The Prince Chap

   Produced at the Madison Square Theatre, Edward Peple's first play, a three-act drama, opened on 4 September 1905 for 106 performances, followed by a lengthy tour and a return engagement in New York in 1907. Sculptor William Payton is given the young child of a deceased model to support. Alice, Payton's fiancée, believing the child, Claudia, to be Payton's, breaks their engagement and marries another man. When Claudia grows to maturity (different actresses played the successively older Claudia in each act), Alice, now a widow, learns that Payton told her the truth and she hopes to rekindle their relationship. Payton, however, has fallen in love with the adult Claudia. The cast included Cecil B. DeMille, although he did not direct either of the two motion picture versions in 1914 and 1920, the last directed by his brother, William C. deMille. The Prince Chap had a short-lived revival in 1907.