This popular three-act farce by Owen Davis opened on 9 October 1923 at the Sam H. Harris Theatre and ran for an impressive 279 performances. Henry Williams, a shy hypochondriac, journeys to an Arizona dude ranch. Assisting Sally Morgan, a runaway bride, Henry escapes with her while a posse follows in pursuit. Henry and Sally hide out at a ranch and work in disguise as cook and maid. When Sally's father agrees not to force her into an unwanted marriage, she chooses to wed Henry. Davis based the play on E. J. Rath's magazine story, "The Wreck." The Nervous Wreck was made into a motion picture in 1926. Adapted as the 1928 Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.-produced musical Whoopee, it became a hugely successful vehicle for comedian Eddie Cantor. Its score, by B. G. De Sylva, Lew Brown, and Ray Henderson, featured "Makin' Whoopee" and "Love Me or Leave Me." Whoopee (with an exclamation point added to the title) was filmed in 1930 starring Cantor and supervised by Ziegfeld in one of the first all-Technicolor movies.
The Historical Dictionary of the American Theater. James Fisher.