Miss Lulu Bett is a 1920 novel by American writer Zona Gale

Zona Gale

Zona Gale was an American author and playwright. She became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama, in 1921.-Biography:Gale was born in Portage, Wisconsin, which she often used as a setting in her writing...

, and later adapted for the stage. Gale received the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Pulitzer Prize for Drama

The Pulitzer Prize for Drama was first awarded in 1918.From 1918 to 2006, the Drama Prize was unlike the majority of the other Pulitzer Prizes: during these years, the eligibility period for the drama prize ran from March 2 to March 1, to reflect the Broadway 'season' rather than the calendar year...

 for her work. It was a bestseller at the time of its initial publication, but gradually fell out of favor with changing tastes and social conditions.

Plot summary

The story concerns a woman, Lulu, who lives with her sister's family, essentially acting as a servant. She does not complain about her position, but is not happy. When her brother-in-law's brother, Ninian, comes to visit, there is a certain attraction between them. While joking around one evening they find themselves accidentally married, due to the laws of the state requiring little more than wedding vows to be recited while a magistrate is in the room for a marriage to count as legal. On learning this, Ninian and Lulu decide they actually like the idea of being married, and choose to stick with it. However, within a month, Lulu is back home, having discovered that Ninian was already legally married: 18 years prior he had wed a girl who left him after 2 years, and he had actually forgotten about the whole thing. Lulu considers this a reasonable story, but her brother-in-law, Dwight, insists that it would be a humiliation to the family to reveal such a thing, and insists that she tell everyone instead that Ninian grew bored with her and left her. Lulu is unable to see why this should be a less humiliating story, and begins to complain about her circumstances for the first time. She also notices that her teenage niece, Di, is unhappy, and also seems to be trying to use marriage as a way to escape her circumstance. Lulu eventually has to prevent Di from eloping, and is finally inspired to move out of her sister's home and live on her own.

Two endings were written for the play, the original as seen in December 1920 (and the ending that won Gale the Pulitzer Prize from Drama; the first woman ever to do so) has Lulu starting a life on her own and undertaking adventures of her own as we hear in her final lines, "Good-by. Good-by, all of you. I'm going I don't know where-to work at I don't know what. But I'm going from choice!"

The revised ending is a much less satisfying one, but is more typical and would have been a bit more commercially acceptable and far less challenging to the audiences of the day. In this ending, Ninian shows up in the nick of time just as Lulu decides to go off on her own life to work and live elsewhere. He asks her forgiveness and she agrees saying "I forgave you in Savannah, Georgia."

Adaptations

Gale first adapted the novel for a play that opened on Broadway on December 27, 1920 starring Carroll McComas

Carroll McComas

Carroll McComas was a stage, film and television actress. McComas began acting on the Broadway stage while still in her teens. Her greatest personal stage triumph was Miss Lulu Bett in the 1920-21 season....

. In 1921 the work was adapted for film by Clara Beranger

Clara Beranger

Clara Berenger was an American screenwriter of the silent film era and a member of the original faculty of the USC School of Cinematic Arts.-Biography:...

, directed by William C. de Mille. The silent film

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 stars Lois Wilson, Milton Sills

Milton Sills

Milton Sills was a highly successful American stage and film actor of the early twentieth century....

, Theodore Roberts

Theodore Roberts

Theodore Roberts the actor is not to be confused with author Theodore Goodridge Roberts, 1877–1953, who wrote "The Harbor Master". Please see discussion page....

, Helen Ferguson

Helen Ferguson

Helen Ferguson was an American actress later turned publicist.Born in Decatur, Illinois in 1901, she graduated from Nicholas High School of Chicago and the Academy of Fine Arts. Ferguson was a newspaper reporter before entering the motion picture field.It is thought she made her debut in films in...

, Mabel Van Buren

Mabel Van Buren

Mabel Van Buren was an American stage and screen actress from Chicago, Illinois. She had dark hair, brown eyes, and was five feet three inches tall. She enjoyed riding horses and swimming....

, Ethel Wales

Ethel Wales

Ethel Wales was a Passaic, New Jersey-born American actress, who appeared in 130 films between the years 1920 and 1950. She had one son named Wellington Charles Wales.- Selected filmography :* Miss Lulu Bett * Manslaughter...

 and May Giraci.(*McComas had starred in William DeMille's Jack Straw in 1920)

External links

• Miss Lulu Bett at A Celebration of Women Writers