The journey of a Broadway career begins with a single step. Or rather, a single Playbill. To celebrate Playbill’s 140th anniversary, we asked some of Broadway’s best and brightest to reflect on the first time they appeared in a Playbill, and what that milestone meant to them.

For Tony Award-winning acting legend Chuck Cooper, he revealed that “it was for a musical called Amen Corner; we opened at the Nederlander Theatre. And I remember vividly opening the Playbill and seeing my face and my name and my bio. Which was full of lies, because I hadn’t done anything! But, there I was in a Playbill! That is the industry standard. Playbill, I made it!”

See Cooper's reflection, alongside those of his children, Lilli Cooper and Eddie Cooper, in the video above. 

And for the entire month of October, don't forget to see a show at a Broadway theatre to pick up a special Legacy Playbill. Playbill has partnered with every production on Broadway (and Off-Broadway's Little Shop of Horrors) to create four special retro-inspired Playbill covers, which are being distributed to audiences free of charge. Click here to see all of the available Legacy covers. We hope the special four-part nature of these covers encourages you to go to the theatre to get one, strike up a conversation with a stranger to trade covers, and take the time to thank the ushers who hand them out. If you want to get all the designs of a particular show, visit PlaybillStore.com to purchase a poster of a show's collection, with proceeds going to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.