The Cradle Snatchers

   Opening on 7 September 1925 at the Music Box, the hilarious comedy by Russell Medcraft and Norma Mitchell, produced by Sam H. Harris, ran for 485 performances and became the basis for the Cole Porter musical Let's Face It (1941). Three wives hire three college boys to carry on flirtations with them and pique their husbands' jealousy. The three wives—played by Mary Boland, Edna May Oliver, and Margaret Dale—got to wear lovely clothes, while Humphrey Bogart's* turn as a Latino youth earned accolades from critics. "Capacity audiences rocked in riotous laughter at the absurdly amusing situations," reported The Jewish Chronicle (Kansas City, 10 December 1926). "Soon people from all parts of the country were flocking to New York to see this flip and roguish comedy."