Bridget Wingert: Happy to Be Here

Local barn makes good

On August 6, 1953 the New Hope Gazette published the first part of a series in a long account of the founding of the Bucks County Playhouse written by Don Walker, an arranger for Broadway musicals and one of the Playhouse founders. The Herald will publish the account at this critical time in the history of the Playhouse, when it is up for sale. Walker’s daughter, Ann Liebgold, supplied the text.

A true historie of the coming of the thespians (Part One of 10)

I. Introduction

Only 14 years ago, this fabulous spot in which we live – New Hope, Bucks County, U.S.A. – was a far more restful homesite and a far less profitable business location than it is today.

In the 1920s, New Hope had – half ashamed – accepted a touch of national recognition as an artists’ colony, but this breeze scarcely ruffled the still waters. By the ‘30s, many of the artists had departed – either to their final reward or more inspiring settings, and those that remained had become solid citizens, practically indistinguishable from natives.

Through the ‘30s, there was an infiltration of “city folks” into Bucks County, but they generally bought old, large farms with houses in the center of the holding, where on week-ends they could indulge in whatever “Carryin’-ons” they fancied in seclusion more impenetrable than Westchester or Connecticut offered. Although a large number of these new settlers earned their handsome incomes in the theatrical field, they caused little excitement when they would come on Saturday mornings to buy their groceries in my father’s store on Bridge Street. New Hope had seen people dressed up funny before and ignored ‘em.

By the spring of 1939, Bucks County was receiving occasional national publicity, featuring this section as a bucolic retreat for notables of stage and screen. However, business was still leisurely in New Hope and the most interesting topic of conversation was still the weather.

Today, it would be hard to find a community in the whole country that is buzzing more than this one. There are several shows to see in the summer season, with “round” actors in them. (One delighted moppet, seeing his first play at the Playhouse after a short but intense lifetime of movie going, was heard exclaiming, “Look, the people are round.”) Our gift shops draw customers from all over the East; our restaurants are nationally famous; we still have artists, but now they have galleries in which to sell their pictures. Mechanic Street is unique – a capsule Greenwich Village in a provincial setting. And, abetting all this activity, conventional local supply companies are humming.

There are many who are happy with this present state of affairs. There are a few who, understandably, long for the picture and pace of 1939.

There is hardly anyone who will deny that the building and opening of the Bucks County Playhouse was the spark that started the display of fireworks that is New Hope, 1953. But, despite the tons of publicity that have made the Playhouse – and Theron Bamburger – household expressions, the story of its conception, organization, incorporation, financing and construction has never been told; the saga of operation from 1939 to the present has never been summarized. Plans for the future of the Playhouse have never been announced.

There are several reasons for this. One is that many of the people connected with the original development were of a self-sacrificing, retiring nature – people who would knock themselves out over a community project while preferring to remain in the background. Another good and continuing reason is that any publicity about the people behind the theater would tend to compete with that of the management entrusted with producing plays during the summer season. The inside story won’t sell any tickets – or will it?

In any event, next year there is to be a change in the management. Time has shown many of the events leading to the theater’s creation in their proper proportion. If New Hope will accept the word “community” in a slightly larger sense and include Solebury Township, both Makefield Townships and a small assist from Doylestown, I think you will find this a tale of a true “community” project, complete with the eventual Frankenstein-like success. The Gazette has agreed that now is the time to shoot the works. So here we go, kids: hold your hats, tighten your safety belts, and may the libel suits fall where they may. Dullness will be the only reason for cutting any fact.

II. “First, We Get Some Barn….”

The Bucks County Playhouse was conceived one evening in the summer of 1938 at the home of Susan Palmer, the proprietor of a well-known New York restaurant. During the course of a fairly large party, a group gathered in one corner and kicked around the idea of a straw-hat theater. Members of the group: St. John (Music Circus) Terrell, Kenyon (well-known playwright) Nicholson, Richard (famous actor) Bennett and myself.

Dick Bennett was then at the end of a spectacular career, and actually close to the end of his life. Never noted for his dislike of any beverage displaying the slightest “proof,” he was in Bucks County retirement, attempting – somewhat unsuccessfully – complete abstinence. Terrell, already imbued with an unquenchable yearning to run a theatrical operation – anywhere, anytime, anyhow – had met Bennett, secured his co-operation and was ranging up and down the countryside waving him like a flag at anyone who so much as whispered, “Theatre.”