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.
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 appeared both together and separately causing sometimes 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 in 1879, 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 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 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 witnesses saw the shooting of the un-armed men. But it took a Texas jury ten minutes to clear Currie. Perhaps because his brother was Shreveport, Louisiana Mayor Andy Currie and the family had plenty of money and clout to spread around.
During his recovery 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 another 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 boxers 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 lifestyle 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.
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 strangle her. 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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