A four-act comedy by Booth Tarkington, Clarence opened on 20 September 1919 at the Hudson Theatre for 300 performances. An early success for Alfred Lunt in the title role, supported by Mary Boland, Glenn Hunter, and Helen Hayes, this George C. Tyler production generated humor from the exploits of a milquetoast veteran wounded during target practice. Clarence, an expert on bugs, is taken in by the Wheelers, a dysfunctional family including a frustrated father, flighty mother, flapper sister, and lazy brother, all of whom are brought closer together by the ineffable Clarence who falls in love with the governess. The innocuous domestic travails provide a glimpse of middle-class American life at the beginning of the Jazz Age. Clarence had two screen versions, in 1922 and 1937.
The Historical Dictionary of the American Theater. James Fisher.