Two versions of The Children's Hour have been staged. The original was used in the play's very successful premier at the Maxine Elliot Theatre in New York, starting on November 20, 1934. The play, produced and directed by Herman Shumlin, ran for a record-breaking 691 performances and immediately established Hellman's durable reputation. It also provoked considerable controversy.

The second version, staged in 1952, failed financially, although most critics and reviewers praised it. Hellman, in addition to making minor revisions in the script, directed the production It opened at the Coronet Theatre on Broadway on December 18, ran for 189 performances, and later went on the road to play in Chicago, a city that had originally banned the work. Controversy still surrounded the piece, but the grounds had shifted away from the lesbian theme to the work's relevance to the congressional anti-communist hearings then in progress. It was in 1952 that Hellman, already blacklisted...