Mary Anderson
Anderson in 1883
Born
Mary Antoinette Anderson

(1859-07-28)July 28, 1859
Sacramento, California, US
DiedMay 29, 1940(1940-05-29) (aged 80)
Broadway, Worcestershire, UK
Occupation(s)Stage actress, slient film actress
Years active
  • Stage actress (1875–1889)
  • Slient film actress (1912–1918)
Signature

Mary Anderson (later Mary Anderson de Navarro; July 28, 1859 – May 29, 1940) was an American theatre actress.

Early life

Anderson was born in Sacramento, California. Shortly after her birth, her parents moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where her father enlisted in the Confederate States Army in the American Civil War. He was killed in action at Mobile when she was three.[1]

Anderson was educated at the Ursuline convent and the all-girl Presentation Academy in Louisville. She was an unenthusiastic pupil except for an interest in reading and acting Shakespeare. She also took private lessons in music, dancing and literature. Encouraged by her stepfather, Dr Hamilton Griffin, at 14 she was sent to New York for ten lessons with the actor George Vandenhoff, her only professional training.[2]

Stage career

In 1875, she made her first stage appearance at a benefit performance at Macauley's Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky, in the role of Shakespeare's Juliet[3] The manager, Barney Macauley, was sufficiently impressed to extend the booking to a week as Juliet and further roles including Julia in Sheridan Knowles's The Hunchback, Bianca in Henry Hart Milman's Fazio, and R. L. Sheil's Evadne.

Further engagements at St Louis, New Orleans and John McCullough's theatre in San Francisco led to a contract with John T. Ford. Starting as Lady Macbeth in his Washington theatre in 1877, she began an extensive US tour, culminating with a six-week engagement in Edward Bulwer Lytton's The Lady of Lyons at the 5th Avenue Theatre, New York. Critical review was mixed, but she was immediately popular with the public as "Our Mary."

In 1883, after starring in an American production of W. S. Gilbert's Pygmalion and Galatea, she went on the London stage at the Lyceum Theatre, remaining in England for six years to perform to much acclaim including at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-on-Avon. Her first season there, she starred in Gilbert's Comedy and Tragedy as well as in Romeo and Juliet in 1884.[4]

Mary Anderson as Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet", ca. 1883–1890. Cabinet Card Collection, Boston Public Library

In 1887 in London she appeared in The Winter's Tale in the double role of Perdita and Hermione (the first actress to include this innovation).[1] This production ran to 160 performances, and was taken back to the United States. She invited writer William Black to appear in the production, but, even in a non-speaking role, he froze up and interrupted the performance.[5] In 1889, however, she collapsed on stage due to severe nervous exhaustion during a performance at Albaugh's Theatre in Washington.[3] Disbanding her company, she announced her retirement at the age of 30. Some commentators, particularly in the British press, ascribed this turn of events to hostile press reviews on her return to the U.S.[6] The author Willa Cather went further and blamed a specifically hurtful review from a close friend.[7]

For part of her career, Napier Lothian Jr. served as Anderson's talent manager.[8]

Performances

Later life

Ordered to rest after her breakdown, Mary Anderson visited England. In 1890 she married Antonio Fernando de Navarro.[9][10] She became known as Mary Anderson de Navarro. They settled at Court Farm[11] in the Cotswolds, Broadway, Worcestershire, where she cultivated an interest in music and became a noted hostess with a distinguished circle of musical, literary and ecclesiastical guests. She also gave birth to three children, one son who died at birth, another son, Alma Jose "Toty" Maria de Navarro and a daughter, Mary Elena de Navarro.[12][13][14][15]

A devout Roman Catholic, she had a chapel built in her attic, with stained-glass windows designed by Paul Woodroffe. She has been cited as a model for characters in the Mapp and Lucia novels of E F Benson, either the operatic soprano Olga Bracely [16][17] or Lucia herself,[18][19] as well as the prototype for the heroine of William Black's novel The Strange Adventures of a House-Boat.[19]

She resisted encouragements to return to the theatre, but did a number of fund-raising performances during World War I in Worcester, Stratford and London. The latter included roles as Galatea, Juliet and Clarice in W. S. Gilbert's play Comedy and Tragedy.[20] She published two books of her memories, the 1896 A Few Memories[3] and the 1936 A Few More Memories, and collaborated with Robert Smythe Hichens on a 1911 New York stage adaptation of his novel, The Garden of Allah.

Death

She died at her home in Broadway, Worcestershire, in 1940, aged 80.[21] She was survived by her son and daughter.

