Mrs. Leslie Carter

Mrs. Leslie Carter
Author: Craig Clinton
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2006-10-27
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0786427477

Born Caroline Louise Dudley, Mrs. Leslie Carter was destined to become one of America's principal turn-of-the century actresses. In 1889, a high profile divorce case labeled her an adulteress and sent her to the brink of poverty. With characteristic resilience, however, Mrs. Carter used infamy to her advantage. Retaining her married name as an act of revenge against her ex-husband, she approached David Belasco, one of the foremost playwright/directors of the day, and persuaded him to teach her the art of acting. So began one of theatre's most prolific partnerships. Not only did Belasco become Mrs. Carter's acting coach, he composed plays specifically as vehicles to showcase her particular talents. Although their relationship ruptured in 1906, Mrs. Carter continued to enjoy international renown. Weathering the changing times and methods of the early twentieth century, she persevered through stage, silent movies and vaudeville shows. This biography focuses particularly on Mrs. Carter's successful career and on her professional partnership with David Belasco. Spanning a period of radical transformation in American theatre, her career reflected--and endured--the artistic changes which occurred during the decades on either side of the century mark. Period photographs and theatrical art are included.

Strange Duets

Strange Duets
Author: Kim Marra
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
Total Pages: 379
Release: 2009-05
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1587297418

Autocratic male impresarios increasingly dominated the American stage between 1865 and 1914. Many rose from poor immigrant roots and built their own careers by making huge stars out of “undiscovered,” Anglo-identified actresses. Reflecting the antics of self-made industrial empire-builders and independent, challenging New Women, these theatrical potentates and their protégées gained a level of wealth and celebrity comparable to that of Hollywood stars today. In her engaging and provocative Strange Duets, Kim Marra spotlights three passionate impresario-actress relationships of exceptional duration that encapsulated the social tensions of the day and strongly influenced the theatre of the twentieth century. Augustin Daly and Ada Rehan, Charles Frohman and Maude Adams, and David Belasco and Mrs. Leslie Carter reigned over “legitimate” Broadway theatre, the venue of greatest social cachet for the monied classes. Unlike impresarios and actresses in vaudeville and burlesque, they produced full-length spoken drama that involved special rigors of training and rehearsal to sustain a character’s emotional “truth” as well as a high level of physical athleticism and endurance. Their efforts compelled fascination at a time when most people believed women’s emotions were seated primarily in the reproductive organs and thus were fundamentally embodied and sexual in nature. While the impresario ostensibly exercised full control over his leading lady, showing fashionable audiences that the exciting but unruly New Woman could be both tamed and enjoyed, she acquired a power of her own that could bring him to his knees.Kim Marra combines methods of cultural, gender, and sexuality studies with theatre history to explore the vexed mutual dependency between these status-seeking Svengalis and their alternately willing and resistant leading ladies. She illuminates how their on- and off-stage performances, highly charged in this Darwinian era with “racial” as well as gender, sexual, and class dynamics, tapped into the contradictory fantasies and aspirations of their audiences. Played out against a backdrop of enormous cultural and institutional transformation, the volatile romance of Daly and Rehan, closeted homosexuality of Frohman and Adams, and carnal expiations of Belasco and Carter produced strange duets indeed.

Notable American Women, 1607-1950

Notable American Women, 1607-1950
Author: Radcliffe College
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 2172
Release: 1971
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780674627345

Vol. 1. A-F, Vol. 2. G-O, Vol. 3. P-Z modern period.

Graceland Cemetery

Graceland Cemetery
Author: Adam Selzer
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2022-08-09
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 0252053427

One of Chicago’s landmark attractions, Graceland Cemetery chronicles the city’s sprawling history through the stories of its people. Local historian and Graceland tour guide Adam Selzer presents ten walking tours covering almost the entirety of the cemetery grounds. While nodding to famous Graceland figures from Marshall Field to Ernie Banks to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Selzer also leads readers past the vaults, obelisks, and other markers that call attention to less recognized Chicagoans like: Jessie Williams de Priest, the Black wife of a congressman whose 1929 invitation to a White House tea party set off a storm of controversy; Engineer and architect Fazlur Khan, the Bangladeshi American who revived the city's skyscraper culture; The still-mysterious Kate Warn (listed as Warn on her tombstone), the United States’ first female private detective. Filled with photographs and including detailed maps of each tour route, Graceland Cemetery is an insider's guide to one of Chicago's great outdoor destinations for city lore and history.