The Girl with the Whooping Cough

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The Girl with the Whooping Cough
Color poster with three images of a woman posing. Text around the images reads "A.H. Woods presents Valeska Suratt in the swift, smart and saucy play, The Girl with the Whooping Cough, the latest Parisian sensation by Stanislaus Stange".
Poster promoting the play on Broadway
Written byStanislaus Stange
Date premieredApril 25, 1910 (1910-04-25)
Place premieredNew York Theatre
Original languageEnglish
GenreFarce

The Girl with the Whooping Cough is a play written by Stanislaus Stange in 1910. Adapted from a French farce, the show featured dialogue that was condemned as indecent by many contemporary reviewers. The play's appearance on Broadway was suppressed when New York City officials threatened not to renew the operating license of the theater.

Plot

The story follows the misbehaviors of Regina (Valeska Suratt) as she passes whooping cough to the numerous men she kisses. In the final act, her amours land her in divorce court, where she performs a dance routine borrowed from Suratt's vaudeville act.[1][2]

Broadway production and suppression

After early performances in

stenographers to take notes on its content. They reported back that the actors had "interpolated" salacious elements into the performance.[5]

Based on this evidence, Gaynor asked

Abraham L. Erlanger promised to cancel the show, but Woods did not agree. After unsatisfactory meetings with Baker and Gaynor, Woods went to the New York Supreme Court on May 9, 1910, to get an injunction preventing the police from closing down the play. The judge gave Woods the order he requested, but while it prevented the authorities from interfering with the show directly, it did not compel them to renew the license for the theater. Left with no home for his production, Woods was forced to shut it down.[6]

Notwithstanding the objections from Woods, Gaynor's actions garnered a positive response from the press. A column in The New York Times said his actions were guided by "common sense and good taste".[7] When the show headed to other cities, Gaynor threatened to write other mayors to warn them against it.[8]

Reception

The play was "unmercifully damned by the critics", according to theater scholar Gerald Bordman.[1] The Trenton True American described the performances there as "disgustingly vulgar".[3] A brief review of the Broadway opening from The New York Times called it "stupid", although the reviewer found some humor in the performance of supporting player Dallas Welford.[2] Drama critic George Jean Nathan called it "nauseating and ... disgusting in its futile efforts to be risqué".[9]

When the play went on the road after being shut down in New York, the Philadelphia Times declared it "coarse", "vulgar" and not worthy of any "self-respecting person".[5]

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 0-19-503764-2
    .
  2. ^ a b "Whooping Cough Girl Stupid" (PDF). The New York Times. April 26, 1910. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
  3. ^ a b "Mayor Closes N.Y. Theater". Trenton True American. May 11, 1910. p. 1. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
  4. ^ "Police Censor Today's Show". Trenton True American. March 26, 1910. p. 1. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
  5. ^
    ISBN 0-7864-1827-3
    .
  6. ^ "Mayor Cuts Off an Indecent Play" (PDF). The New York Times. May 11, 1910. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
  7. ^ "Topics of the Week: New York's Censor" (PDF). The New York Times. May 14, 1910. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
  8. ^ "Valeska Suratt, Actress Who Has Been Suppressed". The Day. May 12, 1910. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
  9. ^ Nathan, George Jean (May 1910). "The Dramatic Valedictory". The Smart Set. 31 (1): 149.

External links

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