#john cort

Winter Sports Go by Train by John Cort, 1960s

‘Winter Sports - go by train’

James Earl Jones Honored with Renaming of Cort Theatre on Broadway to James Earl Jones Theatre

The Shubert Organization, Inc., today announced that the 110-year-old Cort Theatre on 48th Street will become the James Earl Jones Theatre, in recognition of Mr. Jones’s lifetime of immense contributions to Broadway and the entire artistic community. Jones, who is 91, began his Broadway career in 1957, and in 1958 Mr. Jones played his first role at the Cort Theatre in Sunrise at Campobello. Over…

1920

The Fool’s Game is a play by Crane Wilbur. It was originally produced by John Cort starring Maude Fealy. 

"The Fool's Game" deals with that oldest of the social problems, the eternal triangle, and the marriage of convenience. Miss Fealy is seen in the role or Betty Marshall, a young society woman who enters into a loveless marriage with a rich man in order that aha may later marry the society idler with whom she has be come Infatuated.

The play was tried out on the West Coast in spring 1919. In some productions, Wilbur, a former actor, appeared. 

Before the casting of Maude Fealy, Adda Gleason was billed above the title. It was no coincidence that Fealy was cast as she had recently become Cort’s daughter-in-law. 

The Fool’s Game opened in Atlantic City at Nixon’s Apollo Theatre on the Boardwalk on January 26, 1920.  Others in the cast included: Leonard Willey, Virginia Case, Corbet Morris, O. Henry Gordon, Maidel Turner, Mary Emerson, Edward J. Keenan, and Josephine Dupree. Wilbur did not appear. 

After AC, the play moved to PA for a one-night-only performance at Scranton’s Academy Theatre on February 2nd. Then off to Syracuse NY where...

1919

Just a Minute is a musical in two acts with music by Harold Orlob, book and lyrics by Harry L. Cort, George E. Stoddard and Harold Orlob. The original production was staged by Robert Marks and produced by John Cort at New York’s Cort Theatre where it ran 40 performances. 

Harry Orlob wrote musical comedies such as Listen Lester, which ran for 272 performances in 1918 and 1919. His one great melody, “I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now?” was attributed for many years to Joe Howard, who had bought the song. Orlob was a Mormon, born on June 3, 1883. He died at the age of 99. 

The musical is set on the Boardwalk at Atlantic City (Act One)...

...and a private yacht named Sweet Stuff (Act Two).

Prior to Broadway, the play premiered in Atlantic City on August 25, 1919, followed by Baltimore and Wilmington. In AC, the show played at the Cort, another theatre named after the producer. It was formerly known as the Savoy (above). Just a few months after Minute, impresario A.H. Woods announced that he had purchased the Boardwalk Cort, and would rename it the Woods Theatre starting in 1920. 

Prohibition Humor from ‘Just A Minute’:

“Did your husband have much of an estate?” “Oh, yes. Nearly a gallon.”

~  The Complete Book of 1910s Broadway Musicals by Dan Dietz

The critics were not kind to Just A Minute. Its failure was Orlob’s second flop in less than two weeks, followed by the rapid shuttering of Nothing But Love after just 64 performances. Nine years later, another musical titled Just a Minute hit the Rialto, but was unrelated to the Cort / Orlob show. 

In 1947 "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now" was used as the title song of a movie about Joseph E. Howard, leading to renewed popularity for the song. Orlob brought suit to declare himself the composer, eventually reaching an out-of-court settlement with Howard for the two of them to receive joint credit. Orlob did not claim royalties.