A Playbill Exhibit · Stage & Screen
Robert
Shackleton
A singing juvenile lead of the mid-century American stage — from a debut beside Beatrice Lillie to a rare week in July 1952 when he played Radio City Music Hall on the stage and on the screen at once. This exhibit reconstructs his career through the original playbills.
- Broadway
- “Where’s Charley?”
- Radio City
- July 3, 1952
- Billed as
- Jack Chesney
Original artifacts · click any to examine
Who was Robert Shackleton?
Who’s Who in the Cast
PLAYBILL · “Who’s Who in the Cast” · 1951
In his own program biography, Shackleton is drawn in a few brisk lines that sketch a remarkable arc: a New England youth, a university man, a debut beside a legend, a war spent at a general’s side, and a return to the singing roles that suited his easy tenor.
Origins
From Lawrence, Massachusetts; a graduate of Temple University.
Debut
Made his stage debut with Beatrice Lillie in Noël Coward’s Set to Music.
In Uniform
Enlisted a private; mustered out a major, aide-de-camp to Gen. Omar Bradley.
On Screen
First film Wonder Kid, for Alexander Korda and Gene Markey.
Billed under Bolger in “Where’s Charley?”
The Broadway Theatre — “Where’s Charley?”
PLAYBILL · Broadway Theatre · Feb. 5, 1951
Beginning the week of February 5, 1951, the Broadway Theatre carried Frank Loesser and George Abbott’s musical, danced by George Balanchine and topped by Ray Bolger. Directly beneath the star, the bill reads Jack Chesney … Robert Shackleton.
Based on Brandon Thomas’s Charley’s Aunt, the show had premiered on October 11, 1948 and was, by 1951, a beloved fixture — the vehicle for Bolger’s show-stopping “Once in Love with Amy.”
Musical Numbers — Act I
PLAYBILL · “Where’s Charley?” · 1951
Musical Numbers — Act II
PLAYBILL · “Where’s Charley?” · 1951
The Cast — In Order of Appearance
PLAYBILL · “Where’s Charley?” · 1951
Scenes — Oxford & Beyond
PLAYBILL · “Where’s Charley?” · 1951
Stage and screen, the same week
The centerpiece · week beginning Thursday, July 3, 1952
For one week at the Showplace of the Nation, Robert Shackleton was billed twice in the same building — live on the great stage, and forty feet tall on the screen behind it.
On the Stage
“Pleasure Bound”
Leon Leonidoff’s revue closed with scene D — “On the Boardwalk,” Featuring Robert Shackleton with the Music Hall Choral Ensemble, in fashions by Adele Simpson and the full company of the Rockettes and Corps de Ballet.
On the Screen
“Where’s Charley?”
The Warner Bros. Technicolor film — directed by David Butler, dances by Michael Kidd, from the Loesser & Abbott musical — played the same bill. In the cast: Jack … Robert Shackleton, reprising his Broadway role opposite Ray Bolger.
Radio City Program — July 3, 1952
Radio City Music Hall · Program · July 3, 1952
“Showplace” — Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall · Rockefeller Center
“A single program, two billings. The stage bill and the screen credit sit inches apart on the same folded sheet — the clearest surviving proof of Shackleton working both halves of the Music Hall at once.
From “Set to Music” to the Music Hall
- 1939 Stage
Set to Music — Stage debut
with Beatrice Lillie
Shackleton makes his stage debut in Noël Coward’s revue “Set to Music,” sharing the boards with the great comedienne Beatrice Lillie.
- 1939 Stage
Very Warm for May
Broadway musical
An early Broadway musical credit in the Kern & Hammerstein show — one of his first New York engagements.
- 1940 Stage
Keep Off the Grass
opposite Jane Froman
He sang opposite Jane Froman in this Broadway revue, building a reputation as a singing juvenile lead.
- 1940s Stage
Sweethearts · Sally
with Bobby Clark; with Bambi Linn & Willie Howard
Featured in the Victor Herbert revival “Sweethearts” with Bobby Clark, and in “Sally” with Bambi Linn and Willie Howard.
- WWII Service
United States Army — Private to Major
aide-de-camp to Gen. Omar Bradley
Enlisting as a private, Shackleton rose to major and served as aide-de-camp to General Omar Bradley before returning to the stage.
- c. 1950 Stage
Carissima
Palace Theatre, London
He starred in the musical “Carissima” on the London stage at the Palace Theatre.
- c. 1950 Screen
Wonder Kid — First motion picture
for Alexander Korda & Gene Markey
His first motion picture, made in England for producers Alexander Korda and Gene Markey.
- 1951 Stage
Where’s Charley? — Jack Chesney
Broadway Theatre, New York
Billed under Ray Bolger in Frank Loesser and George Abbott’s hit, singing “My Darling, My Darling,” “Where’s Charley?” and “At the Red Rose Cotillion.”
- July 1952 Screen
Radio City Music Hall — Jack (screen) & “On the Boardwalk” (stage)
Rockefeller Center
The centerpiece week: Shackleton appears on the Music Hall stage in the “Pleasure Bound” revue AND on its screen in the Warner Bros. film of “Where’s Charley?” — simultaneously.
The exhibit’s centerpiece
The Theatre — “The Broadway Trail”
PLAYBILL feature · 1951
The house essay “The Broadway Trail” laid out the brutal odds of a stage career for the era’s hopefuls — context for how hard-won a featured billing like Shackleton’s really was.
Orchestra & Balcony — Broadway
PLAYBILL · Broadway Theatre plan
The pages between the pages
A playbill is also a time capsule of everything around the show. These leaves — pressed between the cast pages — hold the movie stars, motor cars, and mid-century glamour that shared Shackleton’s audience.
Buick · Camel
Program advertising · c. 1951–52
Chesterfield
Program advertising · 1951
Lucky Strike
Program advertising · c. 1951
Black & White · Wedgwood Room
Program advertising · c. 1951
Coming Attraction — “Ivanhoe”
Radio City Music Hall · coming attraction · 1952