Blanche Oelrichs
Encyclopedia
Blanche Oelrichs was an American
poet
, playwright
, and theatre
actress known by the pseudonym, "Michael Strange."
' opulent mansion in Newport, Rhode Island
designed by renowned architect Stanford White
, Blanche Oelrichs spent summers amidst the Astors
, the Vanderbilts
and numerous other wealthy elites of American society. Her parents were Charles May Oelrichs, and Blanche de Loosey (whose sister was Emilie de Loosey, later Mrs Theodore A. Havemeyer). Her sister Natalie, always known as Lily, became Mrs Peter Martin of San Francisco, and after Peter Martin's premature death, later married Heinrich Borwin, Duke of Mecklenburg, but they later divorced.
On January 26, 1910, Blanche Oelrichs married Leonard Moorhead Thomas, the son of a prominent Philadelphia banker, with whom she had two children, Leonard Jr. (b. 1911-1968) and Robin May Thomas (1915–1944). A Yale University
graduate, her husband had worked in the diplomatic service in Rome
and Madrid
and served with the United States Army
in Europe
during World War I
, earning the Croix de Guerre
from the government of France
. Blanche Oelrichs involved herself as an activist for women's suffrage
but her love for literature
and poetry
, especially the works of Walt Whitman
, saw her begin writing verse of her own. Using the pen name
Michael Strange, she had her first collection of poems published in 1916.
Through her social activities, Blanche Oelrichs-Thomas met renowned actor John Barrymore
. They had been introduced by actress Cathleen Nesbitt
, Barrymore's leading woman in the 1916 play Justice. Blanche continued seeing him for four years and after divorcing Thomas she married Barrymore on August 5, 1920, when she was already several months' pregnant with their only child, Diana Blanche Barrymore
, who was born on March 3, 1921. With drawings provided by John Barrymore, Blanche Oelrichs published a book in 1921 titled "Resurrecting Life." She then turned her writing skills to the creation of theatrical
plays including a 1921 Broadway
production titled "Clair de lune." Based on "L'Homme qui rit
" by Victor Hugo
, her play starred her husband and his sister Ethel Barrymore
. It was made into a 1932 movie of the same name in France
by director Henri Diamant-Berger.
In 1921, Oelrichs was among the first to join the Lucy Stone League
, an organization that fought for women to preserve their maiden names after marriage.
Frequently apart from her husband due to his performing in New York and London, England, Blanche Oelrichs spent a great deal of time in Paris, France
during the next few years. After returning to live in New York, she began acting in live theatre. After her marriage to John Barrymore ended in May 1925 she performed on stage with a summer stock company in Salem, Massachusetts
and appeared in two Broadway plays in 1926 and 1927.
Another book of Oelrichs' poetry was published in 1928 under the title "Selected poems, by Michael Strange" and the following year she married a third time to the prominent New York attorney Harrison Tweed
who later became Chairman of Sarah Lawrence College
. During the second half of the 1930s Oelrichs hosted a poetry and music program on New York radio station WOR
that gained a strong audience. In 1940, Blanche Oelrichs published her autobiography, "Who Tells Me True." In 1942 she and Harrison Tweed divorced and in 1944 her son Robin died at the age of twenty-nine.
Starting in the summer of 1940 until her death, Oelrichs was in a long-term relationship with Margaret Wise Brown
, the author of many children's books. The relationship began as something of a mentoring one, but became a romantic relationship including co-habitating at 10 Gracie Street beginning in 1943.
In 1960 her daughter Diana Barrymore died at age thirty-eight after several years of drug and alcohol addiction. Her older son Leonard was married to painter Yvonne Thomas
nee Navella. Two daughters were born to Leonard and Yvonne and are the only grandchildren of Blanche Oelrichs.
Blanche Oelrichs died from leukemia
in 1950 in Boston, Massachusetts. She was interred with her son Robin in the Oelrichs family plot in the Woodlawn Cemetery
in The Bronx, New York.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
, and theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
actress known by the pseudonym, "Michael Strange."
