Framed photograph by the prestigious White Studio (photographer of early Broadway productions) of the 1920 Broadway hit, Tickle Me.

Tickle Me was only the third show for young Oscar Hammerstein II, who wrote the book and lyrics. Less than 10 years later, he would write the book and lyrics for Show Boat, and then the hits kept coming with Oklahoma, Carousel, Allegro, The King and I, South Pacific, and many other classics.

The music was written by Herbert B. Stothart, who went on to write the music for Rose-Marie.

The show was produced by Arthur Hammerstein, Oscar's uncle (see, it is always who you know!)

It ran from August 17, 1920 - February 12, 1921 at Broadway's Selwyn Theatre, 227 W. 42nd St., New York, New York. The Selwyn Theatre was built in 1918, with a seating capacity of 740.

Musical numbers included Ceremony of the Sacred Bath (specialty dance number) and Broadway Swell & Bowery Burn (that was the big closing number). Then, of course, there is the song Tickle Me.

THE WHITE STUDIO

From 1905 to 1925 White Studio was Broadway's foremost photographer of stage production. Founded by New York saloonkeeper Luther S. White (1857-1936), this photographic agency employed a series of cameramen from 1903 to 1936, who recorded hundreds of performers and thousands of productions of the American stage. The Studio was divided into two operations: the portrait studio located on Broadway and a mobile team of production photographers who hauled lights, tripods, and cumbersome Agfa and Kodak plate cameras to the dress rehearsals for stage pictures.

For much White Studio's history, George Lucas was chief stage photographer. Lucas revolutionized production photography with the introduction of flash-pan photography, a method of illumination safer than 'flash-light' (magnesium powder, alcohol, ignited by blow torch) used by Joseph Byron, the chief stage photographer on Broadway from 1893 to 1905, before the ascendency of White Studios

DETAILS:

This framed photograph has its history on the back of the photo:

It measures 14" x 16" framed. Framing by The Framing Gallery in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin.

The writing on the back of the photo is sometimes as interesting as the image, itself, for it tells the owner of some of the journey this particular print took.