September 4, 2023 • 30 mins
This week Kiley dons the glitz and glam and rubs elbows with some original Hollywood royalty!
Topic: The Duchess of Theater, Ethel Barrymore.
✨New: Subscribe on Buzzsprout to help us make the show, and future bonus content right in your RSS! ✨ https://www.buzzsprout.com/308030/supporters/new
Music: "Another Day" by The Fisherman.
Cover Art by Lezulla
Please Rate & Review us on Podchaser!
You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, and visit our website at www.HalfwitPodcasts.com!
Reach out, say hello, or suggest a topic at HalfwitPod@gmail.com, or on this form!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
Hello and welcome to HalfwitHistory.
(00:34):
I'm Jonathan.
Kiley (00:34):
And I'm Kiley.
Jonathan (00:35):
And this is a show where we talk about the upcoming
week, but a long time ago.
Kiley (00:39):
And sometimes not so long ago.
Jonathan (00:41):
What kind of long or not so long ago are we doing
today?
Kiley (00:46):
This week, we are taking a look at a shining star of ages
past.
And no, I'm not talking aboutthe outer space type of star.
Jonathan (00:54):
No, why not?
Kiley (00:56):
Well, because I'm talking about a superstar.
An actor.
A performer.
Jonathan (01:03):
Oooohhh.
Kiley (01:04):
As the player says in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are
dead, we are actors.
We're the opposite of people.
And the actor that I'm going tobe talking about today was
called Ethel Barrymore.
dubbed the First Lady of theAmerican Theater, and she was
born on August 15th, 1879.
Jonathan (01:21):
And that's our date?
Kiley (01:22):
And that is our date, yes.
You may notice that August 15thlooks nothing like a date in
September.
Uh-huh.
Jonathan (01:29):
So we got the opportunity to go to Japan for a
good amount of time.
We were there for three weeks.
Kiley (01:36):
Yeah.
Jonathan (01:37):
And then it took a while to get back on our feet
afterwards.
Kiley (01:41):
I'm still taking naps, so...
Jonathan (01:43):
Yeah.
So...
We are releasing this one, eventhough it's not technically the
upcoming week.
It's what we were supposed torecord over the vacation that we
took.
And then the other updaterelated to that is we are going
to put out an episode.
Our next episode is going to beabout our trip to Japan.
(02:04):
Yeah.
If anyone wants to listen tothat.
And we're going to basicallytalk about the things that we
did and then find a few of thosethings and talk a little bit
more about them from ahistorical sense.
Yeah.
to give you guys a picture ofall the things we did and
learned and the fun we had.
Kiley (02:20):
Yeah.
Jonathan (02:20):
And then one more little update before we jump
back into our real topic here isthat we are going to be taking
a little bit of a break.
Kiley has just started upschool again and they've messed
up what her schedule is and sheneeds to make brand new lesson
plans again.
Kiley (02:37):
I'm having a fun time.
It's great.
Jo (02:39):
We need to take a little bit of a break.
She's going to start working onepisodes from December backwards
so you'll at least hear usthen.
And at some point, we're goingto figure out something else
that we can do so that we canremain a little bit more
consistent.
We got better.
Kiley (02:52):
And then we failed again.
I don't know what happened.
Jonathan (02:55):
No we didn't fail again.
We were doing well workingbackwards.
And then life happened.
And we got the chance to go ona vacation.
And we haven't done that in avery, very, very long time.
Kiley (03:05):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we're going to figure out away to make this a little bit
more consistent.
Jonathan (03:10):
And if anyone has any suggestions, is what you love
about our show, what you wish wewould do a little differently
or if you're looking to hearabout something specific or you
have an idea, just let us know.
All of our contact informationis down in the show notes.
Yes.
And that is a long enoughdetour from the topic that we
are giving you today.
Yes.
Back to our actress.
Kiley (03:30):
Ethel Barrymore.
Jonathan (03:31):
Ethel Barrymore, born on August 15th, definitely
today.
Kiley (03:34):
Definitely, definitely this upcoming week.
Yeah.
So I'm sure many of you heardthe last name Barrymore and
thought, Like Drew Barrymore?
Jonathan (03:44):
Uh-huh, I did when I asked for the title of the
episode so I could save it.
And I'm like, surely it can'tbe.
So I asked Kiley to clarify.
Kiley (03:53):
So the short answer is yes.
Ethel Barrymore is actually thegreat aunt of Drew Barrymore.
So they're related.
Jonathan (04:00):
Very cool.
