Jane Witherspoon, the only female in a several-mile radius, has one mission. Her father, the college president and a professor at Atwater College, has set his eyes on Billy Bolton, a high school graduate and star football player. He wants him to attend Atwater instead of Bingham College, the rival school and Bolton's father's alma mater. For that purpose, he asks his daughter to seduce Bolton. Predictably, they both fall in love.
The College Widow is a 1907 play written by George Ade featuring Dorothy Tennant as the Title Character. It's named after the phrase "College Widow", circa the XIXth century, which doesn't necessarily refer to a widowed woman so much as an unmarried female living in or near the campus of a male-only institution who would date the students.
So far, it has spawned two silent film adaptations —the first in 1915 starring Ethel Clayton and the second in 1927 starring Delores Costello—, two sound movies —Maybe Its Love (1930) with Joan Bennett and Freshman Love (1936) with Patricia Ellis—, and a 1917 musical called Leave It to Jane starring Edith Hallor. Horse Feathers is a parody of this concept.
This play provides examples of:
- Big Game: Built up over the first act, the match against Bingham finally arrives mid-way through the second act. The players have been carefully chosen to create a first-rate team for Atwater and Jane has finally convinced Bolton to join it. It's time they show their rival what they are made of.
- College Widow: By virtue of being the college president's daughter, Jane is the only woman on Atwater's campus. Despite the play being the Trope Maker, she's a downplayed example because she doesn't encourage attention from the whole student population but is asked by her father to charm one particular high-school graduate into attending Atwater College. Therefore, she only focuses on him.
- Honey Trap: Peter Witherspoon asks his daughter to be this for Billy Bolton, a talented half-back he wants in Atwater's football team. Jane spends the first act slowly catching Bolton's attention and later, romancing him. Her mission is to ensnare him so thoroughly that he chooses to live near her (on the Atwater campus) over attending his father's alma mater.
- Opposing Sports Team: Atwater and Bingham are rival universities in every aspect but it all crystallizes during the football seasons. Each year, both institutions subject their teams to grueling training and make sure to hand-pick all the best high school graduates.note
