Polly with a Past
Summary
At the intersection of Gilded Age artifice and the burgeoning Jazz Age ethos, Polly with a Past operates as a sophisticated comedy of manners. The narrative centers on Rex Van Zile, a scion of wealth whose romantic aspirations are perpetually thwarted by Myrtle Davis’s eccentric altruism. Myrtle, a woman possessed by a messianic compulsion to rehabilitate the 'wretched' denizens of Skid Row, views Rex’s conventional devotion as an uninspired distraction from her self-appointed social crusade. In a state of profound emotional stagnation, Rex finds an unlikely confederate in Polly Shannon. Employed as a domestic within the Richardson-Cullum household to finance her operatic ambitions in Paris, Polly possesses a latent theatricality that transcends her station. Together, they orchestrate a grand deception: Polly assumes the persona of a scandalous, continental coquette, intended to ignite Myrtle’s dormant jealousy through the crucible of competition. However, this performative gambit spiraling into unforeseen domestic complications, interrogating the thin line between assumed identity and the authentic self within the rigid structures of high society.
Synopsis
Wealthy young Rex Van Zile is madly in love with pretty Myrtle Davis, but she is so absorbed in the task she has taken on to herself of reforming Skid-Row derelicts that she pays no attention to Rex's affections. Dejected, he commiserates with his friends Harry Richardson and Clay Cullum, and through them he meets young Polly Shannon, who is employed as a maid in their household in order to pay her way to Paris, she she wants to study opera. Polly and her employers come up with a scheme to get Myrtle to notice Rex, but it doesn't quite turn out the way they planned.
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