Elisabeth Marbury
Encyclopedia
Elisabeth Marbury (June 19, 1856 - January 22, 1933) was a pioneering American theatrical and literary agent and producer who represented a prominent theatrical performers and writers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and helped shape business methods of the modern commercial theater. She was the longtime companion of Elsie de Wolfe
(later known as Lady Mendl), a prominent socialite and famous interior decorator.
(née Anne Marbury) the religious liberal who became one of the founders of Rhode Island after her banishment from Massachusetts Bay Colony. She both used and defied these connections during the Victorian era to establish herself as an important literary and theatrical talent agent and theatrical producer, helping to define and create these very professions as they emerged in the new world of mass production,advertising and popular culture of post-Civil War society of the United States.
Marbury, for many remains a bundle of contradictions. Although she herself was the embodiment of female independence in almost every way, she initially opposed suffrage. She made a bold reversal once women in the USA did receive the right to vote, and in 1918 she became active in the Democratic Party
, serving as a delegate. She was also a passionate convert to Roman Catholicism. She was likewise very active in the Knights of Columbus
, a Catholic organization. In 1923 she published an autobiography, My Crystal Ball:Reminiscences (NY: Boni and Liveright, [1923]). She had earlier published Manners: A Handbook of Social Customs in 1888.
Marbury never married, but lived openly in what many observers accepted as a lesbian relationship with Elsie De Wolfe
for over twenty years. Marbury died in 1933. Her funeral at St. Patrick's Cathedral
was attended by an impressive array of the most important American leaders and dignitaries of the day. De Wolfe was noticeably absent from the funeral, despite the fact that she was the prime beneficiary of Marbury's will.
and George Bernard Shaw
, to the dance team of Vernon and Irene Castle
, as well as being an early promoter of African American writers of the Harlem Renaissance
. She also played an instrumental role in developing the modern "Book Musical" that audiences came to know as defining "Broadway
" in the twentieth century, notably of Cole Porter
's first musical, See America First
,and Jerome Kern (Nobody Home (1915), Very Good, Eddie (1915), and Love o' Mike (1916))through her American Play company.
Her friend and contemporary, the historian/journalist/critic, Henry Adams, a descendant of two United States presidents, would refer to Marbury and her companion Elsie de Wolfe as personifying the American tradition of self-reinvention that gained new vigor at the open of the twentieth century. Marbury and de Wolfe discovered their careers amidst the amateur theatrical performances in high society in late Victorian New York. Both would end up defying this worlds rules and expectations for women by making this interest in theater professional, and in no small way helped pave the way for many other "respectable ladies" that followed, both in the previously frowned upon world of the professional theater as well as independent careers and financial autonomy for women in general.
Thus it was at a 1885 successful benefit theatrical performance that she had organized that Marbury was inspired to try her hand at theater management. In 1888 she persuaded Frances Hodgson Burnett
, who had written a dramatic version of her best-selling Little Lord Fauntleroy
, to hire her as business manager and agent. The association quickly proved highly profitable to both women.
In 1891 Marbury traveled to France, and for 15 years she was the representative in the English-speaking market for playwright Victorien Sardou
and the other members of the Société des Gens de Lettres
, including Georges Feydeau
, Edmond Rostand
, Ludovic Halévy
, and Jean Richepin
. Her work on their behalf included securing suitable translations, sound productions with leading actors, and full royalties. She also represented George Bernard Shaw, James M. Barrie (whom she prevailed upon to rewrite The Little Minister for Maude Adams), Hall Caine
, and Jerome K. Jerome
, among British authors, and Rachel Crothers
and Clyde Fitch
among Americans.
Her office thus became a centre of the New York theatrical business, and for many years Marbury worked closely with Charles Frohman
and his Theatrical Syndicate in bringing order to a rapidly expanding field of enterprise. She later worked with the rival Shubert Brothers' organization. In both cases this drew criticism from those who fought the de-facto monopoly held by these "Theater Trusts," particularly from the noted American actress Minnie Madern Fisk, who unsuccessfully struggled in the 1890s to form an actors union to fight the numerous fees and censorship imposed on actors and theater professionals by the Theater Trust.
