left to right: Bessie Skeet, Marion Brown, Helen Paites, Billy Blane and Camille Barnette, American chorus girls, as they appeared in bathing costumes in High Jinks, the musical comedy produced at the Lyric Theatre, New York, on 10 December 1913 (after a short out of town trial run) and transferred to the Casino Theatre, New York, on 12 January 1914. High Jinks eventually reached London on 24 August 1916, when it was produced at the Adelphi Theatre.
(photo: White, New York, 1913)
‘Arthur Hammerstein will bring his musical comedy High Jinks to the Lyric Theatre Wednesday night [10 December 1913]. The book of the new musical show is by Leo Ditrichstein and Otto Hauerbach and the music is by Rudolph Friml, who was first introduced to the American public a year ago by Mr. Hammerstein through the production of The Firefly
‘High Jinks is in three acts, and the action all takes place in Paris during a carnival. Dr. Thorne, an American nerve specialist practicing in the French capital, has a friend by the name of Dick Wayne, an explorer, and Wayne has discovered a drug in the form of a perfume called ”High Jinks.” The effect of this perfume is to make the timid brave, the pessimist an optimist, the serious man jovial, and the prudish person a daredevil. The complications of the piece are brought about by the manner in which Dr. Thorne experiments with this curious drug. Much of the plot is told in songs.
‘The cast of High Jinks includes Elizabeth Murray and Tom Lewis, featured at the head of a lit of principals. Among the other players are Ignacio Martinette, Elaine Hammerstein, the daughter of Arthur Hammerstein, who makes her professional début in this production; Robert Pitkin, Burrell Barbaretto, Snitz Edwards, Blanche Field, Ada Meade, Mana Zucca, Emilie Lea, Augustus Schultz, and Elsie Gregley.’
(The New York Times, New York, New York, 28 December 1913, p. 23)
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One of the hit songs of High Jinks was ‘The Bubble,’ a studio recording of which was made on cylinder by Emory B. Randolph and chorus. (For another copy, click here.) ‘The Bubble’ also recorded in 1916 by Marie Blanche, a member of the London cast of High Jinks. For a selection of orchestral highlights from the show, click here.
Footlight Notes 