Katharine Cooke
Kit Cooke from the scrapbook Wild Animals I Have Met
Born
Katharine Ignacia Cooke

(1900-01-17)January 17, 1900
Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S.
Died15 July 1971(1971-07-15) (aged 71)
San Diego, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)Actress, stage manager
Years active1911-1926
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1945; died 1954)​

Katharine "Kit" Cooke (January 17, 1900 – July 15, 1971)[1] was an American actress, writer, and director, best known for her leading roles at the Forest Theater in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California and being the daughter of writer Grace MacGowan Cooke. She began her acting career as a child actor, securing roles in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland,[2][1] and the The Arrow Maker.[3]

Early life

Cooke was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on January 17, 1900.[4] Her father was William Benjamin Cooke and her mother was writer Grace MacGowan Cooke, the niece of writer Alice MacGowan.[5][1] Cooke had an older sister, Helen MacGowan Cooke, who married writer Harry Leon Wilson on June 4, 1912.[6]

In 1906, Katherine, Helen, and their mother moved to Helicon Home Colony, an experimental community formed by author Upton Sinclair in Englewood, New Jersey. The colony burned down under suspicious circumstances on March 16, 1907. Her mother and Alice were among the injured, while Katharine and Helen emerged unharmed.[7][8] Her mother, Grace, had left her husband at this time.[9]

In December 1908, Katherine, Helen, and their mother moved to the art colony at Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.[10] They moved into a large, Tudor-style two-story house at 13th Avenue, one of the first homes constructed in southwest Carmel in 1905, by architect Eugenia Maybury, one of Carmel's first female architects.[11] That particular section of the beach became known as Cooke's Cove.[8]

Career

Cooke in the play Pygmalion and Galatea (1918)

During the early 1910s, Cooke followed her older sister, Helen MacGowan Cooke into acting at a young age. She went onto the stage of the outdoor Forest Theater, performing in plays of the time.[12]

In her first theatrical appearance at the Forest Theater, on July 4, 1911, Cooke, age 11, played an Indian child in Herbert Heron's historical The Pageant of Carmel Mission, a commemorative of the founding of the Carmel Mission.[13] This was followed by a lead role in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, in July 1912 at the Forest Theater.[14]

In May 1913, Cooke played Princess Buddir al Buddoor in the Arabian Night's story of Aladdin and the Lamp, arranged by Perry Newberry and Elizabeth Field Christy.[15][12] In August 1914, The Arrow Maker was produced by Mary Hunter Austin at the Forest Theater. Cooke played Yavi, an Indian boy and her sister, Helen Cooke Wilson played and Indian woman.[12][3] On July 2–3 and 5, 1915, at age 15, Cooke played "Herald" in the play Junípero Serra, A Pageant of the Padres by Perry Newberry at the sixth annual production of the Forest Theater.[16][12] That same month, she played the fairy queen, Titania, in A Midsummer Night's Dream.[17]

In January 7, 1916, Cooke performed at the Carmel Arts and Crafts Hall, in two one-act plays on Just As Well by playwright J. Hartley Manners and Alias Trixie Kix by Gordon Davis.[18] On June 7, 1916, the Carmel Pine Cone announced that Cooke was selected to play Yolanda, in Yolanda of Cyprus, a play by Cale Young Rice, at the Forest Theater on July 1–3, 1916.[19][20] That same month, she played the foreign woman Veronika in new version of The Piper, by poet Josephine Preston Peabody under the direction of Perry Newberry.[21] On August 5, 1916, she played in the three act play Charley's Aunt by Brandon Thomas at the Forest Theater. Tickets went on sale at the Carmel Development Company at 50 cents for general admission.[22] On August 23, She played Phyllis Faraday in the play Green Stockings a comedy by A. E. W. Mason.[18]

Katherine Cooke in A Thousand Years Ago (1917)

