[Next Production] June Moon by Ring Lardner and George S. Kaufman

[Jon Erdman]

For my next production, I would like to produce June Moon by Ring Lardner and George S. Kaufman. This is a play, and it comes in at about 23,500 words, which as I understand it is sufficient length for a standalone ebook in the case of plays.

This will be a self-transcription, and will also be my first drama production so I expect there to be a learning curve around the drama syntax. I'm sure I'll end up with questions as I come across edge cases in the syntax too.

Scans:

https://archive.org/details/junemoon0000ring

Repo:

https://github.com/homestar92/ring-lardner_george-s-kaufman_june-moon

[Alex Cabal]

OK! Vince will manage with Robin reviewing.

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[Emma Sweeney]

Take a look at the play how-to guide for file formatting and other details.

Emma

[Jon Erdman]

I noticed the how-to guide requires a dramatis personae. The original book print didn't have one, but did have a cast list from the theatrical debut as pictured below:

I presume that in this case, the dramatis personae that we include in our edition would list just the characters and not their original actors, right?

[Vince Rice]

Correct. You can look at some of the recent GBS plays; I don’t believe they had dp’s either, and Asher had to create them. That will give you an idea of how to go about it.

> On Jun 20, 2026, at 8:22 AM, Jon Erdman <homes...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I noticed the how-to guide requires a dramatis personae. The original book print didn't have one, but did have a cast list from the theatrical debut as pictured below:

[Jon Erdman]

This play is about a lyricist trying to produce hit songs in Tin Pan Alley in the 1920s. Not exactly subject matter that was being painted left-and right.

I'm considering using George Gershwin's self-portrait as my cover. Gershwin even gets name-dropped in the play, so it's a cool homage. A preview of the crop is below:

Is this crop workable even though a tiny bit of the face is cut off? Is the artist's visible signature in the lower-left a problem? It already cuts off the bottom of his chin and if I try to get that out of frame, I'd have to crop it even tighter.

[Vince]

Looks good to me, I’ve assigned it.

On Jun 22, 2026, at 12:34 AM, Jon Erdman <homes...@gmail.com> wrote:

This play is about a lyricist trying to produce hit songs in Tin Pan Alley in the 1920s. Not exactly subject matter that was being painted left-and right.

I'm considering using George Gershwin's self-portrait as my cover. Gershwin even gets name-dropped in the play, so it's a cool homage. A preview of the crop is below:

[Jon Erdman]

This is very close to being ready for review. There's just one passage that I'm not sure how to modernize properly:

In the last line, the modernize-spelling script changes Tokio -> Tokyo, but what should we do about the "Tokio-oki-okio" part? Do I keep the word segments "oki-okio" as they are written, or do I change them to "oky-okyo" for consistency with where the full word appears?

[Vince]

I would do the latter, editorial of course.

> On Jun 22, 2026, at 2:15 PM, Jon Erdman <homes...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> This is very close to being ready for review. There's just one passage that I'm not sure how to modernize properly:

[Jon Erdman]

I have one more question: Since we've already found a workable painting, it's not a huge deal. But the January 1930 issue of Theatre Magazine actually had artwork specifically for this play.

https://archive.org/details/Theatre193001

The thing I'm not sure of is whether this is an oil, or whether it looks sufficiently like one to work. If not, that's totally fine since we have found a painting already. But since this artwork is remarkably "on the nose" I wanted to at least confirm my suspicion that it may not actually be an oil painting before I count it out completely.

I do have suitable PD proof as well, which is here, although if the art works, then I can certainly also upload it to the artworks database myself.:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951002806781t&seq=17

[Alex Cabal]

I think it works, and if it was made for this play then that's a no brainer.

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[Vince]

The cross-hatching seen when it’s enlarged indicates to me it’s not an oil painting (or oil painting style), but I am a poor judge of these things, so I’ll turn it over to Alex. If it does turn out to be OK, I would think the cover itself is the proof, since it has the date on it, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to have the entire magazine.

Alex, what say you?

[Vince]

He beat me to it, and we’ve confirmed I’m a poor judge of these things. :)

If you want to upload it, let me know and I’ll assign it to this project. Or I’ll be glad to upload it.

[Alex Cabal]

I think the crosshatching is just a scanning artifact, or the texture of
the paper maybe. I've seen similar in many scans.

[Jon Erdman]

I have uploaded it. You can go ahead and assign it. I'll play around with editing tools as I'll likely need to do some upscaling and cleaning and masthead removal

[Alex Cabal]

Great, I've approved it and reassigned it

On 6/22/26 3:19 PM, Jon Erdman wrote:
> I have uploaded it. You can go ahead and assign it. I'll play around
> with editing tools as I'll likely need to do some upscaling and cleaning
> and masthead removal
>
> On Monday, June 22, 2026 at 3:46:03 PM UTC-4 Alex Cabal wrote:
>
> I think the crosshatching is just a scanning artifact, or the
> texture of
> the paper maybe. I've seen similar in many scans.
>
> On 6/22/26 2:44 PM, Vince wrote:
> > The cross-hatching seen when it’s enlarged indicates to me it’s
> not an oil painting (or oil painting style), but I am a poor judge
> of these things, so I’ll turn it over to Alex. If it does turn out
> to be OK, I would think the cover itself is the proof, since it has
> the date on it, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to have the entire
> magazine.
> >
> > Alex, what say you?
> >
> >> On Jun 22, 2026, at 2:30 PM, Jon Erdman <homes...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> I have one more question: Since we've already found a workable
> painting, it's not a huge deal. But the January 1930 issue of
> Theatre Magazine actually had artwork specifically for this play.

