The Master Thief is a mystery play based on a story by Richard Washburn Child,[1] dramatized by playwright E. E. Rose.
A 1919 news story about a performance states: Another news account states: Francis X. Bushman and Beverly Bayne, who married in 1918, successfully toured the production for eight months, from at least October 1919[6][7] until July 1920,[8] produced by Oliver Morosco.
[10] When the Morosco production played Seattle, the Post-Intelligencer interviewed Beverly Bayne, and reported that the play was apparently suggested by an incident in Child’s then-famous Paymaster stories, in which his anti-hero - a criminal dubbed “the Paymaster” - regularly outwitted his opponents, including the police, and other more dangerous villains.
The play originally opened in New York City, in the Bronx, and the production was not intended to tour, but an actor’s strike sent the show on the road and extended Bushman’s involvement with Morosco.
The Seattle writer also noted the irony of Bushman and Bayne portraying a particularly orthodox couple in the play, in light of the scandal two years prior when the duo’s affair became public before Bushman had secured a divorce.