James Avery Hopwood was an American playwright of the Jazz Age. He had four plays running simultaneously on Broadway in 1920.
Geraldine Sue Page was an American actress. She earned acclaim for her work on Broadway as well as in major Hollywood films and television productions, garnering an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes, one BAFTA Award, and four nominations for the Tony Award.
Florenz Edward Ziegfeld Jr., popularly known as Flo Ziegfeld, was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies (1907–1931), inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris. He also produced the musical Show Boat. He was known as the "glorifier of the American girl". Ziegfeld is a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame.
Mabel Ethelreid Normand was an American silent-film actress, screenwriter, director, and producer. She was a popular star and collaborator of Mack Sennett in his Keystone Studios films, and at the height of her career in the late 1910s and early 1920s, had her own movie studio and production company. Onscreen, she appeared in 12 successful films with Charlie Chaplin and 17 with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, sometimes writing and directing movies featuring Chaplin as her leading man.
Present Laughter is a comic play written by Noël Coward. The play's title comes from a song in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, which urges carpe diem, and so the word present in the title should be pronounced as the adjective, not the verb.
Mack and Mabel is a musical with a book by Michael Stewart and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. The plot involves the tumultuous romantic relationship between Hollywood director Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand, who became one of his biggest stars. In a series of flashbacks, Sennett relates the glory days of Keystone Studios from 1911, when he discovered Normand and cast her in dozens of his early "two-reelers", through his creation of Sennett's Bathing Beauties and the Keystone Cops to Mabel's death from tuberculosis in 1930.
The Green Pastures is a play written in 1930 by Marc Connelly adapted from Ol' Man Adam an' His Chillun (1928), a collection of stories written by Roark Bradford. The play was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1930.
Dracula is a stage play written by Hamilton Deane in 1924, then revised by John L. Balderston in 1927. It was the first authorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula. After touring in England, the original version of the play appeared at London's Little Theatre in July 1927, where it was seen by the American producer Horace Liveright. Liveright asked Balderston to revise the play for a Broadway production that opened at the Fulton Theatre in October 1927. This production starred Bela Lugosi in his first major English-speaking role.
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch is a 1901 novel by American author Alice Hegan Rice, telling of a southern family's humorously coping with poverty. The book was highly popular on its release, and has been adapted to film several times.
The Bat is a three-act play by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood that was first produced by Lincoln Wagenhals and Collin Kemper in 1920. The story combines elements of mystery and comedy as Cornelia Van Gorder and guests spend a stormy night at her rented summer home, searching for stolen money they believe is hidden in the house, while they are stalked by a masked criminal known as "the Bat". The Bat's identity is revealed at the end of the final act.
The Demi-Virgin is a three-act play written by Avery Hopwood. Producer Albert H. Woods staged it on Broadway, where it was a hit during the 1921–22 season. The play is a bedroom farce about former couple Gloria Graham and Wally Deane, both movie actors, whose marriage was so brief that the press speculated about whether Gloria was still a virgin. She attempts to seduce Wally when they are forced to reunite for a movie, but after playing along he surprises her by revealing that their divorce is not valid.
Within the Law is a play written by Bayard Veiller. It is the story of Mary Turner, a sales clerk who is wrongly accused of stealing and sent to prison. Upon her release, Turner sets up a gang that engages in shady activities that are just "within the law". After the police try to entrap her, she is mistakenly accused again, this time for murder, but she is vindicated when the real killer confesses.
The Girl in the Limousine is a play written by Wilson Collison and Avery Hopwood. The story is a bedroom farce about a man who accidentally finds himself undressed in the bedroom of his ex-girlfriend. Producer A. H. Woods staged it on Broadway in 1919. The production was a success, closing in February 1920 after 137 performances. The play was adapted into a movie in 1924.
The Burglar and the Lady is a play written by Langdon McCormick. Like many of McCormick's plays, it was primarily a touring show and first premiered on October 1, 1905, at the State Street Theatre in Trenton, New Jersey. It came to Broadway in September 1906, appearing for a week at the American Theatre. The story pitted Sherlock Holmes, the famous fictional detective created by Arthur Conan Doyle, against A. J. Raffles, a fictional criminal created by E. W. Hornung. McCormick did not bother to ask permission for the use of either character. Former boxer "Gentleman Jim" Corbett played Raffles. The character's nationality was changed from English to American to match Corbett's casting. It was adapted as a movie in 1914, with Corbett again playing Raffles, although the adaptation removed the Holmes character.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a four-act play written by Thomas Russell Sullivan in collaboration with the actor Richard Mansfield. It is an adaptation of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, an 1886 novella by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. The story focuses on the respected London doctor Henry Jekyll and his involvement with Edward Hyde, a loathsome criminal. After Hyde murders the father of Jekyll's fiancée, Jekyll's friends discover that he and Jekyll are the same person; Jekyll has developed a potion that allows him to transform himself into Hyde and back again. When he runs out of the potion, he is trapped as Hyde and commits suicide before he can be arrested.
Cheating Cheaters is a 1916 play written by Max Marcin. Producer A. H. Woods staged it on Broadway. The play is a melodramatic farce about two groups of jewel thieves who are each posing as a wealthy family in order to rob the other.
The Song of Songs is a 1914 play written by Edward Sheldon, based on the 1908 German novel Das hohe Lied by Hermann Sudermann, which had been translated to English under the title The Song of Songs. Producer A. H. Woods staged the play on Broadway at his Eltinge 42nd Street Theatre, where it was a box office success. The play was the basis of several movie and radio adaptations.
Friendly Enemies is a play written by Aaron Hoffman and Samuel Shipman. Producer Albert H. Woods made it the debut play for his Woods Theatre in Chicago, where it opened on March 11, 1918. It played successfully in Chicago for several months before Woods opened a production on Broadway at the Hudson Theatre on July 22, 1918.
A Parisian Romance is a play written in French by Octave Feuillet and adapted in English by Augustus R. Cazauran. Producer A. M. Palmer staged it at the Union Square Theatre on Broadway, where it debuted on January 11, 1883, with Richard Mansfield starring as Baron Chevrial. Mansfield later purchased the rights to the play and made it part of the repertory of his touring company.
