Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges into Pennsylvania (16 page)

60  Longest river

61  Sandpaper surface

62  Tyra Banks is one

63  Isn't well

64  Shopper's come-on

1    College VIP

2    Kind of glow around one

3    Roman road

4    Pattern used to create documents

5    Solomon of nursery rhyme

6    Photo finish

7    Daisy Mae's love

8    At no time, poetically

9    One of Santa's reindeer

10  Designer Giorgio

11  Moon walker Armstrong

12  “Don't ___ us, we'll . . .”

13  U-turn from WNW

21  Big name in stationery

22  Word with iron or engine

25  Winter Palace residents

26  Knot again

27  Hawke of
Dead Poets Society

28  Battle memento

29  
Darby
___
and the Little People
(1959 Sean Connery film)

30  “I give!”

31  Fixes, in a way

33  Glide like a hawk

34  “Don't mind ___ do!”

37  Replay feature, for short

38  Prevent legally

39  Banisters, e.g.

44  Quick on the uptake

45  One skilled in alterations

46  Doesn't hog

48  ___ art (text graphics)

49  Immune system component

50  Dessert, say, to a dieter

51  Gets older

52  Name hidden in caricatures

53  Figure skater Lipinski

54  Blue dye

55  Mandolin cousin

56  Wash, as a floor

Pennsylvania has a long list of firsts in the United States, and even in the world. Here are a few
.

 

 

 

Scandals, shipwrecks, affairs—sound like a soap opera? Actually, it's all part of the life of Louisa Lane Drew, who settled in Pennsylvania in the 19th century and made a name for herself . . . first in the theater, and then for raising a show-business dynasty that became known as the Barrymores
.

L
ouisa Lane Drew wasn't a native Pennsylvanian—she was born in London in 1820—but she moved to Philadelphia with her mother when she was just seven years old. Both quickly got involved in the city's thriving theater community. In 1827, Louisa made her American theatrical debut in
Richard III
at the Walnut Theatre and later performed in Washington, D.C., and New York City, ultimately earning high praise as Little Pickle in the Bowery Theatre's
The Spoiled Child
.

In 1830, Louisa and her family formed a traveling theater company. But on a trip to the Caribbean, their ship hit a rock near Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, and they all had to jump overboard. In her autobiography, Louisa wrote, “We were 40 miles from any settlement, and the captain and one other would have to go the city of San [Santo] Domingo and obtain a brig to get us off. To haul by land was impossible. We were there six weeks.” By the time they were able to set sail again, Louisa's stepfather and her youngest sister had died of yellow fever.

The rest of the family (Louisa, her mother, and two more sisters)
returned to the United States briefly, but then joined another traveling troupe. This time they all headed to the Bahamas. When a night storm drove their ship into a sandbar, they found themselves shipwrecked yet again. This time, when rescue came, Louisa's mother decided to take her daughters home to Pennsylvania and leave the high seas to the sailors.

When she was 16, Louisa married her first husband, a middle-aged English actor named Henry Blaine Hunt. The couple toured with many U.S. theater companies, including one that starred Junius Brutus Booth (John Wilkes Booth's father). It was during this time that Louisa established a solid reputation as an actress, playing opposite some of the most popular actors of the day—Tyrone Power (great-grandfather of the 20th-century actor) and Edwin Booth (John Wilkes Booth's brother). She also earned $20 a week, the highest salary paid to a leading lady at that time.

After 11 years of marriage, though, the Hunts divorced—a scandalous act for the mid-1800s. Louisa quickly married another actor, George Mossop, but Mossop was a heavy drinker and died just five months later.

Within a year, Louisa was appearing onstage with another actor, John Drew, who was rumored to be smitten with her half-sister, Georgiana. But Louisa won out and married him in 1850.

The Drews settled in Philadelphia, where their three children were born. Like most women of her day, Louisa focused on raising her family; her husband took a job managing the city's Arch Street Theatre. The Arch had opened in 1828, and by the time John Drew took over, it was one of the city's premier playhouses.
Actor Edwin Forrest (often called the “grand tragedian of the American stage”) performed in many plays there, and English comedian William Burton had been a former manager.

But John Drew was restless. After just two years of managing the Arch, he left his family and joined a traveling theater troupe that also employed Louisa's younger half-sister, Georgiana. With John Drew gone, the Arch needed a new manager, and Louisa took over in 1861. She was the first woman ever to run the business.

John Drew and Georgiana returned to Philadelphia in 1862—with a baby girl named Adine. Louisa and John had never divorced, so Adine's paternity became the object of scandal and rumor. Even though no one ever proved she was John Drew's daughter, people suspected. Still, when Georgiana became too ill to take care of her baby, Louisa took the child in and kept her even after John Drew died in May of that year.

To support the family, Louisa continued to run and perform at the Arch. Under her leadership, the old theater prospered, and Louisa became as well known for her good business sense as for her acting skills. Some of the most celebrated players of the time worked the Arch—even John Wilkes Booth took on the role of Macbeth there, two years before he assassinated Abraham Lincoln.

Despite her many marriages (and her occupation), Louisa became a respected member of Philadelphia society; a staunch Episcopalian, she even had her own pew reserved at St. Stephen's Church. She also raised five children, mostly alone, and cared for
her elderly mother.

Louisa's daughter, also named Georgiana, and her son Jack followed their mother into the family business. Jack eventually went to New York, where he took on a role in Edwin Booth's
Hamlet
. Appearing with him was a then-unknown actor named Maurice Barrymore. The two became friends, and when their production ended, Jack brought Barrymore home to Philadelphia, where Georgiana fell in love with him.

But Louisa didn't care for Maurice Barrymore. She felt he was irresponsible and not good enough for her daughter. Still, despite Louisa's objections, the couple married in 1876 and had three children: Lionel, Ethel, and John Sidney Blythe Barrymore . . . who eventually became the grandfather of Drew Barrymore.

The Barrymores lived in Philadelphia with Louisa, who kept working. In 1880, she took on her most famous role as Mrs. Malaprop in
The Rivals
. Despite being 60 years old, she toured with that production and others for the next decade.

Louisa eventually developed a disease called dropsy—known today as edema—which causes excessive fluid to build up in the body. She died in her sleep on August 31, 1897, and is buried in Philadelphia's Mount Vernon Cemetery.