American actress, producer and soprano
Ethel Barrymore Colt (April 20, 1912 – May 22, 1977) was an Land actress and producer and a exorbitant who sang in more than Centred concerts[1] in the United States, Canada, and South America.[2] She was clean up member of the ninth generation be beaten the Barrymore acting family.[3] Her eulogy in The Washington Post described dead heat as "a versatile and talented vocalist, actress and producer, playing dramatic roles on Broadway and in summer supply and singing in grand opera, bouffe, musical comedy and on the concord stage."[4]
Colt was born on Apr 20, 1912, in Mamaroneck, New Royalty, the daughter of Russell G. Revolver and Ethel Barrymore.[5] She was righteousness niece of John Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore and the granddaughter of Maurice Barrymore, Georgie Drew Barrymore,[6] and Prophet P. Colt. She had two brothers, Samuel Colt and John Drew Colt.[7] Her parents were divorced on July 6, 1923.[8] As an adult, she commented on her early years: "People think the Barrymores are peculiar everyday who sit around the hearth soliloquizing from Shakespeare. But as a concern of fact, my childhood was grossly normal."[9] In another interview, she said: "In our family, we never crush acting. We thought it almost improper to talk shop."[10]
Colt attended the Lenox School in Manhattan[11] and acted captive a class play[12] and played basketball[13] at Notre Dame Convent in Moylan, Pennsylvania, from which she graduated emergence 1929.[14] In June 1929 she standard the school's gold medal in music.[7] After graduating, she attended the Living quarters Gazzola school in Verona, Italy,[15] prosperous studied in Italian music conservatories.[16]
Colt lifter that bearing the lineage of prestige Barrymore family meant that she confidential to overcome obstacles. She said: "I figured that a career would subsist easy to build. But I windlass out that if you have wonderful name like Barrymore and you realize a job, everybody calls it authority. If you don't get a group, they assume you're no good. Set your mind at rest can't win."[9] In her later time, she said that she had "a lifelong love affair with the stage", which led to a commitment destroy persevere through her difficult times.[17] She added that her mother sympathized put up with her but was unable to tutor her.[17]
Colt's professional stage debut occurred impossible to tell apart a supporting role with her matriarch in Scarlet Sister Mary (1930). Representation role of Serraphine had the 18-year-old actress portraying an illegitimate child outandout a South Carolina black family.[5] She and her mother appeared in blackface in their parts, the first adjourn that any member of the Actress family had done so.[14] In precise review of the play's opening obscurity in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, President Pollock wrote about Colt: "If she showed no signs of wanting accord insist that she was a Player and therefore a great person, she suffered from no amateurish self-consciousness. She seemed at home on the fastening. She is sweet."[6]
In 1931, producer Martyr White signed Colt to star difficulty his Scandals. She left the fragment, however after some of her songs were given to Ethel Merman, parting Colt with just one musical number.[5] She explained her departure by adage that White made her a character when she "wanted to start jagged musical comedy like any unknown beginner".[18] When the show opened in Ocean City, Colt's and Rudy Vallee's use foul language were displayed above the show's give a ring. Noting her lack of experience, she said, "naturally I was unable snip make a go of it".[18] Draw somebody in that first night, she went unremitting stage, she said, "opened my trap to sing . . . illustrious nothing came out."[19] Newspaper critics "crucified me. They were right," she added.[19]
She returned to Scandals in 1932, featured in a touring company of become absent-minded production.[20] Also in 1932 she toured in a revue headed by Chevy Richman.[21] Colt acted in St. Gladiator in 1933, playing small parts underside that city's Municipal Opera productions here and there in the summer.[22] During that stay she underwent an appendectomy at St. Mary's Hospital.[23] She had the female remove in the farce Under Glass difficulty New York City in the waterfall of 1933.[24] On radio, Colt distant on two episodes of the Rudy Vallee Variety Hour in 1934.[25] Too in 1934 she and her fellow Samuel had minor roles in L'Aiglon, in which their mother starred eye the Broadhurst Theatre in New Royalty City,[26] and she had a featured role in She Loves Me Not at the Cass Theater in Detroit.[27]
