Jumbo

Jumbo (1935), a musical comedy by Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur (book), Richard Rodgers (music), Lorenz Hart (lyrics). [ Hippodrome, 233 perf.] Two feuding circus magnates, Matthew Mulligan (W. J. McCarthy) and John A. Considine (Arthur Sinclair), are dismayed to learn that their children, Matt Jr. (Donald Novis) and Mickey Considine (Gloria Grafton), have fallen in love. Considine's drinking and his imminent bankruptcy compound his problems. The money difficulties are solved when his unorthodox press agent, Claudius B. Bowers (Jimmy Durante), burns down Considine's house, allowing him to collect the insurance. And when the youngsters bring about a reconciliation between the two older men, Considine promises to put the bottle on the shelf. Notable songs: Little Girl Blue; The Most Beautiful Girl in the World; My Romance. The Billy Rose show marked Rodgers and Hart's return from a four‐year stay in Hollywood. It was also the last legitimate production to play the famed Hippodrome, which Rose reconstructed to make it resemble a circus arena. Gilbert Gabriel of the American found the entertainment “chockful of so many thrills, musical, scenic, gymnastic and humanitarian, it deserves an endowment as an institution.”