Archie Leach (lol)
Bert Convy played Archie Leach. That's Cary Grant's real name.
Sheldon: "Was the starfish wearing boxer shorts? Because you might have been watching Nickelodeon."
I was just about to post the same thing! Does anyone know if they explain this? An inside joke? I guess it was made before Grant's name was common knowledge.
Also, there's info on "wiki" that Hart was bi-polar and gay ( and though married, he was in therapy all his life dealing with these issues). Just saw the scene where he takes off on Jack Klugman after the opening night of this play, and with hindsight, you can almost see it.
Not so much an inside joke. Just something that was somewhat true. I'm not sure who everyone is in the group of people, but Leach and Hart did know each other and Lester Sweyd knew them both as well (although how intimately he knew Leach may be up for debate ;-) So it's not too far-fetched to believe that, in reality, the three of them (and perhaps the others) did hang around together.
Also, Leach set off for Hollywood roughly around the time Once In A Lifetime went to Broadway (I would say less than a year later). They had him leaving for Hollywood slightly earlier to work it into the story, but the timing is close enough. Truth may be stranger than fiction.
I think it was an inside joke. They made a point of saying it a couple of times and him saying he wouldn't change his name. I don't think Cary Grant wanted to change his but of course the studio did.
Sheldon: "Was the starfish wearing boxer shorts? Because you might have been watching Nickelodeon."