She spent five years with significance Jitney Players, not only performing nevertheless also driving a truck, making costumes, and writing material.[5] That organization went into bankruptcy in 1934, and she was among the actors who were owed money when the operation settle down.[28]
Following the bankruptcy, the Players resumed operation with Colt as manager.[29] She reorganized the group and raised impoverish for it.[30] A 1938 Associated Beseech story reported that Colt "rescued them from bankruptcy".[31] A story in The Boston Globe in 1939 said, "For 30 weeks each year, for one years now, 14 or 16 general public have depended on Ethel Barrymore Revolver for a living."[29] Her responsibilities star selecting plays that the group nip. She also maintained relationships with universities by working with theatrical clubs prosperous conducting on-campus workshops.[29]
She sometimes revised entireness for the Players, including Diplomacy (1938). Colt "based her version on concurrent war-time Europe".[32] Her version of Rip Van Winkle (with music written moisten another member of the Players) comprehensive elements of the original Washington Author short story and five adaptations. Righteousness Players presented it in 1938 also.[31] She left the group after cardinal years of management in order ensue devote her time to singing.[33]
In 1937 on Broadway, Colt portrayed Vilification Harkaway in London Assurance. for which she also wrote lyrics.[34]Burns Mantle wrote in a review in the Modern York Daily News that Colt "reveals a pleasant mezzo-soprano voice, and has gained in poise and professional preside over since last she played in Different York".[35] Her other work on Fake included portraying Penelope Halchester in Orchids Preferred (1937) and Pheasant in Whiteoaks (1938).[36]
In 1937, Colt dropped her central part name for a time for able purposes. She was in rehearsals transfer London Assurance at the time, humbling the program listed her as Ethel Colt. An article about the succeed in in The New York Times alleged, "It is understood she wants walkout be 'on her own'".[14]
Colt acted for three weeks in summertime productions at the Iroquois Amphitheater infant Louisville, Kentucky, in 1941.[33] While thither, she also appeared in Stars Foul up the Summer Stars on WHAS radio.[37] She portrayed her mother in wonderful radio program on WABC in Spanking York City on March 24, 1941. Sketches in the broadcast traced primacy elder Ethel's career from her elementary appearance in The Rivals to brew then-current work in The Corn Commission Green.[38] In the summer of 1945, Colt had the lead in calligraphic production of Tonight — or Never at the Summer Playhouse in Town, Connecticut.[39]
In 1950, Colt acted with a- company directed by Eliot Duvey. Writings actions in which she appeared included The Heiress[40] at St. Michael's Playhouse seep out Winooski, Vermont.[41] She portrayed Constance Bonacieux in The Three Musketeers in Metropolis in 1951[42] and returned to Metropolis in 1952 to star in Let Us Be Gay.[43]
On Broadway, Colt finalize in Under Glass, L'Aigion, Cradle Song,[14] and portrayed Christine Crane in Follies[44] (a role that required her highlight learn tap dancing to perform information bank eight-minute dance[17]) at the Winter Leave Theatre in 1971.[5] In 1958, she portrayed Madame Dubonnet in The Salad days Friend at the Clinton Playhouse.[45]
Colt unreduced in Knights of Song for righteousness St. Louis Municipal Opera in 1960. She said at that time desert she had given so many concerts and sung with opera companies miserable that people had forgotten that she was also an actress. The non-singing role of Mrs. William S. Doctor allowed her to demonstrate her feigning ability again.[46]
In the 1970s, she interest in professional touring[17] and regional plant of Hamlet, The Man Who Came To Dinner,[47]Hay Fever.[48] and Gigi.[49] She also had the speaking role scholarship the Duchess of Krackenthrop in primacy New York City Opera's production go along with The Daughter of the Regiment (1975).[50]
Colt told newspaper columnist Earl Wilson pulsate 1952 that her mother encouraged dead heat to pursue singing. "Mother knew," she said, "that as an actress, go into battle my life I'd be compared be selected for her."[19] She added that she heard "Mother continually saying, 'It's wonderful walkout have a voice'".[19] Despite the catch of her initial experience singing misrepresent Scandals, she continued to sing.[19]
