Girlhood of Leading Actresses

This delightful actress looks back to childish days with more than a touch 0f sadness. Her father was Robert Playdell Wilton, who came of an old Gloucestershire family, and was originally intended for the Church; but although the twig was bent that way the tree was not so inclined. The youth turned to the sea, to the law, to military service, and, finally, to the footlights. It was that turning which led to Robert's marriage with Georgina Jane Faulkner, and thus gave to the English stage one of its brightest ornaments. Marie was one of six - all girls - born to her parents, and first opened her laughing eyes in the famous town of Doncaster.

"I wish I could recall a happy childhood," she writes; "but alas! I can remember only work and responsibility from a very tender age. No games, no romps, no toys - nothing which makes a child's life joyous. I can recollect a doll, but not the time to play with it. When other children were cosily tucked up in bed, dreaming of their sunny lives, their limbs tired only by the romps and pleasures of the day, I was trudging by my father's side in all weathers to the theatre, where I had to play somebody else's child, or to recite one of the many character sketches which my father had written for me."

The actress, though only four or five years old, was even then the pet of the public. "But, oh! the work! My poor little body was often badly tired, and I was roused, many a time, from a sound sleep to go upon the stage!" Norwich, Bristol, and Bath were the scenes of her earliest labours, but what may be called her professional debut was made at the Theatre Royal, Manchester, where she played the Emperor of Lilliput in the pantomime Gulliver's Travels. Mrs.Bancroft can remember Macready playing his farewell engagement in the country before retiring from the stage.

When she appeared in Macbeth she was the boy Fleance. "I suppose you hope to be a great actress some day," said the great tragedian, as he patted her on the head after the performance, and when she replied that she looked forward to the time when she would play Lady Macbeth he smiled and remarked, "Oh! is that all? Well, I like your ambition. You are a strange little thing and have such curious eyes; but you must change them before you play Lady Macbeth, or you will make your audience laugh instead of cry."

To make the public laugh has been her mission, and admirably has she fulfilled it. When about twenty she made her first appearance in London, on Sept. 15, 1856, at the Lyceum, where she was the boy Henri to the Belphegor of Mr. Charles Dillon, Mr. J. L. Toole playing Fanfarronade.

Beatrice Stella, the youngest daughter of Mr. John Tanner, was born at Forest house, Kensington-Gardens, in 1867. Her mother, whose maiden name was Louisa Romanim, was an Italian of great beauty, and from her she inherited her passion for music, her love of art, and her keen appreciation of the drama. After being educated at a school in Sussex-Gardens, Brighton, she was put under private tuition in Paris for a year.

Subsequently she became a pupil at the Guildhall School of Music, where she was successful in gaining a scholarship. Her tastes inclined her not only to the theatre, but to the stage, and she began to gain experience at the footlights as a member of the Amateur Dramatic society formed at West Norwood, and known as "The Anomalies." With these she, of course, met with friendly encouragement, and it was not long before she decided on entering the profession. London, however, did not know her until the provinces had had a taste of her quality. She toured as a member of companies under the direction of Mr. Sandman-Palmer and Mr. Ben Greet, and in 1891 secured her first metropolitan engagement at the Adelphi in The Trumpet Call. She was hardly seventeen years of age when she married Patrick Campbell, third son of Patrick Campbell of Stranraer, N.B., and before she took to amateur acting she was already the proud mother of a curly-headed boy.

Mrs. Campbell says that soon after she was twenty-one her husband had to go abroad on business, and was away nearly seven years. She felt lonely and longed for some steady work. Hence her turning to the stage. She is fond of telling of her method of study. She begins by writing out her part. This is a wise method, for it is generally admitted that one writing is quite as efficient an aid to memory as three readings. She begins her study early, and often ends it late.

One who knows her well says success has in no way turned her head. "A most embarrassing little unrehearsed effect, which would have tried the strongest nerves," says the faithful chronicler just referred to, "attended Mrs. Campbell's metropolitan debut. She went on in the part of Andrea in The Trumpet Call. Her skirt, which had been insecurely fastened, suddenly fell to the ground. The young actress, however, was equal to the occasion. With a deft backward movement of the arm she swept its folds around her, secured them with a pin, and went on with her part, receiving a perfect ovation at its conclusion."

There have been many skirt performances since, but none more successful than this.

