Romance at the wheel.: A romantic play in three acts

New York, May, 1924. Good. Manuscript score. 245 x 317 mm. [10] 187, [1] pages. Title page, second leaf with coat of arms, list of musical numbers in elaborate black and gold ink with watercolor illumination. Music inscribed completely by hand on Carl Fischer staff paper, with libretto and lyrics typed in black ribbon, ink while titles, stage directions, and section heads are typed in red ribbon ink. The whole bound in flexible leather. Leather worn from corners and edges, with upper and lower portions of spine perished. All edges gilt.

Elaborate manuscript score for musical theater, with libretto and lyrics attributed to Kataleen Laurette Hagan, and the musical score to José B. Rios. Despite the highly sophisticated composition of the operetta (if that is what it is--there are no speaking roles), and the clever lyrics, we find no reference either to any production of Romance at the Wheel or to its composer and librettist. It was obviously written for stage rather than for private performance, as the sheer number of cast members and choruses indicate. In any case, we consider this manuscript, with its highly decorated preliminary pages, a valuable artiffact of New York theater culture of the 1920s.