#Dorothy Donnelly

[outoftowninac]

POPPY

1923

Poppy is a musical in three acts by Dorothy Donnelly with music by Stephen Jones and Arthur Samuels with musical contributions by John Egan. It was produced by Philip Goodman and staged by Donnelly and Julian Alfred, starring Madge Kennedy as Poppy McGargle and featuring W.C. Fields as her adopted father, Professor McGargle.

The musical introduced songs such as "Two Make a Home", "On Our Honeymoon", "What Do You Do Sunday, Mary?" and "Alibi Baby".

The musical takes place in Greenmeadow, Connecticut in 1874. Professor Eustice McGargle, a juggler and hustler who runs a traveling circus, adopts an orphan, Poppy. He teaches her to be a con artist. When the circus passes through a small town, Poppy meets a wealthy local boy, William. McGargle learns that Princess Vronski Mameluke Pasha Tubbs has a long-lost daughter, and he tries to pass Poppy off as the heiress. In the end she turns out to be the true heir and marries William.

"What a gorgeous day! What effulgent sunshine! Effulgent sunshine, yes. 'Twas a day of this sort, the McGillicuddy brothers murdered their mother with an axe!" ~ W.C. FIELDS as PROFESSOR MCGARGLE

One of W.C. Fields’s first paying jobs as an entertainer was in 1893 when he worked as a juggler at Fortescue’s Pier in Atlantic City. When business was slow, Fields would pretend to be drowning in the ocean and had to be fake rescued. His bosses believed that his near-drowning and dramatic rescue would draw a crowd of customers.

Poppy opened in Atlantic City at Nixon’s Apollo Theatre on August 13, 1923. The week of August 20th, Poppy played a split week in Long Branch and Asbury Park. Just prior to Broadway, it played a week in Newark NJ. 

“Our idea of a way to waste what we consider the most charming farceur on the American stage is to cast Miss Madge Kennedy in musical comedy. "Poppy" by any other name at the Main Street would be Just as soporific, so far as Miss Kennedy is concerned.” ~ ASBURY PARK PRESS

While performing in Poppy, Madge Kennedy was also seen on cinema screens in The Purple Highway. The film was based on a 1921 play, although Kennedy did not star in it on Broadway. 

Poppy opened on Broadway at the Apollo Theatre (223 West 42nd Street) on September 3, 1923. 

About the Venue: Built in 1910 as the Bryant as 42nd Street's first motion picture and vaudeville house. In 1920, the Selwyn brothers rebuilt it as a legit house, the Apollo. From November 1934 to 1937, burlesque was produced, until the Brandt chain took over. By 1938, it was a popular art and foreign movie house. 1979 to 1983 marked a brief return to legit theatre as the ‘New’ Apollo. Later, it held rock concerts. Architectural elements from the building were incorporated into the Ford Center in 1998.

"’Poppy’ is clean and refreshing by comparison with much of the degenerate stuff which nowadays passes for legitimate amusement in our lighter musical shows.” ~ METCALFE, WALL STREET JOURNAL

“Madge Kennedy Is the Babe Ruth of the stage, after a manner of speaking.” ~ JAMES W. DEAN

During Thanksgiving week, Sunday NY Daily News columnist Sally Joy Brown ran a contest for young people to win tickets to see Poppy, including a backstage visit with Madge Kennedy.  

The event was so successful, Brown ran a second contest. 

During the run of the play, Kennedy mentored drama students at Columbia University. They had voted her their favorite actress on Broadway. 

The controversy had caused David Belasco to re-write and re-stage several of his plays to address the NY Attorney General’s concerns. 

At the end of 1923, yet another Madge Kennedy film opened: Three Miles Out.

On May 31st, Kennedy played her final performance as Poppy. The title role was assumed by chorus member Victoria White. 

With Kennedy’s departure, Fields was elevated to star status, billed above the title. Telegrams of congratulation to Mr. Fields were read from the stage of the Apollo theatre by Will Rogers, who abandoned his "Follies" rehearsals across the street to act as master of ceremonies. With characteristically witty comments, Mr. Rogers read congratulatory messages from Fred Stone, Eddie Cantor. Leon Erroll, Harold Lloyd, Al Jolson, Walter Catlett, Oscar Shaw, Raymond Hitchcock, Buster Keaton, Lee Shubert, Jerome Kern, and several others. Mr. Fields was greeted with a storm of applause when he stepped forward to acknowledge the felicitations. 

