The Theatre: New Jeeter

One night last December, Tobacco Road, written by Erskine Caldwell and dramatized by Jack Kirkland, opened on Broadway (TIME, Dec. 18). Manhattan critics took the play and its scenes of Georgia low-life at face value, spluttered such epithets at its characterizations as "livestock," "pigs," "guinea pigs," "weird savages," "the primitive human animal in the throes of gender," "foul and degenerate parcel of folks," "the hangdog and hookworm set." Editorially the Daily News compared the play to the more brutal writings of Emile Zola and Theodore Dreiser, figured that the Deep South must be the home of at least 1,500,000 similarly worthless folk, pointed to the statistic's dark political implications.

For two weeks it was touch-&-go whether Tobacco Road would survive. Then the word-of-mouth publicity of spectators who had braved the barrage of critical disapproval began to get in its effect. Anyone who was familiar with yeasty Author Caldwell's writings, anyone who had ever seen a "cracker" in his native Georgia, went to the play, roared with laughter, came away convinced that it contained the most prodigally vulgar, the most uproariously grotesque humor that had been seen in the U. S. since Mark Twain's day.

Jeeter Lester, the malarial, exhausted yet rutty patriarch of the Tobacco Road clan, was impersonated by Actor Henry Hull, and to him went credit for the show's steady climb into phenomenal popularity. By April seats were selling weeks in advance, the play was spoken of for the Pulitzer Prize and the Hull performance was mentioned high in every critical "ten best" list. On Broadway, Jeeter Lester became the character-of-the-year.

Last week, in its seventh month, Tobacco Road got a new Jeeter when Henry Hull was called to Hollywood. James Barton, oldtime burlesque comedian, vaudevillian and musicomedy dancer (Ziegfeld Follies, Dew Drop Inn, Sweet & Low), took over the characterization as his first legitimate part. Comparing both impersonations, theatre-goers found little to choose between the actors. Mr. Hull had a slightly more bent and dragging look whereas Mr. Barton seemed to operate Jeeter's rheumatically creaky legs with a little more skill. Both were equally