“POLLY WITH A PAST.”
“Polly with a Past” is a merry though thin piece of farcical fooling, which owes its exceptional success—it has already run nearly an entire season in New York—to the attractiveness of the setting provided for it by Belasco and to the earnestness and zest with which it is played. It was written by Messrs. George Middleton and Guy Bolton and then rewritten under the direction of Belasco. Its plot is conventional, though familiar stage figures and time-tried devices are handled in it with considerable breezy dexterity. Polly Shannon, an orphan, the daughter of a poor clergyman of East Gilead, Ohio, desires to study music in Paris. She makes her way as far as New York and there, having no money, she secures employment as cook and waitress in the service of two young bachelors, Harry Richardson and Clay Collum. A friend of theirs, Rex Van Zile, is violently in love with a young woman, Myrtle Davis, whose purpose in life is the reformation of the abandoned waifs of society. Myrtle’s attitude toward Rex is aloof and cool and he despairs of winning her. Harry and Clay, who have heard the story of their pretty little servant and become interested in her, seek her counsel. Polly, premising that though a minister’s daughter she is familiar with French novels, suggests that the best way for Rex to win Myrtle’s love is for him to pretend to become the helplessly fascinated victim of a notorious Parisian adventuress. Finally, after much persuasion, Polly agrees to assume the part of the adventuress and, introduced into the ultra-respectable Van Zile home, she does so with such entire success that not only is Myrtle inspired with jealous interest but that Rex is really charmed by her winning ways and transfers his affections to her. Various complications occur, incident to the attainment of this result—all of them amusing although transparently artificial in contrivance—and as a whole the representation provides an unusually agreeable entertainment.
“Polly with a Past” was first acted at the Apollo Theatre, Atlantic City, on June 11, 1917; and, after a brief fall tour, it was produced at the Belasco Theatre, New York, on September 6, with the following cast:
| Harry Richardson | Cyril Scott. |
| Rex Van Zile | Herbert Yost. |
| Prentice Van Zile | H. Reeves-Smith. |
| Stiles | William Sampson. |
| Clay Collum | George Stewart Christie. |
| A Stranger | Robert Fischer. |
| Commodore “Bob” Barker | Thomas Reynolds. |
| Polly Shannon | Ina Claire. |
| Mrs. Martha Van Zile | Winifred Fraser. |
| Myrtle Davis | Anne Meredith. |
| Mrs. Clementine Davis | Louise Galloway. |
| Parker | Mildred Dean. |
Excellent performances were given in this farce, especially by Cyril Scott,—a neat and skilful actor of pleasant personality, who bears himself with more breezy jauntiness than most men half his age,—H. Reeves-Smith and William Sampson, both experienced and accomplished players of the old school, and by Miss Ina Claire, a talented young actress, who, as Polly Shannon, made her first appearance on the legitimate stage in it. Belasco’s attention was first directed to her during the season of 1915-’16 when, as one of the performers in a vaudeville, she sang a song called “Poor Little Marie-Odile” in which he was severely lampooned. He attended her performance, was favorably impressed by her singing and imitations, and engaged her. Miss Claire is pretty, extraordinarily self-poised, an expert mimic, has a good stage presence, is able to assume effectively a demure manner, and she played Polly with spirit, humor, and at least one touch of feeling.
“TIGER ROSE.”
“Tiger Rose” was written by Willard Mack and then rewritten under Belasco’s direction and with his assistance. It was first produced at the Shubert Theatre, Wilmington, Delaware, on April 30, 1917: on October 3, that year, it was produced at the Lyceum Theatre, New York, where it is still current (June, 1918) and where it bids fair to remain for many weeks. It is a picturesque and effective melodrama, in four acts (the third being presented as practically an undetached continuation of the second), the scene of which is a frontier post in the Canadian Northwest. The action of that play revolves around the love affair of a French-Canadian girl named Rose Bocion. She is an orphan and the ward of Hector MacCollins, a conventionally austere yet kindly Scotchman, a factor of the Hudson Bay Trading Company, in whose dwelling three of the acts take place. The girl, a lovely flower of the forest, is admired and courted by all the youth for many a mile around, including a capable but dissolute Irishman, Constable Michael Devlin, of the Royal North Western Mounted Police. Rose, however, will have none of them,—for she and Bruce Norton, a young civil engineer from a neighboring construction camp, have met by chance and have become lovers. Norton, in the camp where he is employed, unexpectedly encounters and kills a man who, years earlier, had first misled and then deserted his sister, a married woman, who in consequence committed suicide. Norton makes his escape into the wilderness and seeks to communicate with Rose, his only friend, hoping to obtain her help in getting clear of the region. An Indian squaw employed in the factor’s household bears a message and eventually he succeeds in reaching the girl. But information of his crime has been transmitted to MacCollins’ dwelling, by telephone, where it is received by Devlin. That blackguard, who has been made furious by Rose’s bitterly contemptuous repulse of his dishonorable advances and who has surmised the identity of her lover with the fugitive, is vigilantly watchful, hoping to gratify his jealous hatred while in the performance of his duty. During the interview between Norton and Rose she detects the stealthy approach of Devlin, tracking him. After making a tryst with him at a remote
Photograph by Abbe. Collection of Jefferson Winter.