Don Swann Jr., a local live theater producer, worked out a lease. Beginning in 1953, he brought in the actors who had previously appeared on the Parkway's screen. Billie Burke, Glinda the Good Witch in 1939's "The Wizard of Oz," returned in person on the Parkway stage in "Life with Mother." Other Hollywood veterans, including ZaSu Pitts, Edward Everett Horton, Charles Coburn (in "You Can't Take it with You") and Magda Gabor (in "Pajama Tops"), walked the Parkway's tiny stage. Basil Rathbone, who appeared in films as Sherlock Holmes, played the Parkway in "The Winslow Boy."