Out to Nurse
Maude Adams plays a child named "Little Suzy" who is left with a couple while her parents are traveling. Suzy is made to do all the household chores and is given no schooling. The child ends up reduced to wearing ragged clothing because the material sent to them is kept by the husband for his own uses.
The woman leaves her husband and the parents return. The parents want to see Suzy but she isn't there at the time. Grounsel, the guy, rushes out, finds her, and dresses her up as Joey, a boarder, and he dresses as his wife.
While with the parents, though, a messenger comes and the real Joey's parents want him to come back to them. The situation ends up working itself out and no one seems to end up holding any grudges.
=====From the book by Acton Davies=====
"During the following season Maudie was six then - she appeared with B. J. Murphy in a play called Out to Nurse. By this time the young lady had become quite a stickler in stage affairs. Like any other youngster with a healthy appetite, she cordially despised those Barmecide feasts known as stage banquets. Frequently, when from the wings she used to watch me acting in some play in which there was an elaborate dinner or supper scene, she used to say to me when I came off the stage, 'Yes., muffer, but they didn't give you nuffin real to eat.' Of course stage banquets in those days had not reached their present state of realism., so you couldn't blame Maudie for feeling a trifle disappointed. But her first opportunity to express her sentiments on this matter came during the run of Out to Nurse. Mr. Murphy was tremendously fond of the child, and used to pet and indulge her in loads of ways. In one scene Maudie had to bring on a pitcher of beer to Mr. Murphy and some other members of the company, the pitcher had always been filled with cold tea,-that dreadful dose which passes muster on the stage for anything in the liquid line from sparkling champagne to deadly poison,-but with the little girl's adventure began a new regime.
"Maudie would not stand for that cold-tea business at all. She went to Mr. Murphy and told him solemnly but most emphatically that unless she could bring in real beer in the pitcher she wouldn't play the part at all. I can almost hear Mr. Murphy laughing at her yet! He was immensely tickled at the serious way in which she had made her complaint.
"Now that's the sort of a leading lady I like to have! ' he exclaimed.-'She wants real beer and she shall have real beer.',And real beer they did have at every performance after that. Although," laughingly added Mrs. Adams in telling this story, "for the benefit of the many W. C. T. U. admirers that my daughter has to-day I want to state quite clearly that she did not drink any of the beer. I saw to that. But the others did,, and enjoyed it mightily after their long cold-tea drought; and every night when they came to the toast one or another of the actors would wink at Maudie and repeat, "Ere 's to yer,' under their breath."
 The Sandusky Register Nov. 11, 1915 |
 Nevada State Journal Feb. 23, 1923 |
Finding anything from the actual times about this play is extremely difficult; these three articles are all written as historical pieces rather than contemporary pieces.
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