Table Of ContentSponsoring Committee: Professor William P. Sears,
Associate Professor Fred C. Blanchard, and
Assistant Professor John W. Tietz
THE TEACHER IN THE DRAMA
An Analysis and Evaluation of the Characterizations
of American Teachers in Broadway Productions
from 1920 to 1950
ANDREW H. ERSKINE
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the Degree of Doctor of
Philosophy in the School of Education of
New York University
1951
/?
JAN 3 0 135^
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The student hereby guarantees that no part of the
dissertation which he has submitted for publication has
been heretofore published and copyrighted in the United
States of America, except in the case of quoted passages
from other sources; that he is the sole author and pro
prietor of the said dissertation; that the dissertation
contains no matter which, if published, will be libelous
or otherwise injurious; and that he will defend, indemnify
and hold harmless New York University against all suits
and proceedings which may be brought and against all claims
which may be made against New York University by reason of
the publication of the said dissertation.
Andrew H. Erskine
January 5, 1951
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter Topic Page
I Problem Stated and Defined .... 1
Significance of the Problem .... 13
Related Studies .... 16
II Collecting Psychological Data... 21
Collecting Dramatic Data .... 23
Treating the Data .... 28
III Teachers’ Traits in Research
Studies .... 30
IV Teacher Characterizations in
Plays of.Ten Theater Seasons:
1920-21 to 1923-30 .... 53
V Teacher Characterizations in
Plays of Ten Theater Seasons:
1930-31 to 1939-40 .... 78
VI Teacher Characterizations in
Plays of Ten Theater Seasons:
1940-41 to 1949-50 116
VII Conclusions .... 141
Bibliography .... 164
Appendices .... 171
ii
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CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM
The literary and graphic arts of past civilizations have
proved to be the most permanent and most popular means of trans
mitting attitudes and opinions to succeeding societies. When
documentary evidence, in the form of court records, proclama
tions, and similar material, has survived, it is known to and
used by experts; but even they rely heavily on the extant art
of an age for their knowledge of it. Even modern American
society, which microfilms its newspapers and important docu
ments for posterity's use, will probably be best known to com
ing generations through its graphic art and its literature.
These will be studied by many, while the microfilms will be
viewed by few.
That the arts of a generation should be its chief memo
rial is good; for the literary or graphic artist must, if he
is to be great, select and record the essentials of life as he
sees them, neglecting the trivial, the superficial, and the
commonplace. For this reason then, the art and literature of
an era may be said to form its record, uncluttered by the ephem
eral. This record shows not only the society's views on the
problems of the day but also its attitudes toward various group
ethnic or occupational. Therefore it is justifiable to examine
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2
some modern attitudes toward an important, American occupa
tional group as they find expression in the drama.
Statement of the Problem
The purpose of this study is to investigate the charac
terization of American teachers in plays produced professional
ly in New York City, and subsequently published, during the
period from 1920 to 1950 and to compare these characterizations
with the data on the traits of teachers obtained by educators
and psychologists through scientific research.
Delimitations
1. The study has been limited to plays produced profes
sionally in New York City because, promise of financial reward
being greatest for the playwrights there, the bulk of the best
work of the best dramatists ultimately finds its way to Broad
way. This is not to say that interesting and significant
plays may not have been produced elsewhere, but most play
wrights naturally aspire to the greatest financial reward for
their labors and hence look upon New York’s professional
theater as the ultimate goal of their works.
However, it must not be thought that mercenary considera
tions alone dictate this aim. There are aesthetic reasons as
well. No artist, least of all a playwright, can know the con
tentment of artistic success unless his work has been enjoyed
by a sizable audience, not once but many times. Nowhere in
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3
this country but in New York can a play draw audiences night
after night for months on end. This situation may he unfor
tunate, but it existso
2. The second delimitation is that, in order to be in
cluded in this study, a play must have been published as well
as produced. The reason for this restriction is that poor
plays on occasion do achieve Broadway productions, but their
lives are likely to be short. For this reason it seemed wise
to set up publication as an additional criterion of merit.
Then the judgement of the producer has been confirmed by a
publisher.
An additional reason for limiting the study to plays
which have been published as well as produced is that a pub
lished play has a wider circle of influence, for it is seen not
only in New York City but also in smaller communities which de
pend on amateur productions for theatrical entertainment. Most
non-professional groups choose their plays from publishers’
catalogues, although on occasion a previously unproduced play
may be presented in a community theater. Evidence for this
1
statement is derived from J. E. Dietrich, who found that col
lege theaters in the school year of 1946-47 devoted only six
per cent of their productions to original manuscripts. Hence
the published play may be considered to have a wider circle of
1. "Dramatic Activity in American Colleges: 1946-47," Quarterly
Journal of Speech, 34 (1948), p. 187.
