Horse Eats Hat

Horse Eats Hat
Written by	Edwin Denby Orson Welles Based on the play The Italian Straw Hat by Eugene Labiche and Marc-Michel
Date premiered	September 26, 1936
Place premiered	Maxine Elliott Theatre, New York City
Original language	English
Genre	Farce

Horse Eats Hat is a 1936 farce play co-written and directed by the 21-year-old Orson Welles, and presented under the auspices of the Federal Theatre Project. It was Welles's second WPA production, after his highly successful Voodoo Macbeth. The script, by both Edwin Denby and Welles, was an adaptation of the classic French farce The Italian Straw Hat, by Eugène Marin Labiche and Marc-Michel.

Starring Joseph Cotten, a mainstay of what would become known as the Mercury Theatre, the play premiered at the Maxine Elliott Theatre, New York City, on September 26, 1936, running until December 5, 1936.

Welles spoke to filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich about the production:

The farce Horse Eats Hat was the best of the Mercury shows — and, though successful, it divided the town. The press was mixed, yet it was always packed, and had an enormous following. Some people went to it every week as long as it ran."^[1]

Cast

Wedding Guests — Ellen Worth, Arabella St. James, Marie Jones, Hattie Rappaport, Anna Gold, Myron Paulson, Wallace Acton, Pell Dentler, George Leach, Bil Baird^[2]:183

Tillie's Girls — Peggy Hartley, Terry Carlson, Lee Molnar, Gloria Sheldon, Teresa Alvarez, Opal Essant, June Thorne, Mildred Cold, Geraldine Law^[2]:183

Countess's Guests — Georgia Empry, Solomon Goldstein, May Angela, Lawrence Hawley, Margaret Maley, Jack Smith, Mary Kukavski, Elizabeth Malone, Ann Morton, Helena Rapport, Helen Korsun, Nina Salama, Julie Fassett, Jane Hale, Jane Johnson, Michael Callaghan, Don Harward, Walter LeRoy, Harry Merchant, Warren Goddard<^[2]:183:34

Citizens Night Patrol — Arthur Wood, James Perry, Victor Wright, Robert Hopkins, Craig Gordon, Harry Singer, Frank Kelly, Bernard Lewis, Henry Russelle, Charles Uday, George Smithfield, Henry Laird, Edwin Hemmer, George Armstrong, Jerry Hitchcock, Tod Brown^[2]:183

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  Costume for Mugglethorpe
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  Costume for the Countess
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  Arlene Francis, Joseph Cotten and Welles at a rehearsal
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  John Houseman and Welles at a rehearsal
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  Welles's office at the Maxine Elliott Theatre
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  The horse (Carol King, Edwin Denby) outside the Maxine Elliott Theatre
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  Joseph Cotten and Virginia Welles
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  Sidney Smith, Paula Laurence and Joseph Cotten
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  Sidney Smith and Paula Laurence
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  Joseph Cotten, Sidney Smith and Paula Laurence
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  Joseph Cotten and Arlene Francis
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  Henriette Kaye and Harry McKee
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  The wedding party on its way to the Countess's reception

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Horse Eats Hat.

• Horse Eats Hat at the Internet Broadway Database
• Horse Eats Hat — Library of Congress exhibition Coast to Coast: The Federal Theatre Project, 1935–1939 (February 17–July 16, 2011)