Ethel Barrymore at age 10

ETHEL BARRYMORE PLAYED CAMILLE AT AGE 10

An excerpt from John Barrymore's mini-autobiography entitled WE THREE (published in 1935).

IN HIS WORDS

"It was Ethel who decided we should just put on a show. Even at the age of ten she was consumed with ambition.
"Grandmother Drew (Mrs. John Drew) was a great actress in England when she was eight years old! Here am I getting older every day and I haven't done anything!"

CAMILLE
Ethel had little idea what the title role of Camille demanded of the actress, but she realized that every great actress at one time or another had played it. To actresses in those days it was the part of parts in the play of plays.

Matilda Heron as Camille

The best was none too good for our first appearance on any stage (albeit in a boarding house). Ethel decided to produce "The Three Barrymores in Camille."    She got one of the older boys who had seen the play but who had forgotten most of it, to write it for her. The adaptation retained little of the original version.

The first that Lionel and I knew about Camille was when Ethel produced a sheaf of pages covered with pencil scrawls, and told us that here were our parts.  "It's about time we were doing something in the theater", she said.

Lionel and I looked upon it as good fun. To Ethel it was the beginning of a career.

Georgie Drew Barrymore with children

Lionel wanted to play my part because I wore an imposing, droopy black mustache, but I wouldn't give up the part or the mustache, which I loved.  He complained bitterly because as Armand he had to play a lover.  That was the first and last lover that Lionel ever played on any stage. Lionel despised love scenes and hated them with all his heart and soul.

Our show was to be a grand surprise for a number of guests, including my Uncle John Drew, who were coming to spend the Fourth of July. Only the actors and the author were in on the secret.

Modjeska as Camille

About all that Ethel knew about Camille was that she had a magnificent cough.  Old actresses who had played Camille often boasted without reservation about the shudders that ran through the audience when their coughing got really under way.

FINDING THE COUGH
      So Ethel began to practice her cough. She liked best to lock herself in the one bathroom that the big boarding house provided and to do her coughing in secret.  My grandmother heard her once or twice and became quite upset. "Something must be done about that child," she said in alarm. "She's started to bark like a dog!" The climax came one Saturday night when Ethel locked herself in the bathroom and tried out her two kinds of coughs. First she would cough in high soprano, then in what she thought was a hollow, sepulchral tone, while angry boarders in bathrobes and slippers, towels over their arms, stood outside in line, waiting to get in for their Saturday night bath.
      My grandmother heard the noise and cried "My God, she's got a bone in her throat!" and hammered on the door. Ethel came out, red-faced, and in order to keep my frightened grandmother from sending for a doctor, was forced to confess that it was all a rehearsal for Camille.
     
CURTAIN UP ON CAMILLE
        It worked out splendidly.  The news about Ethel's cough spread to all our friends, and when we appeared, we had a crowded house.  The box-office receipts were thirty seven cents, the price for orchestra seats being one cent each.  My grandmother protested bitterly after the show, saying we had charged entirely too much.   Ethel, manager, producer and star, gave Lionel and me a dime and kept the rest.  We felt we deserved more but didn't say so."
#JohnBarrymore  #EthelBarrymore  #Modjeska  #MatildaHeron #LionelBarrymore #GeorgieDrewBarrymore  #Mrs.JohnDrew  #Camille  #JohnDrew

CHARLOTTE CRAMPTON THE FIRST MAZEPPA
(1816 - 1875)

According to Odell's Annals of the New York Stage, Ms. Crampton performed the role of Mazeppa on January 3, 1859 at the Bowery Theatre.  History remembers Adah Isaacs Menken as the most popular Mazeppa. Now we can set the record straight that Charlotte, according to a handbill, " was the FIRST actress to attempt the part with her two beautifully trained horses--Alexander and Black Eagle executing the most intrepid feats ever performed by a lady." While La Menken appeared to be nude in flesh-colored tights, Ms. Crampton didn't appear nude nor was she tied to the horse's back which gave Menken the 'edge'.
                                                                           June 3, 1861.
"If she was but a foot taller, she would startle the world."  William C. Macready
Macready was not known to shower praise on anyone but himself, but indeed Charlotte must have been quite the talented lady to receive this accolade from him.

