t 1s Ed
GEORGE KELLY 0 10
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is a young man who "seldom❞ goes "to the theatre", and is confessedly "bored by musical comedies ", yet he has achieved signal success as a playwright. "The Show-Off" has practically become part of American dramatic literature is, in fact, according to Heywood Broun, "probably the best of all American comedies." "Craig's Wife ", his most recent play, is an effective and artistic portrayal of a woman whose type is universally familiar in real life, but singularly unusual in book or play. In spite of his distaste, or perhaps because of his distaste for the stage as viewed from the audience, George Kelly's life has been bound up with the theatre . It has been his business and his career. Born at Falls of Schuylkill , not far from Philadelphia, descended , as he says, from " the Kings of Ireland", educated in public schools and through "private sources", he entered the dramatic profession when he was twenty-one, and played juvenile roles in New York City and with various touring companies, continuing as a vaudeville headliner and frequently appearing in one-act plays of his own authorship . "Finders Keepers", one of his earliest attempts, has since been included in an anthology of best short plays . "The Torch-bearers." , his first long play, a satire on the little theatre movement, confirmed the promise of his earlier work, and indicated the potentialities which "The Show-Off" and " Craig's Wife" have proved.
