LEST WE FORGET ETHEL BARRYMORE
(August 16, 1879 - June 17, 1959)

The queen of the American stage is best remembered for her forceful and compassionate portrayal of Miss Moffat in
The Corn is Green by Emlyn Williams.


Born into a theatrical family, the sister of John and Lionel Barrymore, she really had no choice about her destiny. She was literally born to be an actress.  However when she was in school, she developed a passionate desire to become a concert pianist, sometimes practicing as much as five hours a day. When she was fifteen, after her dear mother had died and her grandmother informed her she would have to earn her own living, she joined the tour of The Rivals starring Mrs. Drew, her grandmother, as Mrs. Malaprop  and Joseph Jefferson as Bob Acres.  "Acting was, after all the only thing I could do best."

After the tour her uncle, the charismatic John Drew, was able to secure her a small role in the Charles Frohman production of The Bauble Shop (1894).  Due to leading lady Elsie De Wolfe's decision to remain in New York when the play went on tour, Ethel who had been playing a "tea-tray carrier" and was her understudy was allowed to play Lady Kate.  She was not yet sixteen.  In Chicago she received her first mention:  "An opalescent dream named Ethel Barrymore. . .came on and played Lady Kate."

One night, while touring in J. M. Barrie's Rosemary with her Uncle John Drew, she received a telegram from playwright William Gillette asking her to appear in the small role of Miss Kittredge and to understudy the ingenue in his play
Secret Service.  She was delighted to appear on the London stage. Laurence Irving, Sir Henry Irving's son was infatuated with her and Sir Henry and
Ellen Terry asked her to remain in England to play a role in The Bells and Peter the Great written by Laurence Irving.

Returning to the United States,  playwright Clyde Fitch offered her the leading role of Madame Trentoni in his play Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines.
The New York opening on Feb. 4, 1901 made theatrical history. Not only was her charm as an actress applauded, but during the run of the play a fashion writer noted the development of "a real Barrymore cult among the girls, who model themselves on her." Young girls copied her clothes and hair styles.
       Further acting triumphs included Zoe Blundell in Mid-Channel (1910), The Shadow in which she played the role of a paralyzed woman confined to a wheelchair, Emma McChesney in the play
Our Mrs. McChesney by Edna Ferber and George V. Hobart.  Charles Frohman was never to see her in the play because he died when the Lusitania sank after being struck by a German torpedo on May 7, 1915.

She was looking forward to starting rehearsals for Zoe Akins' play Declassee when early in August, 1919 the New York shows were closed by the actors' strike.  She was drawn into the strike and became a leader of the Actors' Equity Group. As a result she was one of the people chosen to sign the five-year pact between actors and management that ended the strike.

Declassee opened on October 16, 1919 at the Empire Theatre. She played Lady Helen, a slightly tarnished lady, which turned out to be one of her greatest triumphs. With her two hundredth performance she broke the Empire Theatre's all-time box office record.

During the 1920s many actors were moving to California to work in film, but she gave no thought to deserting the stage.
In 1926 she made her greatest hit as Constance Middleton in Somerset Maugham's The Constant Wife. On December 17, 1928 the new theatre built by the Shuberts on W. 47th St. was named in honor of Ethel Barrymore.

Ethel's two brothers were both in Hollywood and in 1932 they convinced her to appear with them in a film. They had never appeared together in the same play and now they were co-starring in the film Rasputin and the Empress. Although she did not enjoy the experience, reviews were good and press agents began calling the Barrymores the "Royal Family of the American Stage."

The depression years of the thirties were hard times for her. Stage roles were not frequent and she was reduced to playing James M. Barrie's lead in the short play The Twelve Pound Look, which accompanied a feature film.  She was also in financial straits. In 1936 she began a 26-week series of radio programs of her own featuring her in revivals of plays in which she had appeared on Broadway. She was able to achieve financial stability.

It wasn't until 1940 after out of town tryouts she opened in New York as Miss Moffat in The Corn is Green.  'Magnificent" was the word most often used by the critics. John Mason Brown wrote that she "gives the finest, most thoughtful and concentrated performance she has given in many years. (New York Post, 11/27/1940). She played Miss Moffat for a total of 461 performances on Broadway before beginning a national tour.

She wrote in Memories, her autobiography:
Herman Shumlin had secured the American rights of The Corn is Green, and asked me to read it. When he came to the Colony Club to talk to me about it, I said, "You can't be Stanislavskyish about this. It's a simple play about a simple Englishwoman with the gift of teaching, who gets a wonderful chance."
   He looked a little startled that anybody should have an opinion about anything, but he controlled his apparent amazement and we came quickly to an agreement.
   The play and I were instant and terrific successes and believe me it was high time for that success. It came at a crucial moment in my life and made all the difference."

In 1944 she interrupted her tour of The Corn Is Green to play the role of Ma Mott in the film
None But the Lonely Heart with Cary Grant. She received the Academy Award for best performance by an actress.   She started to receive more film offers and could be seen in The Spiral Staircase,
Night Song with Merle Oberon and Alfred Hitchock's The Paradine Case. During the 1950s some of her best roles were in  Portrait of Jennie, Pinky, Kind Lady, and Young at Heart.

On her seventieth birthday, the Motion Picture Academy, in cooperation with the NBC radio network, presented a half hour tribute to her.  In 1950 she went to New York to participate in the American National Theatre and Academy (ANTA) Album, the theatre's annual benefit for itself. She agreed to do a scene from her old vaudeville standby, The Twelve Pound Look. It was to be her last appearance on the stage.

The Twelve Pound Look

One hundred admirers from Harry S. Truman to the leading stars of stage and screen sent messages and happy birthday wishes when she celebrated her 70th year. "They were broadcast in a half-hour, pre-recorded program over the ABC network scheduled at 10:30 o'clock in each time zone across the country." (New York Times, 8/16/ 1949).

Ms. Barrymore wrote: "To hear the dear, remembered voices of a hundred other friends, each bringing its own echo of that birthday message from all the corners of the earth.....
And Katharine Hepburn saying, as only her voice could say it:
...."I think what astounds us people of the screen and theater about her is the number and intensity of her interests. Would it be disloyal to my profession for me to hint that great stars are apt to show a little more interest in themselves than in anything else? Not Miss Barrymore. It's the world she's interested in--or rather a lot of different worlds--sports, history, music, politics, books. It seems impossible that a human being with the austere allowance of only twenty-four hours every day can keep in such close touch with them.
                  "She has more friends than anyone I know, but she's not a dear, gentle soul. Barrymores don't come like that. She has a trenchant wit, she can rebuke stupidity, or intolerance with silence better than Joe Louis could do it with his fists.  She makes appallingly accurate observations. She doesn't know the meaning of fear or the meaning of caution..."

And Spencer Tracy: "The year 1924. The play, A Royal Fandango. You, Miss Barrymore, were the star. I had one line. On the opening night I stood waiting for my entrance, shakily wondering whom they'd get to replace me the second night. Suddenly you stopped beside me and said quietly, "Relax. That's all you have to do--just relax." This is Spencer Tracy. I've been capitalizing on that advice ever since."

Resources:  Wikipedia.  Notable Women in the American Theatre. 1989.
Memories.  An Autobiography by Ethel Barrymore. First Edition 1955