Earl of Pawtucket, The

Earl of Pawtucket, The (1903), a comedy by Augustus Thomas. [Madison Square Theatre, 191 perf.] To escape a summons from the House of Lords and to see how well he can survive without his title, Lord Cardington ( Lawrence D'Orsay) sails to America and adopts the name of an old American friend, Putnam, who lives in England. Once landed, he falls in love with Harriet Fordyce, unaware that she was once Mrs. Putnam. The Lord's mysterious disappearance leads to the belief that the real Putnam, with whom he was last seen publicly, may have murdered him. So the fake Putnam finds himself pursued by the police as well as by lawyers seeking alimony payments due from his namesake. Written as a vehicle for D'Orsay, the play was rejected by Charles Frohman on the grounds that the actor could not sustain so large a role. He was proved wrong when Kirke La Shelle produced the comedy and it became a huge success.