| What Happened to Jones | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Written by | George Broadhurst |
| Date premiered | 30 August 1897 |
| Place premiered | Manhattan Theatre |
| Original language | English |
What Happened to Jones is an 1897 farce by George Broadhurst. It was his first successful play and remained popular for many years, and was also adapted into three silent films. [1]
What Happened to Jones was Broadhurst's second play to be staged, after the flop of his first play, The Speculator (1896). Broadhurst had to become his own producer, with funding from his brother Thomas, as he could find no one else to take it on.
After four warmup performances in New Haven, Connecticut, [2] [3] [4] [5] the play debuted on Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre on August 30, 1897. [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] It moved to the Bijou Theatre on October 4, [11] playing thru November 13, [12] [13] and after a week off, played Thanksgiving week at the Grand Opera House. [14] That total run was just under 100 performances. The company then took it on tour. [15] [16] A largely new cast returned to New York at the Bijou in February 1898. [17]
It had its London debut at The Strand on April 9, 1898, [18] [19] and enjoyed a long run of 383 performances, and was the last success of John S. Clarke as manager of the Strand. [20] Charles Arnold starred in this production, and then successfully took it abroad, including to Australia and South Africa. [21] [22] It was revived at London's Terry's Theatre from January 22nd 1900. [23]
In 1915, McClure's magazine noted Broadhurst's and Arnold's success with the play, that Jones was still being played by stock houses some 18 years after its debut, and could be revived successfully on Broadway if Broadhurst was not so focused on new plays. [24]
In 2000, the Metropolitan Playhouse in New York mounted a revised version of the play with updated dialogue. [25]
The critical reviews of the play were lukewarm at best, but acknowledged that audiences were laughing heartily throughout. The Sun wrote that "there was nothing ingeniously novel in the design of the piece, nor any particularly bright wit or unctuous humor," but it "should not be underrated as a farce of the uproarious kind. It made its first New York audience laugh a great deal." [9] The New York Times found it "an exceedingly artificial piece in which the artifice is plainly apparent from first to last to the critical playgoer, who finds in it some really funny passages, and many others which are almost depressing in spite of the hard labor of the performers." Of George C. Boniface, Jr.'s performance as Jones, the Times said he "has a droll and quizzical personality, but he has been too busily employed in Mr. Hoyt's farces and comic opera to learn to act." [7]
The play was adapted to silent films in 1915, 1920, and 1926. The 1915 film was directed by and starred Fred Mace as Jones. The 1920 version starred Bryant Washburn. The 1926 film was directed by William A. Seiter and starred Reginald Denny.
The Broadhurst Theatre is a Broadway theater at 235 West 44th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1917, the theater was designed by Herbert J. Krapp and was built for the Shubert brothers. The Broadhurst Theatre is named for British-American theatrical producer George Broadhurst, who leased the theater before its opening. It has 1,218 seats across two levels and is operated by The Shubert Organization. Both the facade and the auditorium interior are New York City landmarks.
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What Happened to Jones is a 1926 American silent comedy film directed by William A. Seiter and starring Reginald Denny. It was produced and distributed by Universal Pictures. The film is based on the 1897 Broadway play What Happened to Jones by George Broadhurst.
What Happened to Jones is a lost 1915 silent film directed by and starring Fred Mace. It is based on George Broadhurst's 1897 play What Happened to Jones. William A. Brady was the producer.
The White Heather is an 1897 melodrama by playwrights Cecil Raleigh and Henry Hamilton. The climactic scene of the play portrays a fight between two underwater divers.
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The Bijou Theatre was a former Broadway theater in New York City that opened in 1878 as Theatre Brighton and was demolished in 1915. It also served as an opera house and silent movie venue throughout its history. Located at 1239 Broadway between 30th and 31st Streets, had been converted from a drinking and gambling establishment into a theatre for variety, and opened August 26, 1878, with Jerry Thomas as proprietor. The house had many changes and names until John A. McCaull, a Baltimore lawyer, and Charles E. Ford took charge of it. Considerable money was spent and when they reopened the house on March 31, 1880, as the Bijou Opera-house, it looked like a modern and well-regulated theatre. In 1881 and 1882, Lillian Russell appeared in three different operettas.