In 1914 Marbury joined several other agents in forming the American Play Company, and she then turned to producing and helped stage Nobody Home (1915), Very Good, Eddie (1915), and Love o' Mike (1916), all with music by Jerome Kern
, and See America First (1916) with music by Cole Porter
. These works contributed significantly to the development of the characteristically American form of musical comedy. Marbury's other successes include bringing Vernon and Irene Castle
, whom she had seen on one of her innumerable trips to Paris, to New York in 1913 and setting them up in a fashionable dancing school that was the springboard for their brief but spectacularly popular career.
Miss Marbury put her life story into a book "My Crystal Ball" which was published in 1923. She had been told frequently that Hollywood would be interested - this during the Silent Film Era - in the story of her travels with her companions Anne Tracy Morgan (daughter of Jon Pierpont Morgan, the financier) and America's first interior designer, Elsie de Wolfe. Elizabeth convinced Miss Morgan to purchase the Petit Trianon next to Versaille, where the trio held court with Europe's elite and entertained with George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde, two clients she represented theatrically in New York and London, until the German Army came calling. Anne, Elsie and Bess Marbury escaped the army's clutches in their Rolls Royce convertible after packing hastily.
Miss Marbury and Miss De Wolfe convinced Anne Morgan's financier father to purchase a garbage dump on the East River of New York and to build Sutton Place. It was from their new residence at Sutton Place that Miss Marbury began to work with the greatest musical talents of the time to dominate Broadway.
Before her passing, Miss Marbury chose her nephew John Marbury to produce a picture based on "My Crystal Ball." The rights passed through John's estate to his son, the late New York sculptor Peter Marbury. The rights are held currently by Peter Marbury's widow, Diana Marbury, a New York
theatrical producer, director and actress.
Also in 1903, along with Morgan and Anne Vanderbilt, Marbury helped organize the Colony Club
, the first women's social club in New York. This also served as de Wolfe's professional debut as interior decorator. This same coterie would go on to create the exclusive neighborhood of Sutton Place
, along Manhattan's East River, which prompted gossip papers of the 1920s to loudly whisper of an "Amazon Enclave".
During World War I
, Marbury devoted much time to relief work for French and later American soldiers, and spent several months in France working in military hospitals and giving talks to the troops. She translated Maurice Barrès's The Faith of France (1918) and was decorated by the French and Belgian governments, although she was notably disappointed to not be awarded by the French Legion of Honor, an honor given to de Wolfe for her work in the pioneering Ambrine Mission for Burn Victims.
After at least thirty years of living together, Marbury and de Wolfe had separated by the early 1920s. In 1926, without any forewarning, de Wolfe shocked Marbury and the world at large with the surprise newspaper announcement of her wedding to Sir Charles Mendl, a British diplomat. According to biographies of de Wolfe, the Mendl-de Wolfe marriage was platonic, with the couple keeping separate apartments in Paris and usually only appeared together at social functions.
Elsie de Wolfe
]Elsie de Wolfe was an American actress, interior decorator, nominal author of the influential 1913 book The House in Good Taste, and a prominent figure in New York, Paris, and London society...
(later known as Lady Mendl), a prominent socialite and famous interior decorator.
Personal life
Marbury was born and raised in the affluent and cultured home of one of 19th century New York's oldest and most prominent "society" families-reputedly a relation of Anne HutchinsonAnne Hutchinson
Anne Hutchinson was one of the most prominent women in colonial America, noted for her strong religious convictions, and for her stand against the staunch religious orthodoxy of 17th century Massachusetts...
(née Anne Marbury) the religious liberal who became one of the founders of Rhode Island after her banishment from Massachusetts Bay Colony. She both used and defied these connections during the Victorian era to establish herself as an important literary and theatrical talent agent and theatrical producer, helping to define and create these very professions as they emerged in the new world of mass production,advertising and popular culture of post-Civil War society of the United States.
Marbury, for many remains a bundle of contradictions. Although she herself was the embodiment of female independence in almost every way, she initially opposed suffrage. She made a bold reversal once women in the USA did receive the right to vote, and in 1918 she became active in the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
, serving as a delegate. She was also a passionate convert to Roman Catholicism. She was likewise very active in the Knights of Columbus
Knights of Columbus
The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization. Founded in the United States in 1882, it is named in honor of Christopher Columbus....
