Miss Mary Mannering, Actress

Miss Mary (Mrs. James K. Hackett) Mannering was born in London, England, in 1876. She made her first appearance on the stage in England under the name of Florence Freund, speaking only three lines in the play "Hero and Leander," in which Mrs. James Brown Potter and Kyrle Bellew were joint stars. She then became a pupil of Herman Vezin, the well-known American actor, playing a number of Shakespearian parts throughout the British provinces when she was only eighteen years old. She was playing in a comedy called "The Late Mr. Costello" when Daniel Frohman saw her and engaged her for his New York Lyceum Theatre, where she made her first appearance November 24, 1896, in "The Courtship of Leonie" the season of 1896-7.

The following May she became the wife of James K. Hackett, then the leading man of the company. The marriage was kept a secret until January, 1898. Miss Mannering made personal successes at the Lyceum in "The First Gentleman of Europe," and "The Mayflower," but her biggest hits there were as Fay Zuliani in "The Princess and the Butterfly," and as Rose Trelawney in "Trelawney of the Wells." For some seasons she was a joint star with her husband; then she starred at the head of her own company under his management. The seasons of 1906-7-8 she starred in Mrs. Rida Johnson Young's "Glorious Betsy." Miss Mannering's home was at 38 East Thirty-third street, New York.