October 16: Peter Godfrey

Peter Godfrey was born on this day in 1899. A playwright, actor, director, and magician, he founded the Gate Theater Studio in London in 1925, the city’s first avant-garde theater. In 1931, while the Gate continued its success, Godfrey appeared at St. George’s Hall, Maskelyne’s theater, performing a Victorian magic act and using the original de Kolta chair for the Vanishing Lady. Godfrey then moved to New York and Los Angeles, where he directed a number of popular films, including Christmas in Connecticut and The Two Mrs. Carrolls—he briefly appears in the latter, Hitchcock-style, as a Cockney racecourse tout.