Poppy ran 346 performances closing on June 28, 1924. The New York run was followed by a touring production. 

In 1924 there was a London production of Poppy at the Gaiety Theatre.

There were two film version, both of which starred Fields as Eustice P. McGargle. The first was Sally of the Sawdust (1925), a silent movie directed by D.W. Griffith and co-starring Carol Dempster as Sally. Griffith had good reason not to use the name or title "Poppy" for this movie. A movie titled Poppy with a character by that name had come out in 1917.

Atlantic City audiences saw Sally on September 7, 1925 at the Strand Theatre on the Boardwalk.  

The second was Poppy (1936), directed by A. Edward Sutherland. Fields was ill during the 1936 production, and a fairly obvious double was used in several scenes requiring physical exertion. 

The film opened in Atlantic City at the Warner Theatre on the Boardwalk on June 21, 1936.  The Warner (later re-named the Warren) was just seven blocks away from Nixon’s Apollo, where the play began in 1923.

"And if we should ever separate, my little plum, I want to give you just one bit of fatherly advice: 'Never give a sucker an even break!'" ~ W.C. FIELDS as PROFESSOR MCGARGLE. 

#Madge Kennedy #W.C. Fields #Atlantic City #Nixon's Apollo Theatre #Apollo Theatre #Broadway Musical #Musical #Dorothy Donnelly #1923 #Sally of the Sawdust #Poppy #Theatre #Stage

[travsd]

Dorothy Donnelly: Mother of Poppy

Our principal reason for celebrating Dorothy Donnelly (1875-1928) may differ from many other folks’, for she was the woman who wrote to book and lyrics to Poppy (1923), the hit Broadway show that made a legit star of W.C. Fields and became the basis of two of his films. But Donnelly had numerous claims to fame. She was the daughter of manager Thomas Lester Donnelly (1832-1880), best known for…

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#actress #Blossom Time #Broadway #Candida #Dorothy Donnelly #librettist #Madame X #playwright #Poppy #star #Student Prince

[magpiefngrl]

2023 Book Review

Photo Credit (original): Ed Robertson

I read 95 books this year. Here's some of what I enjoyed and what I didn't, in genre or arbitrary categories:

Fave SFF books

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (Susanna Clarke)

Spinning Silver (Naomi Novik)

All Systems Red (Martha Wells)

The Library at Mount Char (Scott Hawkins)

Mammoths at the gates (Nghi Vo)

Gideon the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir)

Amberlough (Lara Elena Donnelly)

Fab m/m romances

Seven Summer Nights (Harper Fox)

The Lodestar of Ys (Amy Rae Durreson)

The Scottish Boy (Alex de Campi)

Magician (KL Noone)

Heated Rivalry (Rachel Reid)

Also Role Model and The Long Game (Rachel Reid)

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen (KJ Charles)

The older ones

(recently published books can feel very samey after a while. The irony of these being old books but feeling like a breath of fresh air)

Tam Lin (Pamela Dean) (1991)

Swordspoint (Ellen Kushner) (1987)

Wise Children (Angela Carter) (1991)

Chronicle of a Death Foretold (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) (1981)

(more books under the cut)

Best atmosphere

The Likeness (Tana French)

The fun rereads

Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (MXTX_

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (MXTX)

The King of Attolia (Megan Whalen Turner)

Empress of Salt and Fortune (Nghi Vo)

The Ruin of a Rake (Cat Sebastian)

The unexpected delight

(it's a biography, and I never anticipated feeling so engrossed in one of them)

The invention of Angela Carter (Edmund Gordon)

The one that hurts so good

Checkmate (Dorothy Dunnett)

Didn't quite love the books but adored the characters

The Dreamer Trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater (my typical experience of her stories)

The meh

Bardugo's Nikolai duology

Schwab's Darker Shades of Magic

The dreadful and my only DNF

A Taste of Gold and Iron (Alexandra Rowland)

Most bitterly disappointing

The third installment of Hall's billionaire series How to Belong with a Billionaire.

Biggest book hangover

Seven Summer Nights and Heated Rivalry

Best book boyfriend

ILYA ROZANOV

Most bonkers book

The Library at Mount Char (Scott Hawkins)

The "not sure I liked it but it'll definitely stay with me"

Some Desperate Glory (Emily Tesh)

The writing craft book that actually offered a new insight

The Heroine's Journey (Gail Carriger)

Overall, a decent year. My goal of completing series I'd started in the past and hadn't finished meant I subjected myself to some less enjoyable books, but I also read some excellent romances and fantasy novels, and I really enjoyed reading some older books, a practice I plan to continue.

