Opening on 24 November 1924 at the Garrick Theatre, the Pulitzer PRizE-winning drama by Sidney Howard was produced by the Theatre Guild and directed by Philip Moeller. It ran for 192 performances and was made into the 1956 musical The Most Happy Fella. With the California wine-producing country as local color, the poignant romantic triangle involves a waitress (played by Pauline Lord) who arrives to marry Tony (Richard Bennett), a wealthy Italian vintner who proposed to her by mail, having sent the photograph of his handsome younger overseer (Glen Anders). Although incapacitated by an automobile mishap en route to the station to get his bride, Tony insists on going through with the wedding. In her confusion, the waitress turns to the younger man and their brief fling results in her pregnancy. By the time Tony can walk again, she has come to love her husband and fears she will lose him when he learns of the child he could not have fathered.
The Historical Dictionary of the American Theater. James Fisher.