Kiley (04:00):
And both women...
are part of what was referredto as theater's royal family, at
least in America.
Jonathan (04:07):
Oh, I don't think I was aware of that.
Kiley (04:10):
So I'm going to back up a little bit in case you, like
Jonathan, were not aware ofthis.
Beep, beep, beep.
Oh, no.
Okay, so Ethel, Lionel, andJohn Barrymore...
who, those are her twosiblings, could claim an
impeccable family tree.
Their maternal grandfather'sname was John Drew, and he lived
from 1827 to 1862, and he wasthe leading tragedy actor of the
(04:35):
19th century American stage anda beloved Shakespearean actor
to boot.
Their maternal grandmother, soJohn Drew's wife, Louisa Lane
Drew, who had been an even moreformidable presence on the stage
than her husband, and who wassaid to be the only fellow
thespian of whom Edwin Boothfelt threatened, so Edwin Booth
was like the big Shakespeareanactor of like the 1800s.
(04:58):
And he was also John WilkesBooth's brother.
Oh, yeah.
Interesting.
What a twist.
I know.
So he was like the biggestShakespearean actor of the time.
And he felt threatened by howgood she was.
So,
Jonathan (05:14):
OK,
Kiley (05:14):
considering the fact that she's female and he's male,
that's like a really big deal,especially in that time.
Anyway, so.
Louisa would go on to managePhiladelphia's most famous
theater in this time called TheArch.
And she was known in thetheater world as the Duchess.
And anyone who had hopes for afuture on the stage never got on
her bad side.
She could like completely sinkyour career if she wanted to.
Jonathan (05:36):
Why do I feel like I knew that she was called the
Duchess?
Was this brought up in like anysort of more modern media?
Kiley (05:44):
I have no idea.
Huh, okay.
The only thing I can think ofis the Duchess from the
Aristocats.
Maybe.
I don't know.
I almost...
I
Jonathan (05:57):
probably heard something somewhere about this,
and that just sparked a memory.
Kiley (06:01):
Well, now I'm suddenly wondering if there's a
connection between...
the owner of all the cats andthe Aristocats and her.
I'm sure there isn't.
I'm sure my brain is just like,here, have this information and
it has no relation whatsoever.
If I'm wrong and you know, tellme.
Anyway.
So John and Louisa Drew'schildren were on the stage
almost as soon as they couldtalk.
(06:22):
Georgiana Drew, their daughter,became the favorite comedian of
the discerning Gilded Ageaudiences.
Her brother Sidney was a notedcomedian, and her second brother
John Jr.
was eventually dubbed the firstgentleman of the American
stage.
And to complete the picture,Georgiana married a dashing
young Englishman just making aname for himself in American
theater.
Herbert Maurice Blythe had beenborn in India of Anglo-Indian
(06:47):
parents who were civil servantsThere you go.
What a way to do it.
I mean, hey, you definitelycould have found a worse name.
(07:10):
So he arrived in America in1874, secured his first stage
role the following year, andthen shortly afterward married
Georgiana Drew.
The couple had three children,Lionel, who was born April 28th
of 1878, Ethel, our star of thestory, who was born on August
15th, 1879, and John, bornFebruary 15th, 1882.
(07:31):
There's a lot of Johns in this.
I'm just going to say it now.
Jonathan (07:34):
Listen, there's a lot of Johns in English language.
Kiley (07:38):
Everywhere, yes.
Jonathan (07:39):
Everywhere.
Kiley (07:40):
Yeah, there's one.
There's a John in eachgeneration.
Jonathan (07:42):
Yeah.
Kiley (07:45):
So Ethel was actually named after her father's
favorite character, Ethel, inWilliam Makepeace Thackeray's
The New Comes.
I'm not familiar with that, butapparently that's where she got
her name from.
Jonathan (07:56):
Me neither.
Kiley (07:57):
She spent her childhood in Philadelphia with her
brothers where they attendedRoman Catholic schools.
Their childhood wassurprisingly stable given the
fact that their parents werefrequently touring.
But the children stayed withtheir maternal grandmother,
Louisa, with frequent visitsfrom their uncles on their way
to or from engagements, as wellas a plethora of house guests
from the Best Society inPhiladelphia, New York, and
(08:18):
Boston who were brought home forlong weekends by their parents.
Jonathan (08:22):
My goodness.
Kiley (08:23):
Yeah.
So they knew a lot of peoplefrom a very young age.
Oh, no.
Yeah.
Like someone was like, oh mygosh, are you okay?
(08:58):
And she's like, I'm fine.
He's like, What?
Actilia.
