Blue Jeans
Blue Jeans (1890), a play by Joseph Arthur. [14th Street Theatre, 176 perf.] When Perry Bascom (Robert Hilliard), a rich young man who is running for Congress in Indiana, marries Sue Eudaly (Judith Berolde), the marriage so infuriates Sue's old suitor, Ben Boone (George Fawcett), that he runs against Bascom and wins. But Sue turns out to be an adventuress and bigamist, so Bascom divorces her and marries June (Jennie Yeamans), a waif from the county poorhouse. Sue, believing that Bascom cannot prove her first marriage, threatens to bring him to trial as a bigamist. She also tells Boone that Bascom is all that stands in the way of their marrying. Boone lures Bascom and June to a sawmill, where he locks June in a small office and, after knocking out Bascom, places him on a belt that is moving toward a huge, spinning buzz saw. June breaks down the door in time to rescue her husband, who later succeeds in finding Sue's other husband. The scene in which the unconscious hero moves ever closer to the whirling saw was the sensation of the play and became one of the most famous and imitated moments in American melodrama. The play remained a popular favorite for several decades.
