Wikipedia

Kathryn Adams (actress, born 1893)

Kathryn Adams (born Ethalinda Colson;[1] May 25, 1893 – February 17, 1959), sometimes credited as Catherine Adams or Katherine Adams,[2] was an American actress. She began her career in 1911 working as a chorus girl in the Chicago production of Addison Burkhardt's hit musical Louisiana Lou which starred Sophie Tucker. She went to New York City to pursue training as a singer, and appeared in DeWolf Hopper's musical Hop o' My Thumb in the 1913-1914 season. She began her silent film career in 1915 working for Tom Terriss on The Pursuing Shadow, and that same year became a leading lady with first Metro Pictures and then the Thanhouser Company. She made numerous films with Thanhouser between 1915-1917, and worked with a variety of film companies thereafter. She became a supporting actress in the 1920s, and her silent film career ended in 1925. She made one sound film, making a minor uncredited appearance in the film The Squaw Man (1931).

Kathryn Adams
Who's Who on the Screen, 1920
Born
Ethalinda Colson

(1893-05-25)May 25, 1893
St. Louis, Missouri, US
DiedFebruary 17, 1959(1959-02-17) (aged 65)
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, US
Other nameCatherine Adams
OccupationActress
SpouseJacques Magnin

Early years

edit

Adams was born Ethalinda Colson[1] on May 25, 1893 , the daughter of actress Kate Colson.[3] She attended schools in St. Louis,[2] and also studied drama in that city at the Belmont School of Acting on Olive St.[4] She later had vocal training in New York.[5]

Career

edit

Adams initially worked as a stage actress.[6] She began her career performing in the ensemble of Louisiana Lou,[7] a musical by Addison Burkhardt which opened at the La Salle Theater in Chicago in September 1911 and starred Sophie Tucker and Alexander Carr.[8] It was tremendously successful and had what was then a record-breaking-long run at that theater in the 1911-1912 season.[9] She next joined the company of Hop o' My Thumb,[7] a musical extravaganza by DeWolf Hopper which played at the Manhattan Opera House in December 1913[10] and January 1914 before going on tour.[11]

In 1915, Adams began her film career with Tom Terriss's film company with her first movie being The Pursuing Shadow (1915).[7] After this she made a couple films for Metro Pictures, including The Shooting of Dan McGrew (1915), before becoming a leading actress with the Thanhouser Company based in New Rochelle, New York.[7][2] She had the lead roles in that company's productions The Bird of Prey (1916) and The Phantom Witness (1916).[5] By 1917 she had left Thanhouser and come under contract with Goldwyn Pictures with whom she portrayed Aggie in the film Baby Mine (1917).[12] Some of her notable films included The Vicar of Wakefield (1917),[3] The Valentine Girl (1917),[3] The Streets of Illusion (1917),[13] Raffles The Amateur Cracksman (1917),[14] Riders of the Purple Sage (1918),[15] Restless Souls (1919),[3] A Rogue's Romance (1919),[16] Uncharted Channels (1920),[17] The Forbidden Woman (1920),[18] The Best of Luck (1920),[19] Big Happiness (1920),[20] and The Man from Downing Street (1922).[21]

After working as a leading actress into the early 1920s, her career shifted into supporting roles; including the parts of Edith Langwell in Borrowed Husbands and Fanny Minafer in Pampered Youth.[3] The latter part was her final silent film role, and except for a brief appearance in the 1931 version of The Squaw Man, she no longer made pictures after 1925.[15]

Personal life and death

edit

After retiring from the film industry, Adams worked as an assembler at Lockheed Corporation making aircraft.[3] She married Arthur Witter in 1920; in 1928, the two divorced due to Witter's drinking.[22] She later married Jacques Magnin, a businessman from Los Angeles.[23]

On February 17, 1959, Adams died in Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital[23] of an intestinal hemorrhage at the age of 65. She is buried in section R of Calvary Cemetery, East Los Angeles next to her mother.[3]

Filmography

edit

References

edit

Citations

edit
  1. 1 2 Kear & King 2009, p. 129.
  2. 1 2 3 "Adams, Kathryn (1893–1959)". Encyclopedia.com. Archived from the original on March 3, 2017. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Wilson 2016, p. 9.
  4. ↑ "Theatrical". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. March 5, 1916. p. 46.
  5. 1 2 "Thanhouser Stars on Pathe Program". Motography. August 26, 1916. p. 491. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
  6. ↑ "(photo caption)". Picture-Play Magazine. VI (2). April 1917. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Kathryn Adams—Thanhouser Leading Woman". The Moving Picture World. November 25, 1916. p. 1178.
  8. ↑ "News of the Theatre". Chicago Tribune. September 4, 1911. p. 4.
  9. ↑ "At the La Salle Theatre". The Chicago Live Stock World. April 27, 1912. p. 4.
  10. ↑ "Hop o' My Thumb at the Manhattan Opera House". The New York Times. December 21, 1913. p. 18.
  11. ↑ Rialto, Beau (January 3, 1914). "Along the Great White Way". Long Beach Daily Telegram. p. 11.
  12. ↑ "Baby Mine Film Coming". The St. Louis Star and Times. September 28, 1917. p. 9.
  13. 1 2 Katchmer 1991, p. 18.
  14. 1 2 Kear & King 2009, p. 128.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 Liebman 1996, p. 12.
  16. 1 2 Fox & Silver 1920, p. 241.
  17. 1 2 Connelly 1998, p. 425.
  18. 1 2 Connelly 1998, p. 87.
  19. 1 2 Rainey 2024, p. 315.
  20. 1 2 Rainey 2024, p. 234.
  21. 1 2 American Film Institute 1971, p. 478.
  22. ↑ "Broken Gin Pledge Get Her Divorce". The Los Angeles Times. May 22, 1928. p. 2. Retrieved March 11, 2022 – via Ancestry.com.
  23. 1 2 "Silent film actress Kathryn Adams dies". The Los Angeles Times. February 18, 1959. p. 39. Retrieved January 15, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ↑ "Brady Offering Proves Unusual". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. December 31, 1915. p. 7.
  25. ↑ Bodeen 1976, p. 43.
  26. ↑ Braff 2002, p. 295.
  27. ↑ Braff 2002, p. 246.
  28. ↑ Braff 2002, p. 211.
  29. ↑ "Thanhouser". The Moving Picture World: 2243. December 18, 1915.
  30. ↑ Braff 2002, p. 63.
  31. ↑ Braff 2002, p. 388.
  32. ↑ Connelly 1998, p. 322.
  33. ↑ Braff 2002, p. 473.
  34. ↑ Braff 2002, p. 425.
  35. ↑ Braff 2002, p. 167.
  36. ↑ "Mutual Masterpieces". The Moving Picture World. June 10, 1916. p. 1940.
  37. 1 2 3 4 5 Spehr & Lundquist 1996, p. 6.
  38. ↑ Mavis 2015, p. 249.
  39. ↑ "Current Releases Reviewed: The Woman and the Beast". Motography. May 26, 1917. p. 1117.
  40. ↑ Katchmer 1991, p. 283.
  41. ↑ Goble 2011, p. 125.
  42. ↑ Goble 2011, p. 363.
  43. ↑ Katchmer 1991, p. 702.
  44. ↑ Langman 1998, p. 15.
  45. ↑ Goble 2011, p. 278.
  46. ↑ "Kathryn Adams with E. Williams". The Tacoma Daily Ledger. March 13, 1921. p. 38.

Bibliography

edit
edit

Wikimedia Commons logo Media related to Kathryn Adams at Wikimedia Commons

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kathryn_Adams_(actress,_born_1893)&oldid=1355525476"