Miss Neilson aged 14

London was the birthplace of this accomplished actress, her father being Scotch and her mother English. Educated at first by the latter, she was subsequently taken to Germany, where she developed a taste for music. Returning to London in 1883, at the age of fourteen, she entered as a student at the Royal Academy of Music, beginning as a pianist, but presently, on the advice of Mr Randegger, devoting herself wholly to the cultivation of her gifts as a vocalist. She carried off a number of prizes, including the Westmoreland scholarship, the Sainton-Dolby prize, and the Llewellyn Thomas gold medal.

With confidence it was predicted that the triumphs of the class-room would be followed by triumphs in the concert halls; but the stage stepped in to assert its claim to this talent that was meant to adorn it. Miss Neilson's elocutionary powers had been put on the road to perfection under the experienced and valuable guidance of Mr Walter Lacy. In 1887 she took part in some amateur theatrical performances Mr. Randegger and Mr. Joseph Barnby were impressed by her treatment of the part of Galatea, and, putting her advancement before the interests of their own profession, strongly advised her to give up music for the drama. This advice was quickly endorsed by Mr. W. S. Gilbert, when he had heard her recite, and he at once interested himself very actively in her behalf.

Miss Neilson made her first professional appearance at the Lyceum on March 21st, 1888, playing Cynisea at a morning performance of Gilbert's Pygmalion and Galatea to the Galatea of Miss Mary Anderson, whose powerful impersonation of Clarice in Comedy and Tragedy she later on was to rival at the Haymarket theatre. This was at a morning performance on May 7th, 1890, and served to convince an enthusiastic gathering of the ability that had been developed and ripened.

Miss Julia Neilson is the wife of Mr. Fred Terry, the well-known actor, and brother to the sisters Kate, Ellen, and Marion Terry.

Miss Annie Hughes

It was quite in her girlhood that this sweet, winning actress, without knowing anything at all about the stage, took to it even as the duck takes to water. Yet the love of it was not exactly born with her when she came in to the world at Southampton on October 10th, 1869.

There was no encouragement towards it to be found in her home. Her people were all good churchmen and churchwomen, who would have been shocked had they been told that she would go on the stage. The shock came, however, and they had to bear it. It brought with it the only upbraiding Miss Hughes father had been heard by her to administer to her mother.

For her general education little Annie was placed under the care of the late Miss Bass at the well-known school in the Camden road, but she left that lady before she was sixteen years of age to enter the theatrical profession. When she made her debut she had not seen more than two theatrical performances, but, as has been said of her, she had a lively imagination, she had heard a good deal, she had dreamed a good deal, and in her school life she had manifested a liking for reading which had in it something of dramatic interest.

When, in recital, she was heard by the late esteemed actor, John Maclean, he was quick to recognise her ability. He undertook to give her lessons in elocution, and recommended that she should study and practice the art of acting in that school at Margate where Miss Sarah Thorne has sent out so many pupils to command fame and fortune. The expense prevented this, and Miss Hughes sought to gain experience by appearing with certain amateur dramatic clubs - notably with the Whittington.

Very soon she was, so to speak, snapped up by Mr. Charles Hawtrey, who started her on a country tour with The Private Secretary, and within a few weeks brought her back to London to take the place of Miss Maud Millett in the same piece at the Globe. Subsequently she joined Mr. Charles Wyndham, and her stage work since has made her the favourite of thousands.

Miss Annie Hughes has a literary turn of mind. She has written sundry pretty poems and stories for the magazines; but now that she is married she says, piquantly but plaintively: "I have no time to scribble now."

Queen Victoria was only a youthful princess when there was born at Liverpool a little actress who was destined to add very largely to the enjoyment of tens of thousands of her Majesty's subjects. This was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Vining, actors of repute, the lady being a special favourite at the Surrey.

Before her education was finished Miss Vining gained some experience as an amateur, and made an early appearance on the regular stage at Southampton. In the diary of the late E. L. Blanchard there appears, under the date Monday, June 14, 1847, "Mrs. H. Vining and her two daughters called to go to Vauxhall. Weather very rainy; miserable evening in consequence." When quite a girl Miss Vining became a member of the company at the Theatre Royal, Manchester, where she married the comedian Mr. John Wood, with whom she went to America in 1854, making her debut at the New Boston theatre. Five years later she was manageress of the American theatre, San Francisco.

In 1800 the lady returned to London, appearing on Nov. 12 at the Princess's in a version of Barnaby Rudge, when her Miss Miggs was pronounced to be too American in the character of its fun.

