Ekins' record stood unchallenged till last month, when a wealthy widow named Clara Adams, famed in airline circles as an inveterate first-nighter, saw her chance.
Said one first-nighter solemnly: "It's something you have to digest.
Many a first-nighter wondered a little at Playwright Anderson's hosannas to the virtues of muddling through, for Anderson had pictured his muddlers as lily-livered, rum-smuggling .