Seventeen is a 1917 play by writers Hugh Stanislaus Stange, Stannard Mears, and Stuart Walker, based on Booth Tarkington's 1916 novel. It is a four-act comedy with six scenes and two settings. The story concerns a seventeen-year-old boy in a small town who is smitten with a visiting beauty, enduring the pangs of a crush with the humiliation of not being accepted as adult by his family and friends.
The play was first produced and staged by Stuart Walker, with settings by Frank J. Zimmerer, and starring Gregory Kelly and Ruth Gordon. It had a tryout at Indianapolis in June 1917, followed by an opening tour starting September 1917. It premiered on Broadway during January 1918 and ran through August 1918 for over 250 performances.
The play had been preceded by a 1916 silent film version of Tarkington's novel. A musical version of the stage play was produced in 1926 as Hello, Lola, followed by a 1940 film adaptation. Another stage musical of the same name made in 1951, went back to the Tarkington novel for its storyline.
Characters Characters are listed in order of appearance within their scope.
Lead William Sylvanus Baxter called Willie, is 17, romantic, imaginative, whose ideal is Sydney Carton. Lola Pratt is 18, a beautiful visitor whose "baby-talk" conceals a perceptive and socially adroit person. Supporting Mr. Baxter called Sylvanus, is Willie and Jane's father, though he sometimes wishes he wasn't. Jane Baxter is 10, Willie's eavesdropping younger sister, and the bane of his life. Mrs. Baxter called Mary, is Willie and Jane's very patient and caring mother. Johnnie Watson is Willie's best friend, who persists in calling him Silly Bill.Willie explains to his father the moniker comes from reversing his first and middle names. May Parcher is 18, Lola's friend at college. She has decided Johnnie Watson is her best bet for a beau. Featured Genesis is a Black handyman whom Jane thinks is nice but Willie barely tolerates. Joe Bullitt is a friend of Willie and Johnnie, a bit belligerent, considered too sarcastic by May Parcher. Mr. Parcher is the suffering father of the household where Lola is staying as a guest of his daughter, May. George Crooper is 19 and a cousin of Johnnie; a big pushy fellow, he lives in Blairsville and owns two cars. Ethel Boke is a heavy young lady at the Parcher's party, who gives Willie a clue to the real Lola Pratt. Wallie Banks is a young man, friends with Willie's gang. Mary Brooks is a young woman who comes to the Parcher's party. Canine Flopit is a white lap dog that Lola dotes on and carries around. Clematis is a mongrel that follows Genesis, mostly apparent only from off-stage sounds and reactions by others.
Synopsis The play covers most of the novel published in March 1916, ending at the Parcher's party and omitting the last three chapters.Tarkington, pp.286-329
Act I (The living-hall of the Baxter home, noon on a June day.) Willie lobbies Mr. Baxter for a dress suit. Mrs. Baxter thinks Mr. Baxter's dress suit is in the hall closet, but needs letting out. Johnnie discusses with Willie the new girl visiting May Parcher. Willie insists he isn't interested. Jane opens the front door to May Parcher and her guest, Lola Pratt. Willie is smitten and can barely respond to her greeting. Mrs. Baxter annoys Willie by sending him to help Genesis fetch some old wash-tubs. May and Lola greet Johnnie and Joe Bullitt, who heard Lola was at the Baxter's. When Genesis and Willie arrive with the tubs, Flopit and Clem start fighting outside (off-stage). Willie slips away unnoticed, while everyone rushes outside. They all return, Genesis holding Clem while Lola holds Flopit. The visitors depart, Jane and Mrs. Baxter go upstairs. Willie goes to the hall closet, removes his father's dress suit and sneaks upstairs. (Curtain)
Act II (Scene 1: Same as Act I, two weeks later, evening.) Mrs. Baxter wonders what became of the dress suit. Willie accuses Jane of behaving like a child in front of "Miss Pratt" earlier that day. Jane and Willie spar until he goes upstairs in a snit. Jane sits at her mother's knee, and relates everything she heard at the Parchers, about how they are tired of Miss Pratt and wished she'd leave, and how Mr. Parcher can't go anywhere around his house without tripping over Willie or some other boy. Later, Willie sneaks downstairs in a bathrobe, which he takes off to reveal the missing dress suit. He goes out, while Jane peers around the corner. She soon spills to Mrs. Baxter about the dress suit. When Mr. Baxter returns home, Mrs. baxter confides her worry that Willie is getting too serious about Miss Pratt. (Curtain)