Mrs. John Wood is a great lover of dogs, and for long has treasured a parrot whose cage inscription calls up pleasant remembrances of the time when it's mistress was declaring night after night to enthusiastic audiences at the St. James's that "His 'eart was true to Poll."

The lady is fond of telling of an adventure of her early career, when she played the part of the Unprotected Female. On her journey to New Orleans, her guardian, who had been carried off, only succeeded in getting carried on again when he stood on his head by the rail-side, and thus attracted the attention of the travelling authorities to one who was thought to be hopelessly insane.

This daintiest of dancers, the successor of charming Kate Vaughan, was born in the neighbourhood of Birmingham, and has passed almost her whole life upon the stage. At the tender age of four she was sent on at the Birmingham Theatre Royal to play in Uncle Tom's Cabin. The story runs that her part was that of a little nigger with a woolly head and her soul was sorely vexed when she had to hide her own sunny locks with the sable tow supplied by tbe wig-maker.

Soon afterwards Letty's services were secured for a provincial tour with Hungler's circus, and, as the heroine of the fairy spectacle Cinderella, she worked her way into public favour. At the mature age of twelve she was still dancing, but she began to exercise her tiny but taking voice in songs of the serio comic order.

After some few years of work with an entertainment of the German Reed kind Letty attracted the attention of Mr. Charles Wyndham, and when she was seventeen years old she was engaged as understudy to Miss Nellie Bromley in the revival of Betsy at the Criterion. Later she toured with that farcical comedy and with Truth.

Subsequently she scored brilliant successes in pantomime at the Alexandra theatre, Liverpool; toured again with My Sweetheart; was brought back to London by the late Mr Augustus Harris for the part of the Princess in Puts In Boots at Drury Lane, and in 1887 was captured by Mr. George Edwardes, who has found her literally worth her weight in gold.

Here is a little story illustrative of the actress's pluck and devotion to duty. Everybody who was then in London remembers the great snowstorm of Jan. 18, 1881. Miss Letty Lind having missed her train for the Alexandra palace, and knowing she was due on the stage before another could possibly arrive, implored the driver of an engine which chanced to be going to Crouch End to permit her to ride with him. Touched by her earnest appeal he consented, and landed her as near as he could to her destination. When she alighted she had to fight her way through the blinding snowdrifts, and after a hard and weary struggle reached the palace in an exhausted condition, but just in time to dress and go on with her part. Miss Lind's sisters on the stage are known as Millie Hilton, Lydia Flopp and Adelaide. Astor, the latter being the wife of Mr. George Grossmith, jun.

Sarah Bernhardt

"I shall be either a nun or an actress" were the words Sarah Berahardt says she remembers saying when, a girl of fourteen, she was leaving the convent of Grand Champ, where she had been educated. It may be that these histrionic aspirations came to her through the accident of birth, for her mother was a Dutch Jewess, a race noted for dramatic power, and her father a French lawyer.

Sarah, who was really christened Rosine, was born at Paris, where her father held a good position in the magistrature, on Oct. 22, 1844. Her early childhood was spent in Amsterdam, where she lived with her grandfather, an optician; and we are told the old gentleman was very proud of her powers of mimicry, often coaxing her to exhibit them to his customers.

In her tenth year she was sent to the convent to finish her education; and, just a year after making the little speech recorded at the commencement of this article - namely, Nov. 29, 1859 - little Sarah entered the Conservatoire. In the preliminary examination for this she recited a fable of La Fontaine with success, but when asked to recite something else she broke down and cried. Her manner, however, was so impressive that she won the esteem of her examiners, and was admitted notwithstanding her failure.

At the Conservatoire she studied under Samson and Provost, the latter having been the master of Rachel. Sarah gained the second prize for tragedy in 1861, and in the following year the second for comedy. These successes secured her an engagement at the Francaise, where she appeared the first time in the Iphigenie of Racine, and later in the Valerie of Scribe.

Miss Le Briton

Twenty years, at least, have passed away since the time when Mrs. Langtry formed one of a trio whose personal graces had made their names famous not only in fashionable society, but among all classes whose admiration had been won through the agency of the photographer. There is a tradition that one great firm devoted to the camera had the foundation of its fortune by reproducing "The Jersey Lily."

