The musical revue “Thursdays Till Nine,” focused on life in the R. H. Maybe department store, whose slogan was “Don’t Say No — Say ‘Maybe.'” The title takes us back to a time when department stores were open late only one day a week — Thursdays (today, they rarely close) — and it would be quite common to be walking along Broadway and see the sign lit up, “R.H. Macy’s (or Gimbel’s) — Thursdays Till Nine.”

This image is of Jeannie, who opens the play with a mournful plaint on the length of the day. It accompanies songs from the musical in Henry Foner: Songs and Poems (For Better or Verse), Labor Arts, New York, 2013.

See also two LaborArts exhibits that feature recordings of Foner’s songs Thursdays Til Nine and Play it Again, Sam – Songs of the Labor and Progressive Moments of the 1940s. 

From Union Voice, November 9, 1947.