[E] Frances Anne Kemble, authoress, poetess, and actress, beautiful and gifted, was born in London, November 27, 1809. To save her father, Charles Kemble, from bankruptcy, she went on the stage in 1829 and at once took her place on the top of the ladder, disdaining, however (as did an eminent American actress), the steps which led to renown, and made friends, fame, and fortune. For nearly three years she filled Covent Garden and replenished its exhausted treasury with her wonderful impersonation of Juliet (her first part), and in Lady Teazle, Portia, Beatrice, Bianca, as well as her aunt's (Mrs. Siddons) great characters, Isabella, Euphrasia, Calista and Belvidera. Equal to her Juliet was her original part of Julia in the "Hunchback," and when she came with her father to America in September, 1832, her reception and continued support by the best elements of society were unprecedented. In the full tide of triumphant success she left the stage in 1834 to make an unhappy alliance with Pierce Butler of Philadelphia, who took her—an ardent abolitionist—to his plantation in Georgia. In 1845 she became divorced from Mr. Butler. The following year she spent with her talented sister, Adelaide Kemble Sartoris, in Continental travel, and in 1847 commenced her famous readings, with unvarying success both in America and England. The last of these in New York was given to crowded and cultured audiences in Steinway Hall, October, 1868. She died at her daughter's residence in London, January 16, 1893.
[F] Charles, youngest of the Kemble family, was born the year his sister, Mrs. Siddons, made her first appearance at Drury Lane, 1775. This graceful, elegant actor, after awkward beginnings, became the incomparable Mercutio, Falconbridge, Mirabel, Cassio, Orlando, Captain Absolute, Charles Surface, Romeo, and Benedick of the English stage for nearly a quarter of a century—most of it passed with his talented family at Drury Lane, Haymarket, and Covent Garden Theatres; of the last named he became manager, to his infinite loss and vexation.
Saved from ruin by his daughter's talents, he brought her to America in 1832 to reap a golden harvest. His fame and her beauty, with their combined brilliant acting, filled the leading theatres of the country till 1834, when she married and in 1835 he returned to England to remain. Although he fairly performed leading parts in tragedies such as Hamlet, Pierre, Richard III., and Othello, his gay, gallant, and effective personation of high comedy carried the intelligent audiences by storm.
From 1835 to 1840 he occasionally acted in England, but preferred giving readings of Shakespeare, which he did frequently by royal command, though his increasing deafness interfered greatly with his stage performances. He held the position of Examiner of Plays, to which he had been appointed by the Lord Chamberlain, until his death on November 11, 1854.
[G] Alexina Fisher, born in Frankfort, Ky., in 1822, inherited her brilliant talents from her popular father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Palmer Fisher, the latter best known to fame and Philadelphia audiences as Mrs. Edward N. Thayer. Alexina, who appeared in infancy on the stage, made her first success as Young Norval at the New York Bowery in 1831, although she had previously appeared at the Park as Clara in the "Maid of Milan," and she became, like her relative and predecessor, the celebrated Clara Fisher, a starring "infant prodigy," even performing Juliet to George Jones's Romeo for her benefit at the Bowery. From 1835 to 1850 Miss Fisher was attached for seven years to the Chestnut and eight years to the Walnut's regular companies in Philadelphia, dividing the honors, as a comedienne, with her mother.
In 1851 she married John Lewis Baker and went with him to California for three years, performing there and subsequently at the various theatres he managed in Cincinnati, Louisville, and lastly the Grand Opera House, New York, all the leading characters in genteel comedy and lighter tragedy with unvarying success. Her last appearance in New York was in support of Edwin Booth during his famous Winter Garden engagement of 1862. She died in Philadelphia, March 27, 1887.
[H] Madame Celeste, who came here under the name of Mademoiselle Celeste, in June, 1827, and bounded at once into the affections of young New York, claimed to be but fourteen years of age when she appeared at the Bowery, then called the American Theatre. The next year the precocious beauty became the wife of Henry Elliott, of Baltimore, but remained on the stage the only première danseuse and pantomimist in the country.
After two years of immense success in our cities she returned home to Paris, then to London, and became a star on the English stage. Every few years she would make her "last appearance in America," and her farewell benefits outnumbered Miss Cushman's. Much as she played in English-speaking lands she was unable to learn the language until late in her career, and her attractions were confined to her wonderfully expressive pantomime and her exquisite dancing; she created Mathilde in the "French Spy," Miami in the "Green Bushes," Fenella in "Masaniello," Miriam in "The Woman in Red" and the Bayadère in Auber's beautiful ballet-opera.
[I] Charlotte Saunders Cushman, descendant of the Puritan Cushmans of Mayflower days, fought down the ill-success attending her first essay in opera, and after years of struggling as a poorly paid stock actress at the Bowery and Park Theatres, by sheer merit rose to the position of the Queen of Tragedy, and maintained it for twenty years. From 1845 to 1849, and again from 1852 to 1857, she was so recognized in England and divided the applause with Macready at the Princess's Theatre in London on her first visit. Her forcible and almost masculine manner and face prevented success in comedy, but made her Meg Merrilies, Nancy Sykes, and Helen McGregor, as well as Lady Macbeth, Alicia, Queen Catherine, and Bianca world renowned. In heavy tragedy and melodrama no one has filled her place. She was acceptable as Romeo, which she often played, and passable as Hamlet, Wolsey, and even Claude Melnotte. During the war she performed several times for the sanitary commissions, and gave liberally of her large fortune. She contented herself with giving readings, which were uniformly successful, from 1870 to 1875, and died, in her native city of Boston, February 18, 1876, in her sixtieth year.
[J] Thomas Apthorpe Cooper left unappreciative London in his twentieth year to try his fortune with Manager Thomas Wignell at the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia in 1796. There, as afterward in New York, his handsome face and figure, fine voice, and unquestioned ability made him the popular favorite in leading parts both of tragedy and genteel comedy.