Chicago (play)
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Chicago is a play written by Maurine Dallas Watkins. The play, while fiction, is a satire based on two unrelated 1924 court cases involving two women, Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner, who were both ac
Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner, 1924
Chicago Tribune image depicting the 1927 Chicago production of the play.
Adaptation in Pécs, Hungary, January 2024
Beulah Annan
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Beulah May Annan was an American suspected murderer. Her story inspired Maurine Dallas Watkins's play Chicago in 1926. The play was adapted into a 1927 silent film, a 1975 stage musical, and a 2002 mo
Chicago (play)
…Chicago is a play written by Maurine Dallas Watkins. The play, while fiction, is a satire based on two unrelated 1924 court cases involving two women, Beulah Annan (the inspiration for Roxie Hart) and Belva Gaertner (the inspiration for Velma), who were both accused and later acquitted of murder, whom Watkins had…
Annan circa April 4, 1924, the day after the murder
Annan, with her attorney William Scott Stewart (left) and husband (right), c. April 1924