The Front Page is a Broadway comedy about newspaper reporters on the police beat. Written by former Chicago reporters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, it was first produced in 1928 and has been adapted for the cinema several times.
Contents
Plot
The play's single set is the dingy press room of Chicago's Criminal Courts Building, overlooking the gallows behind the Cook County Jail. Reporters from most of the city's newspapers are passing the time with poker and pungent wisecracks about the news of the day. Soon they will witness the hanging of Earl Williams, a white man and supposed Communist revolutionary convicted of killing a black policeman. Hildy Johnson, cocky star reporter for the Examiner, is late. He appears only to say goodbye; he is quitting to get a respectable job and be married. Suddenly the reporters hear that Earl Williams has escaped from the jail. All but Hildy stampede out for more information. As Hildy tries to decide how to react, Williams comes in through the window. He tells Hildy he is no revolutionary, and that he shot the police officer by accident. The reporter realizes this bewildered, harmless little man was railroaded—just to help the crooked mayor and sheriff pick up enough black votes to win re-election. It is the story of a lifetime. Hildy helps Williams hide inside a roll-top desk. His daunting challenge now is to get Williams out of the building to a safe place for an interview before rival reporters or trigger-happy policemen discover him. Hildy has no choice but to ask for help from Walter Burns, managing editor of the Examiner—a devious tyrant who would do just about anything to keep Hildy with the newspaper.
Cast and characters
The Front Page was produced by Jed Harris and directed by George S. Kaufman, with settings by Raymond Sovey. It opened at the Times Square Theatre, New York City, on August 14, 1928, and ran 278 performances before closing in April 1929.
Significance
The authors' expert plotting and rapid-fire, streetwise dialogue delighted audiences and made their play an instant classic. Hecht and MacArthur strongly influenced many other American comic writers, especially in Hollywood. In the 1970s, film producer Dore Schary told film historian David Bordwell that The Front Page influenced studio writers and directors in the 1930s. The play popularized the image of American journalists as fast-talking, wisecracking "hard-boiled" types, excessively fond of alcohol and hard living in general, who would go to any lengths to get a story on the front page of their newspapers.
The newspapers are modeled on the City News Bureau of Chicago (where MacArthur had worked), Chicago Daily News (where Hecht was a reporter), and William Randolph Hearst's Chicago's American. The character Earl Williams is loosely based on "Terrible" Tommy O'Connor. The character of Williams also was at least partially based on the case of Thomas Mooney, a radical leftist sentenced to death on the basis of questionable evidence. Walter Burns is a thinly disguised caricature of Hearst editor Walter Howey. The corrupt Mayor of Chicago seems to have been based on William Hale Thompson, who, like the mayor in the play, depended in part upon black voters to stay in office. Commenting on the play's seeming veracity, New York Times theater critic Brooks Atkinson wrote, "The authors and directors have packed an evening with loud, rapid, coarse and unfailing entertainment. No one who has ground his heels in the grime of a police headquarters press room will complain that this argot misrepresents the gentlemen of the press."
Revivals
The play was restaged four more times on Broadway. The 1969–70 revival was the most successful of these. It was produced at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre and starred Robert Ryan and Bert Convy as Burns and Johnson, running for a total of 222 performances. The 1946 revival was directed by Charles MacArthur and ran for 79 performances. The 1986–87 revival was produced at the Vivian Beaumont at Lincoln Center, directed by Jerry Zaks and starred Richard Thomas as Hildy and John Lithgow as Burns. This production ran for 57 performances.
A Broadway revival opened at the Broadhurst Theatre, in a limited engagement, starting on September 20, 2016, in previews and officially on October 20. Directed by Jack O'Brien, the cast starred Nathan Lane as Walter Burns, John Slattery as Hildy Johnson, John Goodman as Sheriff Hartman, Jefferson Mays as Bensinger, Holland Taylor as Mrs. Grant, Sherie Rene Scott as Mollie Malloy, Robert Morse as Silas Pinkus, and Christopher McDonald as Murphy. The production received generally good notices, especially for Lane, and became the first show of the season to recoup and turn a profit. It received two Tony nominations: Best Featured Actor in a Play (Lane) and Best Scenic Design of a Play (Douglas W. Schmidt).
John Guare's theatrical adaptation of the film His Girl Friday was produced at The La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, California, in 2013, directed by Christopher Ashley.
Jeffrey Hatcher's adaptation was produced at Northlight Theatre in Evanston, Illinois, in 2026, directed by B.J. Jones.
Adaptations
The Front Page has been adapted for film and radio a number of times:
The Front Page (1931), directed by Lewis Milestone, starring Adolphe Menjou and Pat O'Brien.
The 1931 film was presented as a one-hour radio adaption on June 28, 1937, by Lux Radio Theatre, starring Walter Winchell and James Gleason.
His Girl Friday (1940), directed by Howard Hawks, starring Cary Grant as Walter and Rosalind Russell as Hildy, who in this version is a woman and Walter's ex-wife. A romantic element is added to the plot, as Walter is trying to win Hildy back both professionally and personally.
In 1940 Lux Radio Theatre adapted His Girl Friday as a radio program starring Claudette Colbert (who turned down the film role) as Hildy and Fred MacMurray as Walter Burns. It was first broadcast on September 30, 1940.
The 1931 film was adapted for radio on June 22, 1946, by Academy Award Theater, with Menjou and O'Brien reprising their roles from the film.
A 1948 radio series titled The Front Page and based loosely on the play ran on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) network. It starred Dick Powell and William Conrad.
The Front Page (1949), CBS Television series, starring John Daly and Mark Roberts.
The Front Page (1974), directed by Billy Wilder, starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.
Switching Channels (1988), starring Burt Reynolds and Kathleen Turner, with the newspaper reporters updated to television reporters and none of the original dialogue retained.
His Girl Friday and Switching Channels changed the male lead Hildebrand "Hildy" Johnson to women, Hildegaard "Hildy" Johnson and Christy Colleran respectively. John Varley's 1991 science fiction novel Steel Beach takes the story—and the change of sex—to another level; the plot includes a sex-change by a male reporter named Hildy Johnson.