Bob Tomlinson as theater director in On Passe dans Huit Jours by Sacha Guitry
Image courtesy of Bob Tomlinson

Last December, I published an article about the Montmartre Cemetery in which I mentioned Sacha Guitry as Josephine Baker's French diction coach.

After reading the article, my friend and colleague Bob Tomlinson contacted me to share an image of the cover of a program which says "Chez Joséphine présente LE GROUPE THEATRAL dans Guitry x 3 - Trois Pièces en un Acte de Sacha Guitry - avec la participation de l'inimitable Joséphine Baker."

He told me he directed the plays, all of which were written by Guitry.

Because the text is in French and because I knew he had been involved in theater in Paris, I assumed that the production had been staged here.

Guitry x 3, program cover
Image courtesy of Bob Tomlinson

When I interviewed him about the plays months later, I learned that he actually directed them during his tenure as a professor of 18th-century French literature at Emory University.

The three one-act plays that Tomlinson brought to the stage via Le Groupe Théatral - an independant theater ensemble - were Une Lettre Bien Tapée (1939), On Passe dans Huit Jours (1922), and Une Paire de Gifles (1939).

Sacha Guitry in 1938
Harcourt
Image in public domain

Tomlinson directed the plays in 1990 in an intimate theatrical space that he dubbed "Chez Josephine" and created an onstage presence of Baker, played by an actress, that wove throughout the production.  He designed much of the scenery for the sets himself.

In the hallway, works created by students called Josephine et le Nu were displayed. 

The program provides biographical information about Guitry and Baker with accompanying illustrations.

Program, portrait of Sacha Guitry

Program, illustration of Josephine Baker

The only text in English provides a brief description of each play.  Readers learn that the second play, On Passe dans Huit Jours (We Open in Eight Days), is a backstage drama in which

"a vain author is not pleased with Josephine Baker's acting in his new musical comedy Une Femme du Monde.  Having driven her to a violent temper tantrum, he discovers the passion which he had found lacking in her performance. 

"The director of the theatre, more concerned with his publicity notices than with temperamental authors and stars, calmly continues his work."

Joy Taylor played Josephine Baker, John Kliesch played the author, and Tomlinson played the theater director.

Below are photos from Tomlinson's scrapbook that depict the event.

Photos and article about Guitry x 3

Joy Taylor as Josephine Baker

John Kleisch, Bob Tomlinson (in background) and Joy Taylor in On Passe dans Huit Jours

Bob Tomlinson as the theater director in On Passe dans Huit Jours

Tomlinson, Taylor, and Kleisch in dance scene introducing Une Paire de Gifles

Cab Calloway (upper left) and Bob Tomlinson

The Emory Wheel, Emory University's student newspaper, gave Guitry x 3 a favorable review and indicated that students should look forward to whatever Le Groupe Théatral decided to produce the following year.