            Born into a theatrical family, she was well-educated and was capable of reading, writing, and speaking several languages.    From her theatrical debut at the Columbia Street Theatre in Cincinnati, Ohio at the age of 15, she made rapid progress in the acting profession and overcame a short, stout, stature by hard work, her natural histrionic ability and according to historian/actor Joseph Haworth, a 'touch of genius'.
          She acted in nearly all of the principle theatres in the United States and was a leading lady to both Edwin Forrest and William Macready.  Her interpretation of Lady Macbeth was unanimously praised but she was also convincing in 'britches' parts--Richard lll, Iago and Hamlet.

SERVICE DURING THE CIVIL WAR
       Her first husband was Charles Wilkenson; next spouse was Charles B. Mulholland, a well known comedian.  That alliance produced a son.  During the early part of the Civil War, she heard that her son, a Union soldier, had gotten into trouble. It is reported she walked from Wheeling, West Virginia to Washington, D.C. to solicit favor for him from President Lincoln.  Shortly afterwards she enlisted in the Union Army, administering aid and comfort to sick and wounded soldiers.

      After the Civil War she lectured on the temperance circuit for a while but she missed acting and was soon traveling with a small company on the New England circuit. She reclaimed her career in larger theatres. At the time of her death she was playing old women and character roles. However, a few days before she passed away, she was playing Gertrude in Hamlet at Macauley's Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky.

MEMORIES OF ACTOR JOSEPH HAWORTH

As a boy, Joseph Haworth had applied for acting work at John Ellsler's Academy of Music, Cleveland, Ohio.  When Ellsler offered him 'extra' work, he declined. But when his father, a government surveyor died in 1865, he had to leave school and work for a newspaper office. He was tenacious about being hired by Ellsler for onstage work. In 1873 Ellsler relented and let him contribute a recitation at a Monday evening amateur night.
     His rendition of the ballad "Shamus O'Brien" closed out the evening and brought down the house.  Charlotte Crampton, then in residence at Ellsler's, saw his performance from the wings and was so impressed that she offered him the role of Buckingham in her production of Richard lll. She was playing the title role. Joe received rave reviews in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

    He became a member of Ellsler's company as a utility man, playing a variety of roles.  Ms. Crampton became his first great mentor, teaching him all the stage business of Edwin Forrest and William Macready. These tutorials became the basis for his technique and he was able to bridge the classical style of Macready and the heroic style of Forrest throughout his long career.

Crampton as Hamlet

Boston Daily Advertiser, 1887   Interview with Joe Haworth
"My first appearance in Cleveland I played Buckingham at age 20 opposite Miss Crampton as Richard. She made a wonderful Richard. She had a very masculine voice and I remember how she dressed for the part.
     She used to wear a small moustache and goatee which gave her a rather demonic expression. I was nervous when I stepped on the stage, but I did not forget my lines.  When I finished my scene I looked in the wings and saw Miss Crampton there crouched up waiting for her cue and looking as though she was ready to spring to the stage. I was almost frightened to death. I gave a loud shriek of fright which took many days to forget.
     ....I remained with Ms. Crampton a year and then accepted an offer from Mr. Ellsler to play in his theatre in Cleveland.  At the conclusion of the season I was given a benefit; I picked out Hamlet as the play.  Ignoring advice from friends against this role, the house was crowded and pleased.  Until the closet scene.  I had just finished the lines 'look upon this picture' etc., when I looked across the stage and there stood Miss Crampton in that Richard lll costume glaring at me exactly as that unforgettable night.  THE WOMAN HAD BEEN DEAD A YEAR!
       I stood transfixed with horror and couldn't speak. The audience thought I was acting and gave me numerous rounds of applause. The apparition vanished slowly and when I closed my eyes for a moment, the demonlike figure had vanished.

Haworth as Hamlet

"I am not a spiritualist, and I cannot account for that horrible experience.  Call it an optical illusion or anything you will, I shall never forget it.  Miss Crampton was buried in a little Catholic burying ground in Louisville. I remember when I was playing there I visited her grave.  A small stone marks her resting place, but when I am rich this shall give way to a more substantial monument.
      It was very strange indeed, but lying on her grave, I found a long, rusty looking knife.  I do  not know how it came there. I examined it and returned it to its position. I assure you that I did not like the looks of it, and often since then have I thought of how it came there."
    End of interview from the memoirs of Joseph Haworth.