Nichols, Anne

(1891-1966)

   A native of Dales Mills, Georgia, Anne Nichols wrote several plays, but her dramatic reputation is based entirely on one success, Abie's Irish Rose (1922), a sentimental romantic comedy about the marriage of a Jewish boy and an Irish girl in New York's melting pot. Reviled by critics, the play found its audience when Nichols expended her own capital and that of gangster Arnold Rothstein to keep it running. The ploy worked as Abie's Irish Rose became the longest running play of the era, racking up 2,327 performances and spawning numerous tours and stock productions. Nichols also wrote touring plays for manager Augustus Pitou and had a minor success with her libretto for the musical, Linger Longer Letty (1919).