1949 - 1952 Edward Everett Horton Performs at the Playhouse!


DISCLAIMER: Parts of the following historical note must not be taken seriously as they contain gags about E.E. Horton's career and humorous references to the Ogunquit Playhouse's fourth show of this season, the Tony Award winning Monty Python's Spamalot!

When Edward Everett Horton first came to the Ogunquit Playhouse he was a successful and self-obsessed light comedy actor who had to deal with an estranged wife, console a suffering mistress, prepare for an upcoming show tour in Africa and cope with the realities of becoming middle-aged. When Horton returned to the Playhouse two years later he had become the heir to his late father's prosperous automobile plant and spent his days indulging in wine, women and song with a reckless abandonment toward everything else. The people living in and around Ogunquit couldn't help but stare at this spectacle. Hundreds were even willing to pay money to have the opportunity to join their neighbors in talking about Horton's exploits!

Of course if hindsight has taught us anything it is that E.E. Horton's actions should have been taken with a grain of salt. Long before coming to the Playhouse, Horton's life was already a front page story, filled with the kind of drama, humor and intrigue rarely seen outside of a Broadway or Hollywood script. At a young age Horton took part in a scrambled wedding that left him confused, bewildered, and had the whole town talking! He spent the next few years scorning marriage and in the process befriending some very questionable people, including a professional sweetheart, flapper wives, a gay divorcee and a merry widow. He was even seen associating with two elderly women who had a penchant for poisonous powders and old lace!

At some point Horton went mad as a hatter and insisted on throwing never-ending tea parties for rabbits and girls named Alice. But only girls named Alice who found themselves wandering through "dark and very expensive" forests. Luckily for Horton flying cows never fell into the tea, there were no killer rabbits on the warpath and the Queen of Hearts never made a surreptitious appearance by hiding inside a giant Trojan rabbit!

Actually, Horton was not a self-obsessed actor, the heir to an automobile plant, the victim of a muddled love arrangement or a perpetual host in Wonderland. He was however a highly acclaimed character actor, adored by many for his comedic instinct and known especially for his roles in fun and off the wall comedies. When Horton came to the Playhouse in the early 1950s he did draw people in by the hundreds to see his performances as Garry Essendine in Present Laughter and Mr. Dewlip in Springtime for Henry. Even off of Broadway, Horton's comedic instinct and charm had directors talking. Over the course of his career he was cast in more than 40 television series and over 120 films! He may not have dined in Camelot, or sung about eating "ham, and jam and Spam a lot," but Horton sure did devote a lot of his time to acting! He was even one of the few thespians who could boast about playing lead roles in silent films and then going on to have a successful career in films with sound!

Among E.E. Horton's credits are all of the films alluded to in the second and third paragraphs.
These include A Front Page Story, Scrambled Wedding, The Whole Town's Talking, Professional Sweetheart, Flapper Wives, The Gay Divorcee, The Merry Widow, Arsenic and Old Lace and Alice in Wonderland. Horton also starred as Mr. Dinckler in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Colline in La Boheme and he narrated "Fractured Fairy Tales" on "The Bullwinkle Show." In addition to the shows alluded to in the first paragraph Horton also starred in His French Wife and Nina while at the Playhouse.