QUOTATION: Tradition has made women cowardly.
ATTRIBUTION: Nance O’Neil (1874–1965), U.S. actor. As quoted in Famous Actors and Actresses on the American Stage, vol. 2, by William C. Young (1975).
From an article first published in Theatre magazine in 1920.
http://bartleby.school.aol.com/66/69/42969.html
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I thought this spoke towards how respected an actress Nance was.This is from a biography of the actress who became known as Marian Marsh.
In 1928, 15-year-old Violet Krauth became Marilyn Morgan and made a momentous decision. "By this time, I was crazy to act!" she recalled. With rare acumen, she contacted famous stage star Nance O'Neil and arranged voice and poise tutoring, hired master Ernest Belcher for dance lessons, and contracted a noted voice specialist to learn singing. Four days after her release by Goldwyn, she was at Warners for a screen test.
http://www.filmsofthegoldenage.com/foga ... arsh.shtml
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It seems to me that aside from Bernhardt, the most memorable first night was when Nance O’Neil, a San Francisco girl, first, appeared on the stage a star.
Born Gertrude Lamson, her religious father, an, auctioneer, denounced, his daughter in church, for going on the stage, and asked the congregation to pray for her.
She drifted away under the management of McKee Rankin, who made her, a star in Australia. London also acclaimed her before she returned to her home town. When she rushed onto stage in “Leah the Forsaken,” wild-eyed, hair disheveled, fleeing from her pursuers, it seemed to me that I was looking at Siddons or Ristori. Indeed, she wore Ristori’s jewels.
Critics Lukewarm
Nance had genius that made all other actresses, except Bernhardt, seem second rate.
The small audience, gave her curtain call after curtain call. Next morning I was surprised to find all the critics lukewarm. I said to Fremont: “I don’t know what to write.”
He replied: “Pay no attention to the other critics. Write just as you feel.”
So I wrote that the San Francisco girl was a genius.
She changed her program every night and I attended each performance. For a week she didn’t draw, and then suddenly the theater was crowded.
Later, she appeared under David Belasco, but she was too long with Rankin to fulfill the promise that she gave.
http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist8/olderbio.html
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Some links relating to Nance O'Neil. Some of them only make a small mention of her, but I think any mention at all is still some insight into what she may have been like, and how she was perceived by others:
http://www-tech.mit.edu/archives/VOL_02 ... 1_P002.pdf
http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/f ... 87&mod=bio
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0642042/
http://www.ulwaf.com/LA-1900s/08.07.html
http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=10976
http://silentgents.com/BTalmadgeN.html
http://www.kwic.com/~davus/full_review/rankin.htm
http://www.things-and-other-stuff.com/E ... nnants.htm
