Chicago: with the Chicago tribune articles that inspired it

186 Pages·2016·7.51 MB·English

by  Maurine Watkins

DRAMA
"THIS ONE'S GOT THE MAKIN's: WINE, WOMAN, JAZZ, A LOVER," says Jake Callahan, a
report· ' ·lee, speaking
t. ·- • - - - - '
Staats- und Universitatsbibliothek Bremen (,"
ofhis precisely
1
charac,~,=.::, " , -- ------ ------- _ !she formed
while covering two \als for th~ Chicago Tribune.
Staats- und Uni.-Bibliothek Bremen
;~::~:i:~;~,~::~:~ii'
;,~~:~~~:'.~:~ 1i~1i1i1!1!1i!~1!1l!11!1111111111111111111111111111111111111
sion creates an opportunity for profit, Roxie begins a transformatio~ to rival that of
Pygmalion's statue.
She is the perfect answer fen: Jake, who has been "prayin' for a nice, juicy murde1·."
Roxie's attorney, too, seeks to profit from her plight. "Go out for sympathy through
the press," advises Billy Flynn, who circulates a press release-supposedly written
by his client-fabricating Roxie's journey "from convent to jail." Flynn also encour
ages Roxie to cooperate with Jake's competitor, Mary Sunshine, whose sentimental
reports upstage Roxie's crime in the same way that Watkins's humorous articles did
for the rnurderesses she was covering.
The world that first saw Roxie when Chicago premiered in New York City om 30
December r926 was kept in the dark about the articles that provided its inspiration.
Seventy years later, as our media and the courts still hammer out images for 0. J.
Simpson, Amy Fisher, and the Menendez brothers, these articles and the play help
to remind us that this process has been steaming along for most of this century.
Maurine Watkins was a Chicago Tribune reporter whose play was derived from her
bright, humorous coverage of the murder trials of two women remarkably like Roxie.
Thomas H. Pauly is a professor of English at the University of Delaware and the
author of a critical study of the career of Elia Kazan.
Printed in the United States of America
Cover illustration of Maurine Watkins reprinted by permission. Billy Rose Theatre
Collection; The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; Astor, Lenox,
and Tilden Foundations. . - - --" -·
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY PRESS
P.O. Box 3697 ISBN 0-8093-2129--;:
Carbondale, IL 62902-3697
II I II llll 111111111111111
9 780809 32129,2
G
5
11
D
Introduction copyright © 1997 by the Board of Trustees,
Southern lllinois University
First published 1927 by Alfred A Knopf
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
00 99 98 97 4 3 2 r 2Qt13-Q.3o23
The publisher gratefully acknowledges the cooperation
of the DePaul University Libraries in providing the
text of Chicago that was used for the present edition.
Copyright© 1926, "Chicago" (a/k/ a "Play Ball"), Maurine Dalla:,
Watkins. Copyright© Renewed, 1953, "Chicago" (a/k/ a "Play Ball ),
Maurine Dallas Watkins. For all professional and non-professional
productions, or any other use of the play "Chicago" (a/k/ a
"Play Ball") apply to Sheldon Abend, American Play Company,
Inc., 19 West 44 Street, Suite 1204, New York, New York 10036.
Chicago Tribune articles © Copyrighted Chicago Tribune Company.
All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Frontispiece of Maurine Watkins reprinted by permission.
Billy Rose Theatre Collection; The New York Public Library for
the Performing Arts; Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Watkins, Maurine.
Chicago : with the Chicago tribune articles that inspired it I by
M
aurm. e Wa t 1< m. s ; ec1 ·1 tec I an cl wi. t h an m· tro cl uctio· n b y Th orna· s H· · Pauly.
p. cm.
Reprint of the play Chicago, originally published in 1927, with the
author's newspaper articles of the criminal trials that inspired it.
1. City and town life-Illinois-Chicago-Drama. 2. Criminals
lllinois-Chicago-Drama. I. Pauly, Thomas H. II. Tide.
PS3545.A828C5 1997
8I2.52-dc21
1
97-10047
ISBN 0-8093-2129-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
CIP
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI 239.48-1984. §
CONTENTS
Introduction
vii
Cast List from the Original Production of Chicago
xxxni
Chicago
3
Watkins's Chicago Tribune Articles
Il5