#books #2023 books #year in review #2023 in review #posted early bc I'm ill and I doubt I'll finish another book before Sunday #i'm prob going to read fic or binge netflix #booklr #reading

[newyorkthegoldenage]

W.C. Fields and an unidentified actress in Poppy, 1923. This was a musical with music by Stephen Jones and Arthur Samuels, book and lyrics by Dorothy Donnelly, additional music by John Egan, and additional songs with lyrics by Howard Dietz and Irving Caesar.

Madge Kennedy had the title role and Luella Gear was also in the cast. Fields played a character named Professor Eustace McGargle. The story, set in 1874 Connecticut, concerns a circus barker and con man, Prof. McGargle, who tries to pass off his foster daughter, Poppy, as a long-lost heiress. It turns out, of course, that Poppy really is an heiress.

It opened on September 3, 1923, and ran for a successful 346 performances, closing on June 28, 1924. It included elements of revue, including specialty numbers. Its success established Fields's comic con man persona and led to film versions, also starring Fields. The first was a silent called Sally of the Sawdust (1925), directed by D.W. Griffith, and the second was Poppy (1936).

Photo: White Studio via NYPL

#vintage New York #1920s #W.C. Fields #Poppy musical #Poppy film #Prof. McGargle #Broadway musicals #vintage Broadway #September 3 #3 September #June 28 #28 June #vintage NYC

[wahwealth]

Ronald Reagan, Joan Leslie, George Murphy | "This is the Army" (1943) HD...

This Is the Army is a 1943 American wartime musical comedy film produced by Jack L. Warner and Hal B. Wallis and directed by Michael Curtiz,[5] adapted from a wartime stage musical with the same name, designed to boost morale in the U.S. during World War II, directed by Ezra Stone. The screenplay by Casey Robinson and Claude Binyon was based on the 1942 Broadway musical written by James McColl and Irving Berlin, with music and lyrics by Berlin. Berlin composed the film's 19 songs, and sang one of them. The movie stars George Murphy, Joan Leslie, George Tobias, Ronald Reagan and Alan Hale, and features a large ensemble cast including Charles Butterworth, Dolores Costello, Una Merkel, Stanley Ridges, Rosemary de Camp, Ruth Donnelly, Dorothy Peterson, Frances Langford, Gertrude Niesen, Kate Smith, and Joe Louis. The cast of both the film, and the stage play on which it was based, included soldiers of the U.S. Army who were actors and performers in civilian life, including Reagan and Louis. In World War I, song-and-dance man Jerry Jones is drafted into the US Army, where he stages a revue called Yip Yip Yaphank. It is a rousing success, but one night during the show orders are received to leave immediately for France: instead of the finale, the troops march up the aisles through the audience, out the theater's main entrance and into a convoy of waiting trucks. Among the teary, last-minute goodbyes Jones kisses his newlywed bride Ethel farewell. In the trenches of France, several of the soldiers in the production are killed or wounded by shrapnel from a German artillery barrage. Jones is wounded in the leg and must walk with a cane, ending his career as a dancer. Nevertheless, he is resolved to find something useful to do, especially now that he is the father of a son. Sgt. McGee and Pvt. Eddie Dibble, the troop bugler, also survive. Twenty-five years later World War II is raging in Europe. Jerry's son Johnny enlists in the Army shortly after Pearl Harbor. He tells his sweetheart Eileen Dibble that they cannot marry until he returns, since he doesn't want to make her a widow. Johnny reluctantly accepts an order to stage another musical, following in his father's footsteps. The show goes on tour throughout the United States and eventually plays Washington, D.C., in front of President Roosevelt. During the show it is announced that this is the last performance: the soldiers in the production have been ordered back to their combat units. Eileen, who has joined the Red Cross auxiliary, appears backstage. During a break in the show she brings a minister and persuades Johnny that they should marry now – which they do, in the alley behind the theater, with their fathers acting as witnesses. Cast: George Murphy Joan Leslie Ronald Reagan George Tobias Alan Hale Never Miss An Upload, Join the channel. https://www.youtube.com/@nrpsmovieclassics

#youtube

[colleenmurphy]

Col has seemed to become slightly smitten with Eric Clapton...oh lord this can only mean there's a new pairing in the works.

