Tittell Brune
Encyclopedia
California Theatre (San Francisco)
The California Theatre , was located at 414 Bush Street, San Francisco. It was built in 1869 by William Ralston, at that time the treasurer of the Bank of California. S. C. Bugbee & Son were the architects and the theatre cost $250, 000 to build.Anpther source puts the figure at $150,000...
of her home town.
She had two sisters: Esther, also an actress who became a "crack shot and expert stage swordswoman" who died in 1934 and Charlotte, who married a theatrical manager. She also had family who were nuns.
After her childhood appearances on stage, Minnie was put in a convent
Convent
A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...
for about a year, perhaps a parental attempt to discourage her from a career in theatre. As it happened, Minnie and her two sisters all pursued careers in the industry. Working as a child actor
Child actor
The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting in motion pictures or television, but also to an adult who began his or her acting career as a child; to avoid confusion, the latter is also called a former child actor...
, she went on tour for producer 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....
, appearing in New York in The Girl I left Behind and touring the United States with actors such as Junius Brutus Booth, Jr.
Booth family
The Booth family were an English-American theatrical family of the 19th century. It's most famous and well known members were Edwin Booth, one of the leading actors of his day, and John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Abraham Lincoln....
It is recorded that she appeared with her husband Clarence (whose name she took) in a revival of Sardou
Sardou
Sardou is a surname, and may refer to:* Saint Sacerdos of Limoges, also known as Saint Sardou* Victorien Sardou, French dramatist* Victorien Sardou was also the basis for naming Eggs Sardou, which is a part of Creole cuisine....
'sTheodora at the Grand Opera House, New York in 1901. But it was in the Antipodes
Antipodes
In geography, the antipodes of any place on Earth is the point on the Earth's surface which is diametrically opposite to it. Two points that are antipodal to one another are connected by a straight line running through the centre of the Earth....
that she made a huge name for herself.
She was brought to Australia by J. C. Williamson
J. C. Williamson
James Cassius Williamson was an American actor and later Australia's foremost theatrical manager, founding J. C. Williamson Ltd....
, who is said to have met her while she was on her honeymoon in Europe. It was not until 1904 that he persuaded Minnie to voyage from California to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. The ship on which she and her husband travelled, The Australia, ran aground in Port Phillip Bay in June 1904. Minnie was unhurt, but she took a philosophical view of such incidents. She later told an interviewer "I was not alarmed about the wreck, though I fully realised the danger of it. If it was to have been that I should be drowned-well, that’s all about it. It would have happened so. As it was ordained otherwise, here I am!"
She made her first appearance in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
on Saturday September 21, 1904, in the play Sunday, a Story of Western Life at Her Majesty's Theatre. Minnie played Sunday, "the whole-hearted lovable girl at a miners camp." She was supported by Roy Redgrave
Roy Redgrave
Roy Redgrave was an English stage and silent film actor. Redgrave was the founder of the Redgrave acting family.-Early life:...
and Gaston Mervale. The performance was a huge success, and led to her becoming one of the most popular actresses on the Australian and New Zealand stage until she left in 1909.
She was now twenty nine years of age, and a devout Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
, a non-smoker and teetotaller, and often quoted the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
in press interviews. One magazine quoted her as saying:
"I’m an actress…but I’m also religious; I can’t help it. I can justify my actress self to my religious self: but I can’t justify the things that you can’t separate from the actress, the publicity, the feeling of being considered public property even off the stage. I hate that. I don’t like when I walk down the street, to have men looking at me and speculating about me. I hate to hear them say, "That’s Tittell Brune" and I feel their eyes boring into my back when I’m past. It makes me feel common and I loathe it. If I can’t disguise myself I’ve got to put up with it. But that kind of publicity revolts me. It really does, because I am religious - I’m half a nun."
Minnie Tittell Brune’s five year sojourn in Australia ended and she decided to try her luck in London, but met with limited success. She received only mediocre reviews in her first piece, The Eternal Question at the Garrick Theatre
Garrick Theatre
The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster. It opened on 24 April 1889 with The Profligate, a play by Arthur Wing Pinero. In its early years, it appears to have specialised in the performance of melodrama, and today the theatre is a...
. Her work in 1910 included Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde at the Queen's Theatre
Queen's Theatre
The Queen's Theatre is a West End theatre located in Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster. It opened on 8 October 1907 as a twin to the neighbouring Gielgud Theatre which opened ten months earlier. Both theatres were designed by W.G.R...
opposite H.B. Irving
Henry Irving
Sir Henry Irving , born John Henry Brodribb, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility for season after season at the Lyceum Theatre, establishing himself and his company as...
, Sir Henry Irving's surviving son, and as chorus in Henry V
Henry V (play)
Henry V is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to be written in approximately 1599. Its full titles are The Cronicle History of Henry the Fifth and The Life of Henry the Fifth...
.
Minnie had few London appearances in 1911, her major role being in a play called The Woman on the Case at the Coronet theatre. The New York Times reported in August, in addition to a report that ostrich feathers were making a comeback, that she had returned on the Oceanic
RMS Oceanic (1899)
RMS Oceanic was a transatlantic ocean liner, built for the White Star Line. She sailed on her maiden voyage on 6 September 1899 and, until 1901, was the largest ship in the world...
after an absence of nine years to appear in New York, billed as Minnie Tittell-Brune at the Manhattan Opera House
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...
in An Aztec Romance. By 1913 she was back in London where, during her stay, she made three movies under the name Fanny Tittell-Brune: Esther Redeemed (1915), Iron Justice (1916), and Temptation's Hour (1916). In 1916, Minnie was also credited as being in 6 other films directed by Hal Roach, starring Harold Lloyd. In 1917 she was singing at London's Coliseum, before she returned to her home country.
Minnie's husband, Clarence Marion Brune (né Clarence Marion Browne), was an attorney and a theatre producer who earned several degrees from such univerties as Harvard, Wesleyan, Université Laval (Quebec), University of Chicago Law School, Catholic University of America, and Columbia College (New York City). Clarence, was the author of works on topics such as Modern Theatre, Greek Tragedy, Shakespearean Legal Terminology, the Romantic Movement, and English Poetry. Clarence left Minnie a widow in 1935.
Minnie died in her 100th year in Los Angeles in September 1974. She was living in obscurity as a member of the Order of St Francis and was interred with a Catholic service.
Little noticed in her own country, lacking even a press obituary
Obituary
An obituary is a news article that reports the recent death of a person, typically along with an account of the person's life and information about the upcoming funeral. In large cities and larger newspapers, obituaries are written only for people considered significant...
, she was a major figure in the history of the Australian stage, and is remembered for the fact that she is the only link between two centuries and two notable families, for she worked with Junius Brutus Booth, Jr. in America (see the Booth family
Booth family
The Booth family were an English-American theatrical family of the 19th century. It's most famous and well known members were Edwin Booth, one of the leading actors of his day, and John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Abraham Lincoln....
) and with Roy Redgrave
Roy Redgrave
Roy Redgrave was an English stage and silent film actor. Redgrave was the founder of the Redgrave acting family.-Early life:...
in Australia (see the Redgrave family
Redgrave family
The Redgrave family is an English acting dynasty, spanning four generations. Members of the family worked in theatre beginning in the nineteenth century, and later in film and television. Some family members have also written plays and books. Vanessa Redgrave is the most prominent, having won...
).