Mary Anderson, Actress, Manager

Miss Mary Anderson (Mrs. Antonio F. de Navarro) was born in Sacramento, Cal., July 28, 1859. The following spring her parents moved to Louisville, Ky., and her father joined the Confederate Army. He died at Mobile, Ala. in 1863, at the age of twenty-nine, leaving his young widow with four year old Mary and her ten year old brother, Joseph. When Mary was eight years old her mother married Dr. Hamilton Griffin, of Louisville, who had been a Confederate Army surgeon. The girl was educated at the Ursuline Convent and the Academy of the Presentation, at Louisville. Her stepfather, who was a student of Shakespeare, encouraged her "natural histrionic ambition," and Mary began to read Shakespeare. She was taken to see Edwin Booth act, and when only just in her teens announced her determination to become an actress. To encourage her talent Dr. Griffin let her give recitals at his home and obtained for her instruction from the great Charlotte Cushman. Father Anthony Miller, a Franciscan priest, taught her elocution, and she had ten lessons from Vandenhoff, the public reader.

Miss Anderson's public debut was as Juliet at the Louisville Theatre, in November, 1875, at a trial matinee. Her training paid off. Though she was then only sixteen years old, she was clearly technically accomplished. The Louisville Courier said of the doctor's daughter's performance:

In January, 1876, she appeared for a week at the Louisville Theatre, supported by Macauley's stock company, playing Juliet and Evadne in "The Hunchback." Engagements with stock companies in St. Louis and other cities followed. Then John McCullough gave her leading parts in San Francisco and she made a tour of the South under the management of John T. Ford, of Baltimore. In the fall of 1876 she first appeared at the head of her own company. She made her debut in New York on November 12, 1877 (at the age of 18!), starring for Messrs. Fiske and Harkin at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, playing Parthenia in Ingomar, Juliet, Evadne in Evadne, Meg Merrilies in Guy Mannering and Bianca in Fazio. The following year she played another season at the Fifth Avenue, but the second proved disastrous for the management, ending in a strike for salaries, eviction proceedings, and lawsuits between the partners. Miss Anderson went to Europe, to visit Stratford-on-Avon and Verona no doubt to regroup and refocus.

It was two years before she played Galatea, one of her favorite parts, for the first time in Troy, N.Y., September 26, 1881, and the next year was at Booth's Theatre, New York.

In 1883 Miss Anderson went abroad, and on September 18 made her first stage appearance in England at the Lyceum Theatre, London, as Parthenia and soon played Hermione in A Winter's Tale for a run of 100 consecutive nights, part of a continuous season of ten months. She became the toast of London. She did not return to America until 1888, when she produced, in November, A Winter's Tale at Palmer's Theatre, New York. Miss Anderson suffered a severe illness in March, 1889, and was compelled to cancel all her American engagements and disband her company. In April she sailed for Europe, being ordered to take a prolonged rest. She then abandoned the stage and resisted every inducement to return. Miss Anderson was married to Antonio F. de Navarro at St. Mary's Chapel, Holly Place, Hempstead, England, June 17, 1890. She had two sons. Her home was at Court Farm, Broadway, Warwickshire, England.