The Dollar Princess is a musical in three acts by A.M. Willner and Fritz Grünbaum

Fritz Grünbaum

Fritz Grünbaum was an Austrian Jewish cabaret artist, operetta and pop song writer, director, actor and master of ceremonies....

 (after a comedy by Gatti-Trotha), adapted into English by Basil Hood

Basil Hood

Basil Willett Charles Hood was a British librettist and lyricist, perhaps best known for writing the libretti of half a dozen Savoy Operas and for his English adaptations of operettas, including The Merry Widow. He embarked on a career in the British army, writing theatrical pieces in his spare...

 (from the 1907 Die Dollarprinzessin

Die Dollarprinzessin

Die Dollarprinzessin is an operetta by Leo Fall. The German libretto was by Alfred Maria Willner and Fritz Grünbaum.-Performance history:...

), with music by Leo Fall

Leo Fall

Leo Fall was an Austrian composer of operettas.-Life:Born in Olmütz , Leo Fall was taught by his father Moritz Fall , a bandmaster and composer, who settled in Berlin. The younger Fall studied at the Vienna Conservatory before rejoining his father in Berlin...

 and lyrics by Adrian Ross

Adrian Ross

For the NFL player see Adrian Ross Arthur Reed Ropes , better known under the pseudonym Adrian Ross, was a prolific writer of lyrics, contributing songs to more than sixty British musical comedies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...

. It opened in London at Daly's Theatre

Daly's Theatre

Daly's Theatre was a theatre in the City of Westminster. It was located at 2 Cranbourn Street, just off Leicester Square. It opened on 27 June 1893, and was demolished in 1937.-Early years:...

 on 25 September 1909, running for 428 performances. The London production starred Lily Elsie

Lily Elsie

Lily Elsie was a popular English actress and singer during the Edwardian era, best known for her starring role in the hit London premiere of Franz Lehár's operetta The Merry Widow....

, Joseph Coyne

Joseph Coyne

Joseph Coyne , sometimes billed as Joe Coyne, was an American-born singer and actor, known for his appearances in leading roles in Edwardian musical comedy in London.-Life and career:...

, W. H. Berry

W. H. Berry

William Henry Berry , always billed as W. H. Berry, was an English comic actor. After learning his craft in pierrot and concert entertainments, he was spotted by the actor-manager George Grossmith Jr., and appeared in a series of musical comedies in comic character roles. His greatest success was...

 and Gabrielle Ray

Gabrielle Ray

Gabrielle Ray , was an English stage actress, dancer and singer, best known for her roles in Edwardian musical comedies....

. The young Gladys Cooper

Gladys Cooper

Dame Gladys Constance Cooper, DBE was an English actress whose career spanned seven decades on stage, in films and on television....

 played a small role.

It also had a very successful run on Broadway, with a new book and lyrics by George Grossmith, Jr.

George Grossmith, Jr.

George Grossmith, Jr. was a British actor, theatre producer and manager, director, playwright and songwriter, best remembered for his work in and with Edwardian musical comedies...

 and additional numbers by Jerome Kern

Jerome Kern

Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...

, opening on 6 September 1909 and running for 288 performances. Valli Valli

Valli Valli

Valli Valli, born Valli Knust , was a musical comedy actress and silent film performer born in Berlin, Germany. She was descended from an old English family and lived most of her life in England. Her brother was a captain in the Royal Fusiliers, who fought for the British in France in World War I...

, Adrienne Augarde and Louie Pounds

Louie Pounds

Louisa Emma Amelia "Louie" Pounds was an English singer and actress, known for her performances in musical comedies and in mezzo-soprano roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company....

 starred in the New York production.

In late Victorian and Edwardian Britain, "Dollar Princess" was the nickname given to American heiresses. Playgoer and Society Illustrated wrote, "To the average playgoer there is something very attractive in watching the antics of the vulgar when surrounded by the refinement of art which he can neither understand nor appreciate.... Miss Lily Elsie, as Alice, shows even an improvement on her performance in The Merry Widow. The inimitable Mr. Joseph Coyne has put a lot more into his part than was possible on the first night.... He is great! His American accent is a thing to listen to...."

Roles and London cast list

• Freddy Fairfax – Robert Michaelis
• Harry Q. Conder (a multi-millionaire) – Joseph Coyne
  Joseph Coyne
  Joseph Coyne , sometimes billed as Joe Coyne, was an American-born singer and actor, known for his appearances in leading roles in Edwardian musical comedy in London.-Life and career:...
  
  
• Mr. Bulger (confidential clerk to Conder) – W. H. Berry
  W. H. Berry
  William Henry Berry , always billed as W. H. Berry, was an English comic actor. After learning his craft in pierrot and concert entertainments, he was spotted by the actor-manager George Grossmith Jr., and appeared in a series of musical comedies in comic character roles. His greatest success was...
  
  
• Dick (cousin to Conder) – Evelyn Beerbohm
• John, Earl Of Quorn (groom to Conder) – Basil S. Foster
• Sir James Mcgregor (footman to Conder) – Willie Warde
  Willie Warde
  Willie Warde was an English actor, dancer, singer and choreographer. The son of a dancer, his first theatre work was with a dance company. He was engaged to arrange dances for London productions and was later cast as a comic actor in musical theatre...
  
  
• Duke Of Stonehenge (butler to Conder) – F. J. Blackman
• Vicomte De Brésac (chef to Conder) – Garnet Wilson
• Lieut. Grant (U.S.A.) – Harold Deacon
• Olga (a lion queen) – Emmy Wehlen
  Emmy Wehlen
  Emmy Wehlen was a German-born Edwardian musical comedy and silent film actress who vanished from the public eye while in her early thirties.-Biography:...
  
