Thomas Hardie Chalmers
Encyclopedia
Thomas Hardie Chalmers was an American opera singer
, actor, and filmmaker.
, the son of Thomas Hardie and Sophia Amanda (De Bann) Chalmers. In 1909, he went to Florence
to study singing with Vincenzo Lombardi and made his operatic debut in May 1911 in Fossombrone
as Marcello in La bohème
. His first appearance in the United States was as Jack Rance in The Girl of the Golden West
with Henry Wilson Savage
's English Grand Opera Company. Chalmers toured the United States with the company from 1911 to 12. He then sang as the leading baritone with the Boston National Opera Company and the Century Opera Company before making his Metropolitan Opera
debut on November 17, 1917 as Valentin in Faust
. He went on to appear regularly at the Met until 1922 and sang in the world premiere of Shanewis, the US premiere of Mârouf, and the first Met performances of La forza del destino
and Crispino e la Comare
. His recordings were all made for Edison and covered a wide range of repertoire from folk songs to opera; he recorded both on cylinder and the Edison Disc Record
formats.
Following a throat operation, Chalmers withdrew from opera and became a stage and film actor. His many stage roles included several Broadway
premieres such as Landolfo in Pirandello
's The Living Mask (Henry IV), 1924; Doctor Schindler in Schnitzler
's The Call of Life (Der Ruf des Lebens), 1925; Captain Adam Brant in O'Neill
's Mourning Becomes Electra
, 1931; Ben Loman in Miller's
Death of a Salesman
, 1949; and Richard Bravo in Maxwell Anderson
's The Bad Seed
, 1954.
One of Chalmers's earliest film roles was The Minister in the 1923 silent film Puritan Passions
, based on Percy MacKaye
's play The Scarecrow
, which was in turn based on Feathertop, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
. His last film role was The Judge in Martin Ritt
's The Outrage
, released in 1964. Chalmers also produced and directed several short comedy films written by Robert Benchley
, including The Sex Life of the Polyp
and The Treasurer's Report
, both released in 1928. His voice can be heard as the narrator in two documentary films by Pare Lorentz
, The Plow That Broke the Plains
(1936) and The River
(1938), both with scores by Virgil Thomson
.
In the 1950s and 60s, Chalmers appeared on television as an actor in several drama anthology series including Westinghouse Studio One, CBS Television Workshop
, Kraft Television Theatre
, The DuPont Show of the Month and Play of the Week
. He also appeared in single episodes of The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen
, The Defenders, Mister Peepers, and several other weekly series.
Chalmers' wife, Vilma Fiorelli, was originally from Florence. They were married in London on June 24, 1913. One of the couple's daughters, Vilma Flora Chalmers, married the banker Alfred Hayes
in 1937. Thomas Hardie Chalmers died on June 11, 1966 at the Laurelton Nursing Home in Greenwich, Connecticut
. He was survived by his wife and his daughter, Vilma Hayes.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, actor, and filmmaker.
Biography
Thomas Chalmers was born on October 20, 1884 in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, the son of Thomas Hardie and Sophia Amanda (De Bann) Chalmers. In 1909, he went to Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
to study singing with Vincenzo Lombardi and made his operatic debut in May 1911 in Fossombrone
Fossombrone
Fossombrone is a town and comune in the province of Pesaro e Urbino .-History:The ancient Roman colony of Forum Sempronii took its name from Gaius Sempronius Gracchus....
as Marcello in La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
. His first appearance in the United States was as Jack Rance in The Girl of the Golden West
La fanciulla del West
La fanciulla del West is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini, based on the play The Girl of the Golden West by the American author David Belasco. Its highly-publicised premiere occurred in New York City in 1910...
with Henry Wilson Savage
Henry Wilson Savage
Henry Wilson Savage was an American theatrical manager. He was born in New York City and graduated from Harvard in 1880. He became president of the Henry W. Savage Company, Inc., and of the Castle Square Opera Company of Boston, and director of the National Association of Theatrical Producing...
's English Grand Opera Company. Chalmers toured the United States with the company from 1911 to 12. He then sang as the leading baritone with the Boston National Opera Company and the Century Opera Company before making his Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
debut on November 17, 1917 as Valentin in Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
. He went on to appear regularly at the Met until 1922 and sang in the world premiere of Shanewis, the US premiere of Mârouf, and the first Met performances of La forza del destino
La forza del destino
La forza del destino is an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino , by Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas, with a scene adapted from Friedrich Schiller's Wallensteins Lager. It was first performed...
and Crispino e la Comare
Crispino e la comare
Crispino e la comare is an opera by Luigi Ricci and Federico Ricci with an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave.-Performance history:The premiere took place on 28 February 1850 at the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice....
