Little Nellie Kelly

Little Nellie Kelly was a two-act musical comedy of the Jazz Age, written, produced and directed by George M. Cohan. After opening in Boston in July 1922, it had long runs on Broadway in 1922–1923, in the West End of London in 1923–1924, and on tours. Plot Nellie Kelly is the daughter of a New York City Irish-American police officer, Captain John Kelly. After taking a job in DeVere's Department Store, she is seen and admired by the young millionaire and man-about-town Jack Lloyd. However, she is already loved by Jerry Conroy, a laborer who like her is Irish. When she refuses Lloyd's request for a date, he invites all the store's employees to a party at a house on Fifth Avenue belonging to his aunt, the redoubtable Mrs. Chesterfield Langford, with a view to getting to know Nellie better, and Conroy attends the party uninvited. During the evening, a valuable string of pearls belonging to Mrs. Langford is stolen, and suspicion falls on Conroy, while Lloyd pursues Nellie. In the end Conroy's name is cleared and the course of true love leads Nellie to refuse Lloyd and fall into the arms of Conroy. Songs The musical contains the hit song "Nellie Kelly, I Love You", sung by Conroy, who also sings "You Remind Me of My Mother". Other songs include "All in the Wearing", "Dancing My Worries Away", "Till My Luck Comes Rolling Along", "They're All My Boys", "The Voice in My Heart", "The Busy Bees of DeVere's" and "The Dancing Detective". A song-book, including the music and lyrics of all the show's songs, was published in 1922 by M. Witmark & Sons of New York.