It Pays to Advertise

It Pays to Advertise is a farce by Roi Cooper Megrue and Walter Hackett. Described as "A Farcical Fact in Three Acts", the play depicts the idle son of a rich manufacturer setting up a spurious business in competition with his father. It was first presented on the Broadway stage on 8 September 1914, at the Cohan Theatre and ran for nearly a year. The playwrights substantially rewrote the play for a new production in London by the actor-manager Tom Walls, at the Aldwych Theatre. This opened on 2 February 1924 and closed on 10 July 1925, a total of 598 performances. It was the first of a sequence of twelve "Aldwych farces" presented at the theatre until 1933, mostly original farces written by Ben Travers. By contrast with later plays in the series, in which Walls played worldly and sometimes shady characters, with Ralph Lynn as his naïve associate, in It Pays to Advertise Walls's character is upright and conventional, and Lynn is the manipulative schemer. Roles and original casts Broadway cast (1914) Mary Grayson – Ruth Shepley Johnson, butler at the Martins' – George Schaeffer Comtesse de Beaurien – Louise Drew Rodney Martin – Grant Mitchell Cyrus Martin – John Cope Ambrose Peale – Will Deming Marie, maid at the Martins' – Cecile Bretonne William Smith – Harry Driscole Miss Burke – Vivian Rogers Donald McChesney – W J Brady Ellery Clark – Kenneth Hills George Bronson – Sydney Seaward