Biography
Born Blanche Marie Louise Oelrichs at her uncle's Hermann OelrichsHermann Oelrichs
Hermann Oelrichs , was an American businessman, multimillionaire, and owner of Norddeutsche Lloyd shipping. The grandson of a German immigrant, Oelrichs was married in 1890 to Teresa Alice Fair, daughter of United States Senator and Comstock Lode millionaire James Graham Fair...
' opulent mansion in Newport, Rhode Island
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about south of Providence. Known as a New England summer resort and for the famous Newport Mansions, it is the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport which houses the United States Naval War...
designed by renowned architect Stanford White
Stanford White
Stanford White was an American architect and partner in the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White, the frontrunner among Beaux-Arts firms. He designed a long series of houses for the rich and the very rich, and various public, institutional, and religious buildings, some of which can be found...
, Blanche Oelrichs spent summers amidst the Astors
Astor family
The Astor family is a Anglo-American business family of German descent notable for their prominence in business, society, and politics.-Founding family members:...
, the Vanderbilts
Vanderbilt family
The Vanderbilt family is an American family of Dutch origin prominent during the Gilded Age. It started off with the shipping and railroad empires of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and expanded into various other areas of industry and philanthropy...
and numerous other wealthy elites of American society. Her parents were Charles May Oelrichs, and Blanche de Loosey (whose sister was Emilie de Loosey, later Mrs Theodore A. Havemeyer). Her sister Natalie, always known as Lily, became Mrs Peter Martin of San Francisco, and after Peter Martin's premature death, later married Heinrich Borwin, Duke of Mecklenburg, but they later divorced.
On January 26, 1910, Blanche Oelrichs married Leonard Moorhead Thomas, the son of a prominent Philadelphia banker, with whom she had two children, Leonard Jr. (b. 1911-1968) and Robin May Thomas (1915–1944). A Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
graduate, her husband had worked in the diplomatic service in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
and served with the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, earning the Croix de Guerre
Croix de guerre
The Croix de guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts...
from the government of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Blanche Oelrichs involved herself as an activist for women's suffrage
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
but her love for literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
and poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, especially the works of Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman
Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
, saw her begin writing verse of her own. Using the pen name
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
Michael Strange, she had her first collection of poems published in 1916.
Through her social activities, Blanche Oelrichs-Thomas met renowned actor John Barrymore
John Barrymore
John Sidney Blyth , better known as John Barrymore, was an acclaimed American actor. He first gained fame as a handsome stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III...
. They had been introduced by actress Cathleen Nesbitt
Cathleen Nesbitt
Cathleen Mary Nesbitt, CBE was an English stage and film actress.-Biography:Born in Cheshire, England in 1888, of Welsh and Irish descent, Nesbitt was educated in Lisieux, France, and at the Queen's University of Belfast and the Sorbonne...
, Barrymore's leading woman in the 1916 play Justice. Blanche continued seeing him for four years and after divorcing Thomas she married Barrymore on August 5, 1920, when she was already several months' pregnant with their only child, Diana Blanche Barrymore
Diana Barrymore
Diana Barrymore was an American film and stage actress.-Early life:Born Diana Blanche Barrymore Blythe in New York City, New York, she was the daughter of renowned actor John Barrymore and his second wife, poet Blanche Oelrichs...
, who was born on March 3, 1921. With drawings provided by John Barrymore, Blanche Oelrichs published a book in 1921 titled "Resurrecting Life." She then turned her writing skills to the creation of theatrical
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
plays including a 1921 Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
production titled "Clair de lune." Based on "L'Homme qui rit
The Man Who Laughs
The Man Who Laughs is a novel by Victor Hugo, originally published in April 1869 under the French title L'Homme qui rit. Also published under the title By Order of the King...
" by Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
, her play starred her husband and his sister Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors.-Early life:Ethel Barrymore was born Ethel Mae Blythe in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second child of the actors Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew...
. It was made into a 1932 movie of the same name in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
by director Henri Diamant-Berger.
