The Gold Diggers

   Avery Hopwoods three-act comedy of backstage life, produced by David Belasco, opened on 30 September 1919 for 720 performances at the Lyceum Theatre. A template for numerous similar comedies and a string of popular 1930s musical motion pictures beginning with Golddiggers of 1933 (which borrowed many elements of this play's plot), The Gold Diggers depicted the machinations of a staid rich man, Stephen Lee, who attempts to stop his nephew from marrying a chorus girl. Lee turns to a chorus girl he has known, Jerry Lamar (played by Ina Claire), to break up the engagement. Jerry attempts to convince Lee that all chorus girls are not seeking rich husbands, but several of her friends, played by Jobyna Howland, Lilyan Tashman, Luella Gear, and Gladys Feldman, seem to refute her argument. Offended by Lee's pompous assertion that he could never be tricked into marriage to a chorus girl, Jerry gets him drunk and, under the influence, he proposes to her. When he sobers up, she confesses her trickery because she truly loves Lee, who feels the same way and forgives her ruse. A television* adaptation as late as 1952 testified to the story's durability.