> >> https://archive.org/details/Theatre193001 <https://archive.org/
> details/Theatre193001>

> >>
> >> The thing I'm not sure of is whether this is an oil, or whether
> it looks sufficiently like one to work. If not, that's totally fine
> since we have found a painting already. But since this artwork is
> remarkably "on the nose" I wanted to at least confirm my suspicion
> that it may not actually be an oil painting before I count it out
> completely.
> >>
> >> I do have suitable PD proof as well, which is here, although if
> the art works, then I can certainly also upload it to the artworks
> database myself.:
> >> https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?

> id=umn.31951002806781t&seq=17 <https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?
> id=umn.31951002806781t&seq=17>

> >
>
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[Jon Erdman]

Is the use of AI upscalers permitted? I asked Gemini to upscale and clean up the scan quality for me and the result turned out pretty good. I know that AI is not to be used in the long description, but I believe I've seen AI upscalers be approved in the past. This is what was generated:

[Alex Cabal]

Sure

On 6/22/26 3:33 PM, Jon Erdman wrote:
> Is the use of AI upscalers permitted? I asked Gemini to upscale and
> clean up the scan quality for me and the result turned out pretty good.
> I know that AI is not to be used in the long description, but I believe
> I've seen AI upscalers be approved in the past. This is what was generated:

> archive.org/details/Theatre193001> <https://archive.org/ <https://
> archive.org/>

> > details/Theatre193001>
> > >>
> > >> The thing I'm not sure of is whether this is an oil, or whether
> > it looks sufficiently like one to work. If not, that's totally fine
> > since we have found a painting already. But since this artwork is
> > remarkably "on the nose" I wanted to at least confirm my suspicion
> > that it may not actually be an oil painting before I count it out
> > completely.
> > >>
> > >> I do have suitable PD proof as well, which is here, although if
> > the art works, then I can certainly also upload it to the artworks
> > database myself.:

> > >> https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt <https://
> babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt>?
> > id=umn.31951002806781t&seq=17 <https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/
> pt <https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt>?

> > id=umn.31951002806781t&seq=17>
> > >
> >
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[Jon Erdman]

OK then. With the help of AI tools, I upscaled and removed mastheads and other text, yielding this result:

I could bring in the crop tighter to remove some negative space up top, but I don't think I could do it without completely cropping the woman in the red dress out of frame, so I think this is the best crop.

[Jon Erdman]

And on that note, as long as this crop and text removal job works, this book is ready for review.

[Robin Whittleton]

Thanks Jon, I’ll try to look at this today.

-Robin

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[Robin Whittleton]

OK, just a few things to look at at https://github.com/homestar92/ring-lardner_george-s-kaufman_june-moon/issues/1.

-Robin

On 23 Jun 2026, at 00:06, Jon Erdman <homes...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Robin Whittleton]

Over to you Alex.

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[Alex Cabal]

OK, looks good! I've released it, thanks!

On 6/23/26 8:34 AM, Robin Whittleton wrote:
> Over to you Alex.
>
>> On 23 Jun 2026, at 11:03, Robin Whittleton <ro...@reala.net> wrote:
>>
>> OK, just a few things to look at at https://github.com/homestar92/

>> ring-lardner_george-s-kaufman_june-moon/issues/1 <https://github.com/
>> homestar92/ring-lardner_george-s-kaufman_june-moon/issues/1>.

>>
>> -Robin
>>
>>> On 23 Jun 2026, at 00:06, Jon Erdman <homes...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> And on that note, as long as this crop and text removal job works,
>>> this book is ready for review.
>>> On Monday, June 22, 2026 at 5:25:11 PM UTC-4 Jon Erdman wrote:
>>>
>>> OK then. With the help of AI tools, I upscaled and removed
>>> mastheads and other text, yielding this result:

>>> >archive.org/details/Theatre193001 <http://archive.org/

>>> details/Theatre193001>> <https://archive.org/ <https://

>>> archive.org/><https://
>>> >archive.org/ <http://archive.org/>>

>>> > > details/Theatre193001>
>>> > > >>
>>> > > >> The thing I'm not sure of is whether this is an oil,
>>> or whether
>>> > > it looks sufficiently like one to work. If not, that's
>>> totally fine
>>> > > since we have found a painting already. But since this
>>> artwork is
>>> > > remarkably "on the nose" I wanted to at least confirm my
>>> suspicion
>>> > > that it may not actually be an oil painting before I
>>> count it out
>>> > > completely.
>>> > > >>
>>> > > >> I do have suitable PD proof as well, which is here,
>>> although if
>>> > > the art works, then I can certainly also upload it to the
>>> artworks
>>> > > database myself.:
>>> > > >>https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt <https://

>>> babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt><https://
>>> >babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt <http://babel.hathitrust.org/

>>> cgi/pt>>?
>>> > > id=umn.31951002806781t&seq=17 <https://

>>> babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/ <https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/>
>>> > pt <https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt <https://
>>> babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt>>?
>>> > > id=umn.31951002806781t&seq=17>
>>> > > >
>>> > >

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