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| Maurice Barrymore |
The
man who founded a theatrical dynasty that is still going strong in its fourth
generation with actress/producer Drew Barrymore
was born in far off and exotic Fort Agra,
India practically within shade of
the Taj Mahal on September 21, 1849.
Herbert Arthur Chamberlayne Blythe was the son of a
surveyor for the British East India Company and his wife
Charlotte Matilda Chamberlayne de
Tankerville. The youngest of seven
children, his mother died of complications from his birth. He was largely raised by his double aunt Amelia Blythe his mother’s sister who had married his father’s
brother.
When
he was old enough young Herbert was sent to England for an elite education at Harrow and then on to Oxford to prepare for the law—the profession chosen by his
father. At Oxford the strapping young
man preferred athletics. He was captain
of the football (soccer) team. He also took up the manly sport of boxing.
Although the Marquess of
Queensberry Rules were established, bare
knuckle bouts were still popular and the wayward young scholar fought in
several. In fact he was a damn fine
fighter and in 1872 won the Middleweight
Championship of England.
As
if the sporting life was not enough of an embarrassment to his family Blythe
took up with actors and soon abandoned his father’s chosen profession for a
life on the stage. To spare the family
humiliation he assumed the last name of noted early 19th Century thespian William Barrymore after seeing his name on an
old poster. He adopted a French first name in honor of his
mother’s heritage. As Maurice Barrymore he sat for his first
theatrical photo portrait shortly
after winning his boxing title.
Two
years later he was on board the SS America sailing to Boston and putting an ocean between
himself and the disapproving Blythes.
Soon after arriving he joined the established touring company of Augustine Daly and made his American debut in Under the Gaslight. A year
later in 1876 he was starring on Broadway
in Pique.
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| Georgianna Drew |
During
the run of that play Barrymore became enamored of a young actress with a small
part, Georgiana Drew, the sister of
his friend and established star John
Drew. After a whirlwind courtship
the couple married on New Year’s Eve, December
31, 1876. Georgiana, affectionately
known as Gerogie, was a great beauty
and would rise to stardom herself. The
two would appear both together and separately causing sometime lengthy separations
during which Barrymore frequently indulged in affairs with co-stars or star struck ingénues. The couple had three children, Lionel born
in 1878, Ethel born in1879, and John born in 1882. While the couple toured, the children were
left in the keeping of Georgiana’s mother in Philadelphia and spent summer on their father’s Staten Island farm where he kept a
collection of exotic animals.
The
handsome Barrymore quickly became one of the most famous leading men on the American stage appearing opposite almost all of
the top female stars of the day including Helena
Modjeska, Mrs. Fiske, Mrs. Leslie Carter, Olga Nethersole, Lillian Russell, and Lily
Langtry.
But
his career was nearly cut short while on tour in Marshall, Texas on March 19, 1879.
Barrymore and cast mate Ben Porter had indulged in a poker game—a
common pastime for an actor who prided himself on being a sporting man—and had relieved a notorious gunslinger named Jim Currie
of a tidy sum of money. Later that evening
after a performance Barrymore, Porter and actress Ellen Cummins went to the White
House Saloon for a late supper. A drunken
and enraged Currie confronted them.
Barrymore stood to confront him and challenged him to a fist fight,
confident in his skills as a boxer.
Unfortunately Currie preferred pistols.
He drew and shot Barrymore point blank in the chest and Porter in the
stomach. Porter died in agony and
Barrymore was rushed to a doctor’s office where the physician worked feverishly
to save his life with an operation.
Seven
months pregnant with Ethel, Georgiana rushed from New York to be with her
husband. Barrymore recovered due
largely to his strength and constitution.
Currie was brought to trial for murder and attempted murder. Barrymore returned to Texas to testify and
dozens of witness saw the shooting of the un-armed men. But it took a Texas jury ten minutes to clear
Currie. Perhaps because his brother was Governor of Louisiana and the family had plenty of money and clout to spread
around.
