''The Prince and Betty'' is a novel by

P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeve ...

. It was originally published in '' Ainslee's Magazine'' in the United States in January 1912, and, in a slightly different form, as a serial in '' Strand Magazine'' in the United Kingdom between February and April 1912. It was published in book form, in the United Kingdom by

Mills & Boon Mills & Boon is a romance imprint of British publisher Harlequin UK Ltd. It was founded in 1908 by Gerald Rusgrove Mills and Charles Boon as a general publisher. The company moved towards escapist fiction for women in the 1930s. In 1971, the ...

on 1 May 1912.McIlvaine, E., Sherby, L.S. and Heineman, J.H. (1990) ''P.G. Wodehouse: A comprehensive bibliography and checklist''. New York: James H. Heineman, p. 24. A substantially different version, which incorporated the plot of ''

Psmith, Journalist ''Psmith, Journalist'' is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first released in the United Kingdom as a serial in ''The Captain'' magazine between October 1909 and February 1910, and published in book form in the UK on 29 September 1915, by Adam & Ch ...

,'' was published in the US by W.J. Watt & Company, New York on 14 February 1912.

US novel version

The US novel version of ''The Prince and Betty'' combines the original story, transferred to a New York setting, with the plot of ''

'', substantially rewritten to merge in the romance of John Maude (who becomes an American in this version) and Betty.

Adaptations

Film

A silent,

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

film adaptation, also titled '' The Prince and Betty'', was made in 1919. It was released Dec. 21, 1919.

Plot of the 1919 film

Young American John Maude is forced to find employment when he falls in love with Betty Keith, a high society girl. (In the novel, she is called Betty Silver.) Maude accepts an offer to travel to the tiny island country of Mervo, where he is hired by millionaire Benjamin Scobell who is planning to build a casino there that will rival Monte Carlo. Scobell wants Maude to impersonate the missing Prince of Mervo as an attraction for his casino. Scobell also wants John to marry his stepdaughter, who coincidentally turns out to be Betty Keith. When Betty accuses John of being an impostor, John shuts down the casino and tries to stage a revolution that will make Mervo a democratic state. The natives do not go along, but the President of Mervo returns to operate the casino personally, and Betty and John head off to America together.

Cast

* Wilton Taylor as Benjamin Scobell, a wealthy and unscrupulous financier * Mary Thurman as Betty Keith/ Betty Silver, Scobell's attractive stepdaughter * William Desmond as

John Maude John Cyril Maude KC (3 April 1901 – 16 August 1986) was a British barrister and Conservative Party politician. He sat in the House of Commons from 1945 to 1951, and then became a judge. Early life Maude was the son of the actors Cyril Maude ...

, unwitting heir to a princedom, long admired by Betty * Anita Kay as Mrs. Wheldon * George Swann as Reggie Hayling * Walter Peng as the President of Mervo * William Levaull as Crump * Frank Lanning as the shepherd * Boris Karloff as bit part

Radio

A musical comedy adaptation of ''The Prince and Betty'' under the title ''Meet the Prince'' was first broadcast by the BBC in January 1934. The story was adapted and produced by John Watt and the music was by Kenneth Leslie-Smith, with lyrics by Henrik Ege and orchestral arrangements by

Sydney Baynes Sydney Baynes (2 January 1879 – 9 March 1938) was an English conductor, composer and leader of one of the United Kingdom's most popular radio bands.Philip L Scowcroft accessed 20 November 2010 Born in Sudbury, Middlesex (nr. Wembley), he was edu ...

. The cast included

Esmond Knight Esmond Penington Knight (4 May 1906 – 23 February 1987) was an English actor. He had a successful stage and film career before World War II. For much of his later career Knight was half-blind. He had been badly wounded in 1941 while on active ...

as John Maude,

Polly Walker Polly Alexandra Walker (born 19 May 1966) is an English actress. She has starred in the films '' Enchanted April'' (1991), '' Patriot Games'' (1992), ''Sliver'' (1993), '' Restoration'' (1995), '' The Gambler'' (1997), and '' Savage Messiah'' ( ...

as Della Morrison,

Adele Dixon Adele Dixon (born Adela Helena Dixon; 3 June 1908 – 11 April 1992) was an English actress and singer. She sang at the start of regular broadcasts of the BBC Television Service on 2 November 1936. After an early start as a child actress, an ...

as Betty Silver, Ewart Scott as Lord Arthur Hayling, Sydney Keith as Mr Morrison, Bernard Ansell as Edwin Crump,

Davy Burnaby George Davy Burnaby (7 April 1881 – 18 April 1949) was a British actor who appeared in more than thirty films between 1929 and 1948. He was born in Buckland, Hertfordshire and made his screen debut in the 1929 film ''The Devil's Maze''. He die ...

as Benjamin Scobel, Floy Penrhyn as Marian Scobel, and C. Denier Warren as General Poineau. It was broadcast in the

BBC Regional Programme The BBC Regional Programme was a radio service which was on the air from 9 March 1930 – replacing a number of earlier BBC local stations between 1922 and 1924 – until 1 September 1939 when it was subsumed into the Home Service, two days be ...

on 1 January 1934 and repeated the next day in the

BBC National Programme The BBC National Programme was a radio service which was on the air from 9 March 1930 – replacing the earlier BBC's experimental station 5XX – until 1 September 1939 when it was subsumed into the Home Service, two days before the outbrea ...

. A second production was broadcast on 28 September 1936 in the National Programme and repeated the following day in the Regional Programme.

References

External links

The Russian Wodehouse Society's page
with photos of book covers and a list of characters * *
The Prince and Betty (1919)
' at the

AFI AFI may refer to: * ''Address-family identifier'', a 16 bit field of the Routing Information Protocol * Ashton Fletcher Irwin, an Australian drummer * AFI (band), an American rock band ** ''AFI'' (2004 album), a retrospective album by AFI rele ...

silent movie catalog
American edition
at

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libr ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Prince and Betty, The Novels by P. G. Wodehouse 1912 British novels American novels adapted into films British comedy novels British novels adapted into films Novels first published in serial form Novels set on islands Works originally published in Ainslee's Magazine Mills & Boon books