Sam Hardy and THE RIVIERA GIRL

Sam Hardy in GET-RICH-QUICK WALLINGFORD (1921). Photo by Moffett Studio

The VARIETY reviewer did not much care for Marc Klaw and A. L. Erlanger’s production of THE RIVIERA GIRL (1917), even with its book by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse. The sets and costumes by Joseph Urban were duly admired, but some of the other production choices seem questionable. 

Sam Hardy, as a vulgar American investigating the Monte Carlo scene, gets chided for his broad acting and blatant cribbing from other comics, but he does seem like a bright spot in the cast: “A quartet, ‘Man, Man, Man,’ might have been a hit had the lyrics been distinguishable by the audience, while [a] duet by Hardy and Juliette Day, ‘Let’s Build a Little Bungalow in Quogue,’ could have been developed into the hit of the show but for the same reason. It was not until the last act that one of the numbers really got over, and that was the comedy number, ‘Why Don’t They Hand It to Me?’ led by Hardy with the chorus working well behind him.”

Double standards

Charles Bryant (1879-1948) in BELLA DONNA (1912-13). Photo by Moffett Studio [George Moffett and Evan Albert Evans, from 1905]

There is nothing new under the sun. For instance, Charles Bryant and Alla Nazimova starred together in Charles Frohman’s production of BELLA DONNA, based on the 1909 novel by Robert Hichens. For reasons having to do with their respective careers, Bryant and Nazimova (as she was more generally known, and billed) married in 1912 and divorced in 1925.

When Bryant married (again) in 1925, he appeared on the marriage register as “single.” There was a double standard here, since the revelation that Nazimova and Bryant had only lived together (the marriage was evidently unconsummated) damaged the career of Nazimova, the more famous of the pair in 1925, rather than Bryant.