Bought and Paid For

Bought and Paid For (1911), a play by George Broadhurst. [Playhouse, 431 perf.] Although Virginia Blaine ( Julia Dean), a young telephone operator, is uncertain that she really loves millionaire Robert Stafford ( Charles Richman), she accepts his proposal of marriage. At first the marriage seems everything both could want, but Virginia soon learns that Stafford drinks too much and can be demanding when drunk. When she refuses his drunken caresses and locks herself in her room, he breaks down the door and tells her she cannot refuse him since she has been bought and paid for. Virginia announces she will not live with him until he promises to reform, but Stafford honestly replies there is no point in his making a promise he is not sure he can keep. The couple finally come to realize that they are loving and intelligent enough to work out their problems. Several critics saw a similarity between this work and Eugene Walter's earlier Paid in Full, both of which made working‐class heroines the central figures of problem plays. For many critics the highlight of the William A. Brady production was the performance of Frank Craven as the wiseacre shipping clerk James Gilley, which made him a star.