CHICAGO
With the Chicago Tribune Articles
That Inspired It
by Maurine Watkins
Edited and with an
Introduction by
Thomas H. Pauly
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY PRESS
Carbondale and Edwardsville
Introduction copyright © 1997 by the Board of Trustees,
Southern Illinois University
First published 1927 by Alfred A. Knopf
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
00 99 98 97 4 3 2 l 2QJ13·03CJ23
The publisher gratefully acknowledges the cooperation
of the DePaul University Libraries in providing the
text of Chicago that was used for the present edition.
Copyright© 1926, "Chicago" (a/k/ a "Play Ball"), Maurine Dallas
Watkins. Copyright© Renewed, 1953, "Chicago" (a/k/a "Play Ball"),
Maurine Dallas Watkins. For all professional and non-professional
productions, or any other use of the play "Chicago" (a/k/ a
"Play Ball") apply to Sheldon Abend, American Play Company;
Inc., 19 West 44 Street, Suite 1204, New York, New York rooje.
Chicago Tribune articles © Copyrighted Chicago Tribune Company.
All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Frontispiece of Maurine Watkins reprinted by permission.
Billy Rose Theatre Collection; The New York Public Library for
the Performing Arts; Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Watkins, Maurine.
Chicago : with the Chicago tribune articles that inspired it I by
Maurine Watkins ; edited and with an introduction by Thomas H. Pauly.
p. cm.
Reprint of the play Chicago, originally published in 1927, with t~e
author's newspaper articles of the criminal trials that inspired It.
r. City and town life-Illinois-Chicago-Drama. 2. Criminals
Illinois-Chicago-Drama. I. Pauly, Thomas H. II. Title.
PS3545.A828C5 1997
812'.52-dc21 97-10047
ISBN o-8o93-2129-7 (pbk. : alk, paper) CIP
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI 239.48-1984· ®
CONTENTS
Introduction
vii
Cast List from the Original Production of Chicago
xxxiii
Chicago
3
Watkins's Chicago Tribune Articles
n5
INTRODUCTION
Chicago premiered in New York City on December 30, 1926.
The reviews were favorable and the comedy enjoyed a pros
perous run of 172 performances, which was followed by a suc
cessful tour of several other big cities and a well-received movie
version. 1 Its thirty-year-old author, Maurine Watkins, emerged
as the show's star and was much photographed and profiled.
2
This young woman, who had come from the heartland Mid
west and had honed her skills in George Pierce Baker's play
writing class at the newly founded Yale School of Drama, was
the toast of New York for her rollicking indictment of Chicago,
New York City's commercial and cultural rival. However, her
blaze of glory proved only a flash. After several assignments for
~:W York }lewspapers __a nd a disappointing reception of her
next play, Watkins went to work in Hollywood but had little
success. Sometime around 1940, she rejoined her parents in
Florida, there faded into obscurity, and died in 1969.3
Though never forgotten, her comedy has not fared much
better. Published only once in 1927 when Alfred Knopf thought
it important enough to have it launch "The Theatre of Today
a library of plays significant in the development of modern
drama," Chicago has never been republished and has now been
4
~~~er
9utqf print for almost seventy years: In 1942, Brothers
made a seco~d movie of the pby, retitling it Roxie Hart and star
ring Ginger Rogers. This represented an attempt to capitalize
on the success of His Girl Friday (1940), a remake of Front Page
(1928), with Rosalind Russell cast in the lead role of Hildy John-
vii
viii Introduction
son. Though Roxie Hart kept Chicago alive, it reinforced the
long-standing assumption that Front Page was a superior cre
ation and obscured the fact that Chicago was the original and
Front Page the variation.
During the 1950s and 1960s, several Broadway producers be
came interested in converting Chicago into a musical. However,
their plans foundered upon Watkins's reluctance to sell the nec
essary rights. Only after her death in 1969 when her estate fi
nally released the rights were Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon able
to team up with Fred Ebb and John Kraft and proceed with
their musical version that reached Broadway in 1975, almost
twenty years after its original conception.5 Though upstaged
by the opening of Chorus Line the same season, it overcame
mixed reviews and enjoyed a successful run. Consequently,
both the Chicago that occasionally plays at regional theaters and
the recent Broadway hit involve the Fosse musical.
That Maurine Watkins and her comedy should be so for
gotten today is almost amazing in view of all the attention re
cently lavished on the trials of Amy Fisher, the Menendez
brothers, and O.J. Simpson. Watkins's play offers a bracing re
minder that lurid crimes were as aggressively commercialized
seventy years ago as they are today. As we grow uneasily
aware of the hyperbole and hypocrisy in our media's exploita
tion of yet another trial, Chicago demonstrates that similar con
ditions have existed for most of the twentieth century. Even
better, Watkins's comedy ridiculesthese conditions and exp_Q_ses
follyfar ~()~e effectively than the standard complaints about
our media-crazed society. Hef_c-omic depictionofawoman
groping toward liberation and the future foregrounds pressures
women still face, but it is downright uncanny in its anticipation
of today's news-as-entertainment culture.
The play's brief opening scene presents the audience with
the hard truth of the outraged Roxie angrily shooting her lover