Lillie Le Breton was born on Oct. 13, 1852. at St. Saviour's, Jersey, her father being the late Rev. W. C. Le Breton, Dean of Jersey. She was quite an ordinary-looking child, and during her girlhood and eduction, which was conducted at home, gave no indication that she was destined to make anything of a sensation in later life. Certainly no visionary would have dared to prophesy that she would command the recognition of Royalty, that her beauty would become the talk of the world, and that she would ever figure amongst the foremost on the stage and on "the turf."

It is possible - indeed prouable - that she derived her theatrical aspiration from her father the Dean, who was a ripe Shakesperian scholar and an admirable reciter - quite as good, it is said by those who have heard him, as the late distinguished elocutionist, the Rev. Mr. Bellew. During his lifetime he frequently gave recitals from Shakespeare, Milton, &c., in aid of the local charities, and he was liberally-minded enough to take the chair when the popular and esteemed manager of the Theatre Royal, Jersey - the well-known Mr. Wybert Ronsby - followed his example. It was the Dean's boast that it was his habit to commit to memory daily a couple of hundred lines or more of the best blank verse.

Miss Le Breton inherited at least some of this elocutionary skill. She was scarcely twenty-two years of age when she entered into matrimony, being led to the altar of her father's church at St. Saviour's by Mr. Edward Langtry, only son of the late Mr. Robert Langtry, of Islay, Scotland. This was on March 9, 1874. Mr. Langtry was connected with the Diplomatic service. The newly-married couple settled at Torquay, and here Mrs. Langtry was soon established as one of the leaders of "society." It was not long before she was shining as a reigning beauty in London. Her histrionic leanings were encouraged by Mrs. Henry Labouchere - the popular Henrietta Hodson - under whose auspices she made her appearance as an amateur, playing Lady Clare St. John in A Fair Encounter.

Great was the sensation when in 1881 it was whispered that Mrs. Langtry was "going on the stage," and it was greater still when the event took place, at the Haymarket theatre, on the afternoon of Dec. 15. The piece waa Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer, Mrs. Langtry being the Miss Hardcastle.

Miss St. John

The bright particular star of opera bouffe, and comic opera and burlesque - the sweetest singer among those who through long years kept brilliant the "sacred lamp" - was not born at the footlights, or cradled at "the wings," her parents being in no way connected with the theatrical profession. When quite a child she betryaed more than ordinary vocal ability, and there is a legend to the effect that her services were sought and secured before she entered her teens by the proprietor of a panorama for the musical illustration of some of his pictures.

The promised salary of thirty shillings a week became so small by decrees and so aggravatingly less - the shillings were often represented by as many pence - that the pursuit of fortune in this direction was after a time abandoned.

Miss St. John never had what could be called a musical training. Her father,who was a Scotchman - Mr. Greig - was a good musician, and taught her what he could, but her mother, who was a Cornish woman, when she sought lessons for her from a professional lady, was met with the reply: "Your daughter already sings like a nightingale; I can teach her nothing."

When a mere child Miss Margaret Greig ran away from home to get married. "They do say in Cornwall" she has been heard to remark, "that a mixture of Scotch and Cornish is the devil: so what can you expect of me?" Her husband falling into a consumption, terrible privations followed, but were fought against with unflinching courage.

"I am not ashamed of my early struggles," says Miss St. John, "why should I be? I think if you begin at the bottom it is all the more creditable to have reached the top. When I was engaged at 'The Oxford' I had pawned everything I possessed, and I had to beg for work before I got it." For be it known that the charming actress and vocalist's first London appearance was at the music hall named. She had had an engagement in Wales, and had fallen into the clutches of a bogus manager.

Miss St. John has told the story in this fashion:- "One of the comedians had to sing a song with some boot-blacking business introduced, and I lent him one of my walking boots to take on. I was waiting at the wings for my boot to go home, when a woman came to me and explained that the manager was bolting with the receipts. I got my boot and went to his lodgings. I bullied him and threatened till he gave me fifteen shillings - half my salary - making me promise to say I had not got anything at all out of him. When I got back I said I had received five shillings. The poor woman went in and got nothing. That was the only mean thing I have ever done. But my husband was dying. How we got back to London I don't know."

There is a world of pathos in this little story, and the reader may learn from it something of the painful ordeals through which many of those who minister to the public amusement have to pass. Miss Florence St. John sang at The Oxford under the name of Miss Florence Leslie, her engagement commencing on July 6th. 1875, extending over twelve weeks, and terminating on Oct. 30th. Her sweet voice and captivating style gained her many admirers during her stay, and her vocal ability was warmly recognised by mant excellent judges.

Primary Sources: As indicated.