The above image was originally on the late Barbara Irwin’s web pages on Liberal, which are no longer maintained. I photoshopped it some and looked around hoping to find some information on the play.
Thanks to John Talbot Smith’s 1917 “The Parish Theatre, A Brief Account of its Rise, its Present Condition, an its Prospects”, we can know something of the play that was being produced.
Corner Store, The.
4 acts. 6 males. 3 females. 2 interiors. Plays over two hours. With such characters as a wild orphan asylum girl, a Dutch policeman, an Irish mail-carrier, a colored loafer of genial nature, Uncle Eli, the keeper of the little store, his good son and beautiful ward and loving wife, he would be a poor dramatist who failed to make a good play. This one is rollicking, yet tender, and the scenes in and about the store are dramatic and funny together. It goes very well with an audience. Price, 25 cents.
I’ve no date on the photo and it would be difficult to make a guess because of the costumes, but because we have a photo of the 1909 Liberal basketball team made at Fritts Studio, which has an identical backdrop, we’re able to at least place it circa 1909.
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