Clarence (1919), a comedy by Booth Tarkington. [ Hudson Theatre, 300 perf.] Clarence (Alfred Lunt) is a timid, seemingly bumbling ex‐soldier who had been wounded in the war (but during target practice). He is taken in by the Wheelers, a family in desperate disarray. The harried father (John Flood) is almost at his wit's end trying to control his flighty, suspicious wife (Mary Boland), his wild daughter Cora (Helen Hayes), and his ne'er‐do‐well son Bobby (Glenn Hunter). Clarence succeeds in bringing order out of chaos and wins the hand of the daughter's governess (Elsie Mackay). Only as he is leaving does the family learn he is one of the world's greatest authorities on coleoptera—bugs. Heywood Broun wrote in the Tribune, “Clarence is the best light comedy which has been written by an American.” The George C. Tyler production, which deftly caught the optimism and excitement that was to characterize the 1920s, rocketed Lunt into prominence and caused Helen Hayes to be typecast as a flapper for several seasons.




