Madame Pilar-Morin (born about 1870, died after June 1935) was a Spanish-French actress on stage, in

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

, and in silent films.

Early life

Pilar-Morin recalled a childhood in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, a Catholic education, a brief early marriage to a French count, and training as an actress and singer at the Paris Conservatoire. PilarMorin1910

Career

Pilar-Morin was a stage performer who specialized in "silent drama" in the mime tradition, in shows including ''L'Enfant Prodigue,'' ''In Old Japan'', ''A Paris Model'', ''Rachel,'' and ''Orange Blossoms.'' She appeared in

David Belasco David Belasco (July 25, 1853 – May 14, 1931) was an American theatrical producer, impresario, director, and playwright. He was the first writer to adapt the short story ''Madame Butterfly'' for the stage. He launched the theatrical career of m ...

's '' Madame Butterfly'' in London, and in vaudeville in the United States. Her expressive face and gestural vocabulary were considered well-suited to the medium of silent film. "We do not think there is any other woman in the world more suited by training, talent and temperament to the opportunity of uplifting the moving picture by her art." Edison Company films featuring Pilar-Morin as an actress include ''Comedy and Tragedy'' (1909), ''A Japanese Peach Boy'' (1910), ''The Cigarette Maker of Seville'' (1910, a short, silent version of ''

Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...

''), ''Carminella'' (1910), ''The Piece of Lace'' (1910), ''From Tyranny to Liberty'' (1910), ''The Key of Life'' (1910), and ''The Greater Love'' (1910). After her film career, Pilar-Morin returned to giving live performances, and had an acting studio in New York. She invented a method, the "Key Note Waved Winged Clavier", for training singers and speakers in breath control. She wrote and presented a short drama about the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

, ''La Cordette'' (1913). She also wrote and lectured on drama, breath control, and physical expression, for example in 1919 to the Society of Physical Education in New York. She trained American opera singer Josephine Lucchese in her physical methods.

Charges of impropriety

In 1896, Elizabeth Bartlett Grannis of the National Christian League for the Promotion of Purity charged a theatre manager, J. B. Doris, with "presenting an improper pantomime", specifically Pilar-Morin's ''Orange Blossoms.'' Grannis explained that Pilar-Morin's "grimaces" and gestures in a disrobing scene were "suggestive" and "demoralizing." Pilar-Morin appeared before a New York magistrate to defend her show. The case went before the New York State Supreme Court in 1897. Her 1899 show, ''My Cousin'' (''Ma Cousine'') was also condemned as lewd and obscene. "You Americans prate about purity in dramatics," she told an interviewer, "and there ends your opinions on the subject. You do not support pure plays, and naturally drive managers to seek what you really want."

Personal life

Pilar-Morin seldom gave details of her personal life in interviews or lectures. She was married to French pianist and composer Aimé Lachaume (1871-1944) in 1891; he performed with her in Boston in 1893. She testified that she was married and had a son in an 1896 hearing about 'Orange Blossoms'. She and Lachaume divorced in 1908. She was described as being married to "Prince de Matta of Egypt" in 1925, when her terrier, Lalith, wakened the couple and their neighbors to alert them to a fire in their New York apartment building. She was still married to A. Shibley de Matta in 1935.

References

External links

*
Pilar Morin, actress in the Edison Stock Company
a 1911 photograph in the Jonathan Silent Film Collection, Chapman University Digital Commons.
Madame Pilar-Morin in Japanese kimono
a 1909 photograph in the Jonathan Silent Film Collection, Chapman University Digital Commons. {{DEFAULTSORT:Pilar-Morin French stage actresses Spanish stage actresses French silent film actresses 20th-century French actresses Spanish silent film actresses Vaudeville performers 1930s deaths Year of birth uncertain 20th-century French women