What Price Glory? (play)

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What Price Glory?
Leyla Georgie[1] in the play
Written byMaxwell Anderson and Laurence Stallings
Date premieredSeptember 3, 1924 (1924-09-03)
Place premieredPlymouth Theatre
Original languageEnglish
GenreDrama
SettingCompany Headquarters in a French Village in the zone of advance, a cellar in a disputed town, and the bar at Cognac Pete's

What Price Glory? is a 1924 comedy-drama written by poet/playwright Maxwell Anderson[2] and journalist/critic/veteran Laurence Stallings. It was Anderson's first commercial success, with a long run on Broadway, starring Louis Wolheim.[3]

The play depicted the rivalry between two U.S. Marine Corps officers fighting in France during World War I.

The play was notable for its profanity, "toot goddam sweet," etc., and for censorship efforts by military and religious groups. These efforts failed when the primary censorship authority, Rear Admiral Charles P. Plunkett, was revealed by columnist Heywood Broun to have written a far more vulgar series of letters to a General Chatelaine.

The play's success[4][5] allowed Anderson to quit teaching and journalism, and start his long and successful career as a professional playwright. It was included in Burns Mantle's The Best Plays of 1924-1925.

The play was filmed in 1926 and 1952.

Further reading[edit]

  • Shivers, Alfred (1983). The Life of Maxwell Anderson. New York: Stein and Day. ISBN 0-8128-2789-9.
  • What Price Glory? at HathiTrust Digital Library

References[edit]

  1. ^
  2. ^ Erickson, Hal (7 August 2012). Military Comedy Films: A Critical Survey and Filmography of Hollywood Releases Since 1918. McFarland. p. 146. ISBN 978-0-7864-6290-2.
  3. ^ "Louis Wolheim". Internet Broadway Database. Archived from the original on February 18, 2014. Retrieved March 30, 2017.
  4. ^ Winslow, Thyra Samter (1924). "The Play of the Month". Motion Picture Classic. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
  5. ^ Hischak, Thomas S. (6 March 2017). 100 Greatest American Plays. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 334. ISBN 978-1-4422-5606-4.

External links[edit]