New-York tribune., 1921-12-08
The New Play
By Percy Hammond
Bought and Paid For" Is
Exhnmed at the Playhouse
and Is Not So Bad, Com
sidering Everything
TIVE CAST

NanbE tStSino Marie NOru4trOm
Josephine ...,s............. .Katya prevon
These aged dramas, summoned by
the desperate theater for resuscitation
in lean and penurious year, seem to
emerge from the shadows in man.
ner nimble and surprising.
You hear the title, "Bought and Paid
For" mentioned in the announce
ments, aud you wonder how so vener-'
able an old gray-beard can limp its
faltering way back to tho footlights
Bought and Paid For' was con-
trived you know, by Mr.. Broadhurst,
in the ancient period of the punch
drama, ten or more seasons ago, when
hot and rebellious liquors were the
vogue, and eminent alcoholic Wall
Street tinanciers purchased, by money
and marriage, the pleasing telephone
girls OF their desire.
1t depicted one of those brokers, as
being worthily enamored of an in
digent lgenue, engaging himself in
matrimony with her, because he loved
her and he wanted home. Not a
mere place in which to live, but home,
with some one to share with him the
enjoyment of his rugs, paintings, tapes
tries, books and vases. Bought and
Paid For" was one of those old things
of the stage in which motor cars were
referred to as "autos" and in which
the hero, after saying to the heroine.
won't you be seated?" proposed mar.
riage to her by inquiring, "Will you
be my wife?" Obsolete, you thought,
and distinguished only by the canker
and the mildsw of the tomb.
But, believe it or not, Bought and
Paid For' manages relatively to come
back. Times and manners may change,
but the drama, save in exceptional
suburban places, retains for a long
time it's angle of repose. There are,
for instance, in Bought and Paid For"
fewer "asides" (if that is what they
used to call them and fewer "solilo-
quies" than there are in at least three
of the modern plays acclaimed and
prosperous hereabouts. Fundamentally,
it renews itself with as much vigor as
a classic or as the front page of news
paper. When Mr.. Charles Richman, as
the financier, comes home, drunk and
Helen MacKellar, and she repulses his
uXorious advances on the grounds, Gf
may be permitted with MI. Broadhurst
to say so,) that his vinous breath is un-
fragrant, you remark to yourself that
it is segment Of life. And when,
seizing costly andiron, he smashes
the portals of her bedchamber in his
endeavor to slake his bestial thirst, you
are confirmed in your vague suspicious
that even the opulent have their
troublous contretemps.
x X X
Mr.. Richman, in the first act, imper-
sonates the Wall Street fnanicer, mel
lowly, after the fashion of an affable
Roman Senator, employing his fault
less voice and frock coat in the forum
and toga manner. He is, however, repre-
sentative when later he counterfeits a
passionate and paving inebriety. Miss
MacKellar, as usual, is vividly sincere in
her denotement of the d ttressed and
handicapped nobility of troubled wom-
anhood, and Mr.. William Harrigan, in
the obese role Of Jimmy Gilley, disre-
CARDS successfully the tricks of the or
iginal actor of the role, Mr.. Frank Cra-
ven, and utilizes new ones all his own
Miss Frances Nordstrom as Jimmy's
bride, is effectively animated and gusty,
but one suspects, her performance
would be better if omitted therefrom
was the wen-like excrescence of her
vaudeville impersonation of comic
supplement shop girl.