John David 'JD' Donnelly

April 7

ARIES SUN / CANCER ASC / PISCES MARS / AQUA MOON / TARUS VENUS

Occupation:

Barman @ The Old Towne Bar -----> T/W/F/SU

Housepainter ----> M/T/TH *occasionally does mural work*

Session Musician ( Guitar & Bass but can play anything by ear )

Parents: Harold 'Harry' Walter Donnelly - a pipe fitter & Dorothy 'Dottie' Jean Donnelly, a homemaker.

Brothers: 3 younger each by six years.

James Donald 'Jimmy Don' - Plumber

William Dean 'Billy Dean' - Stone mason

Harold Walter Jr. 'Junior' - Pipe fitter

#It's In The Way That You Use It #John Donnelly #Yep...Jack's eldest brother #Spotify

[margaretherman148]

Hey, Have you entered Sultry Days And Sultry Nights with Julia Justiss to win Rocking Romance: Win the Complete Donnellys Series from Dorothy F. Shaw! yet? If you refer friends you get more chances to win :) https://wn.nr/gkqtSY3

#4

[mysteriouslytransparentwombat]

Hey, Have you entered Sultry Days And Sultry Nights with Julia Justiss to win Rocking Romance: Win the Complete Donnellys Series from Dorothy F. Shaw! yet? If you refer friends you get more chances to win :) https://wn.nr/Bwn7Vyk

#4

[bealarocks]

Hey, Have you entered Sultry Days And Sultry Nights with Julia Justiss to win Rocking Romance: Win the Complete Donnellys Series from Dorothy F. Shaw! yet? If you refer friends you get more chances to win :) https://wn.nr/v2Zcd4x

#4

[yesterdaysprint]

Irene Fenwick and Dorothy Donnelly in The Song of Songs (1914)

#1910s #irene fenwick #dorothy donnelly #1910s fashion #vintage #history #historic #actress #photos #the song of songs #1914

[letterboxd-loggd]

Ladies They Talk About (1933) William Keighley & Howard Bretherton

December 26th 2021

#ladies they talk about #1933 #william keighley #howard bretherton #barbara stanwyck #preston foster #dorothy burgess #lillian roth #ruth donnelly #maude eburne #women in prison #pre-code

[kwebtv]

The 1974 cast of “The Young and the Restless”.  Back row, left to right: Lee Crawford, Donnelly Rhodes, and Jeanne Cooper. Middle row: James Houghton, William Gray Espy, Trish Stewart, and Jaime Lyn Bauer. Front row: Brenda Dickson, Julianna McCarthy, Robert Colbert, Dorothy Green, and Janice Lynde.

#The Young and the Restless #tv #Lee Crawford #Donnelly Rhodes #Jeanne cooper #James Houghton #William Gray Espy #Trish Stewart #Jaime Lyn Bauer #Brenda Dickson #Julianna McCarthy #Robert colbert #Dorothy Green #Janice Lynde

[vintagesoaparchives]

Daylight TV- January 1976 - The Young and the Restless

#daylight tv #daylight tv january 1976 #the young and the restless #Young and the Restless #steve carlson #janice lynde #beau kayzer #jim houghton #jeanne cooper #dorothy green #donnelly rhodes #brenda dickson #Tom Hallick #trish stewart #susan brown #soap opera news #1970s soap opera #1970s #soap opera #daytime drama

[tvln]

ladies they talk about (us, keighley 33)

#ladies they talk about #william keighley #barbara stanwyck #dorothy burgess #ruth donnelly #John F. Seitz

[garadinervi]

«Burning Deck», No. 1, Edited by James Camp, D. C. Hope, Bernard [Keith] Waldrop, Burning Deck, Ann Arbor, MI, Fall 1962 (pdf here). Contributions by Dallas Wiebe, Robert Creeley, Richard Emil Braun, Martin Lieberman, Theodore Holmes, Anne Stevenson, Edwin Honig, Robert Duncan, Dorothy Donnelly, Bert Meyers, Christopher Middleton, Louis Zukofsky

#graphic design #typography #art #poetry #magazine #cover #magazine cover #back cover #burning deck #james camp #d. c. hope #keith waldrop #dallas wiebe #robert creeley #richard emil braun #martin lieberman #theodore holmes #anne stevenson #edwin honig #robert duncan #dorothy donnelly #bert meyers #christopher middleton #louis zukofsky #1960s

[marimuntanya]

#adrienne rich #poet #poetry #poem #poem a day #2 poems in 1 day! #national poetry month day 27 #april #april 27 #travail et joie #mark of resistance #poetry foundation