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Blanche
Walsh
(1873-1915)
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"Blanche
Walsh was not only a great actress,
but an artist enough to subordinate
whatever personal charms she might
have had to a proper characterization
of a role." Variety, May
24, 1918 |
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Walsh,
Blanche (1873-1915) American
actress born to a New York politician.
Apparently Miss Walsh was a very quick
study at short notice and ended up
replacing the female leads in such
show as Secret Service and Trilby.
For a short time she toured with her
own company in a repertory of Sardou
plays. The most sensational hit of her
career was as Maslova, the unfortunate
Russian peasant girl who fell victim
to the wiles of Prince Nekludov in
Tolstoy’s Ressurection
(1903). Her other big Broadway credit
was a Maragret Rolfe, the woman who
clears her husband of a false murder
charge in The Woman in the Case
(1905). Her relatively early death at
the age of 42 in 1915, left unanswered
whether she would have become a major
star. |
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(click
on photo to enlarge) |
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as
young actress |
unidentified
character |
Portrait |
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in
costume |
Fuller
Opera House Poster |
with
Melbourne McDowell in Gismonda 1899 |
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Buffalo,
NY Poster |
in
The Woman in the Case (1905) |
Buffalo,
NY Poster |
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with
Joseph Haworth in Ressurrection (1903) |
with
Joseph Haworth in Ressurrection (1903) |
with
Joseph Haworth in Ressurrection (1903) |
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Joseph
Haworth & Blanche Walsh
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In the winter of 1903,
Count Leo Tolstoy’s Resurrection
came to Broadway. Tolstoy had given the
rights to his book freely to the world,
reserving no copyright, and several
stage adaptations of the story had been
written. He did however authorize the
first dramatization, a French version by
Henry Bataille. This script in
translation opened at
Hammerstein’s Victoria Theatre on
February 17, 1903.
It was a massive
production with forty-nine speaking
roles. But only the characters of Prince
Dimitri and Maslova ran through the
entire play, the others passing behind
them like a psychological panorama. It
told the story of Dimitri’s seduction of
the innocent serving girl Maslova, her
subsequent disgrace and fall, and then
years later, Dimitri’s efforts to redeem
himself by saving Maslova.
Joseph Haworth played
Dimitri and Blanche Walsh was Maslova.
By all accounts, Miss Walsh gave a
remarkable performance. William Winter
wrote in the February 18, 1903 New York
Herald: "In the prologue she was the
simple, innocent and ignorant country
girl, gradually yielding to the
seductive wiles of the man she loved.
When we see her again it is in jail,
after sentence has been passed. She is
the hardened conscienceless sinner,
still looking upon men as her legitimate
prey but hating and cursing them for the
ruin they have wrought in her life." As
for Haworth, the same edition of the New
York Herald stated "Joseph Haworth’s
performance as Dimitri marks him as a
great actor."
Resurrection
was the dramatic hit of the season. It
ran until the theatres closed for the
summer months. Joe returned to Ohio to
rest up for a fall tour of the play and
died there unexpectedly in August of
1903. Miss Walsh resumed doing the play
with a new leading man, and made a film
of Resurrection in 1912. |
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