The Petrified Forest

The Petrified Forest* by Robert E. Sherwood
Broadhurst Theatre†, New York
Co-Producer
Rôle: Alan Squier
Total Performances: 197
1/7/1935 - 6/29/1935

†Broadhurst Theatre, 235 W. 44th St., New York, NY

Synopsis:

"A dangerous gangster on the run with his band holds up an Arizona diner full of various characters, including a dying intellectual and a waitress striving for a more cultured life, in Robert E. Sherwood's play." Playbill

Excerpt from The Petrified Forest:

Alan Squier: The trouble with me is, I belong to a vanishing race. I'm one of the intellectuals.
Gabby Maple: That means you've got brains. I can see you have.
Alan Squier: Yes—brains without purpose. Noise without sound. Shape without substance. Have you ever read The Hollow Men? (She shakes her head.) Don't. It's discouraging because it's true. It refers to the intellectuals, who thought they'd conquered Nature. They dammed it up and used its waters to irrigate the wastelands. They built streamline monstrosities to penetrate its resistance. They wrapped it up in cellophane and sold it to the drug stores. And now—do you realize what it is that is causing world chaos?
Gabby Maple: No.
Alan Squier: Well, I'm probably the only living person who can tell you. It's Nature hitting back. Not with the old weapons—floods, plagues, holocausts. We can neutralize them. She's fighting back with strange instruments called neuroses. She's deliberately afflicting mankind with the jitters. Nature is proving that she can't be beaten—not by the likes of us. She's taking the world away from the intellectuals and giving it back to the apes.

Books:
*OCLC WorldCat Entry The Petrified Forest
• Eforgan, pp. xiv, 99, 113, 129 and Theatre and Film Work Index
• Howard, L. R., pp. 211, 214-18, 223, 225-6
• Howard, R., Plays Index

Online:
• IBDb.com Leslie Howard Page
• IBDb.com The Petrified Forest
• Museum of the City of New York The Petrified Forest Photo Collection
• Program in PDF from Playbill The Petrified Forest - 1935

Newspapers and Magazines:
• Miscellaneous Notices
• News Art in PDF
• "A Scene from The Petrified Forest, Mr. Sherwood's Meditative Melodrama" Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 01/13/1935
• "Hitch Hiker" Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 04/02/1935
• White, J. "About a Play In the Making" Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 01/06/1935
• "How the Critics See the Plays" Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 02/10/1935
• "People Need Faith, Dr. Nixon Declares" The New York Times, 05/27/1935

~ Reviews and Commentary:
• "Here and There About Town" Barnard Bulletin, 02/15/1935
• Pollock, A. "The Theater: Robert Sherwood's The Petrified Forest Opens at the Broadhurst and Becomes at Once a Hit" Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 01/08/1935
• Pollock, A. "Some Flattering After Thoughts on Mr. Sherwood's Masterpiece: In The Petrified Forest, Sherwood Grows Mellow" Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 01/13/1935
• Pollock, A. "This Season Has Had Its Exceptional Plays, Too" Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 03/31/1935
• "Comic Muse at the Broadhurst" Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 06/02/1935
• Schrader, F. F. "Odd Pair" The Cincinnati Enquirer, 01/20/1935
• Dimond, B. "Broadway Nights" The Corsicana Daily Sun, 01/23/1935
• Broun, H. "It Seems to Me" Decatur Herald, 02/04/1935
• McCormick, E. H. "Films Have Failed to Hurt Him, He Is Informed Bluntly" The Detroit Free Press, 01/17/1935
• Summerfield, L. "Outstanding Theatrical Success of Season in New York Written By Bob Sherwood When in Nevada" Nevada State Journal, 01/20/1935
• E. F. M. "A Couple of Back Bay Matters" The New York Times, 12/30/1934
• Pemberton, B. "The Stagehands Shift the Scene to 1935 - Part I" The New York Times, 12/30/1934
• Pemberton, B. "The Stagehands Shift the Scene to 1935 - Part II" The New York Times, 12/30/1934
• Atkinson, B. "The Play" The New York Times, 01/08/1935
• Atkinson, B. "Pistols, Bullets and Ideas" The New York Times, 01/13/1935
• Hopkins, A. "Gorki and Berger and Robert E. Sherwood" The New York Times, 01/20/1935
• E. F. M. "Beside Grave Boston's Uncommon Common" The New York Times, 01/27/1935
• Atkinson, B. "Fiddling at the Old Tunes" The New York Times, 03/17/1935
• "Broadway at Odds on Pulitzer Award" The New York Times, 05/08/1935 • It was noted that "The Petrified Forest was eliminated on the judgment that it was a good play largely because of good acting by Leslie Howard and Peggy Conklin."
• Atkinson, B. "Pulitzer Drama Honors" The New York Times, 05/12/1935
• Nichols, L. "The Recent Plays" The New York Times, 07/28/1935
• "Plucky Gesture of Unpopular Protest" with Review by William Lyon Phelps. Oakland Tribune, 04/02/1935
• Hammond, P. "Smart Talk, Machine Guns Crackle in Sherwood Play" The Pittsburgh Press, 01/13/1935
• Boehnel, W. "Movie Stars 'Doing Well' On Broadway" The Pittsburgh Press, 01/29/1935
• Fisher Parry, F. "On With The Show: Magnificent Pessimist" The Pittsburgh Press, 02/10/1935
• Fisher Parry, F. "On With The Show" The Pittsburgh Press, 04/25/1935
• Harrison, P. "Broadway Drama Crop Curtailed" The Racine Journal-Times, 02/05/1935
• Mantle, B. "Leslie Howard Wins New Laurels in Sherwood Drama, Petrified Forest" Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 01/20/1935
• Welshimer, H. "Hero May Not Win Medal as Husband" The Scranton Republican, 04/15/1935
• "Looking Over the Broadway Stage" St. Louis Star-Times, 02/11/1935