On February 18, 1917, she appeared two one-act plays, Overtones, by playwright Alice Gerstenberg, and The Gift by playwright Charles King Van Riper.[18] In July 1917, Cooke played the role of Lavinia in the performance of Androcles and the Lion, a play by George Bernard Shaw at the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club.[23] That same year she played in Percy MacKaye's A Thousand Years Ago as Turandot, Princess of Pekin, and as Tylette, the Cat in The Blue Bird by Maurice Maeterlinck.[24][25]

In June 1918, Cooke had the role of Galatea in the mythological comedy play Pygmalion and Galatea by W. S. Gilbert, at the Forest Theater.[2] On August 16–17, 1918, Cooke was in the play The Cat And The Cherub, by writer and playwright Chester Bailey Fernald, and produced by the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club.[26]

In June 1921, Cooke directed and oversaw the stagecraft for the British play Pomander Walk, by Louis N. Parker, at the Forest Theater. She was helped on the play by her sister, Helen Cooke Wilson in the role of Madame Lucie Lachesnais.[27][28]

In May 1922, Cooke wrote an article for the Oakland Tribune, about silent film actress Wilna Hervey, songwriter Muriel Pollock, painter Nan Mason playing baseball on a weekly team in Carmel-by-the-Sea.[29]

In December 1922, Cooke was in the marionette play The Rented Ranch, as Santa Anna, written and produced by playwright Ira Mallory Remsen at the Carmel Arts and Crafts Hall.[18] On November 28–29, 1923, Cooke played Gloria Pakrs in Doubling in Brass by writer Charles Caldwell Dobie.[18][30]

During the performances on May 2–3, 1924, at the Carmel Arts and Crafts Theater, In act 7, titled "The Spanish Shawls," Cooke portrayed the character of the "Black Shawls," while her sister, Helen Wilson, took on the role of the "Soft Shawls." In act 9, known as "Captain Flapjack," Cooke depicted "His Little Daughter," and in act 11, titled "The Villain," she embodied "The Adventuress." Lastly, in act 13, called "White Shadows in the South Sea," Cooke delivered a performance as the "Tahitian Dancer."[18] In August 1924, Cooke produced the play Prunella, based on Prunella, or, Love in a Dutch Garden by Granville Barker and Laurence Housman.[31]

In August 1926, Cooke joined forces with Fenton Foster to produce "King Dodo" the musical comedy by Frank S. Pixley and Gustav Luders at the Forest Theater.[32][33]

Personal life

Cooke married a construction engineer John William Ryan on August 3, 1945 in Los Gatos, California.[34]

