THE MARRIAGE MARKET A musical play in 3 acts adapted for the English stage by Gladys Unger from the Hungarian Leányvásár by Max (Miksa) Brody and Franz (Ferenc) Martos : English Lyrics by Arthur Anderson and Adrian Ross : Music by Victor Jacobi Knickerbocker Theatre, Broadway - 22 September, 1913 (80 perfs) Daly's Theatre, London - Opened 17th May, 1913 - ran for 423 performances. STORY The curtain rises on a delightful South Californian scene and the stage is filled with cowboys, who are awaiting the annual sale of ladies by the proprietor of the Palace Hotel and Sheriff of Mendocino Bluff. For years past Bald Faced Sandy has repeated this interesting episode, but this year he has resolved that the aforetime mock marriages shall take place in earnest, and to that end he has engaged the services of Father Pedro from an adjacent mission to tie the connubial knot. By a mere chance Mariposa Gilroy, the San Francisco heiress, and her bosom friend, Kitty Kent, arrive at Mendocino Bluff and, moved by the spirit of fun, determine to set themselves up for auction. Mariposa, however, has no sooner arrived at the Bluff than she attracts the attention of handsome Slippery Jack, whose real name is Jack Fleetwood and who is in reality the son of Mariposa's father's bitterest enemy. Another arrival is Lord Hurlingham, whose wide-awake valet, Blinker, intends that he shall marry the heiress, and to further that end he bribes the Sheriff to allow him to pose as the auctioneer, but his lordship has been captivated by the bright eyes of Kitty Kent, and so it falls out that Mariposa marries Slippery Jack and Lord Hurlingham her winsome companion, who poses for the nonce as her servant. The whole episode is taken in the high spirit of irresponsible fun when along comes the Padre, who assures them they have been united according to the ritual of the Holy Catholic Church and, as the Sheriff subsequently remarks, the only thing that can divide them is the Judge or a stroke of lightning. Although Mariposa willingly handed her rosette to the picturesque cowboy, she considers the marriage has been obtained by a species of fraud and demands that Jack shall not hold her to it against her will, stoutly maintaining that she has no love for him, and Jack, being a gentleman, despite the slippery nom de guerre, parts with her on the understanding that he will claim her as his wife in six months' time. mm-ppIn the next act we are on board the yacht of the 'Frisco senator, and as Mr. Edwardes has set it upon the stage it is a vessel that might be owned by a syndicate of multi-millionaires, so gorgeous are its appointments, and here we find that Slippery Jack has entered himself as an ordinary sailor. Of course, husband and wife meet and need it be said that Mariposa has been yearning in secret fer her handsome cowboy, but when she realizes his immediate proximity she is filled with righteous indignation and declines his connubial advances, until Jack takes her in his arms and makes an eloquent appeal with eyes and lips, when she succumbs and frankly tells her father that she prefers love to dollars. But can the ex-cowboy and present common sailor comport himself as a gentleman? is the query which the senator puts to the lovers! Jack answers the question by going ashore and returning in the most up-to-date suit of evening clothes ever turned out of Saville Row, and with the manners and bearing of a Guardsman. What more could a punctilious American require? In assuming the conventional clothes of the gentleman, Jack also resumes his proper name and then it is that the senator recognises in him the son of his ancient enemy. So once again the course of true love is rudely disturbed, and Jack is given his cards. However all is made right in the third act and the audience may rest content that they live happily ever after. So much for the story of hero and heroine - and unfortunately space forbids that I enter into particulars of Blinker's courting of Emma and Lord Hurlingham's quest of piquant Kitty Kent, to whom he had been
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