Norman Bel Geddes Database
Job 98, Comic Supplement, The, 1924-1926
Summary:
Bel Geddes created the setting and lighting for Florenz Ziegfeld’s production of the Comic Supplement “in the spirit of a comic American newspaper cartoon strip.” Geddes and Ziegfeld came to odds almost immediately, with Ziegfeld insisting that all designs come from Geddes's own hands rather than those of assistants, and Geddes pointing out the absurdity of the demand given the quantity and urgency of the work.
J. P. McEvoy’s musical comedy starring W. C. Fields, Betty Compton, and Rae Dooley previewed at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. on 20 January 1925 and at the Shubert Theatre in Newark, New Jersey on 26 January 1925. When Ziegfeld abruptly closed the show (perhaps angry that Geddes's sets received rave reviews), Geddes and a partner bought him out. Ziegfeld relented, however, and a revised version of the supplement, with Geddes's sets, was incorporated into the 1925 Ziegfeld Follies which opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre on 10 March 1925.
Hunter Code: MC 1
Hunter Guide: page 111