Chorus Lady, The

Chorus Lady, The (1906), a play by James Forbes [Savoy Theatre, 315 perf.] To help support her family and gain a measure of independence, Patricia O'Brien ( Rose Stahl) has gone into the theatre. When the touring burlesque company in which she is a chorus girl closes, she returns to the Long Island home of her parents, who work for Dan Mallory ( Wilfred Lucas) at his stables. For some time Dan has been courting Pat, although at the moment his financial interests are in trouble and he has taken on a partner, Dick Crawford ( Francis Byrne). Pat reluctantly agrees to help her irresponsible sister, Nora ( Eva Dennison), obtain work in a chorus. Once in New York, however, Nora quickly finds herself in debt. Crawford lends her the money she needs to pay off her debts but also gets her to forge her father's signature on her note and then attempts to blackmail her into having an affair. Pat learns of what has happened and goes to Crawford's apartment to confront him with his treachery. While she is there Dan and Mrs. O'Brien appear. Rather than hurt her sister, Pat makes it appear that she was having an affair with Crawford. Dan is furious until he recognizes the true situation. He buys out Crawford and convinces Pat to leave the theatre to marry him. She agrees, remarking, “Dan, we'll settle down like a couple of Reubens. Us an' the cows.” Originally a magazine story by Forbes that was turned into a vaudeville sketch for Stahl, the act was so successful that Forbes developed it into a full‐length play for her, and Henry B. Harris produced it. Walter Prichard Eaton branded it a “character comedy,” which he saw as “a play in which some one or more vivid and entertaining persons are allowed the run of the stage, making the most of their eccentricities and thus always conditioning the story to immediate theatrical demands.”