Poppy

Poppy was a tour-de-force for W. C. Fields, though initially he received featured billing while Madge Kennedy, who played the eponymous heroine, was solo starred. Fields, however, won stardom when Miss Kennedy’s understudy took over her role, and he was co-starred with Miss Kennedy for the tour. In the part of Professor Eustace McGargle, the bulbous-nosed comedian established the character of the bogusly elegant, ornately speaking conman by which he was identified in his later career. Set in 1874 in a Connecticut town, Poppy presented Fields as a carnival grifter, juggler, card shark, and shell-game artist who attempts to pass off his foster daughter, Poppy, as a long-lost heiress — only to discover that she really is an heiress. The Apollo Theatre, where Poppy was shown, still stands on 42nd Street west of Broadway. Fields appeared in two film versions of the musical: in 1925 (renamed Sally of the Sawdust), a silent directed by D. W. Griffith, and in 1936. Poppy. W. C. Fields demonstrates his latest musical creation, the kadoola kadoola. (White)

Music

Stephen Jones, Arthur Samuels

Lyrics

Dorothy Donnelly, etc.

Book

Dorothy Donnelly (Howard Dietz, W. C. Fields uncredited)