Ethel Barrymore (born Ethel Mae Blythe; August 15, 1879 – June 18, 1959) was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors. Regarded as the "First Lady of the American Theater", Barrymore was a preeminent stage actress in her era and her career spanned six decades.
Ethel Barrymore was born Ethel Mae Blythe in Philadelphia, the second child of the actors Maurice Barrymore (whose real name was Herbert Blythe) and Georgiana Drew. She was named for her father’s favorite character—Ethel in William Makepeace Thackeray’s The Newcomes.
She was the sister of actors John Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore, the aunt of actor John Drew Barrymore, and the grand-aunt of actress Drew Barrymore. She was also a granddaughter of actress and theater-manager Louisa Lane Drew, and niece of Broadway matinée idol John Drew Jr and early Vitagraph Studios movie star Sidney Drew.
She spent her childhood in Philadelphia, and attended Roman Catholic schools there.
In the summer of 1893 Barrymore was in the company of her mother, Georgie, who had been ailing from tuberculosis and took a sabbatical for a cure to southern California at Santa Barbara not far from where family friend Helena Modjeska had a retreat. Georgie did not recover and died in July 1893 a week before her 37th birthday. Essentially Ethel and Lionel's childhood ended when Georgie died and they were forced to go to work still in their teens. John, a few years younger, stayed with their grandmother and other relatives. Barrymore's first appearance on Broadway was in 1895, in a play called The Imprudent Young Couple which starred her uncle John Drew, Jr., and Maude Adams. She appeared with Drew and Adams again in 1896 in Rosemary.
The Ethel Barrymore Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 243 West 47th Street in midtown-Manhattan, named for actress Ethel Barrymore.
Designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp and constructed by the Shuberts, it opened on December 20, 1928 with The Kingdom of God, a play selected by leading lady Ethel Barrymore. Over the next dozen years she returned to star in The Love Duel (1929), Scarlett Sister Mary (1930), The School for Scandal (1931), and An International Incident (1940).
It is the only surviving theatre of the many the Shuberts built for performers who were affiliated with them. It has been used continuously as a legitimate house, unlike many of the older theatres that have been used for a variety of purposes throughout the years.
Ethel Barrymore Theatre was an anthology television series hosted by Ethel Barrymore and the last series produced by the DuMont Television Network.
While produced by the network, the series was aired on Fridays at 8:30pm ET from September 21 to December 21, 1956 on DuMont station WABD after the network had closed. The series may have been filmed in 1953, and was known as Stage 8 in syndication.
Among the actors appearing were Arthur Kennedy, Charles Coburn, Anita Louise, Gene Lockhart, Eddie Bracken, and Akim Tamiroff.
As with most DuMont series, no episodes are known to exist. A list of the 14 episodes is at the CTVA website.
The Barrymore Theatre is a 971-capacity live music venue on the east side of Madison, Wisconsin. Originally built as the Eastwood Theater in 1929, the Barrymore was founded by Richard "Sich" Slone and Tom Peterson in 1987 in an attempt to revive Madison's declining Schenk-Atwood neighborhood. The theater has held over 2,000 shows and events including rock concerts, films, plays, dance recitals, broadcasts, political rallies, children's programming, and community events. Today the Barrymore is owned by the Schenk-Atwood Revitalization Association with Steve Sperling as general manager.
The building of a large east side theater was first announced in January 1924 after the purchase of the Gottlieb Maisch property at 2090 Atwood Avenue. The site had been the location of eastside fall festivals since 1922. The project was initiated in part by E. M. Michalson, who owned the Palace Theater on nearby Winnebago St. Promising a stage for local groups to use, the theater gained the support of members of the East Side Business Men's Association, who later formed the Eastwood Theater Company in October 1928. Capitalized at $50,000, the corporation had 125 stockholders with banker Herman J. Loftsgordon as president. Ground was broken by Loftsgordon on April 30, 1929.