Miss Lulu Bett (play)

Miss Lulu Bett is a 1920 play adapted by American author Zona Gale from her novel of the same title.

Miss Lulu Bett premiered on Broadway at the Belmont Theatre on December 27, 1920 and closed on June 18, 1921 after 198 performances. Directed by Brock Pemberton, the cast featured Carroll McComas as Lulu Bett, Louise Closser Hale (Mrs. Bett), William E. Holden (Dwight Herbert Deacon), and Willard Robertson (Neil Cornish).

The play won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

In the Foreword to the script, Robert C. Benchley wrote: "Miss Gale has violated many sacred dramatic rules. She has given us characters who talk as people really talk and who therefore are dull... The result of such adherence to uninspiring reality might well have been expected to be a failure in its appeal to an uninspiring nation of theater-goers. But Miss Gale took the chance. She wrote the play, as she had written the book, without compromise, and was rewarded by an enthusiastic public."

Source:

The play and novel were the basis of the film of the same name, released in 1921Directed by William C. de Mille, the cast featured Lois Wilson (Lulu Bett), Milton Sills (Neil Cornish), Theodore “Daddy” Roberts (Dwight Deacon), Helen Ferguson (Diana Deacon), and Ethel Wales (Grandma Bett).

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