Paul M. Potter's five-act adaptation of Oui-da's (Marie Louise Ramé) popular novel was produced lavishly by Charles Frohman and David Belasco for Belasco's star attraction Blanche Bates, despite the fact that various other dramatizations of the novel had previously toured. This production, which opened on 5 February 1901 for 135 performances at the Garden Theatre, became the definitive version of the story of Cigarette, a strong-willed girl following the French army through North Africa, battling opposing armies and a dust storm in the Chellelah Gorge to win the soldier she loves. Marie Dressler toured in one of many stock productions of it, and Theda Bara played Cigarette in a 1916 motion picture version with Claudette Colbert taking over the role for a 1936 release, with many screen subsequent adaptations.
The Historical Dictionary of the American Theater. James Fisher.