A Tailor-Made Man
Helen MacKellar and Grant Mitchell in a scene
Written byHarry James Smith
Date premieredAugust 27, 1917
Place premieredCohan and Harris Theatre
Setting1916, New York City
Mitchell, Mona Kingsley, and Minna Gale Haynes in scene from play

A Tailor-Made Man is a 1917 American play by Harry James Smith, which ran for 398 performances at the Cohan and Harris Theatre. It debuted on August 27, 1917, and played through August 1918.[1][2]

The play was adapted from the 1908 Hungarian play A Szerencse Fia ("Son of Luck") by Gábor Drégely. The Playbill and press referred to Dregely's play as The Well-Fitting Dress Coat, which derives from the play's German title (Der gutsitzende Frack), so presumably Smith worked from that translation.

Grant Mitchell starred in the 1917 Broadway production, which was staged by Sam Forrest, and in an October 1929 revival. The play ran for just shy of an entire year at the Cohan and Harris Theatre in New York. The play was Smith's greatest success, but he did not live to see the full run, as he died in a train and automobile accident in March 1918 while working for the Red Cross.[3][4][5][6]

The play later led to a 1922 silent film and 1931 film.

Original Broadway cast

(In order of appearance)

References

  1. ^ Bordman, Gerald & Thomas S. Hischak. The Oxford Companion to American Theatre, p. 604 (3d ed. 2004)
  2. ^ "A Tailor-Made Man" - The New Comedy of a Dress-Suit Napoleon, Current Opinion, pp. 311-14 (November 1917)
  3. ^ Tompkins, Juliet Wilbor, introduction to Letters of Harry James Smith, p. ix (1919)
  4. ^ Fisher, James & Felicia Hardison Londre. The A to Z of American Theater: Modernism, p. 465 (2008)
  5. ^ Bordman, Gerald. American Theatre: A Chronicle of Comedy and Drama 1914-1930, pp. 65-66 (1995)
  6. ^ A Tailor-made Man, Green Book Magazine, pp. 779-80 (November 1917)

External links

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