Joseph Kesselring’s Arsenic and Old Lace opened on Broadway on August 18, 1941. New York Times theatre critic Brooks Atkinson praised the play: "At some time there may have been a funnier murder charade than Arsenic and Old Lace � But the supposition is purely academic. Joseph Kesselring has written one so funny none of us will ever forget it.� The play was an immediate success, and has remained so ever since.
However, the inspiration for Arsenic and Old Lace came decades before. A Connecticut woman named Amy Archer-Gilligan ran a nursing home in the early twentieth century. She was
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Arsenic and Old Lace guide sections
