Around 1940, New Yorker staff writer Joe Mitchell meets Joe Gould, a Greenwich Village character who cadges meals, drinks, and contributions to the Joe Gould Fund and who is writing a voluminous Oral History of the World, a record of 20,000 conversations he's overheard. Mitchell is fascinated with this Harvard grad and writes a 1942 piece about him, "Professor Seagull," bringing Gould some celebrity and an invitation to join the Greenwich Village Ravens, a poetry club he's often crashed. Gould's touchy, querulous personality and his frequent dropping in on Mitchell for hours of chat lead to a breakup, but the two Joes stay in touch until Gould's death and Mitchell's unveiling of the secret.
Set in the backwoods of the deep south. Young, beautiful Ellie has just witnessed the murder of her father at the hands of her evil step-mother Cora and Cora's three lecherous sons, all hoping to get their hand's on Ellie's father's money. Vowing to avenge her father's death, Ellie plots to do in the murderers using the only weapon she has: her body.
This charming musical comedy, set in turn-of-the-century Paris and based on George Feydeau's classic romp, "Tailleur Pour Dames," turns on a case of mistaken identity, chance meetings and deceptions big and small. Starring Charlotte Rae and Max Wright, this performance was taped in front of a live audience in New York, and was originally broadcast in 1974 as part of the Broadway Theater Archive's efforts to bring stage productions to television.