June 4, 11, 1939

Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was the basis for Rip Van Winkle and the Silver Flagon, a musical play by Tom Herbert. He also wrote the lyrics and directed the production. George Larson composed the music.

“Familiar to all is the Washington Irving legend of likeable Rip Van Winkle, who wandered into the hills and there slept for 20 years. But new to all will be this novel dramatization, written expressly for the Forest Theatre by Tom Herbert, Seattle playwright. Rollicking with merriment, rich in romance and tuneful with original songs, it brings you lazy Rip (Ronald Todd) and his dog Wolf (Lee Cox); his shrewish wife, Katrina (Ola Todd); his pretty daughter, Peterkee (Wanda Kelley), and a host of Catskill villagers, portrayed by some old and some new Mountaineers. ...And then there is Hendrick Hudson (Wayne Campbell) and his dippy dwarfs, Heinie (Dorothy Lund), Herman (May Laughlin), and Hergvlatz (Theodosia Tarry), the ghost crew of the barque Half Moon.

“True to the original tale, Katrina, in a fit of anger, chased poor Rip from the house ... but what happened when he wandered in the hills, sipped magic dew with Hendrick Hudson and kept the silver flagon in his hand as he slept for 20 years ... that is another story!”

from The Mountaineer Bulletin, June 1939

“In spite of the rain the day of the first performance, 572 folks sat entranced for two wet hours while true thunder blended with the man-made variety. The day of the second performance the weather man outdid himself in giving us a perfect day and the crowd of 1459 so completely overflowed the seating capacity that the players could not even attempt to keep out of sight behind the wings.”

from The Mountaineer, 1939

One of the two Rip Van Winkle performances featured an unusual bit of support from the weather. Just after an actor uttered his line, “I hear thunder in the Catskills,” Mother Nature provided a loud clap of the real thing.