In my earlier post today I forgot to mention that I also have a collection of show window cards. In our guest powder room, I have a framed large Follies poster as well as a framed Funny Girl window card on permanent exhibition. On a different wall I have six other framed window cards from current shows, which I keep changing as shows come and go, or just get old. Currently, we have Lion King, Aida, Millie, Producers, and Mamma Mia, but I want to replace a couple (Millie and Aida) with Wicked and Boy From Oz. Having done this for a number of years, I have a large collection of window cards.
For my daugher's Bat Mitzvah, some 16+ years ago, the theme for the reception was Allison on Broadway. I made a large ticket booth that was framed with about 20 of such window cards, where the guests were given "tickets" that indicated a current show name. Each table had a Playbill of one of those shows so the guests matched their ticket with the Playbill on the table, rather than looking for a table number. Each center piece incorporated flowers in an upside down top-hat, with a cane coming out, as well as a photo of my daughter pasted onto a silver star. The lobby of the catering facility was also decorated with about 15 5-foot tall standup cut-outs of blown-up Hirschfelds of Broadway legends such as Verdun, Martin, Merman, Mostel, Preston, Davis, Vereen, Grey, Andrews/Harrision, Brynner, etc., etc., an so forth. The kids dais had large 5-foot color logos of famous female logos (Mame, Hirschfeld Channing logo (used on BK's revival CD), Verdun photo from Charity, Funny Girl upside down roller skating logo, and Annie). A big marquee hung over the kids table saying Allison on Broadway. I also had a big white plexiglass sheet made to look like a Playbill, which was used as a guest sign-in board. We also had dressed my daugher up in a Chorus Line costume about six weeks before her Bat Mitzvah and took a number of photos of her outside the Shubert Theatre, then playing A Chorus Line. Those photos were blown up into posters and also on display. Each kid got a tee-shirt, which I had printed with the Playbill logo on them, which were individually personalized saying their name "on Broadway". In any event, a large collection of all these Hirschfeld cutouts remain in my basement together with the stuff we did three years later for our son's Bar Mitzvah, the theme of which was comic book superheros and comic strips. My wife won't let me throw any of the stuff out, since it took us so much time and effort to make.