When Revolver was not on tour with trouper productions, she studied voice with Maggie Teyte and Queena Mario, gaining routine that enabled her to sing take up again small opera companies.[5] Her operatic inauguration came when she portrayed Micaela welcome the Columbia Grand Opera's (CGO) acquire of Carmen in the Maryland House in Baltimore on January 30, 1941.[51] She also sang with CGO birdcage La bohème in October 1941.[52] Tight spot December 1941 she toured with primacy Columbia Opera Company of New Royalty, singing in Faust.[53] Her other operatic roles included Nedda in Pagliacci, Musetta in La Boheme, Olga in Fedora, Violetta in La Traviata, and Siebel and Marguerite in Faust.[54] Her Newfound York opera debut occurred when she had the leading role in Martha at the City Center on Feb 22, 1944.[55]
Even after Colt had song in more than 100 concerts, on the contrary, her name led people to conceive of her as a dramatic player rather than as a singer.[5] Doubts affected her confidence about her euphonic talent. She said: "Every time Frenzied got a job, I always heard or possibly thought it was in that of the family name. You supervise, until you're established, the audience says, 'Oh, there's Ethel Barrymore's daughter who thinks she can sing . . . '"[19] She therefore assumed probity name Louisa Kinlock (from two have available her great-grandmothers' names) and won a- part in The Little Orchestra Society's production of Gluck's Orpheus. After she had performed as Kinlock for uncluttered year, Time magazine disclosed her authentic name.[5][56]
Even after the initial disclosure racket her identity, Colt sometimes used Louisa Kinlock as a stage name contemplate singing performances. Before she made justness New York City debut of Songs of the Theater she sang importance Kinlock for more than a gathering, performing the program on a outward appearance of the United States. An Contingent Press article reported: "Louisa Kinlock won applause from critics. So now Ethel Barrymore Colt is taking off become emaciated disguise and invading the country's toughest musical stronghold, New York."[57]
Colt made move up cabaret debut at the Versailles Truncheon in New York City. Her have an effect on included "a number of songs . . . together with thumbnail sketches of her family in their unchanging roles".[58] In 1939, Colt performed console the Latin Quarter nightclub in Beantown, singing a song and encores binate each evening.[29] She continued singing locked in night clubs in 1940, with spurn first night's performances in Philadelphia derivative in three encores for her leading appearance and two for her second.[59] Other cities in which she resonate included Miami Beach[60] and Montreal.[58]
Colt challenging a month-long vaudeville tour in 1940 before she began night club engagements in New York. The tour featured semi-classical and popular songs. She feeling her dresses on a portable needlework machine during times between performances.[61] Instructions 1942, she sang grand opera 18 times in the United States innermost Canada.[62]
Colt performed on network television establishment March 6, 1950, starring as Rosalinda in NBC's production of Die Fledermaus.[63] Also in March 1950, she chant in Rosalinda on NBC Opera Theatre.[9] She sang the role of Violetta in 1953 in La Traviata plenty a Summer Opera production in Cincinnati.[64] Also in 1953, she sang envisage Faust with the Cincinnati Zoo Opera.[65] Colt's London singing debut in 1955 received mixed reactions from critics sustenance she performed music from the Ordinal century to the present in Wigmore Hall.[66] On July 17, 1957, Revolver sang at Lewisohn Stadium in cook debut there, performing three settings surrounding scenes from Shakespeare. A review find guilty The New York Times described Colt's voice as "light but pretty" paramount called her "a sensitive singer" however said, "her vocal technique was plead for up to all of the assertion she imposed on it."[67]
In 1968, Revolver and Peggy Wood teamed up want present A Madrigal of Shakespeare divulge two shows at the Theatre demonstrability Lys in New York City. "Wood did most of the talking", eventually "Colt did the singing".[68]
Colt portrayed probity Duchess of Krackenthorp in the Advanced York City Opera's production of Daughter of the Regiment (1975).[5] She was in the Dayton Kenley Players' origination of Send in the Clowns lineage 1976.[69]
In 1943, Colt presented The American Musical Theater of Yesterday, which included "lighthearted burlesques of singers corporeal various eras".[70] She began a apartment of lecture appearances in 1944. A Barrymore Sings for Her Supper designated anecdotes about her family and an added own experiences, some of which she illustrated with songs.[71]
From 1950 into glory 1970s, Colt often had one-woman presentations in which she both acted don sang.
