Swing Joined: 12/19/16
Hello,
My family member, Isabelle Kimpal, was a cast member in the 1938 George Balanchine Musical "I Married an Angel" and understudied the lead Vera Zorina. I'm looking for a needle in the haystack. While I have located a number of playbills on Ebay, I have not come across any understudy slips that list that she was filling in for the lead. If anyone is a collector who happens to have such an item, please contact me. I would love to purchase it from you.
Were understudy slips even used in 1938?
That was my exact thought, I doubt it.
You should contact Equity and ask them if those slips were used during that time period. That way, you'll at least know whether or not you should continue on the search or not.
Printing abilities in the '30s was not possible for short notice production of this nature.
I have some playbills from the mid 1940s that have inserts (one being for a performance in which Ethel Merman's understudy Jane Romano went on in Annie Get Your Gun) -- so they did use them-- but the ones I've seen were nicely printed so were likely done ahead of time and were possibly only used when stars took prearranged vacation.
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