''Truckline Cafe'' was the title of a 1946

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

play written by

Maxwell Anderson James Maxwell Anderson (December 15, 1888 – February 28, 1959) was an American playwright, author, poet, journalist, and lyricist. Background Anderson was born on December 15, 1888, in Atlantic, Pennsylvania, the second of eight children to ...

, directed by

Harold Clurman Harold Edgar Clurman (September 18, 1901 – September 9, 1980) was an American theatre director and drama critic. In 2003, he was named one of the most influential figures in U.S. theater by PBS.

, produced by

Elia Kazan Elia Kazan (; born Elias Kazantzoglou ( el, Ηλίας Καζαντζόγλου); September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003) was an American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, described by ''The New York Times'' as "one o ...

, and starring

Marlon Brando Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he received numerous accolades throughout his career, which spanned six decades, including two Academ ...

and

Karl Malden Karl Malden (born Mladen George Sekulovich; March 22, 1912 – July 1, 2009) was an American actor. He was primarily a character actor, who according to Robert Berkvist, "for more than 60 years brought an intelligent intensity and a homespun aut ...

. The short-lived play ran only 10 performances and is best remembered today for the fact that each night Brando would run up and down a flight of stairs prior to an entrance to induce an effectively frenzied demeanor for one of the scenes. The cast also included

David Manners David Joseph Manners (born Rauff de Ryther Duan Acklom; April 30, 1900 – December 23, 1998) was a Canadian-American actor who plays John Harker in Tod Browning's 1931 horror classic '' Dracula'', which stars Bela Lugosi in the title role.Pac ...

, to whom Brando has attributed much of his subsequent success{{citation needed, date=August 2013, and

Kevin McCarthy Kevin Owen McCarthy (born January 26, 1965) is an American politician, serving as Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives, House Minority Leader in the United States House of Representatives since 2019. A member of the Rep ...

. The play is noted for Brando's first major appearance on

, during which he garnered attention for an unusually intense performance which presaged his later work on ''

A Streetcar Named Desire ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' is a play written by Tennessee Williams and first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947. The play dramatizes the experiences of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle who, after encountering a series of person ...

''. ''Truckline Cafe'' is also notable for being the first collaboration between Brando and Kazan, who later made ''

'', ''

Viva Zapata ''Viva Zapata!'' is a 1952 American Western film directed by Elia Kazan and starring Marlon Brando. The screenplay was written by John Steinbeck, using Edgcomb Pinchon's 1941 book ''Zapata the Unconquerable'' as a guide. The cast includes Jean Pe ...

'', and ''

On the Waterfront ''On the Waterfront'' is a 1954 American crime drama film, directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando and features Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Pat Henning, and Eva Marie Saint in her film debut. ...

'' together. The play also remains notable for being the first time Brando and Malden worked together, prior to co-starring in ''A Streetcar Named Desire'', ''On the Waterfront'', and '' One Eyed Jacks''. From the May 1, 2007 issue of ''

Slate Magazine ''Slate'' is an online magazine that covers current affairs, politics, and culture in the United States. It was created in 1996 by former '' New Republic'' editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. In 20 ...

'', Troy Patterson notes in a review of a

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasti ...

documentary about Brando:
''The film spends a happily ample sum of time on ''Truckline Café'', which was Brando's Broadway breakthrough, and contextualizes the triumph of Streetcar better than Brando's own autobiography.'' From the July 7–13, 2004 edition of ''The Villager'':
''In “Broadway: The Golden Age,” a stirring documentary film by Rick McKay, that fine actor

Charles Durning Charles Edward Durning (February 28, 1923 – December 24, 2012) was an American actor who appeared in over 200 movies, television shows and plays.Schudel, Matt (December 26, 2012) "''In real life and on the screen, he played countless role ...

says of his first sight of Brando (in “Truckline Cafe”): “I thought

e was a E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); plura ...

guy they pulled in off the street. Too good to be an actor.”'' ''

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...

'' reported that the reviews were so lacerating (the ''

New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...

John Chapman called it "the worst play I have seen since I have been in the reviewing business") that Clurman and Kazan took out an ad in the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' stating in part:
"Our theater is strangled in a bottleneck . . . made up of a group of men who are hired to report the events of our stage and who more and more are acquiring powers which, as a group, they are not qualified to exercise — either by their training or their taste. . . . No opposition point of view is ever expressed. There is a blackout of all taste except the taste of these men." Meanwhile, playwright Anderson mounted an ad in the ''

New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...

'':
"It is an insult to our theater that there should be so many incompetents and irresponsibles among he reviewers ... Of late years all plays are passed on largely by a sort of

Jukes family The Jukes family was a New York "hill family" studied in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The studies are part of a series of other family studies, including the Kallikaks, the Zeros and the Nams, that were often quoted as arguments in s ...

of journalism."

Cast (in alphabetical order)

*Joseph Adams ... Second Man *

... Sage McRae *Irene Dailey ... Angie *Joann Dolan ... Evvie Garrett *Leila Ernst ... Sissie *Louis A. Florence ... Matt *Lou Gilbert ... Man With a Pail *

Virginia Gilmore Virginia Gilmore (born Sherman Virginia Poole, July 26, 1919 – March 28, 1986) was an American film, stage, and television actress. Early years Virginia Gilmore was born on July 26, 1919, in El Monte, California. Her father was a retired o ...

... Anne *Solen Hayes ... First Man *Peter Hobbs ... The Breadman *Lorraine Kirby ... First Woman *

... Stag *

... Wing Commander Hern *June March ... Mildred *

... Maurice *Peggy Meredith ... Janet *Anne Morgan ... First Girl *

Frank Overton Frank Emmons Overton (March 12, 1918April 24, 1967) was an American actor. He was best known for the roles of Maj. Harvey Stovall in ''Twelve O'Clock High'' (1964-1967), Sheriff Heck Tate in ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' (1962) and General Bogan in ' ...

... Toby *Richard Paul ... Bimi * Ann Shepherd ... Tory McRae *Robert Simon ... Patrolman Gray *Eugene Steiner ... Tuffy Garrett *Rose Steiner ... Second Woman *Gloria Stroock ... Second Girl *John Sweet ... Stew *Ralph Theadore ... Kip *

Kenneth Tobey Kenneth Jesse Tobey (March 23, 1917 – December 22, 2002) was an extremely prolific American actor who performed in hundreds of productions during a career that spanned more than half a century, including his role as the star of the 1957-1 ...

... Hutch *Joanne Tree ... Celeste *June Walker ... Min *Richard Waring ... Mort *Jutta Wolf ... June

External links

''Truckline Cafe''
at the

Internet Broadway Database The Internet Broadway Database (IBDB) is an online database of Broadway theatre productions and their personnel. It was conceived and created by Karen Hauser in 1996 and is operated by the Research Department of The Broadway League, a trade assoc ...

''The Villager'' "Marlon Brando and the birth of American acting"

''Slate Magazine'' "Brand Brando"

Broadway plays 1946 plays Plays by Maxwell Anderson