The Theater: Washington Opening

In Washington, only whites were let in to the opening of Maxwell Anderson’s new play, Joan of Lorraine. Pickets protested. Star Ingrid Bergman went on with the show, but race discrimination, said she, made the capital a poor place for an opening. Playwright Robert E. Sherwood proposed that the show world teach Washington a lesson. “I believe,” said he, “that it is the duty of all of us who work in the American theater … to protest … by agreeing that we shall keep our productions out of Washington until the ban against Negroes is abolished.”