. His recordings were all made for Edison and covered a wide range of repertoire from folk songs to opera; he recorded both on cylinder and the Edison Disc Record
Edison Disc Record
The Edison Disc, also known as a Diamond Disc record, was a type of audio disc record marketed by Edison Records from 1912 to 1929. They were known as Diamond disc because the reproducer fitted to the matching Edison disc player was fitted with a diamond stylus...
formats.
Following a throat operation, Chalmers withdrew from opera and became a stage and film actor. His many stage roles included several 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...
premieres such as Landolfo in Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist, novelist, and short story writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934, for his "bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage." Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written...
's The Living Mask (Henry IV), 1924; Doctor Schindler in Schnitzler
Arthur Schnitzler
Dr. Arthur Schnitzler was an Austrian author and dramatist.- Biography :Arthur Schnitzler, son of a prominent Hungarian-Jewish laryngologist Johann Schnitzler and Luise Markbreiter , was born in Praterstraße 16, Leopoldstadt, Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian...
's The Call of Life (Der Ruf des Lebens), 1925; Captain Adam Brant in O'Neill
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish...
's Mourning Becomes Electra
Mourning Becomes Electra
Mourning Becomes Electra is a play cycle written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. The play premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre on 26 October 1931 where it ran for 150 performances before closing in March 1932...
, 1931; Ben Loman in Miller's
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
Death of a Salesman
Death of a Salesman
Death of a Salesman is a 1949 play written by American playwright Arthur Miller. It was the recipient of the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play. Premiered at the Morosco Theatre in February 1949, the original production ran for a total of 742 performances.-Plot :Willy Loman...
, 1949; and Richard Bravo in Maxwell Anderson
Maxwell Anderson
James Maxwell Anderson was an American playwright, author, poet, journalist and lyricist.-Early years:Anderson was born in Atlantic, Pennsylvania, the second of eight children to William Lincoln "Link" Anderson, a Baptist minister, and Charlotte Perrimela Stephenson, both of Scots and Irish descent...
's The Bad Seed
The Bad Seed (play)
The Bad Seed was a successful and long-running Broadway play by Maxwell Anderson adapted from the novel of that name by William March, and was in turn adapted by John Lee Mahin into an Academy Award-nominated film of the same name directed by Mervyn Leroy. Staged by Reginald Denham, it opened...
, 1954.
One of Chalmers's earliest film roles was The Minister in the 1923 silent film Puritan Passions
Puritan Passions
Puritan Passions is a 1923 silent film directed by Frank Tuttle, based on Percy MacKaye's 1908 play, The Scarecrow, which was itself based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Feathertop". The film stars Glenn Hunter, Mary Astor, and stage actor Osgood Perkins. It follows the play faithfully,...
, based on Percy MacKaye
Percy MacKaye
Percy MacKaye was an American dramatist and poet.-Biography:MacKaye was born in New York City, New York. After graduating from Harvard in 1897, he traveled in Europe for three years, residing in Rome, Switzerland and London, studying at the University of Leipzig in 1899–1900...
's play The Scarecrow
The Scarecrow (play)
The Scarecrow is a play written by Percy MacKaye in 1908, and first presented on Broadway in 1911. It is based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, "Feathertop", but greatly expands upon the tale...
, which was in turn based on Feathertop, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer.Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning. His ancestors include John Hathorne, a judge during the Salem Witch Trials...
. His last film role was The Judge in Martin Ritt
Martin Ritt
Martin Ritt was an American director, actor, and playwright who worked in both film and theater. He was born in New York City.-Early career and influences:...
's The Outrage
The Outrage
The Outrage is a remake of the 1950 Japanese film Rashomon, reformulated as a Western. Like the original Akira Kurosawa film, four people give contradictory accounts of a rape and murder. Kurosawa is credited with the screenplay. It was directed by Martin Ritt and is based on stories by Ryūnosuke...
, released in 1964. Chalmers also produced and directed several short comedy films written by Robert Benchley
Robert Benchley
Robert Charles Benchley was an American humorist best known for his work as a newspaper columnist and film actor...
