Bought and Paid For: A Story of To-Day (First Edition | Photo-Play)

Broadhurst, George (playwright); Arthur Hornblow (author)

Published by G. W. Dillingham Company, New York, 1916

About this Item

FIRST EDITION thus. Black & white frontispiece with four plates with scenes from the play. Full brick red cloth with gilt lettering. Modestly soiled and bottom corners bumped. Internally in very good condition. No previous owner's names, not exlibrary. Overall in GOOD condition. Bought and Paid For (1911), a play by George Broadhurst. Although Virginia Blaine (Julia Dean), a young telephone operator, is uncertain that she really loves millionaire Robert Stafford (Charles Richman), she accepts his proposal of marriage. At first the marriage seems everything both could want, but Virginia soon learns that Stafford drinks too much and can be demanding when drunk. When she refuses his drunken caresses and locks herself in her room, he breaks down the door and tells her she cannot refuse him since she has been bought and paid for. Virginia announces she will not live with him until he promises to reform, but Stafford honestly replies there is no point in his making a promise he is not sure he can keep. The couple finally come to realize that they are loving and intelligent enough to work out their problems. Several critics saw a similarity between this work and Eugene Walter's earlier Paid in Full, both of which made working-class heroines the central figures of problem plays. For many critics the highlight of the William A. Brady production was the performance of Frank Craven as the wiseacre shipping clerk James Gilley, which made him a star. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.

Seller Inventory # 019273

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Bought and Paid For: A Story of To-Day (First Edition | Photo-Play)
• Publisher: G. W. Dillingham Company, New York
• Publication Date: 1916
• Binding: Full Cloth
• Edition: First Edition Thus.
• Condition: Good
• Book Type: Hardcover
• Seller catalogs:
  • First Editions
  • W2W