The Children's Hour

Children's Hour, The (1934), a drama by Lillian Hellman. [Maxine Elliott's Theatre, 691 perf.] At the Wright‐Dobie School, teacher Karen Wright (Katherine Emery) finds she must punish the young student Mary Tilford (Florence McGee), a habitual liar, by rescinding her privileges. Without meaning to, she also punishes her own associate, Martha Dobie (Anne Revere), when she announces her forthcoming marriage. The vengeful Mary returns home to whisper to her grandmother that Karen and Martha are lesbians. The rumor destroys the school, wrecks Karen's marriage plans, and drives Martha to suicide. When Mrs. Tilford, having learned the truth, comes to apologize, Karen refuses to accept her apologies. The Herman Shumlin–produced play, based loosely on a 19th‐century incident in Scotland, was the sensation of the season. Percy Hammond wrote in the Herald Tribune that it “will make your eyes start from their sockets as its agitating tale unfolds.” The New York Drama Critics Circle Award was established in no small measure because the Pulitzer Prize was awarded to another play that year. A 1952 revival was only moderately successful, the whispered accusation, the death off stage, and the general restraint of the work having come to seem tame in comparison to later plays.