Death

Cooke died on July 15, 1971, in San Diego, California.[35][36]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Baking bread and playing roles" (PDF). Carmel Pine Cone. Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. July 2, 2021. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  2. 1 2 "Pygmalion and Galatea at the Forest Theatre". Monterey Daily Cypress and Monterey American. Monterey, California. June 22, 1918. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
  3. 1 2 "'The Arrow-Maker' Produced At Carmel". San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco, California. July 26, 1914. p. 33. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  4. ↑ Cooke, Katharine (January 17, 1900). "United States Census, 1900" (Database). The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
  5. ↑ "Grace MacGowan Cooke dies at Los Gatos". The Peninsula Times Tribune. Palo Alto, California. June 26, 1944. p. 83. Retrieved June 30, 2023.
  6. ↑ "Cooke-MacGowan. The Marriage of Wm. B. Cooke and Miss Grace MacGowan". The Chattanooga Commercial. Chattanooga, Tennessee. February 18, 1887. p. 8. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  7. ↑ "Fire Wipes Out Helicon Hall, And Upton Sinclair Hints That the Steel Trust's Hand May Be In It" (PDF). The New York Times. March 17, 1907. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 30, 2020. Retrieved August 22, 2009.
  8. 1 2 Gaston, Kay Baker (1980). "The MacGowan Girls". California History. 58 (2). Retrieved January 12, 2024.
  9. ↑ "Home Colony Planned By Upton Sinclair". The Rock Island Argus. June 22, 1906. p. 2. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
  10. ↑ Edwards, Robert W. (2012). "Chapter Two – Western Frontiers: Birth of the Carmel Art Colony (1896-1909)". Jennie V. Cannon: The Untold History of the Carmel and Berkeley Art Colonies (PDF). Oakland, California: East Bay Heritage Project. p. 39. ISBN 978-1467545679. Retrieved April 7, 2023.
  11. ↑ Dramov, Alissandra (2016). Historic Homes and Inns of Carmel-by-the-Sea. Arcadia Publishing Incorporated. p. 40. ISBN 9781439656747. Retrieved April 8, 2023.
  12. 1 2 3 4 "Forest Theater Plays". Harrison Memorial Library. Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. 1910. Retrieved June 22, 2022.
  13. ↑ "Carmel Is Scene Of A Pageant". Oakland Tribune. Oakland, California. July 5, 1911. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
  14. ↑ "Happy Carmel Fok Plan Third Outdoor Pageant". San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco, California. June 2, 1912. p. 23. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
  15. ↑ "Carmel Smiling With New Victory". The San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, California. May 2, 1913. p. 2. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
  16. ↑ "Forest Theater Plays". Harrison Memorial Library. Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. July 9, 1910. Retrieved March 15, 2022.
  17. ↑ "Sumer Productions Offerings of the Western Dram Society" (PDF). Carmel Pine Cone. Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. July 14, 1915. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Arts and Crafts Club Scrapbook". Harrison Memorial Library. Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. 1912. Retrieved June 9, 2022.
  19. ↑ "Cast Selected For Two Plays" (PDF). Carmel-by-the-Sea, California: Carmel Pine Cone. June 7, 1916. p. 1. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
  20. ↑ "The Overland Monthly". Samuel Carson. 1916. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  21. ↑ ""The Piper" Closes a Successful Season" (PDF). Carmel Pine Cone. Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. August 16, 1916. p. 1. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  22. ↑ ""Charlie's Aunt" Is Coming to Town" (PDF). Carmel Pine Cone. Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. August 25, 1917. p. 1. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  23. ↑ "Two Nights of Shaw Staged by Newberry" (PDF). Carmel Pine Cone. Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. August 2, 1917. p. 1. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  24. ↑ "Those Taking Part in The Week's Plays, and the Character Assumed" (PDF). Carmel Pine Cone. Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. July 5, 1917. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
  25. ↑ MacKaye, Percy (1914). A Thousand Years Ago: A Romance of the Orient. Doubleday. Percy MacKaye.
  26. ↑ "Arts and Crafts Club Scrapbook". Harrison Memorial Library. Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. 1912. Retrieved June 9, 2022.
  27. ↑ "Carmel To Give Pomander Walk". The San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, California. June 26, 1921. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
  28. ↑ "Carmel Rows Over Forest Theater Play". The San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, California. September 16, 1921. p. 8. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
  29. ↑ Katharine Cooke (May 7, 1922). "Katrinka Swings Wicked Bat at Carmel Tourney". Oakland Tribune. Oakland, California. p. 63. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
  30. ↑ Charles Caldwell Dobie (1928). "Doubling in Brass A Melodramatic Comedy in Three Acts". Banner Play Bureau. Retrieved June 29, 2023.
  31. ↑ "Charming Drama Charmingly Done". Carmel Pine Cone. Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. August 8, 1924. p. 1. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  32. ↑ "Exits And Entrances". The Oakland Tribune. Oakland, California. June 17, 1926. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
  33. ↑ Barbara Manners (August 20, 1926), "King Dodo" Pronounced Success At Forst Theatre, Pavilla Setting High Mark
  34. ↑ "Katharine Cooke, John W. Ryan Are Wed In Los Gatos". Los Gatos Times-Saratoga Observer. Los Gatos, California. August 10, 1945. p. 9. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
  35. ↑ Cooke, Katharine (July 15, 1971). "California U.S. Death Index 1940-1997" (Database). San Diego, California: Department of Public Health Services, Sacramento.
  36. ↑ Cooke, Katharine (July 15, 1971). "United States Social Security Death Index" (Database). U.S. Social Security Administration.
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