In 1921, Oelrichs was among the first to join the Lucy Stone League
Lucy Stone League
The Lucy Stone League is a women’s rights organization founded in 1921. Its motto is "My name is the symbol of my identity and must not be lost"...
, an organization that fought for women to preserve their maiden names after marriage.
Frequently apart from her husband due to his performing in New York and London, England, Blanche Oelrichs spent a great deal of time in Paris, France
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
during the next few years. After returning to live in New York, she began acting in live theatre. After her marriage to John Barrymore ended in May 1925 she performed on stage with a summer stock company in Salem, Massachusetts
Salem, Massachusetts
Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...
and appeared in two Broadway plays in 1926 and 1927.
Harrison Tweed
Harrison Tweed, , was a New York City lawyer and civic leader.-Life and career:Tweed was born in New York City on October 18, 1885. He was the son of Charles Harrison Tweed, the general counsel for the Central Pacific Railroad, Chesapeake and Ohio and other affiliated railroad corporations, and...
who later became Chairman of Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States, and a leader in progressive education since its founding in 1926. Located just 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, this coeducational college offers...
. During the second half of the 1930s Oelrichs hosted a poetry and music program on New York radio station WOR
WOR (AM)
WOR is a class A , AM radio station located in New York, New York, U.S., operating on 710 kHz. The station has a talk format and has been owned by Buckley Broadcasting since 1987, after the station was sold by RKO. The station has conservative, or right-of-center hosts.Its call letters have no...
that gained a strong audience. In 1940, Blanche Oelrichs published her autobiography, "Who Tells Me True." In 1942 she and Harrison Tweed divorced and in 1944 her son Robin died at the age of twenty-nine.
Starting in the summer of 1940 until her death, Oelrichs was in a long-term relationship with Margaret Wise Brown
Margaret Wise Brown
Margaret Wise Brown was a prolific American author of children's literature, including the books Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny, both illustrated by Clement Hurd.-Biography:...
, the author of many children's books. The relationship began as something of a mentoring one, but became a romantic relationship including co-habitating at 10 Gracie Street beginning in 1943.
In 1960 her daughter Diana Barrymore died at age thirty-eight after several years of drug and alcohol addiction. Her older son Leonard was married to painter Yvonne Thomas
Yvonne Thomas
Yvonne Thomas was an American abstract artist.-Life:She immigrated to the United States in 1925, and studied at The Cooper Union, and the Art Students League...
nee Navella. Two daughters were born to Leonard and Yvonne and are the only grandchildren of Blanche Oelrichs.
Blanche Oelrichs died from leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
in 1950 in Boston, Massachusetts. She was interred with her son Robin in the Oelrichs family plot in the Woodlawn Cemetery
Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx
Woodlawn Cemetery is one of the largest cemeteries in New York City and is a designated National Historic Landmark.A rural cemetery located in the Bronx, it opened in 1863, in what was then southern Westchester County, in an area that was annexed to New York City in 1874.The cemetery covers more...
in The Bronx, New York.
Broadway productions, under the pseudonym Michael Strange
- 1921 Clair de Lune
- 1926 Easter One Day More
- 1928 L'Aiglon
External links
- Michael Strange papers, 1917-1925. Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
- newspaper clipping announcing wedding of Blanche Oelrichs and first husband Leonard Thomas
- http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/BE070398/john-barrymore-wmichael-strangeBlanche Oelrichs with her second husband John Barrymore on board the S.S. MauretaniaRMS Mauretania (1906)RMS Mauretania was an ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson at Wallsend, Tyne and Wear for the British Cunard Line, and launched on 20 September 1906. At the time, she was the largest and fastest ship in the world. Mauretania became a favourite among...
1922] - John and Blanche aboard the Mauretania different pose, 1922
- Blanche Oelrichs in 1929 aboard the SS France
- Blanche Oelrichs giving speech, 1932
- Blanche Oelrichs in group photo, lower left of picture
- Passport photo 1923
- article on Blanche Oelrichs by great-granddaughter, Joana Avillez
