sothern – Shakespeare and the Players at Emory University Mon, 10 Aug 2015 19:03:16 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.5 124205043 Julia Marlowe /julia-marlowe/ Mon, 10 Aug 2015 19:03:16 +0000 http://scholarblogs.emory.edu/shakespeare/?p=1934 Read more]]> (1866-1950)

Sarah Frances Frost (Marlowe’s birth name) was born in England and came to the United States as a child in 1870. Her first stage appearance was in 1878 in Gilbert and Sullivan’s H. M. S. Pinafore. She was always popular with her audiences, and over the years became famous for her roles as Juliet, Viola, Rosalind, Beatrice, and Portia. After a stressful and failed marriage to and divorce from the ambitious actor Robert Taber, in 1904 Marlowe began performing with her second husband-to-be, E. H. Sothern, himself a distinguished Shakespearean. Although Marlowe was already a Broadway star in her own right, and was considered to be the best actress in the country, their first success as a team was in Romeo & Juliet in 1904. Seven years later, they married.

In 1907 she returned with her husband to England and as a member of Sothern’s company excelled in various plays in the company’s Shakespeare repertory. However, much of their major success was on Broadway. For a short time, they introduced Shakespeare to a much wider audience by performing many of his works at affordable prices at the Academy of Music in New York. She and her husband made eleven phonograph recordings of Shakespeare scenes between 1920 and 1921. She performed chiefly in the plays of Shakespeare and worked almost constant until her retirement in 1924. Later in life, George Washington University and Columbia University each conferred upon her honorary doctorate degrees. During her own lifetime, she was the subject of two biographies, one by a John D. Barry (1899) and another by Charles Edward Russell (1926), one of the founders of the NAACP.

Marlowe became somewhat of a recluse after Sothern died in 1933. They had no children, and she passed away in 1950 at the age of eighty-five.

From around 1895 owned and lived at the mansion at 337 Riverside Drive, New York City. Marlowe financed the townhome with the profits from her many Broadway successes, including both Shakespeare roles and her acclaimed role as Mary Tudor in Paul Kester’s adaptation of When Knighthood Was In Flower.

Marlowe’s stage prowess was well-acknowledged and long-lived. One reporter, in a 1903 edition of The New York Sun, noted of Marlowe: “There is not a woman player in America or in England that is—attractively considered—fit to unlace her shoe.” 

Julia Marlowe as Ophelia and E. H. Sothern as Hamlet in "Hamlet" Julia Marlowe as Juliet and E. H. Sothern as Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet" Julia Marlowe as Juliet and E. H. Sothern as Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet" (a) Julia Marlowe as Beatrice in "Much Ado about Nothing" Julia Marlowe as Juliet and E. H. Sothern as Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet" (c) Julia Marlowe and E. H. Sothern in "Seven Performances" Julia Marlowe as Beatrice and E.H. Sothern as Benedick in "Much Ado About Nothing" Julia Marlowe as Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet" Julia Marlowe Julia Marlowe as Ophelia and E. H. Sothern as Hamlet in "Hamlet" ]]>
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E. H. Sothern /e-h-sothern/ Tue, 04 Aug 2015 19:39:03 +0000 http://scholarblogs.emory.edu/shakespeare/?p=1795 Read more]]> (1859-1933)

Edward Hugh Sothern was born in New Orleans. His first American stage appearance was at the Park Theatre, New York, in 1879. His first London appearance was at the Royalty Theatre in 1881, two years before returning to the United States. In 1900, he appeared in Hamlet, his first Shakespeare performance at the Garden Theatre in New York City.

In 1904, Sothern first played with Julia Marlowe in Romeo & Juliet at the Illinois Theatre in Chicago. That same year, in repertory, he did Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet. The next year, in Cleveland, he added The Taming of the Shrew and The Merchant of Venice. In 1905, at the Knickerbocker Theatre in New York, he played the same bill and added Twelfth Night with himself in the role of Malvolio. In 1907, he performed in the same four plays at the Lyric Theatre in New York. In 1907, he returned to England where he had a successful season with these and several popular non-Shakespeare plays.

When he returned to the United States, he added Antony & Cleopatra opening at the New Theatre, New York. He and Marlowe then toured with their productions of Shakespeare. When he returned to New York and the Broadway Theatre in 1910, he played in Macbeth for the first time. In 1911, he divorced his first wife and married Marlowe before the two went on to do many more Shakespeare plays together, including a tour in 1912-13. For a short time, they introduced Shakespeare to a much wider audience by performing many of his works at affordable prices at the Academy of Music in New York.

His final role in Shakespeare was as Leonatus in Cymbeline in 1923 at the Jolson Theatre. He then spent his time, beginning in 1928, traveling and lecturing on the many roles in Shakespeare that he and Julia had played.

Julia Marlowe as Ophelia and E. H. Sothern as Hamlet in "Hamlet" E. H. Sothern as Hamlet in "Hamlet" Julia Marlowe as Ophelia and E. H. Sothern as Hamlet in "Hamlet" Julia Marlowe as Juliet and E. H. Sothern as Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet" Julia Marlowe as Juliet and E. H. Sothern as Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet" (c) Julia Marlowe as Beatrice and E.H. Sothern as Benedick in "Much Ado About Nothing" E. H. Sothern as Hamlet in "Hamlet" E. H. Sothern as Hamlet in "Hamlet" Julia Marlowe and E. H. Sothern in "Seven Performances" Julia Marlowe as Juliet and E. H. Sothern as Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet" (a) ]]>
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