Poppy (1923 musical)
Encyclopedia
Poppy is a musical comedy
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 with music by Stephen Jones and Arthur Samuels, and lyrics and book by Dorothy Donnelly, with contributions also from Howard Dietz
Howard Dietz
Howard Dietz was an American publicist, lyricist, and librettist.-Biography:Dietz was born in New York City and studied journalism at Columbia University...

, W. C. Fields
W. C. Fields
William Claude Dukenfield , better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer...

 and Irving Caesar
Irving Caesar
Irving Caesar was an American lyricist and theater composer who wrote lyrics for "Swanee," "Sometimes I'm Happy," "Crazy Rhythm," and "Tea for Two," one of the most frequently recorded tunes ever written. He was born and died in New York.Caesar, the son of Morris Keiser, a Romanian Jew, was...

. The musical introduced songs such as "Two Make a Home", "On Our Honeymoon", "What Do You Do Sunday, Mary?" and "Alibi Baby".

The original New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 production opened at the Apollo Theater
Apollo Theater
The Apollo Theater in New York City is one of the most famous, and older, music halls in the United States, and the most famous club associated almost exclusively with Black performers...

 on September 3, 1923, and ran for 346 performances. It starred Madge Kennedy
Madge Kennedy
Madge Kennedy was a movie and stage actress of the silent film era....

 and W. C. Fields
W. C. Fields
William Claude Dukenfield , better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer...

, and also featured Robert Woolsey
Robert Woolsey
Robert Woolsey was an American stage and screen comedian and half of the 1930s comedy team Wheeler & Woolsey....

, William Lugg
William Lugg
William Lugg was a British actor and singer of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. He had a long stage career beginning with roles in several Gilbert and Sullivan operas and continuing for over four decades in drama, comedy and musical theatre...

, Alan Edwards and Luella Gear.

The musical formed the basis for two film versions, Sally of the Sawdust
Sally of the Sawdust
Sally of the Sawdust is an American silent comedy film, directed by D. W. Griffith, starring W. C. Fields, and based on the 1923 stage musical Poppy.-Plot:...

(1925), a silent movie directed by D. W. Griffith
D. W. Griffith
David Llewelyn Wark Griffith was a premier pioneering American film director. He is best known as the director of the controversial and groundbreaking 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and the subsequent film Intolerance .Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation made pioneering use of advanced camera...

 and co-starring Carol Dempster
Carol Dempster
Carol Dempster was an American film actress of the silent film era.-Biography:Born in Duluth, Minnesota, Dempster got her start in films as a protégé of legendary film director D.W. Griffith alongside other Griffith actresses of the mid-1910s Lillian and Dorothy Gish and Mae Marsh...

 as Sally; and the 1936 film Poppy directed by A. Edward Sutherland
A. Edward Sutherland
A. Edward Sutherland aka Eddie Sutherland was a film director and actor. Born Albert Edward Sutherland in London, he was from a theatrical family. His father, Al Sutherland, was a theatre manager and producer and his mother, Julie Ring, was a vaudeville performer...

. In both films, Fields revived his blustery carnival-barker character, Eustice P. McGargle. He wore his goofy clip-on mustache for the 1925 production, as he did for most of his silent pictures. Fields was ill during the 1936 production, and a fairly obvious double was used in several scenes requiring physical exertion. He still managed a memorable performance, including these well-known lines spoken to his daughter Poppy (Rochelle Hudson
Rochelle Hudson
Rochelle Hudson was an American film actress from the 1930s through the 1960s. Hudson was a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1931.-Career:...

):
  • "What a gorgeous day... what a fulgent sunshine... fulgent sunshine, yes... 'twas a day of this sort, the McGillicuddy brothers murdered their mother with an axe!"
  • "And if we should ever separate, my little plum, I want to give you just one bit of fatherly advice: Never give a sucker an even break!"

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