Katherine Emmet (March 13, 1878 – June 6, 1960) was an American actress on stage, in film, and in television, and a director of radio plays.
Early life
Emmet was born in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, California. Her mother Harriet H. Hubbell was a physician in that city. Her father was said to be a descendant of
Betsy Ross
Elizabeth Griscom Ross (née Griscom;Addie Guthrie Weaver, ''"The Story of Our Flag..."'', 2nd Edition, A. G. Weaver, publ., 1898, p. 73 January 1, 1752 – January 30, 1836), also known by her second and third married names, Ashburn an ...
. Emmet attended
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
, with further studies in France and
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo (; ; french: Monte-Carlo , or colloquially ''Monte-Carl'' ; lij, Munte Carlu ; ) is officially an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is ...
.
["Katherine Emmet Has Played Leads with Many Stars"](_blank)
''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' (October 18, 1936): 71. via Newspapers.com
Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites.
In November 2018, ...
Career
Acting
Emmet had a long and varied career on stage in New York.
Her Broadway appearances included roles in ''Matilda'' (1906-1907), ''A Woman of Impulse'' (1909), ''The Bridge'' (1909), ''The Affairs of Anatol'' (1912), ''
The Ghost Breaker'' (1913), ''Help Wanted'' (1914), ''Polygamy'' (1914-1915), ''Any House'' (1916), ''The Gypsy Trail'' (1917-1918), ''
A Doll's House
''A Doll's House'' (Danish and nb, Et dukkehjem; also translated as ''A Doll House'') is a three-act play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It premiered at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 21 December 1879, having bee ...
'' (1918), ''
Penrod'' (1918), ''The Marquis de Priola'' (1919), ''Moonlight and Honeysuckle'' (1919), ''The Laughing Lady'' (1923), ''The New Englander'' (1924), ''Thoroughbreds'' (1924), ''Hangman's House'' (1926), ''Paolo and Francesca'' (1929), ''Jenny'' (1929-1930), ''A Widow in Green'' (1931), ''We, the People'' (1933), ''
The Children's Hour'' (1934-1936, and again in revival 1952-1953), ''Ring Around Elizabeth'' (1941), ''Guest in the House'' (1942), and ''
Pygmalion
Pygmalion or Pigmalion may refer to:
Mythology
* Pygmalion (mythology), a sculptor who fell in love with his statue
Stage
* ''Pigmalion'' (opera), a 1745 opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau
* ''Pygmalion'' (Rousseau), a 1762 melodrama by Jean-Jacques ...
'' (1945-1946).
Film work by Emmet included roles in ''Cupid's Caprice'' (1914, short), ''The Rube'' (1914, short), ''Little Miss Bountiful'' (1914, short), ''Peter's Relations'' (1914, short), ''
Paying the Piper
''Paying the Piper'' is a 1949 Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' cartoon directed by Robert McKimson. The short was released on March 12, 1949, and stars Porky Pig.
It is a parody of the fairy tale The Pied Piper and it involves Porky trying to stop a ...
'' (1921, now lost), ''
Orphans of the Storm
''Orphans of the Storm'' is a 1921 American silent drama film by D. W. Griffith set in late-18th-century France, before and during the French Revolution.
The last Griffith film to feature both Lillian and Dorothy Gish, it was a commercial fail ...
'' (1921), ''
The Hole in the Wall'' (1929), and ''
The Night Angel
''The Night Angel'' is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film written and directed by Edmund Goulding. The film stars Nancy Carroll, Fredric March, Phoebe Foster, Alison Skipworth and Alan Hale, Sr. The film was released on July 18, 1931, by Paramo ...
'' (1931). On television, she appeared in episodes of ''
Studio One in Hollywood
''Studio One'' is an American anthology drama television series that was adapted from a radio series. It was created in 1947 by Canadian director Fletcher Markle, who came to CBS from the CBC. It premiered on November 7, 1948 and ended on Sept ...
'' (1950-1952), ''
Campbell Summer Soundstage'' (1953), and ''
Inner Sanctum'' (1954).
Directing, writing, and acting for radio
On radio, Emmet was known for adapting, directing, and sometimes acting in Shakespeare plays for a weekly program on
WEAF in New York. "Audiences today have tabloid minds," she explained in 1927, "and, whether we like it or not, we must cut the classics to a length that they will tolerate, if we want them to be interested at all." She also directed Sheridan's ''
The School for Scandal
''The School for Scandal'' is a comedy of manners written by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. It was first performed in London at Drury Lane Theatre on 8 May 1777.
Plot
Act I
Scene I: Lady Sneerwell, a wealthy young widow, and her hireling Sna ...
'' for the same radio program. She was later in the cast of radio
soap opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...
s, including ''
Our Gal Sunday
''Our Gal Sunday'' is an American soap opera produced by Frank and Anne Hummert, network broadcast via CBS from March 29, 1937, to January 2, 1959, starring Dorothy Lowell and, after Lowell's 1944 death, Vivian Smolen in the title role.
The orig ...
'' (1937-1955) and ''
Front Page Farrell
''Front Page Farrell'' is an American old-time radio program that was broadcast on Mutual from June 23, 1941 to March 13, 1942, and on NBC from September 14, 1942, to March 26, 1954. The episodes broadcast on Mutual originated at WOR, making th ...
'' (1941-1942).
Other activities
![Liberty Bonds - Public Gatherings - Stage stars discuss plans for great third Liberty Loan Drive - NARA - 45493477](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Liberty_Bonds_-_Public_Gatherings_-_Stage_stars_discuss_plans_for_great_third_Liberty_Loan_Drive_-_NARA_-_45493477.jpg)
Emmet called herself "a good suffragette", but "non-militant — don't forget to put the non-militant part in", she reminded a reporter in 1913. She owned a dairy farm in California's
San Joaquin Valley
The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven c ...
in the 1910s. During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, she sold
Liberty Bonds
A liberty bond (or liberty loan) was a war bond that was sold in the United States to support the Allied cause in World War I. Subscribing to the bonds became a symbol of patriotic duty in the United States and introduced the idea of financi ...
, and served on the board of Stage Women's War Relief. She and
Edith Wynne Matthison
Edith Wynne Matthison (November 23, 1875 – September 23, 1955) was an Anglo-American stage actress who also appeared in two silent films.
Biography
She was born on November 23, 1875, in England, the daughter of Kate Wynne Matthison and Henry ...
resigned from the board of directors at the Actors' Theatre in New York in 1928, in a contract dispute. The following year, she gave testimony at the state legislature against Sunday performances in New York theatres.
Personal life
"If I say I am not married", Emmet told a reporter asking about her personal life in 1913, "people will wonder why I am an old maid. So I shall not tell you." She was married in 1914, to artist and educator
Alon Bement, who was an early mentor of
Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was an American modernist artist. She was known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been called the "Mother of Amer ...
. She was widowed in 1954, and she died in 1960, aged 82 years, in New York City.
["Katherine Emmet, a Stage Actress" ''The New York Times'' (June 7, 1960): 35. via ]ProQuest
ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene B. Power. ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for libraries, provid ...
References
External links
*
*
Drawings and photographs of Katherine Emmetin various Broadway productions, in the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Emmet, Katherine
1878 births
1960 deaths
American actresses
American women in World War I
20th-century American people