BREAKFAST IN BED
1919
Breakfast in Bed is a play in three acts by Georges Feydeau adapted by Willard Mack and Howard Booth from Feydeau’s French play Occupe-toi d’Amelie. It was originally produced by A.H. Woods starring Florence Moore.
A young man is compelled to leave town and turn his fiancée over to the care of his best friend. An uncle of the best friend sends word that he has decided to bestow fortune on the nephew, providing the nephew is a happily married man. To get the fortune, the nephew convinces the girl to pose as his fiancée. She agrees but is surprised by the unexpected return of her true fiancée. Catching them in a compromising situation, the fiancée compels them to marry.
Breakfast in Bed had its world premiere at the Globe Theatre on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City NJ on August 11, 1919.
From the Globe, the play moved to Boston’s Plymouth Theatre where it stayed for 5 months! In December it moved to Poli’s Theatre in Meridan CT.
“To invalids and some other persons breakfast in bed is a great treat. Perhaps it was for this reason that the farce presented at Poli's last evening before a crowded house was so labeled. It might have been called ‘Under the Bed' or 'Over the Footstool' with equal property.” ~ MERIDAN RECORD-JOURNAL
In January 1920 the play started honing in on serving Breakfast on Broadway, with an engagement in Philadelphia at the Adelphi. “The funniest girl in the world” stayed in Philadelphia with “the funniest farce in the world” until the end of January. This was Moore’s hometown, so they took particular pride in her success.
To give the cast a night of rest, the Broadway opening was postponed from Monday to Tuesday. Hopefully, Moore enjoyed breakfast in bed on Monday.
Breakfast in Bed opened on Broadway at Eltinge’s 42nd Street Theatre on February 3, 1920 and played 75 performances. It closed April 25, 1920.
In 1952, the story came back to Broadway at the Ziegfeld for four performances in the original French. Madeleine Renaud played Amelie.
In 1959, Noël Coward adapted the play as Look After Lulu with Tammy Grimes as Lulu (formerly Amelie). Cyril Ritchard directed and Cecil Beaton did the costumes. It played 39 performances at the Henry Miller’s Theatre (now the Stephen Sondheim).
In May 1920, newspapers reported that Moore had signed with Metro to repeat her role on film. The film never happened, but there were several films of the original source material. In 1912 there had been a French silent short, which was followed by an Italian silent film in 1925.
France remade the film in 1932 and 1949 (above). In the mid-60′s, Yugoslavia and Sweden made television movies of the original play.
In the first English-language screen version of the French play, Judi Dench played Amelie on English television in 1973.
In 1983, Italy remade the story with Barbara Bouchet as Amelie. In 1984, Spain did a three episode miniseries of the play with Gloria Rondriguez as Amelie.
Florence Moore returned to Atlantic City in 1927′s Artitsts and Models and 1930′s Meet Lady Clara. On Atlantic City cinema screens, she was seen in 1929′s Apartment Hunting at the Virginia Theatre on the Boardwalk, just a short walk from the Globe, where she had Breakfast in Bed in 1919.
