CAPTAIN JINKS OF THE HORSE MARINES

   Clyde Fitch s three-act comedy, which opened at the Garrick Theatre on 4 February 1901 for 168 performances, made a star of its leading lady, Ethel Barrymore, who played Aurelia Johnson of Trenton, New Jersey. Aurelia returns home after she has become the operatic prima donna known as Madame Trentoni. She charms the locals, including Captain Robert Carrolton Jinks, who has made a $1,000 bet with some friends that he can make her fall in love with him. She does, despite the disapproval of Captain Jinks's pretentious mother, and all is well until Aurelia learns of the bet. The distress leads her to claim that she cannot perform at a homecoming concert, but she does and is a great success. Jinks, who has fallen in love with her, finally convinces her that his affections are sincere. Barrymore appeared in a 1907 revival and there was a 1916 motion picture version, but a 1938 Federal Theatre Project* revival managed only four performances. When the play was adapted into the musical Captain Jinks in 1925, it ran for a season.