Yeah, exactly.
So in 1884, the family sailedto England and stayed there for
two years.
Maurice had inherited asubstantial amount of money from
an aunt and decided to exhibitand star in some plays in
London's Haymarket Theatre.
It was during this trip thatthe Barrymores met Oscar Wilde,
(09:18):
and Ethel would later recallbeing reprimanded by her parents
because she was, like, visiblyafraid of him when she gave,
like, served him some, like, teacakes.
And then they were like, whyare you, why were you so weird
with him and she's like I don'tknow I'm scared
Jonathan (09:33):
he's a very big name I'm nervous
Kiley (09:35):
and he looks wild
Jonathan (09:37):
yeah
Kiley (09:39):
Sorry, that was a bad joke.
Jonathan (09:41):
I rolled my eyes so hard that I see the waveform
Kiley (09:45):
in the recording.
Anyway, Ethel would alsoremember the two years that they
spent in London as some of thehappiest of her childhood,
mostly due to the fact that theBarrymores were more of a
nuclear family in London thanthey were in the U.S.
because they were actually allliving together most of the
time.
So upon returning to the U.S.
in 1886, her father took her toher first baseball game, which
(10:07):
established a lifelong love ofthe sport.
and also introduced her to theidea of becoming a concert
pianist, which we can tell justfrom the intro to this that she
did not do, but that was kind oflike her ambition for a long
time.
Oh, okay.
Which is kind of funny.
In the summer of 1893,Barrymore was in the company of
her mother Georgie, who had beenailing from tuberculosis and
(10:27):
took a curative sabbatical toSanta Barbara, California.
Georgie, unfortunately, didn'trecover and died in July of
1893, a week before her 37thbirthday.
Yikes.
So she was pretty young, yeah.
Essentially, Ethel and Lionel'schildhoods ended when Georgie
died.
They were forced to go to workin their teens with neither of
them finishing high school.
John was a few years youngerand stayed with their
(10:50):
grandmother and other relatives.
Ethel's first appearance onBroadway was in 1895 in a play
called The Imprudent YoungCouple, which starred her uncle,
John Drew Jr., and Maude Adams.
And she actually later appearedwith Drew and Adams again in
1896 in Rosemary.
Okay.
So her uncle pretty muchfacilitated her entrance into
(11:11):
Broadway in a way.
In 1897, Ethel went withWilliam Gillette to London to
play Miss Kittredge inGillette's Secret Service.
She was about to return to theStates when Henry Irving and
Ellen Terry offered her the roleof Annette in The Bells.
The show ran a full tour, andEthel created the role of
Euphrosyne in Peter the Great atthe Lyceum, the play having
(11:32):
been written by Irving's son,Lawrence.
So at this point, men allacross...
Both England and the U.S.
were getting pretty smittenwith Ethel, notably Winston
Churchill, who asked her tomarry him.
Oh! Yep.
She had no desire to be apolitician's wife, however, and
refused.
Jonathan (11:48):
Good choices.
Kiley (11:49):
Yeah.
Years later, Winston married awoman named Clementine Hoser,
who actually looks a lot likeEthel.
Oh, boy.
But Ethel and Winston allegedlyremained friends for the rest
of her life, like forever.
kind acquaintances kind ofthing.
Oh, well, that's good.
So, like, no hard feelings, Iguess.
So, after her season in London,Ethel returned to the U.S.,
(12:10):
where Charles Froman cast her inseveral roles, culminating in
one that would shoot her tostardom, Madame Tritone in
Captain Jinx of the HorseMarines.
Jonathan (12:19):
That sounds fun.
Kiley (12:20):
That sounds like a really entertaining show, just
thinking.
It also makes me think of oneof those, like, really cheap
romance novels that you get at,like, the grocery store.
I can see.
I don't know why, but thatmakes me laugh.
So this show opened at theGarrick Theatre in London's West
End on February 4th of 1901.
(12:41):
When the tour concluded inBoston in June, she had outdrawn
two of the most prominentactresses of the day, Mrs.
Patrick Campbell and MinnieMattern Fisk.
Also, unbeknownst to Ethel, herfather had witnessed the
performance as an audiencemember and walked up to his
daughter, congratulated her, andgave her a big hug.
It would be the first and onlytime he would see her on stage
(13:01):
professionally.
Later that year, after he hadbeen behaving erratically for a
fair amount of time, Maurice wasdeclared legally insane, which
was...
Basically, the result of havingcontracted syphilis immediately
when he came to New York, thatwent untreated and basically
ravaged everything.
