Maude Adams

Once the most beloved actress of the American stage, and for many years the theatres greatest box office magnet, Maude Adams was born in Salt Lake City, November 11, 1872. A descendant of the two Adams Presidents, her mother was Annie Adams, an actress, and her father, James Kiskadden, a banker. She was carried on stage as a baby, and as Little Maudie was a child actress in West Coast stock companies. She was educated ad Collegiate Institute in her native city, but she left school when she was fourteen. Having arrived in New York with her mother, she made her first appearance September 17, 1888, at the Star Theatre in the Paymaster. Her part required her to dive into a tank of water. Her mother doubled for her in this stunt but nobody else except the manager and the protesting daughter knew it. She played with E.H. Sothern and was John Drew's leading lady for five years before becoming a start in The Little Minister on September 27, 1897, at the Empire Theatre. Among her successes, under Charles Frohman's management, was Peter Pan, her favorite and most famous role. Mr. Frohman was a firm believer that an actor's private life should be private. This, plus the fact that she was a shy person and cared nothing for a social life, gave Ms. Adams an aura of mystery. Although a Protestant, she often sought seclusion in a convent. She was proud of the fact that she never missed a performance during her entire career. She played the piano, harp, and cello, and spoke French fluently. She rarely answered letters or gave interviews. She enjoyed experimenting with stage lighting and colored motion pictures, a new invention at the time. She cared nothing about fashion, and at rehearsal she would appear in a long brown old-fashioned coat, worn at the edges, which she declared was her mascot. Ms. Adams never married and died in 1953.

Maude Adams and John Drew