Leslie Mortier Shaw

Leslie Mortier Shaw 1848-1932, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (1902-7), b. Morristown, Vt. Admitted to the Iowa bar in 1876, he organized (1880) a banking firm that specialized in agricultural credit. His strong defense of the gold standard in the 1896 presidential campaign won for him the Republican nomination for governor of Iowa the following year; he served (1898-1902) two terms. As Treasury Secretary under President Theodore Roosevelt, Shaw used government revenues to help expand the nation's money supply. After 1907, he returned to banking, and engaged in extensive writing and public lecturing. Shaw wrote Current Issues (1908) and Vanishing Landmarks (1919).

Caesar and Cleopatra. Originally presented at the New Amsterdam Theatre in 1906 with Johnston Forbes‐Robertson and his wife, Gertrude Elliot, in the leading roles, Shaw's work was perceived as an interesting, but uneven play made noteworthy by the brilliant scene in which the two principals first meet. The Theatre Guild used the play to open its new playhouse in 1925, with Lionel Atwill and Helen Hayes as the rulers. It was a major success, although such critics as Stark Young felt both the production and the stars missed the grandeur of Shaw's conception. The best later revival was the production that featured Cedric Hardwicke and Lilli Palmer in 1949. Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh performed the play (in a program alternating with Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra) in 1951, and the title roles were essayed on Broadway by Rex Harrison and Elizabeth Ashley in 1977. The work also served as the basis of a failed musical Her First Roman (1968) starring Richard Kiley and Leslie Uggums.

Winter Garden Theatre, London, in Drury Lane, originally the Middlesex Music Hall, later adapted as a theatre with a three-tier auditorium seating 1,581. It opened in 1919 with Kissing Time, starring Leslie Henson, who appeared in most of the subsequent productions up to 1926, including Sally (1921), Primrose (1924), Tell Me More (1925), the last two having music by George Gershwin, and Kid Boots (1926). In 1927 a musical play The Vagabond King began a long run. The few later productions of note included It's Time to Dance (1943) with Jack Buchanan and Joan Temple's No Room at the Inn (1946) about evacuee children. Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution (1953) gave the theatre another long run. Among later productions were Feydeau's Hotel Paradiso with Alec Guinness, Shaw's The Devil's Disciple (both 1956), and O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh (1958). After a Christmas production of a musical version of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland (1959) the theatre closed, standing empty until it was demolished in 1965. The New London Theatre now occupies the site.