Zoë Akins

Three women set out to find eligible millionaires to marry, but find true love in the process.

Wildly optimistic chatterbox Eva Lovelace is a would-be actress trying to crash the New York stage. She attracts the interest of a paternal actor, a philandering producer, and an earnest playwright. Is she destined for stardom, or will she fade like a morning glory after its brief blooming?

A Polish countess is dispatched by her country to become Napoleon Bonaparte's mistress at the urging of Polish leaders, who feel she might influence him to support Polish independence.

Life in 1847 Paris is as spirited as champagne and as unforgiving as the gray morning after. In gambling dens and lavish soirees, men of means exert their wills and women turned courtesans exult in pleasure. One such woman is Marguerite Gautier, who begins a sumptuous romance with Armand Duval.

The lives of two cousins are complicated by the return of an ex-boyfriend and an illegitimate child.

A war widow falls in love with the man who informed her of her husband's death.

A seductive music hall star falls in love with a married aristocrat.

A woman becomes estranged from her daughter when the girl learns that she is illegitimate.

A lawyer, left by his wife, gets drunk and marries a chorus girl, or so he learns the morning after.

Eve's Secret is that she's not the elegant society woman she seems to be. In fact, Eve is an unkempt country girl who's been "transformed," Pygmalion style, by European duke Poltava.

Two sisters from Indiana, the wide-eyed and innocent Mae Thorpe, and her more streetwise sister June, move into the Rolf House for Homeless Girls in New York. With June's help, Mae obtains a job as a stenographer for the scientist Joseph von Schraeder, while June gets work as a telegraph operator at Western Union.

A Southern belle finds herself torn between two suitors.

A trio of money-hungry women rent a luxurious penthouse, spending their dough on drink and debonair clothing, backbiting and catfighting as they steal each other's boyfriends.

Tony and his dance partner/wife Gaby headline a Paris musical. Tony becomes the unwilling target for the attentions of performer Yvette. She is later murdered with the dagger used by Tony and his wife in their act, and Gaby is accused of the crime.

Happily married Julien Fields journeys to Europe to pursue his artistic interests.

A romance develops between a happily married middle-aged British politician and an adventurous young aviatrix.

A young woman arrives in New York City determined to become a great theatrical star, but discovers that her goal may not be as easily attainable as she had hoped.

A English aristocrat causes a scandal when she divorces her husband and runs off with a young American.

A dynamic duo in silk and ermine entertain hick businessmen looking for a good time while in Manhattan.

A ten-year-old girl meets famed opera singer Enrico Caruso on a train between Boston and New York. She admonishes him for his extravagant lifestyle, but she is softened up somewhat when Caruso begins to sing arias from her favorite operas.

A young Russian woman marries a wealthy Englishman, and has a daughter with him. After she has an affair with one of his friends, she is forced to leave Britain and moves to Paris. Many years later, her daughter approaches her, needing her help.

A lonely boy finds companionship with a horse.

Because of a very unhappy affair she had earlier in her life, a woman shuts herself off from the rest of the world.

Julian (Percy Marmont) is a poor artist who lives with wife Edith (Alice Joyce) and their newborn baby in Harlem. Struggling to make ends meet, he foregoes his artistic calling and draws for magazines. Reaching his limits, Julian convinces his wife he could reach higher grounds if he were to go to Paris. He moves to Paris while his Edith works at a shop on Fifth Avenue. Each of their lives evolves differently—Edith is courted by a wealthy suitor whom she ignores while pining for her husband, while Julian fails to meet his goals in Paris, returning defeated three years later. The meeting highlight how different their routes have been.

Matinee Theater is an American anthology series that aired on NBC during the Golden Age of Television, from 1955 to 1958. The series, which ran daily in the afternoon, was frequently live. It was produced by Albert McCleery, Darrell Ross, George Cahan and Frank Price with executive producer George Lowther. McCleery had previously produced the live series Cameo Theatre which introduced to television the concept of theater-in-the-round, TV plays staged with minimal sets. Jim Buckley of the Pewter Plough Playhouse recalled: When Al McCleery got back to the States, he originated a most ambitious theatrical TV series for NBC called Matinee Theater: to televise five different stage plays per week live, airing around noon in order to promote color TV to the American housewife as she labored over her ironing. Al was the producer. He hired five directors and five art directors. Richard Bennett, one of our first early presidents of the Pewter Plough Corporation, was one of the directors and I was one of the art directors and, as soon as we were through televising one play, we had lunch and then met to plan next week’s show. That was over 50 years ago, and I’m trying to think; I believe the TV art director is his own set decorator —yes, of course! It had to be, since one of McCleery’s chief claims to favor with the producers was his elimination of the setting per se and simply decorating the scene with a minimum of props. It took a bit of ingenuity.

Presented by Eastman Kodak, this show was a series of original scripts directed by acclaimed directors and featuring well-known performers. The stories ranged from musicals to comedies and dramas.