Little-theater producer Galt Bell mounted a revival of
The Drunkard at the Theatre Mart in
Los Angeles. The show opened on July 6, 1933, and was an immediate success. Bell presented
The Drunkard as an audience-participation show, with the audience supplied with free sandwiches and beer—themselves an attraction during the
Depression—and urged to hiss the villain and cheer the hero. Bell's festive approach ensured steady audiences and repeat customers. "Tuesday evening we witnessed the 439th performance of
The Drunkard at the Theatre Mart. What a record, and what a show!", enthused the trade publisher Harry Burns. Mildred Ilse of the production team (who later took over from Galt Bell as producer) noted that the audience was reluctant to go home after the curtain rang down, so musical and vaudeville acts were added as an
olio to conclude each evening. "
Jan Duggan's song 'Gathering Up the Shells from the Seashore' is still one of the highlights of the olio which follows the performance of
The Drunkard," reported the
Los Angeles Times. "It is one of Hollywood's favorite tunes." The play became a popular venue for movie people. "When a customer has made five visits to
The Drunkard he receives a gold star.
Lyle Talbot,
W. C. Fields,
John Barrymore,
Mae West,
Lewis Stone, and
Gloria Swanson are proud owners of the stars," reported
Picture Play. Jan Duggan said in the same report, "If our audience doesn't hiss and shout and pound tables with its beer mugs, our performance inevitably begins to sag. Our best audiences are picture or stage people.
Claudette Colbert came for the first time the other evening. The entire cast concentrated on her, trying to make her laugh. When she did, our evening was a success!" W. C. Fields loved the show and wanted to make a film version. He arranged for
Paramount Pictures to hire members of the Los Angeles stage company: Jan Duggan, Ruth Marion, Samuel Ethridge, Larry Grenier, and William Blatchford. The villain of
The Drunkard, actor Henry Kleinbach, was also signed; Fields kept Kleinbach on hand during the filming. Fields would be appearing in the
Drunkard part of the film, but hadn't decided which role he would take. Fields finally took Kleinbach's role of Squire Cribbs in the film version,
The Old Fashioned Way (1934). Fields especially enjoyed working with Jan Duggan as a comedy foil; her "Seashore" song was featured in
The Old Fashioned Way and she appeared in five of his films, as well as dozens of other features and shorts. Henry Kleinbach enjoyed a long career as a movie character actor (as
Henry Brandon), as did Samuel Ethridge (as
Sam Flint). The advance buzz surrounding the production of
The Old Fashioned Way prompted a revival of the original play in New York. It ran for 277 performances at the American Music Hall, through November 1934. In 1935,
James Murray and
Clara Kimball Young starred in a low-budget feature,
The Drunkard; the play is presented as part of the film's plot, in which two theatrical producers cast their needy relatives in the show. Murray's casting in
The Drunkard was ironic, because his promising screen career as a leading man had plummeted with his own addiction to alcohol. The film was produced by
Louis Weiss's Stage and Screen Productions. According to archivist Kit Parker, who now owns the Weiss library, Weiss intended to offer the feature as a
roadshow attraction, with the actors making personal appearances in theaters across America. The ambitious plan was foiled by economics and logistics, and the film went out through ordinary, independent distribution channels. The feature film exists in condensed form, as a two-reel segment in
Joseph E. Levine's nostalgic anthology feature
Gaslight Follies (1945); the full-length version of
The Drunkard is no longer available because Weiss sold it outright to Levine, so it is no longer in the Weiss library. In 1940
Alan Mowbray,
Richard Cromwell,
Anita Louise, and
Buster Keaton starred in another film parody,
The Villain Still Pursued Her, with
Billy Gilbert in a spoken prologue, urging the movie audience to hiss the villain and cheer the hero in the tradition of the stage revival. Meanwhile
The Drunkard continued its long and prosperous stage presentation. As of 1945 "
Drunkard still has the original producer and four members of the original cast, including Jan Duggan", wrote Frank Scully in
Variety. "Practically everybody who is anybody (and in Hollywood, who isn't?) has seen the show. Efforts to put on versions of
The Drunkard elsewhere have met only with mild success. But
The Drunkard still enjoys the longest run in America." In 1953 the show had been running for 20 years and 7,572 performances, when producer Mildred Ilse reformatted it as a musical with the title changed to
The Wayward Way ("without missing a performance", commented
Variety). The new musical treatment was a refreshing change: "It is an innovation that will catch on with the tourist trade," wrote syndicated columnist Hubbard Keavy. "About half of the audience will consist of out-of-towners who rate
The Drunkard as a must-see like Catalina, the Farmer's Market, and any movie star, and the other half of residents like me who've seen it from 10 to 25 times. We regulars take a proprietary interest in the performance." Hollywood columnist Bob Thomas raved about the new musical: "It is terrific entertainment, as good as many Broadway shows."
The Hollywood Reporter agreed: "Jan Duggan's entr'acte trilling is thrilling." But the show was so familiar and popular as
The Drunkard that both shows ran concurrently, with
The Wayward Way presented every night except Thursday, and
The Drunkard reserved for Thursdays only. Columnist Keavy even commented on
The Drunkard's biggest fan: "Seymour Hess, an extrovert whose business is reviving ailing business firms, was there for the 7,816th performance and his 183rd. After Hess paid his way into 150 performances, producer Mildred Ilse gave him a gold lifetime pass. Now he gets in for free, but always takes guests. Last night he got in for free but bought 48 tickets for his guests." True to Keavy's prediction,
The Drunkard was indeed listed as a popular tourist attraction among other California landmarks like
Disneyland and
Knott's Berry Farm. At the show's 26th-anniversary performance on July 8, 1959, producer Mildred Ilse announced to the audience that
The Drunkard would be closing in three months. She and her husband would be retiring to a ranch in Texas. Brad Williams of the
Los Angeles Times was there: "The announcement that the end was in sight was first greeted with stunned silence, some of the most avid fans began to weep. Cries of 'No! No!' rang throughout the theater. Probably for the first time in the history of the 26-year performance, the audience left the theater sadly." Ilse explained to
Times reporter Bud Lembke: "When the fire department decreed that we'd have to reduce our seating from 340 to 260, it just wasn't worthwhile to continue." On October 17, 1959, after 9,477 performances—with Jan Duggan in most of them and comedian
Neely Edwards in almost all of them since 1933 --
The Drunkard rang down its final curtain with a champagne toast and a cheering audience, concluding an outstanding run. ==Other stage adaptations==