Producer David Belasco staged it on Broadway in 1919, with Ina Claire in the lead role.

Lee asks Jerry Lamar, another chorus girl he knows, to convince his nephew to break off the engagement.

Annoyed by Lee's comments, Lamar decides to show him up by getting him drunk and tricking him into proposing to her.

[5] A critic for The Drama called it "vulgar and immoral" and said it gave the wrong impression of chorus girls.

[4] The play and the string of movies it inspired also helped to popularize the use of the term "gold digger" to refer to acquisitive women, a usage that Hopwood did not invent but which was relatively new at the time.