, including The Sex Life of the Polyp
The Sex Life of the Polyp
The Sex Life of the Polyp is a short film written and performed by Robert Benchley, based on a routine he first did in 1922. The short, which was adapted from an essay by Benchley, documents a dim-witted doctor attempting to discuss the sex life of a polyp to a women's club...
and The Treasurer's Report
The Treasurer's Report
The Treasurer's Report is a comedy sketch, made into a short film, written and performed by Robert Benchley. The film, made in the then-new Fox Movietone, documents an assistant treasurer of an organization struggling to present its yearly report...
, both released in 1928. His voice can be heard as the narrator in two documentary films by Pare Lorentz
Pare Lorentz
Pare Lorentz was an American filmmaker known for his movies about the New Deal. Born Leonard MacTaggart Lorentz in Clarksburg, West Virginia, he was educated at Wesleyan College and West Virginia University. As a young film critic in New York and Hollywood, Lorentz spoke out against censorship in...
, The Plow That Broke the Plains
The Plow That Broke the Plains
The Plow That Broke the Plains is a short documentary film which shows what happened to the Great Plains region of the United States and Canada when uncontrolled agricultural farming led to the Dust Bowl...
(1936) and The River
The River (1938 film)
The River is a 1938 short documentary film which shows the importance of the Mississippi River to the United States, and how farming and timber practices had caused topsoil to be swept down the river and into the Gulf of Mexico, leading to catastrophic floods and impoverishing farmers...
(1938), both with scores by Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music...
.
In the 1950s and 60s, Chalmers appeared on television as an actor in several drama anthology series including Westinghouse Studio One, CBS Television Workshop
CBS Television Workshop
CBS Television Workshop was a 1952 television series famous for an early appearance of Audrey Hepburn and James Dean.On 13 January 1952, in the very first episode, a dramatized 30 minute version of Don Quixote starring Boris Karloff and directed by Sidney Lumet, Grace Kelly made an appearance as...
, Kraft Television Theatre
Kraft Television Theatre
Kraft Television Theatre is an American drama/anthology television series that began May 7, 1947 on NBC, airing at 7:30pm on Wednesday evenings until December of that year. In January 1948, it moved to 9pm on Wednesdays, continuing in that timeslot until 1958. Initially produced by the J...
, The DuPont Show of the Month and Play of the Week
Play of the Week
Play of the Week is an American anthology series of televised stage plays which aired in NTA Film Network syndication from October 12, 1959 to May 1, 1961...
. He also appeared in single episodes of The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen
The Adventures of Ellery Queen
The Adventures of Ellery Queen is the title of a radio series and four separate television series made from the 1950s through the 1970s. They were based on the fictional character and pseudonymous writer Ellery Queen.-Radio:...
, The Defenders, Mister Peepers, and several other weekly series.
Chalmers' wife, Vilma Fiorelli, was originally from Florence. They were married in London on June 24, 1913. One of the couple's daughters, Vilma Flora Chalmers, married the banker Alfred Hayes
Alfred Hayes (banker)
Alfred Hayes, Jr. was an American banker and an expert in international finance. Hayes was known as a conservative money manager who took a strong stand against inflation. He also had a reputation as a lightning-fast mathematician.Hayes was born on Independence Day in 1910 in Ithaca, New York...
in 1937. Thomas Hardie Chalmers died on June 11, 1966 at the Laurelton Nursing Home in Greenwich, Connecticut
Greenwich, Connecticut
Greenwich is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town had a total population of 61,171. It is home to many hedge funds and other financial service companies. Greenwich is the southernmost and westernmost municipality in Connecticut and is 38+ minutes ...
. He was survived by his wife and his daughter, Vilma Hayes.
Sources
- Barnouw, Erik, Documentary: A History of the Non-fiction Film, Oxford University Press US, 1993, pp. 116-120. ISBN 0195078985
- Metropolitan Opera, Chalmers, Thomas (Baritone), MetOpera Database
- New York Times, "Carmen Sung at Century", December 24, 1913, p. 11.
- New York Times, "Vilma F. Chalmers Has Church Bridal", December 31, 1937.
- New York Times, "Thomas Chalmers, 82, Dead; Actor, Singer and Filmmaker", June 12, 1966, p. 87
- Saerchinger, César (ed.), International who's who in music and musical gazetteer, Current Literature Pub. Co., 1918, p. 3.
- Thompson, Oscar, The American Singer A Hundred Years Of Success In Opera, The Dial Press, Inc., 1937, p. 246.
External links
- Thomas Chalmers audio recordings 1-10 and 11-20 on the Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...