Broadway Answers Selma-Exclusive Performance-Charitable Star Studded

Description

Original Theatrical Playbill from a historic exclusive performance.  Performed at the Majestic Theatre on April 4, 1965.
ULTRA RARE Playbill April 4 1965 one and ONLY Performance with Martin Luther King Jr. in attendance. This is the single rarest Playbill available because there was only ONE single performance, which occurred as a benefit concert to support the cause of freedom and equal rights for African Americans. Sponsored by the Mayor of the city of New York, Columbia records, Richard Kaye, Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton,
Many, many celebrities, musicians and Broadway stars took part in this show, which raised money to fight racism.
Participants Included: ALAN ALDA, ALAN ARKIN, JACK ALBERTSON, HERSCHEL BERNARDI, VICTOR BORGE, TOM BOSLEY, CAROL BURNETT, DAVID BURNS, ART CARNEY, CAROL BRUCE, CAROL CHANNING, SYDNEY CHAPLIN, MAURICE CHEVALIER, BETTY COMDEN, BARBARA COOK, DAN DAILEY, IRENE DAILEY, BILLY DANIELS, OSSIE DAVIS, SAMMY DAVIS, RUBY DEE, NANCY DUSAULT, MARTIN GABEL, SIR JOHN GIELGUD, EYDIE GORME, ADOLPH GREEN BUDDY HACKETT, LEONID HAMBRO, TIGER HAYNES, ANNE JACKSON, RICHARD KILEY, STEVE LAWRENCE, BETHEL LESLIE, BERNICE MASSI, WALTER MATTHAU, KAREN MORROW, DENNIS O'KEEFE, DON PORTER, ROBERT PRESTON, ROBERT REED, MARJORIE RHODES, CHITA RIVERA, DIANA SANDS, MARTHA SCOTT, DICK SHAWN, MARTIN SHEEN, BARBRA STREISAND, INGA SWENSON, ELI WALLACH, PAULA WAYNE, FRITZ WEAVER, DONALD WOLFIT, IRENE WORTH
Excerpt From Barbara Streisand's website:  Responding to the racial injustices in Selma, Alabama, the Broadway community banded together at the Majestic Theater for a fundraiser. Barbra Streisand sang
Harold Arlen's "That's A Fine Kind of Freedom" close to the end of the second act. ...The poster described the evening as "A thundering never-to-be forgotten performance for the benefit of the late Reverand James Reeb's family, Voters Education Program of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Scholarship, Education and Defense Fund of Congress of Racial Equality, The L. & M. Rabinowitz Fund of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee
Excerpt from Martin Sheen's website:  In 1965, I was on Broadway at that time doing a play and Selma, Alabama erupted, and we wanted so desperately to answer that, and so we created a show on Broadway,that is all the people on Broadway called Broadway Answers Selma. And it was a huge benefit on one of our dark nights and it was hosted by Sammy Davis Jr., who was on Broadway at that time during Golden Boy . I was doing a drama, you know most of the people in the show were singers and dancers, and comics and so forth. So I was just asked to be backstage, be present to people, make sure they got a chair to sit in during the show, and so forth. And early in the first act, Sammy Davis asked Rev. King to stand up, I didn't know he was in the house. And Rev. King is there in the back. Oh my god, there he is, and they wouldn't let him sit down, I mean the ovation was just literally endless. I'm watching this. And okay finally, we let him go and as actress have a want to do this show went over, windbag, you have to get a hook to get him off the stage, you know everybody wanted to do their bits and pieces; and so the show was dragging on and on and on, and I was in backstage, and I have just gotten and really dropped some names!"There was Barbra Streisand, I'm standing there, and Sammy Davis was on stage doing a number, and the light came backstage and flowed to this area here just from here that console, and I just casually say, oh my god I looked back and Rev. King was standing there alone, no bodyguard, nobody around him, nothing. And I looked at him and I thought, oh my god, it's himself, and my heart started pounding, and I thought, I can't believe his stature, I was embarrassed because I was taller than he, I though Rev. King had to be 8 feet tall, but no he was small, and very shy. And I thought, I must get the blessing, oh you mustn't bother him, don't, yeah, I just shake his hand, just thank him for being who he is, for doing what he is doing, how much he meant, these thoughts went through for full 2 minutes, and I didn't have the courage to just reach out and shake his hand, just to thank him, just to touch him. I didn't do it and regretted it all my life."
Excellent condition for age,  shows some minimal wear and yellowing.
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