Edith Taliaferro was one of the most celebrated child and ingénue actresses of the American stage during the first decades of the twentieth century. Born in Manhattan in 1891 into a theatrical family — her older sister was the celebrated actress Mabel Taliaferro, and her cousin was silent-film star Bessie Barriscale — Edith began performing almost from infancy, taking her first professional role at age three when she filled in for her ailing sister in a touring company. Her poise and precocious talent won her a place with James A. Herne’s touring production of Shore Acres in 1895, and by 1904 newspapers were reporting that the not-yet-teenage actress had signed a personal contract worth $100 a week with producer George C. Tyler of Liebler & Company — remarkable terms for a performer still years from adulthood.
Taliaferro’s rise continued through the 1900s with a string of celebrated New York engagements, including her Broadway debut in The Sunken Bell (1900), a turn as Puck in a Ben Greet production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream performed for an enthusiastic audience at Princeton University, and a featured role opposite Clara Bloodgood in The Girl with the Green Eyes. She also occasionally stepped into the spotlight created by her more famous sister, taking over the title role in the hit Polly of the Circus during its run. It was during this period of national stardom that Elitch Gardens Theatre in Denver — already established as the country’s premier summer-stock house — brought Taliaferro west to join its celebrated roster of “stock star” performers, a roster that, according to the Theatre’s own history, placed her alongside such luminaries as Henrietta Crosman, Minnie Maddern Fiske, David Warfield, and Bruce McRae.
Taliaferro’s most enduring claim to fame came in 1910, when she originated the title role in the stage adaptation of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm at the Republic Theater on 42nd Street — a performance so identified with her that newspapers referred to her as “Rebecca” for the rest of her career, including in her own obituary decades later. She built on that success throughout the 1910s with roles in Young Wisdom and Tipping the Winner (both 1914) and Mother Carey’s Chickens (1917), and she made her motion-picture debut in the silent film Young Romance (1915), followed by The Conquest of Canaan (1916) and Who’s Your Brother? (1919).
Taliaferro remained active on Broadway and on tour well into the 1920s and 1930s, appearing in Kissing Time (1920), A Love Scandal (1923), and Fashions of 1924, and later starring as Amanda Prynne in a touring production of Noël Coward’s Private Lives (1931). She carried her stage career abroad as well, performing in London and touring Australia with the Toronto Theatre Guild, and she appeared in vaudeville at New York’s famed Palace Theatre. In her later years she worked extensively in summer theater and on radio before retiring from the stage in the late 1930s after losing her eyesight. She was married to actor Earle Browne and later to House B. Jameson, well known to radio and television audiences as the father on The Aldrich Family. Edith Taliaferro died in 1958, remembered as one of the defining ingénues of the early American stage — and as one of the many national stars who graced Elitch Theatre’s stage during its golden “stock star” era.
Seasons at the Theatre
- 1915
Productions/Roles:
Notable Roles, Awards, and Other Work:
- Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1910, Republic Theater, Broadway) — title role of Rebecca, her signature and most celebrated performance
- The Sunken Bell (1900) — Broadway debut
- The Girl with the Green Eyes (1902) — opposite Clara Bloodgood
- Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1906) — as Lovey Mary
- The Evangelist (1907)
- Young Wisdom (1914) — as Gail Claffenden
- Tipping the Winner (1914)
- Mother Carey’s Chickens (1917)
- Captain Kidd, Jr. (1916)
- Muggins (1918)
- Please Get Married (1919)
- Kissing Time (1920) — as Clarice
- A Love Scandal (1923) — as Bettina Tilton
- Fashions of 1924 (1923)
- The Hook-Up (1935) — as Mary Bainbridge
- Private Lives (1931 national tour) — as Amanda Prynne
- Film roles in Young Romance (1915), The Conquest of Canaan (1916), and Who’s Your Brother? (1919)
- Vaudeville headliner at the Palace Theatre, New York; toured London and Australia with the Toronto Theatre Guild
- A Ben Greet Shakespearean company performer, celebrated as one of the youngest Shakespearean actresses on the American stage in the early 1900s
- Named one of the youngest child performers ever signed to a personal, salaried Broadway producer’s contract (Liebler & Company, 1904)
Elitch Theatre Connections:
- Edith Taliaferro’s 1915 season placed her among Elitch’s famed roster of touring “stock star” headliners of that era — a group the Historic Elitch Theatre’s own history names alongside her, including Henrietta Crosman, Minnie Maddern Fiske, Ida Conquest, May Buckley, David Warfield, and Bruce McRae.
Wikipedia Link:
