Murphy’s Town Hall Athenry 48 25th February to 2nd March 1952 – Mrs Louis D’alton’s Travelling Play Company performed 7 nights in the Hall, a different play on each night: Shadow and Substance by Paul Vincent Carroll The Jail Bird by George Sheils Juno and the Paycock by Seán O’Casey The Wise Have Not Spoken by Paul Vincent Carroll The Shadow of a Gunman by Seán O’Casey Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier Peg O’ My Heart by Hartley Manners NB: The Connacht Tribune of 1st March 1952 carries the following on page 13: “Louis Dalton’s players have been staging a number of well-known pieces in the Town Hall during the week and the capacity audiences enjoyed acting of the highest quality. But for those who, in the years gone by, watched the company’s rise to prominence, the death last year of Louis Dalton left a void on the stage which will never be filled.” 16th March 1952 – Harvey, a 1950 Comedy starring James Stewart and Josephine Hull was screened in the Hall (source: the Hall Journal). The film was based on the 1944 Mary Chase play of the same name. The story centres around a man whose best friend is an invisible rabbit named Harvey that is over 6 feet tall. 24th & 25th April 1952 – Athenry Dramatic Club performed a play in the Hall titled Nano, by Sigerson Clifford (source: the Hall Journal). 19th to 25th May 1952 – Anew McMaster’s Travelling Dramatic Company played the Hall for 7 nights, performing a different play each night and also a Matinee on Thursday (source: Hall Journal and tour promo card from 1952. NB: Harold Pinter, actor, playwright and 2005 Nobel Prize Winner for Literature was part of McMaster’s touring company at this time): The Merchant of Venice, by Shakespeare Lady Windermere’s Fan, by Oscar Wilde (Harold Pinter played Lord Windermere) Othello, by Shakespeare (Harold Pinter played Michael Cassio) And Then There Were None, 86 by Agatha Christie An Ideal Husband, by Oscar Wilde Hamlet, by Shakespeare The Taming of the Shrew, by Shakespeare (Harold Pinter played Hortensio) 29th June 1952 – Athenry Macra na Feirme held a Grand Dance in the Hall with Music by The Paramount Dance Orchestra, Athy (source: Hall Journal, see also Connacht Tribune 21st June 1952, page 10). 20th July 1952 – Dance in the Hall with Music from JJ FLYNN'S Dance Band (source: Hall Journal, see also Connacht Tribune 12th July 1952, page 6). 20th August 1952 – Beau Geste, a 1939 movie starring Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, and Susan Hayward was screened in the Hall (source: Hall Journal). The screenplay was adapted from the 1924 novel of the same name by P. C. Wren. 9th September 1952 – All About Eve, a 1950 movie, written and directed by Joseph Mankiewicz, produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, and starring Bette Davis, George Sanders and Anne Baxter. It also features a young Marilyn Monroe as Claudia Caswell, in one of her earliest screen roles (source: Hall Journal). 12th September 1952 – White Heat, a 1949 Gangster Film starring James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien, Margaret Wycherly and Steve Cochran was screened in the Hall (source: Hall Journal). This movie features one of Jimmy Cagney’s most famous movie quotes: "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!" 86 NB: This was performed under Agatha Christie’s original story title, first published in 1939. And Then There Were None is an alternative title.
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