Show Shop, The (1914), a play by James
Forbes. [Hudson Theatre, 156 perf.] Max Rosenbaum ( George Sidney), a shoestring but eternally optimistic Broadway producer, learns that his leading lady and leading man have walked out on him on the eve of the dress rehearsal for his new play. He hastily signs Bettina Dean ( Patricia
Collinge) as his leading lady, even though his sour‐tongued director Wilbur Tompkins ( Ned A. Sparks) warns him that Bettina's notorious mother ( Zelda Sears) will always be on hand. Jerome Belden ( Douglas
Fairbanks), a handsome young man‐about‐town, loves Bettina, but Mrs. Dean, recalling that marriage destroyed her chance to become a star, will not hear of it for her daughter. To be with Bettina, Jerry offers to underwrite the play and assume the role of leading man. The play is so bad it folds out of town, but Mrs. Dean insists that there will be no marriage until her daughter becomes a star on Broadway. Jerry then pays Rosenbaum $5,000 to produce another play, with the stipulation that it must flop but also that it must play at least one night in New York with Bettina as star. To make certain it fails Rosenbaum again casts Jerry as his leading man. The play is called
A Drop of Poison, but Mrs. Dean orders it renamed
Dora's Dilemma after Bettina's role. Although Jerry's performance is as bad as the play, the critics love it. Taking the bull by the horns, however, Bettina and Jerry announce they are leaving the show and marrying. Since Mrs. Dean has realized her wish, a compromise is reached that allows the youngsters to marry but to stay with the play for its run. Called by Walter Prichard
Eaton “the most pungent, amusing, and yet the most kindly satire of stage life and the shams of theatrical production, yet written by an American,” this neglected gem is a superbly written comedy, rich in backstage lore and especially in its marvelous portrait of the classic stage mother.