Sunday, December 17, 2017


When What Price Glory opened at Broadway’s Plymouth Theatre on September 3, 1924, it did not have a question mark as part of its title. At some point during the 1920s the question mark was added to the title. What Price Glory was written by two newspaper men, Laurence Stallings (1894-1964) and Maxwell Anderson (1888-1959). In 1923 when they met, both men were working for the New York World.
Laurence Stallings
Maxwell Anderson
Prior to the United States joining the allies in World War One, Stallings enlisted in the United States Marines. He earned the rank of Captain during the war while fighting in France and soon after received a wound that resulted in having a leg amputated.  During their lunches together, Stallings told Anderson about his friend, Captain Philip Townsend Case, and their exploits. One day Anderson suggested that they write a play based on some of Stallings war stories.  Stallings was busy with another project so he told Anderson to write the play.

Anderson wrote the play in the evenings. Since Anderson wanted one scene to take place at the front, he asked Stallings to write the dialogue so it would be realistic. Once the play was completed Stallings quickly found a producer, Arthur Hopkins (1878-1950).

Although 1924 was not considered to be a particularly good year to present a war play on the Broadway stage, What Price Glory became the sensation of the New York season and it played for 435 performances before touring to other American cities.

Act One, Scene 1 of this three-act drama is set in a room in a French farmhouse—now a U.S. marine company headquarters. Captain Flagg is in charge of this unit and he is about to go on an eight day leave to Paris. Sergeant Quirt arrives to take over this company while Flagg is on leave. Flagg is Quirt’s enemy from an earlier time and Flagg is the reason Quirt was never promoted to the rank of Captain. Both men are not recent recruits, but seasoned Marines.  Charmaine is a local young woman who is Flagg’s current fling. It quickly becomes apparent that Quirt will get even with Flagg by having an affair with Charmaine while the Captain is on leave.

Act One. Scene 2 is set in the same location, but it is late afternoon and eight days later. Flagg is scheduled to return to base and Charmaine.  Meanwhile she has taken-up with Quirt while the Captain is away.  When Flagg returns, he is presented with a way to gain his revenge by requiring Quirt to marry Charmaine.  Suddenly the marines are ordered to the front and there is no time for the wedding to take place.

Act Two is set in a deep wine cellar of a prosperous farmhouse in a French town under siege. This is Flagg’s new headquarters for his unit. This squadron of marines is participating in one of the toughest battles of World War One. It is a scene that illustrates the realities of war in a realistic manner without glory and heroics.

Act Three is back in the village where the first act was located. The setting is the tavern owned by Charmaine’s father, Cognac Pete. Quirt, who had been wounded, escaped from the hospital and he arrives at the tavern before his unit returns.  Flagg arrives at the tavern and he is about to out-maneuver Quirt, but once again, his unit is summoned back to the front.
Captain Flagg and Sergeant Quirt
The critics were positive about this landmark drama. Burns Mantle (1873-1948) wrote in the first edition of the Treasury of the Theatre: “One of the famous first nights in the theatre going history of New York is that on which What Price Glory was introduced to a slightly startled audience. For the first time in theatre history a war play was presented with something resembling literal realism, and spoken with more regard for a reasonable verisimilitude than for the sensibilities of convention-protected auditors.” 
John Gassner (1903-1967) wrote in his introduction to the play that the authors accomplished creating “a picture of war which provides its deepest commentary not in any argument but in the matter-of-fact description of how soldiers live and think ‘on the spot.’” Stalling and Anderson did this by deglamorizing war. Their characters participate in non-heroic, but believable actions interwoven with profanity, womanizing, excessive drinking, blasting honor and showing their disillusionment with the idea of military glory. However, this play leaves intact the Marine’s loyalty to duty. What Price Glory was obviously like no other play seen previously on the American stage.

There is an “Author’s Note” that follows the list of characters in the script, but precedes Act I. Scene 1. The last sentence of this two paragraph statement implores the audience “to bear with certain expletives which, under other circumstances, might be used for melodramatic effect, but herein are employed because the mood and truth of the play demand their employment.”

The production of this play was carefully handled by Arthur Hopkins, who guided the production in every way as producer and director. He cast handsome William Boyd as Sergeant Quirt and rough looking Louis Wolheim (1880-1931) as Captain Flagg.

He also refused to allow the sale of film rights until he believed the production had run its course on stages throughout the United States.  The first film was made in 1926 and was released in New York on November 23, 1926.  It was directed by Raoul Walsh (1887-1980) and starred Edmund Lowe (1880-1971) as Quirt, Victor McLaglen (1886-1959) as Flagg and Dolores del Rio (1904-1983) as Charmaine de la Cognac. She was the first female Latin American artist to star in Hollywood. This was a silent film, but the Akron Beacon Journal reported on 12/4/1926 how the “brutal frankness of its talk” was handled. “The problem was solved by keeping the actual sub-titles in What Price Glory? spotlessly clean.  But the expressions of the shadowy characters as they talk on screen indicate that their speech is not what you might call ‘mild’.”

What Price Glory? is a must read if you are searching for the great American World War One play.

1. There were three actors named William Boyd at the time What Price Glory was cast.
    The William Boyd who play Sergeant Quirt played a total of ten roles on Broadway
    between 1912 and 1928.  He was not William H. Boyd (1859-1935) who died in
   1935 and was confused with the actor who actually played the role. He was not 
   William L. Boyd (1898-1972) who became famous playing Hopalong Cassidy
    —the fictional cowboy hero.

2. The 1952 film titled What Price Glory does not utilize much of the dialogue written
    by Stallings and Anderson. It uses a bit of the plot between Flagg, Quirt and
    Charmaine, but it creates a significant secondary romance with new characters.

3. Photo of Laurence Stallings from Memoires de Guerre:

    Photo of Maxwell Anderson from The Life of Maxwell Anderson by Alfred S. Shivers.
    Publisher Stein and Day from 1983.

    Photo of Captain Flagg and Sergeant Quirt from The Morning News (Wilmington, Delaware) -
    Nov 12, 1925 - Page 8

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