Comstock, F. Ray

The Oxford Companion to American Theatre | 2004 | 700+ words | Copyright

Comstock, F. Ray (1880–1949), producer. He began his career as an usher in his native Buffalo, then moved to New York where he became assistant treasurer at the Criterion Theatre. His first Broadway production was Fascinating Flora (1907), then he mounted Bandana Land (1908), one of the earliest “Negro” musicals. Comstock became manager of the Princess Theatre when it was built to house experimental dramas, and when these failed he initiated a policy of intimate musical comedies that soon became known as the Princess Theatre musicals: Nobody Home (1915), Very Good Eddie (1915), Oh, Boy! (1917), and Oh, Lady! Lady! (1918). Among his successful nonmusical plays were Adam and Eva (1919) and Polly Preferred (1923). Comstock also imported a number of major foreign attractions, often in association with Morris Gest, including Chu Chin Chow (1917), Aphrodite (1919), Mecca (1920), Chauve‐Souris (1922), and The Miracle (1924), as well as the Moscow Art Theatre and Eleanora Duse.

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Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Comstock, F. Ray." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Comstock, F. Ray." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-ComstockFRay.html

Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Comstock, F. Ray." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-ComstockFRay.html

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