Murphy’s Town Hall Athenry 32 8th February 1942 – My Love Came Back, a 1940 American comedy starring Olivia de Havilland, Jeffrey Lynn, Eddie Albert, 59 Jane Wyman and SZ Sakall (see Sakall in picture opposite), was screened in the Hall by L Caslin Travelling Picture Company (source: Hall Journal). 27th February 1942 – Castle Ellen Players 60 performed The Whiteheaded Boy in the Hall, a comedy in Three Acts by Lennox Robinson (source: Hall Journal). NB: This play was first performed at the Abbey Theatre in 1916. 3rd March 1942 – His Girl Friday, a 1940 ‘screwball’ comedy directed by Howard Hawks, starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell and Ralph Bellamy was screened in the Hall by L Caslin Travelling Picture Company (source: Hall Journal). 23rd to 31st March 1942 – Maurice O’Brien and His Full Travelling Company entertained in the Hall for 8 consecutive nights with Revue, Musical Comedy, Variety & Gags etc, (source: Hall Journal). 12th April 1942 – The Lone Wolf Strikes, a 1940 crime drama starring Warren William, Joan Perry, Eric Blore, Montagu Love, Alan Baxter and Astrid Allwyn was screened in the Hall by L Caslin Travelling Picture Company (source: Hall Journal). NB: The Lone Wolf character dates back to 1914, when author Louis Joseph Vance invented him for a series of books, later adapted to twenty-four Lone Wolf films (1917–1949). Warren Williams starred in nine of these films (1939–1943). 26th April 1942 – Athenry Local Security Force (LSF) First Annual Dance held in the Hall with Music from Beahan’s Athlone Band (source: Hall Journal, see also Connacht Tribune 18th April 1942, page 5). 17th May 1942 – Babies for Sale, a 1940 Film Noir starring Rochelle Hudson, Glenn Ford and Miles Mander was screened in the Hall by Leo Caslin Travelling Picture Company (source: Hall Journal). 18th to 24th May 1942 – J & C Mack All Star Variety Show played the Hall for 7 consecutive nights (source: Hall Journal). 7th June 1942 – A Dance in the Hall (source: Hall Journal, also a surviving Tuam Herald invoice for posters advertising this dance). 9th June 1942 – An Angel from Texas, a 1940 comedy starring Eddie Albert, Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan, was screened in the Hall by L Caslin Travelling Picture Company (source: Hall Journal). NB: Wyman and Reagan were married when making this picture. Reagan famously went on to be the 40th President of the United States. 7th July 1942 – Too Many Husbands (aka My Two Husbands), a 1940 romantic comedy film about a woman who remarries after apparently losing first her husband in a boating accident, starring Jean Arthur, Fred MacMurray and Edgar Buchanan, was screened in the Hall by L Caslin Travelling Picture Company (source: Hall Journal). 9th July 1942 – Connacht Tribune 4th July 1942, front page, carries an advert for an auction of High Class Furniture and Sundry Household Requirements 61 in the Hall (confirmed by the Hall Journal). 19th July 1942 – The Doctor Takes a Wife, a 1940 ‘screwball’ comedy starring Loretta Young and Ray Milland, was screened in the Hall by L Caslin Travelling Picture Company (source: Hall Journal). 30th August 1942 – H Taylor, Secretary of the FAU, held a Ceilidhe in the Hall (source: Hall Journal). 5th September 1942 – Shandon Talkies, a Travelling Cineshow Company, screened The Lady from Nowhere in the Hall, a 1936 gangster film starring Mary Astor, Charles Quigley and Thurston Hall (source: Hall Journal). 4th October 1942 – Connacht Tribune 26th September 1942, page 4, carries an ad for a Gort on Parade Grand Revue and Variety Concert to be held in the Town Hall, in aid of the Athenry LDF District Fund (sources: Hall Journal, programme for the event and the Tribune page referenced here). 59 Eddie Albert is probably best remembered as Oliver Wendell Douglas in 1960s TV comedy Green Acres, in which he starred alongside Eva Gabor 60 Unfortunately, we have been unable to find any further background info on the Castle Ellen Players 61 F Sweeney, Auctioneer and Valuer
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