{{short description|1910 play written by Eugene Walter}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2020}} {{Infobox play | name = Just a Wife | image = | image_size = | caption = | writer = Eugene Walter | genre = | setting = | subject = | premiere = Broadway {{Start date|1910|02|01}} | place = Belasco Theatre | orig_lang = English }} '''''Just a Wife''''' is a 1910 play by Eugene Walter that was adapted to silent film in 1920.
It was performed on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre in 1910, and was made into a silent film released in 1920 and directed by Howard C. Hickman.<ref name="mpn">(December 6, 1919). [https://books.google.com/books?id=lwMoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA4123 Here and There], ''Motion Picture News'', p. 4123</ref>
After producer David Belasco chose actress Frances Starr over playwright Eugene Walter's wife Charlotte Walker to star in the 1909 popular play ''The Easiest Way'', Walter wrote ''Just a Wife'' for her.<ref name="theatre1">[https://books.google.com/books?id=PNk5AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA144 Some Secrets of the Dramatists Workshop], ''The Theatre'', May 1910, p. 144</ref> After out-of-town warmup performances in Cleveland, Buffalo, and Rochester,<ref name="previews">(January 15, 1910). [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1910/01/15/105073070.pdf "Just a Wife" Premier in Cleveland], ''The New York Times''</ref> it debuted on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre on February 1, 1910.<ref name="debut">(January 30, 1910). [http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1910-01-30/ed-1/seq-50/ The Theatre], ''New York Tribune'', p. 6, col. 2</ref> The reviews were not generally positive, though it ran for 79 performances.<ref name="darn1">(February 15, 1910). [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ax9QAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mgoEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4635,38246&dq= New Plays In New York: "Just a Wife" Eugene Walter's New Play], ''Milwaukee Sentinel''</ref><ref name="saved">(February 5, 1910). [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=QklYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=uEUNAAAAIBAJ&pg=1180,2352380&dq= Four New Plays Are Saved by the Fine Work of the Individual Stars], ''Toledo News-Bee''</ref>
Critic William Winter summarized the plot as follows:<blockquote>In this play a libertine named ''John Emerson'', who has consorted with a widow named ''Lathrop'' until their relation has become a public scandal, by way of "keeping up appearances" marries an impecunious vestal from South Carolina, named, ''Mary Ashby''. As he immediately installs ''Mrs. Emerson'' in a luxurious rural habitation somewhere on Long Island and practically deserts her, this expedient would hardly seem to be of much social service. However, after neglecting his wife for about six years, ''Emerson'' grows weary of his mistress, quarrels with her and runs way from her to visit his wife. The mistress, much incensed, follows him, and a short of three-cornered debate, --protracted, sophistical, and indelicate, --on the sexual relation is held at Mrs. Emerson's country residence, in the course of which that lady manifests a sweet temper and admirable self-control. After is it over, ''Mrs. Lathrop'' (to whom it has been intimated that in men the ruling passion is sex impulse and that she is growing somewhat elderly) goes away in a peaceful and much chastened mood. ''Mrs. Emerson'' then snubs her neglectful spouse and signifies that he may not hope to possess her as his wife until he has recognized the supremacy of Love, which it is implied he will soon do.<ref name="winter">Winter, William. [https://archive.org/stream/lifeofdavidbelas02wintuoft#page/288/mode/2up The Life of David Belasco, Vol. II], p. 288 (1918)</ref></blockquote>
== Cast == * Edmund Breese as John Emerson<ref name="play1">{{cite book|title=Actors and Actresses by Different Writers, Compiled from Various Magazines|author=Gilbert, E.T.|date=1905|volume=1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y9k6AQAAMAAJ|page=404|access-date=February 13, 2015}}</ref><ref name="play2">{{cite book|title=The Twentieth Century Magazine|author1=Flower, B.O.|author2=Zueblin, C.|date=1910|volume=2|publisher=Twentieth Century Company|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RmYAAAAAYAAJ|page=113|access-date=February 13, 2015}}</ref> * Frederick Burton as Wellesley * Amelia Gardner as Eleanor Lathrop * Ernest Glendinning as Bobby Ashby * Bobby North<ref name="north1">Slide, Anthony. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Hu3nNSmRjZ0C&pg=PA375 The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville], p. 375-76 (2012)</ref> as Maxcy Steuer * Charlotte Walker, Eugene Walter's wife, as Mary Ashby
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Just a Wife}} * {{IBDB show|5002|Just a Wife}}
Category:1910 plays Category:American plays adapted into films