, a Catholic organization. In 1923 she published an autobiography, My Crystal Ball:Reminiscences (NY: Boni and Liveright, [1923]). She had earlier published Manners: A Handbook of Social Customs in 1888.
Marbury never married, but lived openly in what many observers accepted as a lesbian relationship with Elsie De Wolfe
Elsie de Wolfe
]Elsie de Wolfe was an American actress, interior decorator, nominal author of the influential 1913 book The House in Good Taste, and a prominent figure in New York, Paris, and London society...
for over twenty years. Marbury died in 1933. Her funeral at St. Patrick's Cathedral
St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York
The Cathedral of St. Patrick is a decorated Neo-Gothic-style Roman Catholic cathedral church in the United States...
was attended by an impressive array of the most important American leaders and dignitaries of the day. De Wolfe was noticeably absent from the funeral, despite the fact that she was the prime beneficiary of Marbury's will.
Professional life
Elizabeth (Bessy) Marbury's clients ranged from the French Academy of Letters, to playwrights Oscar WildeOscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
and George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
, to the dance team of Vernon and Irene Castle
Vernon and Irene Castle
Vernon and Irene Castle were a husband-and-wife team of ballroom dancers of the early 20th century. They are credited with invigorating the popularity of modern dancing. Vernon Castle was born William Vernon Blyth in Norwich, Norfolk, England...
, as well as being an early promoter of African American writers of the Harlem Renaissance
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke...
. She also played an instrumental role in developing the modern "Book Musical" that audiences came to know as defining "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...
" in the twentieth century, notably of Cole Porter
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
's first musical, See America First
See America First
See America First is a comic opera with a book by T. Lawrason Riggs and music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The first work by Porter to be produced on Broadway, it was a critical and commercial flop.-Background:...
,and Jerome Kern (Nobody Home (1915), Very Good, Eddie (1915), and Love o' Mike (1916))through her American Play company.
Her friend and contemporary, the historian/journalist/critic, Henry Adams, a descendant of two United States presidents, would refer to Marbury and her companion Elsie de Wolfe as personifying the American tradition of self-reinvention that gained new vigor at the open of the twentieth century. Marbury and de Wolfe discovered their careers amidst the amateur theatrical performances in high society in late Victorian New York. Both would end up defying this worlds rules and expectations for women by making this interest in theater professional, and in no small way helped pave the way for many other "respectable ladies" that followed, both in the previously frowned upon world of the professional theater as well as independent careers and financial autonomy for women in general.
Thus it was at a 1885 successful benefit theatrical performance that she had organized that Marbury was inspired to try her hand at theater management. In 1888 she persuaded Frances Hodgson Burnett
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett was an English playwright and author. She is best known for her children's stories, in particular The Secret Garden , A Little Princess, and Little Lord Fauntleroy.Born Frances Eliza Hodgson, she lived in Cheetham Hill, Manchester...
, who had written a dramatic version of her best-selling Little Lord Fauntleroy
Little Lord Fauntleroy
Little Lord Fauntleroy is the first children's novel written by English playwright and author Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was originally published as a serial in the St. Nicholas Magazine between November 1885 and October 1886, then as a book by Scribner's in 1886...
, to hire her as business manager and agent. The association quickly proved highly profitable to both women.
In 1891 Marbury traveled to France, and for 15 years she was the representative in the English-speaking market for playwright Victorien Sardou
Victorien Sardou
Victorien Sardou was a French dramatist. He is best remembered today for his development, along with Eugène Scribe, of the well-made play...
and the other members of the Société des Gens de Lettres
Société des gens de lettres
The Sociéte des gens de lettres de France is a writers' association founded in 1838 by the notable French authors Honoré de Balzac, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, and George Sand...
, including Georges Feydeau
Georges Feydeau
Georges Feydeau was a French playwright of the era known as the Belle Époque. He is remembered for his many lively farces.-Biography:Georges Feydeau was born in Paris, the son of novelist Ernest-Aimé Feydeau and Léocadie Bogaslawa Zalewska. At the age of twenty, Feydeau wrote his first comic...
, Edmond Rostand
Edmond Rostand
Edmond Eugène Alexis Rostand was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism, and is best known for his play Cyrano de Bergerac. Rostand's romantic plays provided an alternative to the naturalistic theatre popular during the late nineteenth century...
