Cohen, Alexander

The Tamiment Playhouse, located in Bushkill, Pennsylvania, was a prominent incubator of and a major creative outlet for theater, dance, film, and television in the mid-twentieth century, particularly for comedy. It nurtured many performers and writers who later became famous, such as Danny Kaye, Carol Burnett, Woody Allen, and Neil Simon. Much of the copious original material performed at Tamiment found its way to the professional stage, Broadway, and television. The Playhouse was part of Camp Tamiment, a summer resort for socialists and their families that opened in 1921. It began offering professional theatrical productions by the early 1930s, and closed after the season of 1960. Alexander Cohen, who shot the photographs in this collection, stayed with his family in a bungalow at Camp Tamiment’s “Sandyville” bungalow colony in the summers.