The run closed April 12, 1942
- Opened
- December 25, 1941
- Closed
- April 12, 1942
- Performances
- 126
- Previews
- —
- Theatre
- Hollywood Theatre
Of the 890 productions we hold that opened in the 1940s and record a performance count, this is the 194th longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.
Who was in it72 named
Ray Arnett
E J Blunkall
Betty Boyce
Norma Brown
Jimmy Corke
Kay Coulter
Ronnie Cunningham
Sally de Marco
Tony de Marco
Doris Dowling
Carle Eberle
Clark Eggleston
Carle Erbele
John Ervin
James Farrell
Florence Foster
Chick Gagnon
Gloria Gilbert
Grace Gilren
Anne Graham
Arthur Grahl
Linda Griffeth
Miriam Gwinn
Doug Hawkins
Mitzi Haynes
Peggy Ann Holmes
Virginia Howe
Helene Hudson
Dick Irving
Adele Jergens
Ray Johnson
Doris Kent
George Lovesee
Lynn Royce and Vanya
Lynn Malone
Rayford Malone
Joseph Malvin
Remi Martell
Ray Mayer
Morton Mayo
John Mccord
Jack Nagle
Leona Olsen
June Reynolds
George Richmond
Tina Rigat
Richard Rober
Sherry Shadburne
Phil Shafer
Bill Skipper
Puddy Smith
Jacqueline Susann
Shirl Thomas
Marie Vanneman
Mimi Walthers
Ray Weamer
Evelyn Weiss
Audrey Westphal
Tommy Wonder
Margie Young
Leon Alton
Harry Boersma
Clarence Jaeger
9 of these 72 names have a person record behind them and link to one. The other 63 are set from the identifier in the cast list, which is a slug of the name — so hyphens and full stops are lost and a few come out wrong. We hold nothing else about them. Nobody here is matched to a character: the cast list records who was in the company and not what they played.
Creative team
- Director
- Hassard Short
- Choreographer
- Charles Walters
A producer is one string on this record, however many people or companies it names. Directors and choreographers are held both as text and as identifiers; where an identifier exists the name links to a page.
Around this production
Banjo Eyes is a musical based on the play Three Men on a Horse by John Cecil Holm and George Abbott. It has a book by Joseph Quinlan and Izzy Ellinson, music by Vernon Duke, and lyrics by John La Touche and Harold Adamson. Produced by Albert Lewis and staged by Hassard Short, the Broadway production opened on December 25, 1941, at the Hollywood Theatre, where it ran for 126 performances. The cast included Eddie Cantor, Lionel Stander, William Johnson, and, in a small role, future novelist Jacqueline Susann (Valley of the Dolls). Although Cantor was known as "Banjo Eyes," the title referred not to his character but to a talking race horse, played in costume by the vaudeville team of Morton an…
His last Broadway performance was in Vernon Duke and John Latouche’s Banjo Eyes in 1941. Broadway Musicals the 101 Greatest Shows of All Time Bloom Ken 1949 Vlastnik Fra, p. 333
- Johnson had the distinction of introducing on Broadway songs by Vernon Duke, Cole Porter, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, and Rodgers and Hammerstein. In Duke’s Banjo Eyes (1941), he introduced the jaunty “Not a Care in the World” Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals the Dan Dietz, p. 520
- Let It Ride, with a score by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans. Broadway Its History People and Places An Encyclopedia Bloom Ken 1949 2nd Ed New, p. 26
- Stage shows: The Yellow Mask (28); Cabin in the Sky (40); Banjo Eyes (41); The Lady Comes Across (42); Jackpot (44); Sadie Thompson (44). The Best Musicals From Show Boat To A Chorus Line By Arthur Jackson Foreword By , p. 142
- *Three Men on a Horse had previously been musicalized on Broadway in 1941 as BANJO EYES by Joe Quillan & Izzy Elinson, lyrics by John Latouche & Harold Adamson, music by Vernon Duke, and starring Eddie Cantor The Musicals No One Come To See A Guidebook To Four Simas Simas Garland Referenc, p. 210
- Three Men on a Horse was musicalized for Broadway twice but without success. Banjo Eyes (1941) and Let It Ride! (1961) both failed to run despite some major talents involved; Abbott was not among them. The Abbott Touch Thomas Hischak 2023 Bloomsbury Publishing, p. 74
Passages naming this production, found by keyword across 178 books. Where it turns up in the literature, not curated notes about it.
What this page does not know
- No photograph of this staging. 48 of 13,459 productions hold one.
- No character names. We can say who was in the company and not who they played.
- No recording is held for Banjo Eyes at all.
- Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.