, Ludovic Halévy
Ludovic Halévy
Ludovic Halévy was a French author and playwright. He was half Jewish : his Jewish father had converted to Christianity prior to his birth, to marry his mother, née Alexandrine Lebas.-Biography:Ludovic Halévy was born in Paris...
, and Jean Richepin
Jean Richepin
Jean Richepin , French poet, novelist and dramatist, the son of an army doctor, was born at Médéa, French Algeria.At school and at the École Normale Supérieure he gave evidence of brilliant, if somewhat undisciplined, powers, for which he found physical vent in different directions—first as a...
. Her work on their behalf included securing suitable translations, sound productions with leading actors, and full royalties. She also represented George Bernard Shaw, James M. Barrie (whom she prevailed upon to rewrite The Little Minister for Maude Adams), Hall Caine
Hall Caine
Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine CH, KBE , usually known as Hall Caine, was a Manx author. He is best known as a novelist and playwright of the late Victorian and the Edwardian eras. In his time he was exceedingly popular, and at the peak of his success his novels outsold those of his...
, and Jerome K. Jerome
Jerome K. Jerome
Jerome Klapka Jerome was an English writer and humorist, best known for the humorous travelogue Three Men in a Boat.Jerome was born in Caldmore, Walsall, England, and was brought up in poverty in London...
, among British authors, and Rachel Crothers
Rachel Crothers
Rachel Crothers was a prolific and successful American playwright and theater director, known for her well-crafted plays. One of the most famous was Susan and God , which was made into a film by MGM in 1940 starring Joan Crawford and Frederic March.Crothers was born in Bloomington, Illinois, USA...
and Clyde Fitch
Clyde Fitch
Clyde Fitch was an American dramatist.-Biography:Born William Clyde Fitch at Elmira, New York, he wrote over 60 plays, 36 of them original, which varied from social comedies and farces to melodrama and historical dramas.As the only child to live to adulthood, his father, Captain William G...
among Americans.
Her office thus became a centre of the New York theatrical business, and for many years Marbury worked closely with Charles Frohman
Charles Frohman
Charles Frohman was an American theatrical producer. Frohman was producing plays by 1889 and acquired his first Broadway theatre by 1892. He discovered and promoted many stars of the American theatre....
and his Theatrical Syndicate in bringing order to a rapidly expanding field of enterprise. She later worked with the rival Shubert Brothers' organization. In both cases this drew criticism from those who fought the de-facto monopoly held by these "Theater Trusts," particularly from the noted American actress Minnie Madern Fisk, who unsuccessfully struggled in the 1890s to form an actors union to fight the numerous fees and censorship imposed on actors and theater professionals by the Theater Trust.
In 1914 Marbury joined several other agents in forming the American Play Company, and she then turned to producing and helped stage Nobody Home (1915), Very Good, Eddie (1915), and Love o' Mike (1916), all with music by Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
, and See America First (1916) with music by Cole Porter
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
. These works contributed significantly to the development of the characteristically American form of musical comedy. Marbury's other successes include bringing Vernon and Irene Castle
Vernon and Irene Castle
Vernon and Irene Castle were a husband-and-wife team of ballroom dancers of the early 20th century. They are credited with invigorating the popularity of modern dancing. Vernon Castle was born William Vernon Blyth in Norwich, Norfolk, England...
, whom she had seen on one of her innumerable trips to Paris, to New York in 1913 and setting them up in a fashionable dancing school that was the springboard for their brief but spectacularly popular career.
Miss Marbury put her life story into a book "My Crystal Ball" which was published in 1923. She had been told frequently that Hollywood would be interested - this during the Silent Film Era - in the story of her travels with her companions Anne Tracy Morgan (daughter of Jon Pierpont Morgan, the financier) and America's first interior designer, Elsie de Wolfe. Elizabeth convinced Miss Morgan to purchase the Petit Trianon next to Versaille, where the trio held court with Europe's elite and entertained with George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde, two clients she represented theatrically in New York and London, until the German Army came calling. Anne, Elsie and Bess Marbury escaped the army's clutches in their Rolls Royce convertible after packing hastily.
Miss Marbury and Miss De Wolfe convinced Anne Morgan's financier father to purchase a garbage dump on the East River of New York and to build Sutton Place. It was from their new residence at Sutton Place that Miss Marbury began to work with the greatest musical talents of the time to dominate Broadway.