(Scene 2: Porch of the Parcher house, same evening.) Mr. Parcher asks May when Lola is going home but she doesn't know. Johnnie comes by and May tries to get him to sit, but he wants to know where Lola is. At that moment Lola and Willie return from a walk, the latter holding Flopit. Willie and May are colluding on keeping Johnnie from Lola for different reasons. Johnnie takes May for a walk, while Willie and Lola have a long discussion on Love, to the annoyance of Mr. Parcher in the living room. He finally exits, slamming a door, just as Johnnie and May return. Joe comes by and argues with Willie until Lola tactfully gets everyone to sing with her. The boys leave. The girls discuss them, with Lola assuring May she won't interfere between Johnnie and her. After the girls go in, Johnnie and Willie return, carrying a guitar and ukulele. They serenade the girls from the porch, earning applause and another slammed door from inside. (Curtain)
Act III (Same as Act I, about mid-August, evening.) Mrs. Baxter finds the dress suit and sends it to the tailor. Genesis tells Jane about a second hand clothing store, where you can barter belongings. Willie, overhearing, takes two empty baskets to his room. Mr. Parcher tells the Baxter parents that Lola is finally going away Friday on the midnight express. There will be a farewell party for her, with music and dancing. The Baxters agree to help set things up, but Willie, once again refused a dress suit, disappears. Jane says he filled the baskets with his clothes and half convinces her parents he has eloped. However, he returns shortly, and tries to borrow a few dollars from his mother, as his clothes were not enough to secure a used dress suit. Joe, Johnnie, May, and Lola arrive with George Crooper, a large, insensitive fellow, who dominates Lola's attention. They are going for a ride, but since Crooper's car only holds five, Willie volunteers to stay behind, hoping to impress Lola with his nobility à la Sydney Carton. (Curtain)
Act IV (Scene 1: Same as Act II Scene 2, the following Friday at twilight.) Mr. and Mrs. Baxter are helping the Parchers fix up their front porch for the party. Jane and Genesis between them explain Willie is trying to raise the final money needed for the used dress suit. Mr. Baxter sends Genesis to fetch Willie, while Jane has been primed to let him know his father's dress suit is at home, unaltered. Mrs. Baxter forces Willie to retrieve his clothes from the second-hand shop and take them home. Jane runs back in to say Willie wouldn't listen to her. (Quick curtain)
(Scene 2: Same as Act II Scene 2, three hours later.) Having arrived at the Parcher's party too late, Willie misses out on dancing with Lola. His friends won't yield any of their pre-arranged dancesThe play satirizes the use of dance cards at such a small party. with Lola to him. May introduces him to Ethel Boke, who leads Willie out to dance with her. She whirls and swings him about, so Willie finds an excuse to go sit on the porch. As they sit together, Ethel mentions Lola's comment to other girls that she couldn't possibly get engaged to any man who didn't have at least $750,000. Willie tries again to persuade Lola to dance with him, but she is all booked up for the night. When George Crooper arrives in his two-seater car, Willie's last chance to be alone with Lola vanishes. Crooper takes Lola to the train station, while Mrs. Baxter tries to console her son, who realizes now the romance was all one-way. (Curtain)
Original production Background
Booth Tarkington granted Stannard Mears and his partner Hugh Stanislaus Stange the right to make a dramatization of Seventeen in August 1916,Supreme Court, Exhibit 3, p.562 but didn't convey to them an exclusive right for same. He also didn't make any commitment to production, other than ask the partners to pay him 40% of royalties if they did mount a production. The movie rights had already been disposed of during 1916, so any production contract could only cover the stage rights.
When Stuart Walker contacted Tarkington in April 1917 to discuss dramatization, he was referred to Mears and Stange.Supreme Court, Exhibit 2, p.561 Walker entered into a contract with the partners in late April to produce their as yet unwritten play.Supreme Court, Exhibit 1, p.560 When they completed their play, its suitability was to be tested with a tryout in Indianapolis in June 1917. Walker disliked it and wrote another with Maximilian Elser before the tryout. The play as published in 1924 was copyright to Walker in 1917, though it listed Stange, Mears, and Walker on the title page.Stange, Mears, and Walker, title page.
A young-looking teenage actress (Lillian Ross) was used to play 10-year-old Jane Baxter, casting made easier by Walker's version of the play excluding events in the last three chapters of Tarkington's novel. Stange and Mears' version of the play had included them, wherein 10-year-old Rannie Kirsted is introduced, and in the last chapter, revealed as Wille's "bride-to-be". The Stange and Mears stage version had ended with a flash forward and the marriage of Willie and Rannie.Supreme Court, Testimony of Gregory Kelly, p.518
The settings were designed and built by Frank J. Zimmerer, a graduate of the Chicago Art Institute and former head of the Kansas City Art Institute. He was assisted by actor Arthur Wells, who played Wallie Banks.
Cast