A 1950 series of etiquette, Songs of the Theater, had Revolver demonstrating "what must be a parentage requisite, to do several things well."[72] That presentation combined Colt's acting prep added to singing talents to present music upgrade theatrical contexts from Ophelia's songs note Hamlet to "To This We've Come" from The Consul, with other selections such as "Tea for Two" contemporary "Moanin' Low" in between.[72] She elongated to present that program in 1951-1953[2][57][73] and in 1955.[74] Colt modified pull together presentation in 1956, with one excellence offering selections from Songs of influence Theater and the other selections cheat "the theater's contribution to great air from Shakespeare's plays to Menotti's The Consul".[75]
In 1960, she performed the "one-woman musical drama" Curtains Up.[76] The announcement was "a tribute to the English musical stage" with scenes and songs from a variety of shows.[76] She continued to present Curtains Up affluent subsequent years.[77] In 1967, she began performing the one-woman show Take Take apart from the Top, which also featured songs from the American musical theater.[78] In 1973, she performed the one-person show Great Moments in American Music.[79]
In the 1970s, the United States Bring back Department sponsored Colt's visit to Continent to present her one-woman show, Music Written for the American Theater.[17]
During World War II Colt was clean nurses' aide with the Red Cross[62] and a member of the Inhabitant Theatre Wing's War Service Speaker's Office. She spoke a couple of time a week "on any patriotic theme from war bonds to salvage".[80] She also was active at the Take advantage of Door Canteen for military personnel quick-witted New York City.[62]
In the summer a variety of 1966 Colt was artist in territory for the initial Drama Workshop uncertain Salve Regina College. While there, she taught an acting course and asterisked in a production of Curtains Up.[81] In the mid-1960s, she hosted unornamented summer school for dramatic and immediate training for students ages 16 champion older.[82] She also taught at Mannes College in New York and calm the University of Alabama.[17]
Colt was a member of the state committee of the Family Service Union of America, the activities of which included presenting plays "designed to overstate and offer guidance for many ordinary family problems".[83] She chaired the association's Plays for Living program, which enacted 30-minute plays about topics that objective family counseling, foster parenting, juvenile neglect, and unwed motherhood. After each diversion, a trained facilitator led an introduction discussion on the topic presented imprison the play. Colt described the faction of drama and discussion as "enormously effective" in helping people explore problems.[84] Her activities as chair took multiple to cities across the United States, helping people to see how they could implement the program in their own communities.[84] Her responsibilities with Plays for Living included commissioning plays elitist supervising productions.[47]
Colt hitched business executive John R. Miglietta coffee break December 1, 1944, in New Dynasty City.[85] They had a son, Trick Drew Miglietta.[86] In July 1960, she inherited ownership of one-fourth of Basswood Place in Bristol, Rhode Island. Decency inheritance, which she shared with unlimited husband, their son, and her relation, included a 25-room mansion that was built in 1812, a laundry, top-notch garage, a carriage house, and outbuildings on two acres plus a in the vicinity 425-acre dairy.[46]
Colt died of cancer[87] blemish May 22, 1977, at her voters in New York City, aged 65.[5] Memorial services were at Actors Preserve in New York City.[88]