Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier in Romeo and Juliet, which ran for a month at the 51st St. Theater (later the Mark Hellinger; now a church) in 1940. Dame May Whitty played Juliet's nurse, Edmond O'Brien was Mercutio, and Cornell Wilde was Tybalt. Olivier produced, directed, and (lavishly) designed the production in addition to starring in it. The critics were not kind: "Much scenery: no play," said Brooks Atkinson in the Times. Time magazine said that Leigh “looked like a poem but had no sense of poetry.” Leigh and Olivier were several years into a passionate romance that would, a few months after the play, result in marriage.

Photo: Getty Images

On April 19, 1927, Mae West was sentenced to 10 days in prison for obscenity and “corrupting the morals of youth.” #OnThisDay

Watch her continue that legacy at #TCMFF on Saturday in SHE DONE HIM WRONG.

Doll of William Gillette as Sherlock Holmes, made in 1899 for Gillette himself

Ethel Waters ❤

Ziegfeld Follies at the Museum of Broadway

Dale Strong backstage at the Latin Quarter nightclub

Lisa Larsen, “Prettiest Showgirl on Broadway,” Life, March 17, 1952

Kae Carroll in the Ziegfeld Follies, c. 1925-1927

Actress Ann Pennington in the 1920s, photographed by Irving Chidnoff.

Cover of the March 10, 1928 issue of The New Yorker. Artwork by Ilonka Karasz.

Photo: Condé Nast

Dracula, 1978

Playbill for the 1987 production of "Sherlock's Last Case" by Charles Morowitz at the Nederlander Theatre featuring Frank Langella as Sherlock Holmes and Donal Donnelly as John Watson

Billie Burke ❤️

Showboat room at the Museum of Broadway

Jane Fonda standing in front of a Broadway poster for Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker, early 1960s.

Dale Strong backstage at the Latin Quarter nightclub

Lisa Larsen, “Prettiest Showgirl on Broadway,” Life, March 17, 1952