Filmography

Year Film Role Notes
1912 Bridge Mrs. Gray Short
The Days of Terror; or, in the Reign of Terror —
Babette Babette
The Night Before Christmas Aunt Ruth - Mrs. Corbin's Sister (as Miss Navarro)
Days of Terror —
1913 Cinderella's Slipper —
1914 Hearts of Oak Aunt Becky
When Broadway Was a Trail Mistress Hibbins
1915 The Battle of Ballots —
1916 Diana the Huntress Unknown (as Mary Navarra) Short
1918 Mrs. Dane's Defense Mrs. Dane of Canada
Eve's Daughter Kate Simpson-Bates Final film role

Legacy

The Mary Anderson Theatre was the oldest theatre on Louisville's 4th Street. It opened in 1907 as a vaudeville house, but two years later began to screen movies. The theatre closed in 1972 and was converted into office space.

Land donated by Anderson in Mount St. Francis, Indiana to the Conventual Franciscan Friars is now the Mount Saint Francis Center for Spirituality. The center serves as the headquarters for the Province of Our Lady of Consolation and home to the Mary Anderson Center, an artist colony. In 1989, the portion of US Route 150 that adjoins the donated property was named the Mary Anderson Memorial Highway.[22]

The house and farm that Mary and Antonio Navarro purchased and extended in the town of Broadway, Court Farm, is recognised as hosting one of the best preserved Edwardian gardens.[11][23] It was left to her son, Toty de Navarro, who lived there with his wife, Dorothy, their son Michael and Dorothy's long-time Cambridge friend, Gertrude Caton Thompson. As in the years when Mary lived there, it was often filled with visiting artists and musicians, including Myra Hess and a young Jacqueline du Pré.[24]

References and sources

References

  1. 1 2 "Mary Anderson", National Museum of American History
  2. ↑ Logan, Mrs. John A., The Part Taken by Women in American History, The Perry-Nalle Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912
  3. 1 2 3 "Mary Anderson", Women's Work in Louisville, KY, University of Louisville
  4. ↑ "Music and the Drama". The Week: A Canadian Journal of Politics, Literature, Science and Arts. 1 (17): 270. March 27, 1884. Retrieved April 30, 2013.
  5. ↑ Thomas Wemyss Reid. William Black, Novelist. London and New York: Harper and Brothers, 1902, p. 283.
  6. ↑ "Return of Mary Anderson". The New York Times. October 7, 1911. p. 12. Retrieved April 12, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ The Kingdom of Art: Willa Cather's First Principles and Critical Statements, ed. Bernice Slote, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1966. Internet Archive
  8. ↑ "NAPIER LOTHIAN, JR., DEAD.; Veteran Theatrical Manager Expires Suddenly of Appoplexy in Boston". The New York Times.
  9. ↑ "Anderson, Mary" in Chambers's Encyclopædia. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 1, p. 409.
  10. ↑ "Antonio Fernando de Navarro; Mary Anderson (Mrs de Navarro), half-plate glass negative (1890) – NPG x42729". National Portrait Gallery, London. September 4, 1928. Retrieved July 12, 2021.
  11. 1 2 "Amazing Secret Gardens of Broadway | Free at Last". Retrieved October 31, 2016.
  12. ↑ Kleber, John E. (October 2014). The Kentucky Encyclopedia (Name: Anderson, Mary). University Press of Kentucky. pp. 20–21. ISBN 9780813159010. Retrieved July 12, 2021.
  13. ↑ "Mary Anderson Has Another Play Idea; Former Actress..." The New York Times. October 25, 1911. p. 13. Retrieved April 12, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ "Mary Anderson To Modjeska: Sends Her Good Wishes for Polish Actress's Farewell Tour". The New York Times. October 8, 1905. p. 7. Retrieved April 12, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ "Antonio Fernando de Navarro" (PDF). www.pewterbank.com. Retrieved October 31, 2016.
  16. ↑ Mr Benson remembered in Rye, and the world of Tilling, Cynthia & Tony Reavell, 1984
  17. ↑ The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, Contributor Adolf Carl von Noé, v.47 1953, University of Chicago Press
  18. ↑ "Anderson, Mary", Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
  19. 1 2 Dictionary of American Biography, The American Council of Learned Societies, Sribner, 1959
  20. ↑ Obituary, Mme. de Navarro, The Times, May 30, 1940
  21. ↑ "Obituary: Mme. de Navarro". The Guardian. May 30, 1940. p. 10. Retrieved April 12, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ↑ "INDOT: Memorial Highways and Bridges". INDOT. Archived from the original on December 15, 2010. Retrieved January 20, 2010.
  23. ↑ Willsdon, Clare A. P. (2012). "COUNTRY GARDENS: John Singer Sargent RA, Alfred Parsons RA, and their Contemporaries Broadway Arts Festival 2012" (PDF). broadwayartsfestival.com. Broadway Arts Festival. Retrieved October 31, 2016.
  24. ↑ Caton Thompson, Gertrude (1985). Mixed memoirs. Gateshead: Paradigm Press. p. 318. ISBN 0950610429.

Sources

  • Donald Roy, "Anderson, Mary (1859–1940)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
  • Winter Stage Life of Mary Anderson (1886)
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