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4
influence and a longer life, as well as greater merit.
3. The next limitation is that of time. The reasons for
beginning the study with the theatrical season of 1920-21 are
1
many. According to Allardyce Nicoll, it was during the third
decade of this century that most of the great contemporary
dramatists of this country had their first productions. Bar
rett Clark and George Freedley also select 1920 as the date
which marks the beginning of the modern era in the American
theater, writing as follows:
The period 1900 to 1920, as we look back to
it, marks a transition between two eras of
which the first, with the few exceptions
noted, is almost devoid of anything approxi
mating what I have called the modern spirit
and the second includes nearly all the writers
who have made our modern drama a more or less
complete and satisfactory reflection of the
2
land and people which produced it.
The history of American education also provides some
justification for beginning the study with the year of 1920.
About that time the American educational system undertook
certain changes of policy and method at all levels. For ex
ample John S. Brubacher writes, "After the first World War
numerous experiments began to appear in liberal-arts colleges.
1. World Drama. p. 766.
2. A History of Modern Drama, p. 658.
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1
Colleges reexamined their aims.” Speaking of changes in
teacher-training, the same author says, "Thus in 1920....
there were in the United States 46 teachers colleges and 1-37
normal schools. Only eight years later the proportion had
almost reversed itself, there being 137 teachers colleges and
2
69 normal schools.” The junior college flourished too in the
first part of the period covered by this study, growing in
3
number from 91 in 1919 to 514 in 1934.
There were also important changes in education./at lower
levels between 1920 and the present. Concerning the junior
high school it is said by Frederick Eby and Charles Arrowood,
"Comparatively few such schools were established before the
4
close of the World War.” Now these form a permanent part of
the educational system, for by 1930 there were over 1300 with
5
an enrollment of nearly a million pupils.
The year 1920 itself marked the beginning of two enter
prises affecting methods and curricula. In that year "ability
grouping" was first undertaken on a large scale, Detroit be
ing the scene of the experiment; and, through its Secondary
Department, the National Education Association sponsored a
series of elaborate reports on the revision of primary and
1. A History of the Problems of Education, p. 483.
Ibid.. p. 515o
3® Frederick Eby and Charles Arrowood, The Development of
Modern Education, p.89.
4* Ibid.. p. 887.
5. Loc. cit.
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1
secondary education*
Other innovations and experiments in the educational
field could he cited to support further the selection of 1920
as the starting point for this study, but the foregoing para
graphs seem sufficient to indicate that from the educational
point of view 1920 is a reasonable place to begin*
In important development in psychology also supports the
logic which underlies the selection of 1920 as the starting
point. This development was the devising and growing use of
personality tests which were inspired by R. S. Woodworth, who
evolved his Personal Data Sheet as a screening device for
World War I recruits. Lee J. Cronbach writes, "Following
World War I, enthusiasm for mental testing led to a demand for
equally promising tests of personality. A swarm of instruments
for probing the individual were devised, many of them adapting
2
Woodworth’s questions.” Here is a clear implication that be
fore 1920, scientific study of personality traits was diffi
cult if not impossible.
Finally, from the mechanical point of view, the time
span of 1920 to 1950 is desirable because it can be divided
into three equal periods, decades, for the purposes of compara
tive study.
3. A third limitation restricts the study to plays contain
ing American teachers depicted as being actually in service
within the time limits already imposed. A play about foreign
1. Frank P. Graves, A Student’s History of Education, p. 553.
2. Essentials of Psychological Testing, p. 313.
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7
teachers or one set in a different period of history would not
be likely to reveal very accurately current, American atti
tudes about teachers. It might be noted here that in this
study the word ’’teacher” is not, to be considered as applying
to academic administrators unless such characters are depicted
by the dramatists as having actual instructional duties as well
as those of an executive or clerical nature. This distinction
seems particularly important since World War II, because educa
tional administrative posts seem to be filled more and more
frequently by persons whose previous experience lay outside the
academic profession.
4. One final restriction on the scope of this study is that
teachers in professional schools (law, dental, medical, theo
logical, military, and engineering) and in purely vocational
or skill schools (music, dramatic, mechanical arts, et cetera)
are not included. There are two reasons for this limitation:
first, many such teachers serve only on a part time basis;
and, second, they tend to think of themselves and to be re
garded by the public as practioners in their fields rather than
as teachers.
Sub-Problems
In order to obtain any significant information, it is
necessary to think in terms of a series of interrelated sub
problems, rather than of the problem as a whole. These are
indicated in the paragraphs which follow.
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