The Star Wagon

Star Wagon, The (1937), a play by Maxwell Anderson. [ Empire Theatre, 223 perf.] When Martha Minch (Lillian Gish) berates her husband of thirty‐five years, Stephen (Burgess Meredith), for not making enough money, he shrugs off her complaint. Stephen is a clever inventor whose boss, Duffy (Kent Smith), is ready to fire him for inventing a tire that will not wear out. But Stephen also has a more interesting invention: a time machine he calls his star wagon, which he uses to go back into his youth with Martha and relive the chance he had to marry a rich girl, Hallie Arlington (Jane Buchanan). The visit convinces Martha and him that they made the right decisions. After all, look at the man who married Hallie—none other than crotchety old Duffy! This likable Anderson fantasy, produced by Guthrie McClintic, was assessed by Mary McCarthy in the Partisan Review as “richer in period comedy than in metaphysics. It is entertaining and quite harmless.”