During
his recover Barrymore wrote a melodrama. He invited Georgiana to accompany him on
a touring production along with her close friend the Polish born actress Helena
Modjeska who had convinced her to convert to Catholicism and baptize the children. Despite their closeness, Georgiana knew that
her friend had been one of her husband’s lovers. On tour she discovered that Barrymore and
Helena had renewed their romance under her nose. For some reason Barrymore had signed over the
rights to the play to his wife, who promptly withdrew them in mid tour causing
the play to shut down. The producer’s
sued but did not prevail. The reason for
the abrupt closure was never explained to the press, although the gossips columns of the day often noted
the actor’s indiscretions.
Barrymore
continued to write plays and Georgie remained watchful but loyal. In 1884 the couple and their small children
sailed to England where he was to collect an inheritance from his aunt Amelia
and hoped to impress the rest of his family with his success in America. Returning from an American tour on the same
ship was French legend Sara Bernhardt. In hopes of enticing her to produce it,
he gave the actress an un-copyrighted
copy of his new play Nadjezda.
Two years later Bernhardt premiered in Paris in a new play, La Tosca by Victorien Sardou which is now best remembered as the source
material for Puccini’s opera. Barrymore detected similarities between that
play and his and sued the author for stealing his work. He suffered a humiliating defeat in court. A judge ruled that the only similarity
between the two plays was the sacrifice of the heroine’s honor to save her
lover, but that was an old plot device that had been used many times going back
to Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure.
Aside
from his continued indiscretions with young women, Barrymore liked to spend
time with athletes, especially boxer and wrestlers. He kept fit by sometimes working out with
them. Among his pals were wrestler William Muldoon, and Heavyweight Champions John L. Sullivan,
James J. Corbett. He may have coached them on their own forays
on the stage. He encouraged his growing
sons to take up the support and actually arranged an amateur bout between
Lionel and actor Hobart Bosworth.
Tragedy
struck on July 2, 1893 when the frail Georgiana succumbed to consumption. Barrymore was both heartbroken and set
adrift without his anchor. He hardly
knew what to do with the children, who were left for most of the summer on the
Staten Island farm attended only by the man hired to feed the animals. In need of a mother for his brood, Barrymore
wed as soon as a respectable mourning period was complete. On the one year anniversary of Georgiana’s
death he married Mamie Floyd. Fifteen year old Ethel, who doted on her
father, was crushed and shocked to see her mother replaced. Lionel would leave home as soon as he was
able, following his father on the stage.
In
the later years of the Gay 90’s Barrymore
had some of the greatest success of his career.
In 1895 he co-starred with Mrs. Leslie Carter in the Civil War romance The Heart of Maryland.
The
following year he became the first genuine star of the Broadway stage to
perform in Vaudeville. The variety stage was rapidly gaining in
audiences and, as elegant theaters were built just for it, in respectability. Barrymore would tour doing scenes from his
most famous roles or doing Shakespearian
soliloquies. Barrymore found it a
good way to earn money between stage engagements and tours—his lavish life
style often left him embarrassed for cash.
The tours also built audiences for play appearances. In the wake of Barrymore’s success, other
actors would follow his example.
In
1899 he had his biggest Broadway success to date opposite Mrs. Fisk in Becky
Thatcher, an adaptation of Thackeray’s
novel Vanity Fair. Then he set
off on a lengthy tour in The Battle of the Strong, a mediocre melodrama. Back in New York Barrymore returned to
booking Vaudeville shows.
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| Ethyl Barrymore |
In
1901 Barrymore was on a vaudeville stage in Harlem when, according to the New York Times “he suddenly dropped
his lines and began to rave.” The next
day he became violent had to be taken to Belleview
by his son John was admitted to a ward for the insane. He was found to be
suffering from an advanced stage of syphilis
which often led to mental collapse and was then incurable.
All
three children were now working on the stage, but Ethel, a young beauty, was
already a star she undertook her father’s medical
expenses and had him transferred to a more comfortable private institution
in Amityville. She visited him almost daily but his
condition continued to deteriorate and violent episodes became more
common. On one visit he attempted to
strangler. Another time the still
athletic patient picked up an attendant, lifted him over his head in the manner
of a wrestler and threw the man several feet.
On
March 25, 1905 Maurice Barrymore died in his sleep at the age of 55. Ethel had him interred next to her mother in
Philadelphia. Later, when that cemetery was
closed both of their graves were moved to Mount Vernon Cemetery in the same city.
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