Stage Reborn

In the heyday of Manhattan's stage the Theatre Guild published a quarterly house organ. Started in 1919, the Guild magazine became a monthly ten years later, in 1932 acquired a new name, Stage. About that time John Hanrahan, one of the early backers of The New Yorker, took over management of Stage. Up went circulation until it hit 55,000, up went Stage's price to 35-c-. Then Manhattan box-office receipts began to skid, and down went Stage with them. In June 1939, Stage dropped its curtain for the summer, did not reopen.

Back from Cain's warehouse this week, just 17 months since its run ended, came Stage with a new cast, new sets, new management. President of the company is a rich Manhattan socialite, William Rhinelander Stewart. Publisher is a shrewd, energetic Hungarian editor and impresario, Alexander Ince. Managing editor: Alexander King, onetime drama critic, illustrator, onetime member of LIFE'S staff.

Along with the usual standbys of a fan magazine (reviews, gossip, puffs), Stage will present each month words and music of a new song, full text of a current Broadway show. November's play: The Man Who Came To Dinner. Regular contributors are Alexander Woollcott, Clare Booth, William Saroyan.

The new Stage (25-c-) is mostly the work of 51-year-old Publisher Ince. Born Sandor Incze, a native of Cluj (restored to Hungary last month by Adolf Hitler), he started out as a law clerk, newspaper reporter, smalltime aviation promoter. In Cluj, when he was 19, Publisher Ince founded his first theatre journal: a weekly magazine of programs and gossip, Theatre News. The local stock company changed its bill each night, charged 5-c- for programs. Young Ince sold his sheet for 3-c- saved readers from 2-c- to 27-c- a week.

After two years, he sold out for $300, moved to Budapest. There, in 1910, he launched a bigtime weekly, Szinhazi Elet (Theatre Life), His assistant was Alexander Korda, now of Hollywood. Theatre Life lasted 28 years, folded in 1938 when Hungary's Government, under Nazi pressure, cracked down on the press of Budapest.

Meanwhile Ince had branched out as a producer, sold Hungarian plays to Broadway, bought Broadway plays to show on the Continent. From his European production of Abie's Irish Rose he earned the money with which he bought his share of Stage when he became an exile.

Theatre Life had a gala anniversary on its 25th birthday in 1935. From Szoeke Szakal (translation: blond beard), a Hungarian actor, Publisher Ince got a letter of congratulation, a check for $125 to cover a subscription for the next 25 years. Three years later, Theatre Life was dead. This week, to Szoeke Szakal, now in Hollywood, Publisher Ince announced that he was back in business, sent a 22-year subscription to Stage.

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