~ Regarding Leslie Howard:
• "Listing a Few of Leslie Howard's Peculiarities" Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 02/10/1935
• "Showing That Mr. Howard Has His Human Failings" Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 03/31/1935
• Whyte, B. "Actor By Accident" Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 07/21/1935
• Schrader, F. F. "Sweet Charms" The Cincinnati Enquirer, 01/13/1935
• "Broadway Goes to Shakespeare" The Des Moines Register, 06/11/1935
• Nugent, F. S. "Mr. Howard Casts a Stone" The New York Times, 02/03/1935
• "Films Oppressive to Leslie Howard" The New York Times, 04/01/1935
• "All Is Told to 300 by Leslie Howard" The New York Times, 04/06/1935
• "News of the Stage: Leslie Howard to Produce and Appear in Hamlet Early Next Season—A Shakespearean Autumn." The New York Times, 06/11/1935
• Reston, J. B. "New Yorker's Daybook" The Sandusky Register, 05/29/1935
• "Petrified Forest" The Xenia Evening Gazette, 01/30/1935

~ About the Producer, Writer and Cast:
• "Peggy Conklin Elucidates Her Role" Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 03/01/1935
• Harrison, P. "..In...New York" Fitchburg Sentinel, 02/23/1935
• "Mrs. H. H. Connelly Bride in Budapest" The New York Times, 06/16/1935
• "Blanche Sweet Likes the Stage" The State Journal, Lansing, 02/23/1935

[Outside the Broadhurst Theatre]

[Leslie Howard and Peggy Conklin backstage at the Broadhurst]

[Leslie Howard backstage at the Broadhurst]

[Leslie Howard backstage at the Broadhurst]

[Leslie Howard as Alan Squier and Peggy Conklin as Gabby Maple
in The Petrified Forest]

[Leslie Howard as Alan Squier in The Petrified Forest]

[Leslie Howard as Alan Squier in The Petrified Forest]

[Leslie Howard as Alan Squier in The Petrified Forest]

[Leslie Howard as Alan Squier in The Petrified Forest]

[Humphrey Bogart as Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest]

[Leslie Howard as Alan Squier and Peggy Conklin as Gabby Maple
in The Petrified Forest]

[Leslie Howard as Alan Squier and Peggy Conklin as Gabby Maple
in The Petrified Forest]

[Peggy Conklin as Gabby Maple in The Petrified Forest]

[Leslie Howard as Alan Squier, Peggy Conklin as Gabby Maple and
Charles Dow Clark as Gramp Maple in The Petrified Forest]

[Leslie Howard as Alan Squier, Robert Porterfield as Herb and
Peggy Conklin as Gabby Maple in The Petrified Forest]

[The Cast on the Stage of The Petrified Forest]

[Leslie Howard as Alan Squier in The Petrified Forest]

[Leslie Howard as Alan Squier and Peggy Conklin as Gabby Maple
in The Petrified Forest]
Museum of the City of New York

[Leslie Howard as Alan Squier in The Petrified Forest]
Museum of the City of New York

[Leslie Howard as Alan Squier in The Petrified Forest]
Museum of the City of New York

[Leslie Howard as Alan Squier in The Petrified Forest]
Museum of the City of New York

[Leslie Howard as Alan Squier in The Petrified Forest]
Museum of the City of New York

[Humphrey Bogart as Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest]
Museum of the City of New York

[Leslie Howard as Alan Squier and Peggy Conklin as Gabby Maple
in The Petrified Forest]
Museum of the City of New York

[Leslie Howard as Alan Squier and Peggy Conklin as Gabby Maple
in The Petrified Forest]
Museum of the City of New York

[Peggy Conklin as Gabby Maple in The Petrified Forest]
Museum of the City of New York

[Leslie Howard as Alan Squier, Peggy Conklin as Gabby Maple and
Charles Dow Clark as Gramp Maple in The Petrified Forest]
Museum of the City of New York

[Leslie Howard as Alan Squier, Robert Porterfield as Herb and
Peggy Conklin as Gabby Maple in The Petrified Forest]
Museum of the City of New York

[The Cast on the Set of The Petrified Forest]
Museum of the City of New York

[Leslie Howard as Alan Squier in The Petrified Forest]
Museum of the City of New York

[Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 16 June 1935]

Subscribe to Leslie Howard by Email • And don't forget to respond to the verification email!