The Original Play
Maurine Dallas Watkins, an American playwright, and screenwriter was working as a journalist for the Chicago Tribune when the Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner cases were unfolding. She covered the cases, and her sensational columns proved immensely popular with readers, who were intrigued by the intricacies involved in the stories of Beulah and Belva.
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The stories were so gripping that Watkins decided to turn them into a play. Her show, entitled Chicago, premiered on December 30th, 1926. The show was a hit, earning both critical acclaim and commercial success and even eventually making it to Broadway in the ’70s. In ran for 172 performances on Broadway in total.