Polly with a Past

Polly with a Past (1917), a comedy by George Middleton and Guy Bolton. [ Belasco Theatre, 315 perf.] Rex Van Zile (Herbert Yost) is madly in love with a young lady who is more enamored of doing good deeds than she is of Rex. His friends persuade him to allow himself to go to seed so that the young lady can save him. To this end they enlist the aid of the comely Polly (Ina Claire), a minister's daughter from East Gilead, Ohio, who has come to New York to study for a concert career and who has taken a job as a maid to help pay her expenses. Polly agrees to pose as Paulette Bady, a French adventuress, and to “vamp” Rex. By the time the ruse has been played out, Rex and Polly are in love. David Belasco produced the pleasant comedy that launched Claire on her career as a high comedienne.