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The last Broadway hurrah

    Black and white photo from the Theater Guild’s production of Othello. Paul Robeson’s character Othello is standing at right, with an extended right hand, casting an angry look at Uta Hagen’s seated Desdemona at left. Robeson is dressed in a satin striped robe, and Hagen is wearing a white silk gown.

    Paul Robeson as the title character & Uta Hagen as Desdemona, in the New York City Theater Guild’s Broadway production of Othello (1943–1944). José Ferrer, Hagen’s spouse at the time, played the villain Iago. Broadway would be off limits to Robeson in the Cold War era, the consequence of his persecution by the federal government and vilification in mainstream media.

    1943 or 1944
    Copyright
    Public Domain
    Attribution/Credit

    Farm Security Administration, Office of War Information Photograph Collection (Library of Congress), via “Paul Robeson,” Wikipedia