwithstanding (Brooks Atkinson in the NYT found it "all rather stale and malodorous"), no sooner had the final curtain dropped than it was announced that Paramount had purchased the movie rights -- and although it took them a few years, they did finally produce a film version: SOME LIKE IT HOT (1939), starring Bob Hope. .