Mr. & Mrs. Sidney Drew
Encyclopedia
Biography
Louisa Lane Drew
Louisa Lane Drew was a British actress and theater owner.She and her third husband John Drew were the parents of Louisa Drew , John Drew, Jr. and Georgie Drew . She had no children from her first two marriages...
said she adopted him not long after the death of her husband John Drew, Sr. in 1862. Researchers have speculated that Sidney was Mrs. Drew's biological child either from her late husband or from a love affair. It was noticed that she disappeared for some time to the country before returning to Philadelphia with baby Sidney. John Barrymore always said Sidney looked too much like Grandmother Louisa to be anyone else's child.
Sidney Drew had been a light-hearted leading man along with his wife, Gladys Rankin (ca. 1874 – January 9, 1914), the first Mrs. Sidney Drew. They entered films as a team
Team
A team comprises a group of people or animals linked in a common purpose. Teams are especially appropriate for conducting tasks that are high in complexity and have many interdependent subtasks.A group in itself does not necessarily constitute a team...
with the old Kalem Company
Kalem Company
The Kalem Company was an American film studio founded in New York City in 1907 by George Kleine, Samuel Long , and Frank J. Marion.The company immediately joined other studios in the Motion Picture Patents Company that held a monopoly on production and distribution...
in 1911
1911 in film
The year 1911 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*March 23: D.W Griffith shows the first major close-up shot on film with the successful release of The Lonedale Operator proving his ever growing mastery of how to utilise film....
, but achieved greater success after their switch to Vitagraph in 1913. Gladys Rankin Drew died later that year from undisclosed causes. Sidney Drew was briefly paired with Clara Kimball Young
Clara Kimball Young
Clara Kimball Young was an American film actress, who was highly regarded and publicly popular in the early silent film era.-Early life:...
, with whom Drew starred in the two-reel melodrama satire Goodness Gracious; or, Movies as they Shouldn't Be (1914) directed by Clara's husband James Young
James Young (director)
James Young was an American film director, actor and screenwriter of the silent era. Before films Young had a successful career as a stage actor appearing on Broadway and throughout the country. His first wife was librettist Rida Johnson Young who often composed with Victor Herbert. Turning to...
.
He remarried to Lucile McVey (1890–1925), born in Sedalia, Missouri
Sedalia, Missouri
Sedalia is a city located about south of the Missouri River in Pettis County, Missouri. U.S. Highway 50 and U.S. Highway 65 intersect in the city. As of 2006, the city had a total population of 20,669. It is the county seat of Pettis County. The Sedalia Micropolitan Statistical Area consists of...
, a Vitagraph scriptwriter who briefly went under the name Jane Morrow. Sidney Drew added his new wife to his one-reel comedies, acknowledging McVey as both a writer and co-director. As a comedy team, known as Mr. & Mrs. Sidney Drew, the team perfected the situation comedy style that the team of John Bunny
John Bunny
John Bunny was an American actor and was one of the first comic stars of the motion picture era. Between 1910 and his death in 1915 Bunny was one of the top stars of early silent film, as well as an early example of celebrity...
and Flora Finch
Flora Finch
Flora Finch was an English-born film actress who starred in over 300 silent films, including over 200 for the Vitagraph Studios film company.-Early life and career:...
started. Their style of comedy was usually gentle satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
on married life
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
, but also poked fun at the world of show business
Show business
Show business, sometimes shortened to show biz, is a vernacular term for all aspects of entertainment. The word applies to all aspects of the entertainment industry from the business side to the creative element ....
. Sidney took sole credit as director for two five-reel features at Vitagraph, the groundbreaking cross-gender comedy A Florida Enchantment
A Florida Enchantment
A Florida Enchantment is a silent film directed by and starring Sidney Drew and released by Vitagraph Studios. The film is based on the 1891 novel and 1896 play of the same name written by Fergus Redmond and Archibald Clavering Gunter....
(1914), in which Edith Storey played the leading female role, and the drama Playing Dead (1915), the Drews' only attempt at a "serious" film.
In 1916, the popular team was lured to Louis B. Mayer
Louis B. Mayer
Louis Burt Mayer born Lazar Meir was an American film producer. He is generally cited as the creator of the "star system" within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in its golden years. Known always as Louis B...
's newly founded Metro company, where they continued to dominate in the field of marital comedy. 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...
, Sidney Drew's son, actor-director S. Rankin Drew
S. Rankin Drew
S. Rankin Drew was an American actor and film director. He was the son of Mr. & Mrs. Sidney Drew and first cousin of the actors John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore and Ethel Barrymore and the first cousin twice removed of Drew Barrymore...
, was killed in action. Drew never recovered from the loss. The team left Metro for personal appearances but was signed to V.B.K.. Sidney Drew died suddenly on April 9, 1919. Lucile McVey Drew died in 1925 from cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
, aged 35.