  
• Daisy (Dick's sister) – Gabrielle Ray
  Gabrielle Ray
  Gabrielle Ray , was an English stage actress, dancer and singer, best known for her roles in Edwardian musical comedies....
  
  
• Dulcie Du Cros (a Californian girl) – May Kinder
• Sadie Von Tromp (her friend) – Gladys Cooper
  Gladys Cooper
  Dame Gladys Constance Cooper, DBE was an English actress whose career spanned seven decades on stage, in films and on television....
  
  
• Lady Augusta – Phyllis Le Grand
• Lady Dorothy – May Hobson
• Lady Gwendoline – Gertrude Glyn
• Lady Margaret – Marion Lindsay
• Hon. Editha Dalrymple – Dolly Dombey
• Alice (Conder's sister) – Lily Elsie
  Lily Elsie
  Lily Elsie was a popular English actress and singer during the Edwardian era, best known for her starring role in the hit London premiere of Franz Lehár's operetta The Merry Widow....
  
  

Synopsis

English version:
A young American oil tycoon, when recruiting domestic staff, takes on a succession of impoverished members of the European aristocracy. But the servants he selects are all very well connected. "Tho' we came here in the steerage, all are members of the peerage

Peerage

The Peerage is a legal system of largely hereditary titles in the United Kingdom, which constitute the ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system...

." His sister, who has money, later follows the course of true love and takes a job in another household pretending to be impoverished.

American version:
Three plot lines take place concurrently: First, an American girl, the daughter of the President of the Coal Trust (the Dollar Princess), falls in love with a young Englishman and tries to win his heart. Meanwhile, the millionaire father has an affair with a supposed Countess, who turns out to be a lion tamer. Also, his niece, Daisy, marries a young Marquis

Marquis

Marquis is a French and Scottish title of nobility. The English equivalent is Marquess, while in German, it is Markgraf.It may also refer to:Persons:...

, but she refuses to be anything but his friend.

Musical numbers

Act I - Conder's House in New York.

• No. 1 - Chorus - "We're the household of the great Mister Harry Conder, drawn from ev'ry ancient state over the ocean yonder!"
• No. 1a - Alice - "A self-made Yankee maiden, she isn't greatly drawn to castles mortgage-laden, and coronets in pawn!"
• No. 2 - Daisy and Quorn - "I'm very sorry if you've thought I do not serve you as I might! ... Oh, no! Not that, but still you might be more attentive"
• No. 3 - Freddy - "A little maiden by the way, so simple, sweet and fair, is not the love for whom I pray, you meet her ev'ry where!"
• No. 4 - Alice and Freddy - "The people round that I am paying must be good-looking, that's my whim! It's what papa is always saying"
• No. 5 - Olga, Conder, Dick and Bulger - "Myself the Countess I'll introduce: Olga Alaska Tabasco Kachewska! ... Can you repeat it, please?"
• No. 6 - Finale Act I - "And now assemble all my household here! Let ev'rybody instantly appear! Before in feast we give our joy expansion, I'll introduce"

Act II - Garden Court, Conder's House.

• No. 7 - Chorus - "In afternoon of sunny June across the lawn the net is drawn. You take your racquet and your ball, and men and maidens say: Love all!"
• No. 8 - Conder and Girls - "Mister, Mister Conder, whither will you wander? You are like a child again! Why are you so very juvenile and merry?"
• No. 9 - Alice and Freddy - "A secretary such as you is nothing to his betters; and he can write, is that not true? Their most intimate letters!"
• No. 10 - Daisy and Sir James - "I may be going rather soon on an extensive honeymoon, so I suppose I must buy clothes ... Ladies at times wear those"
• No. 11 - Bulger - "Some women may have loved me for my face - I do not know. And some for that 'Je ne sais quoi' I call my 'Touch and go'"
• No. 12 - Alice and Conder - "Many a time, my brother, we have laughed and cried. We both were very naughty, then we used to run and hide!"
• No. 13 - Olga and Conder - "Ah! Ah! I'm Queen of men, Parisienne, la fine fleur de Paris. Ah! Ah! Tout de même, je vous aime! Do you care for me?"
• No. 14 - Alice, Daisy, Quorn and Freddy - "Who are the girls that glitter and glance, full in the sun of joy? Life is to them like a marvellous dance"
• No. 15 - Finale Act II - "We're delighted here invited to attend these gorgeous fêtes! Quite surprising, and out classing those of European states"

Act III - Freddy's Bungalow in California.

• No. 15a - Entr'Acte
• No. 16 - Opening of Act III
• No. 17 - Daisy and Bulger - "We are a couple of happy tramps, low on scamps, happy tramps; everywhere we will pitch our camps"
• No. 18 - Daisy and Quorn - "Please my lord and master, you'll be true to me? ... Yes, my little darling, I will be. Shall we find when married"
• No. 19 - "Hip, hip, hurrah! ... So ring the merry wedding bells to hail this day! ... Hip, hip, hurrah! ... For we're the most tremendous swells in U. S. A!"
• No. 20 - Alice and Freddy - "Then you go? ... And you stay! ... What must I do? ... You act for me when I'm away, just as I used to do for you!"

External links

• Information about an exhibition on "Dollar Princesses" in Bath, England
• http://library.kent.ac.uk/library/special/icons/playbills/playdat1.htmThe Play Pictorial
  The Play Pictorial
  The Play Pictorial was an English theatrical magazine which was published in London between 1902 and 1939. It concentrated on providing a pictorial record of West End theatrical productions, each issue being devoted to a single show, with descriptions of the plot, the costumes and the sets, and...
  
  information, includes the London opening cast list]
• Numerous photos from the original production of The Dollar Princess
• Information from IBDB about the New York production
• The Dollar Princess. Links to midi files