June 7, 21, 1942
The Princess and Mr. Parker by Gwendolen Seiler was set in Elizabethan times. In a bit of gender bending, Harriet Walker played Mr. Parker and Bill Darling was Mrs. Bennett, a magic duck. All the court wizard’s magic was done, in fact, by Mrs. Bennett. She was the Wizard’s familiar and her quacks livened things up considerably.
The U.S. entered World War II on December 7, 1941.
“Then there was 1942. Would the play be permitted? Yes, both the General and the Admiral blessed our undertaking. Could we get buses? Absolutely no! The cast? It formed, dissolved, and reformed. It was too busy to learn its lines. With transportation a gamble, half our audience stayed home, keeping our profits in their pockets. Rain postponed a performance. We had to dig into our emergency fund to pay our bills. A failure? Says Mrs. Sandall, ‘I think the most tremendous contribution of the Mountaineer Players in all their twenty years was that they staged a play last spring. This was a real war service, a source of wholesome and sane recreation at a time when just this is so sorely needed.’”
Harriet King Walker, The Mountaineer, 1942
