“THE LITTLE LADY IN BLUE”: THE LAST PLAY EVER SEEN BY WILLIAM WINTER.
[The last play ever seen by my father was “The Little Lady in Blue,” which Belasco produced on October 16, 1916, in Washington, and, on December 22, at the Belasco Theatre, in New York. It is a very agreeable piece, with a somewhat trite but expertly handled story. The period of it is 1820. The scene of it is England. The principal character in it is named Anne Churchill. She is an impoverished little governess who sets out to be an adventuress. She wins the affection of a wild young naval officer named Anthony Addenbrooke., incidentally rescuing him from the clutches of a much bepainted Circe of the Portsmouth waterfront. Next she helps him to meet the conditions under which he will inherit £60,000, intending to marry him for the sake of that money. Then she discovers that she really loves him, she is ashamed of her conduct, and she cannot go through with the part of a mercenary adventuress. She confesses to Addenbrooke the real origin of her interest in his affairs and releases him from his engagement to marry her. Being recognized as an earthly paragon she is not permitted to retire into indigence but is wedded to her lover, who has gained a lieutenant’s commission through her assistance and is about to sail away to fight for King and country.—The piece was written by Messrs. Horace Hodges and T. Wigney Percyval.
My father was unable to attend the first New York performance of that play, and his work on this Memoir prevented his seeing it until several weeks later. In his “Journal” he wrote:
[1917] “February 8. More damnable peace blather!—Belasco kindly invited us to visit his Theatre and sent his automobile for us, and ‘Willy’ and I went and saw performance of ‘The Little Lady in Blue,’—a pleasing entertainment.”
Two days afterward Mr. Winter wrote the following letter, which records his critical views of the production.
—J. W.]
(William Winter to David Belasco.)
“New Brighton, Staten Island,
“February 10, 1917.
“Dear Belasco:—