Before her passing, Miss Marbury chose her nephew John Marbury to produce a picture based on "My Crystal Ball." The rights passed through John's estate to his son, the late New York sculptor Peter Marbury. The rights are held currently by Peter Marbury's widow, Diana Marbury, a New York
theatrical producer, director and actress.
Social Life
On the domestic front, Marbury was instrumental in assisting her companion Elsie de Wolfe in creating a career in interior decoration and in 1903 restoring Villa Trianon in Versailles, France, where she and de Wolfe and Anne Tracy Morgan (youngest child of the powerful financier, J.P. Morgan) held court and became noted hostesses, affectionately referred to as "The Versailles Triumverate".Also in 1903, along with Morgan and Anne Vanderbilt, Marbury helped organize the Colony Club
Colony Club
The Colony Club is a private social club in New York City. Founded in 1903 by Florence Jaffray Harriman, wife of J. Borden Harriman, and modeled on similar clubs for men, it was the first social club established in New York City by and for women, although today male members are admitted.- History...
, the first women's social club in New York. This also served as de Wolfe's professional debut as interior decorator. This same coterie would go on to create the exclusive neighborhood of Sutton Place
Sutton Place
Sutton Place may refer to:* Sutton Place Hotel, a luxury brand of hotel properties based in North America* Sutton Place, Surrey, an estate* Sutton Place, Hackney, Georgian terrace* Sutton Place, Manhattan, a neighborhood and street in New York City...
, along Manhattan's East River, which prompted gossip papers of the 1920s to loudly whisper of an "Amazon Enclave".
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...
, Marbury devoted much time to relief work for French and later American soldiers, and spent several months in France working in military hospitals and giving talks to the troops. She translated Maurice Barrès's The Faith of France (1918) and was decorated by the French and Belgian governments, although she was notably disappointed to not be awarded by the French Legion of Honor, an honor given to de Wolfe for her work in the pioneering Ambrine Mission for Burn Victims.
After at least thirty years of living together, Marbury and de Wolfe had separated by the early 1920s. In 1926, without any forewarning, de Wolfe shocked Marbury and the world at large with the surprise newspaper announcement of her wedding to Sir Charles Mendl, a British diplomat. According to biographies of de Wolfe, the Mendl-de Wolfe marriage was platonic, with the couple keeping separate apartments in Paris and usually only appeared together at social functions.
Productions under aegis of Elisabeth Marbury
- Electra [Revival, Play, Tragedy]. Produced in association with Elisabeth Marbury Dec 26, 1930 - Jan 1931
- Say When [Original, Musical, Comedy]. Produced by Elisabeth Marbury Jun 26, 1928 - Jul 1928
- Revue Russe [Original, Musical, Revue, Vaudeville]. Produced by Elisabeth Marbury Oct 5, 1922 - Oct 22, 1922
- Girl o' Mine [Original, Musical, Comedy]. Produced by Elisabeth Marbury Jan 28, 1918 - Mar 9, 1918
- Love o' Mike [Original, Musical, Comedy]. Produced by Elisabeth Marbury Jan 15, 1917 - Sep 29, 1917
- See America First [Original, Musical, Comedy, Opera]. Produced by Elisabeth Marbury Mar 28, 1916 - Apr 8, 1916
- Very Good Eddie [Original, Musical]. Produced by Marbury-Comstock Co. Dec 23, 1915 - Oct 14, 1916
- Our Children [Original, Play]. Produced in association with Elisabeth Marbury Sep 10, 1915 - Sep 1915
- Nobody Home [Original, Play, Play with music]. Produced by Elisabeth Marbury Apr 20, 1915 - Aug 7, 1915
- Merry Gotham [Original, Play]. Written by Elisabeth Marbury Mar 14, 1892 - Apr 1892
External references
- Marbury, Elisabeth. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2 Feb. 2007 http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9125848
- Sparke, Penny. Elsie de Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Interior Decoration. NY: Acanthus Press, 2005 ISBN 0926494279
- Lewis, Alfred Allan. Ladies and Not-So-Gentle Women: Elisabeth Marbury, Anne Morgan, Elsie de Wolfe, Anne Vanderbilt, and Their Times. Penguin, 2001. ISBN 0140241736