American playwright Philip (James Quinn) Barry, who was born on June 18, 1896, in New York City, had a successful career writing plays for Broadway, particularly comedies.
Written in 1945, Barry's play Foolish Notion was one of three plays, along with Liberty Jones (1941) and Without Love (1942), which reflected the author's concerns with World War II. Philip Barry had just completed a draft of a final play, Second Threshold, when he died on December 3, 1949.
"Philip James Quinn Barry." Dictionary of American Biography (reproduced in Biography In Context). http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/ (accessed May 16, 2013).
This production script for American playwright Philip Barry's Foolish Notion : A Comedy bears the ownership stamp of theatrical designer Jo Mielziner.
This carbon typescript is brad-bound in Brandt & Brandt Dramatic Dept., Inc. printed wrappers, with the title handwritten in pen on the cover. The title page bears a pencilled notation, "New Haven Feb 1," which suggests a traditional preview may have occurred there.
Jo Mielziner was the designer of the scenery and lighting for the opening Broadway production of Foolish Notion at the Martin Beck Theatre on March 12, 1945. Some pencil underscores early in the script are related to set and may have been made by Mielziner.