Yeah, it'll do that to you.
Yeah, it's not good.
(13:21):
This is your PSA to get checkedfor any and all STDs.
Yep.
So he was declared legallyinsane.
And unfortunately, he wascommitted to an asylum.
And it was actually Ethel'spainful duty to sign those
commitment papers to put himthere.
And he would end upinstitutional Rough.
Uh-huh.
Uh-huh.
(13:44):
basically exemplified her blunthumor and absolute distaste for
(14:11):
attention would become a partof the national language at the
time, which is really ironic tome that she didn't really like
having a ton of attention whenshe was an actress.
Jonathan (14:21):
Well, I think that's actually kind of common, and we
won't take that weird littleturn there, but a lot of actors
are introverts.
Kiley (14:31):
Yeah, that's true.
Jonathan (14:32):
You always have to remember that people who are
actors, for the most part...
were theater kids.
And theater kids get picked on.
It's hard to remember thatsometimes because especially
very big actors and the ones yousee all the time on film is
like, oh, they're very macho.
(14:53):
They're very charismatic.
They're all these things.
And it's like, you have toremember they were the drama
kids.
Kiley (15:00):
Yeah.
And then, I mean, you haveactors who are clearly very
outgoing and are extroverts,which makes...
you think that everyone else islike that too, when they
probably aren't.
Jonathan (15:09):
Yeah.
Kiley (15:09):
They're the minority.
Yeah.
Okay.
Or
Jonathan (15:12):
they've grown into it.
Kiley (15:14):
Also fair.
Um, okay.
So, um, she used this line inher to avoid doing a current
call essentially.
Um, She would also parody usingthis line in a 1949 Christmas
broadcast on Bing Crosby's radioshow, although she couldn't
actually make it through thewhole line reading because she
kept bursting into laughter.
Her leading roles in A Doll'sHouse by the Norwegian dramatist
(15:36):
Henrik Ibsen in 1905 and AliceSit by the Fire by Scottish
dramatist James N.
Berry in 1906 established heras one of the foremost actresses
in the American theater.
Her portrayal of Lady HelenHaddon, a lower-class woman who
enters high society by marriageonly to be destroyed by it in
Zoe Atkins' De Classe wasanother of her successes in the
(15:57):
early 1900s and it prompted thethen fledgling theater critic
for Vanity Fair Dorothy Parkerwhich if anyone has followed
like historical theater criticstuff, Dorothy Parker's a huge
name, to state precociously,quote, if during my
theater-going lifetime there hasbeen one other performance so
perfect as the one EthelBarrymore gives, I can only say
(16:19):
I had the hideous misfortune tomiss it.
Basically saying...
Yeah.
Oh.
Yeah.
While Russell commuted to WallStreet every morning, Ethel
(16:49):
retired from the stage to givebirth to three children between
1910 and 1913, Samuel, EthelBarrymore Colt, and John.
And John.
Like I said, there's one inevery generation.
However, by the end of thedecade, it would become pretty
apparent that Russell'sinterests lay more with other
women than with providing forhis family.
(17:09):
Uh-oh.
In 1911, Ethel allegedlyactually filed for divorce, but
later recanted this as amisunderstanding by the press.
So it's kind of unclear whetheror not she did in fact start to
make overtures for divorce atthat time.
that early or if it wassomething that like the press
thought they heard and like ranwith.
Yeah.
(17:29):
There's also at least onesource that alleged Colt abused
her and that he had fathered achild with another woman while
they were still married.
They divorced in 1923 but on acordial basis and according to
her memoirs they would sometimesstill have supper together even
after like having been divorcedfor ages.
Ethel never remarried, and herdaughter would actually claim
(17:50):
that her mother's existenceafter the divorce was almost
nun-like.
Ethel once told a close friend,quote, Which is fair.
In 1914, Ethel made her filmdebut in The Nightingale.
(18:10):
She and her brothers recognizedthe potential of this new
medium film, although Ethelnever quite took easily to the
screen.
She appeared in films in NewYork and Hollywood through 1919,
but she never cared forHollywood or for working in
films, so she ended up returningto New York City and the stage.
In 1919, Ethel and her brothershad high-profile roles in the
(18:31):
Actors' Equity Association'sstrike against the unfair
practices of theater owners andmanagers.
And this feels very timelyconsidering SAG-AFTRA is on
strike right now and the WritersGuild and everything.
So I'm like, hey, yeah.
Yeah, timely.
Yeah.
Yeah, I love
Jonathan (18:47):
it.
Hot strike summer.
Hot strike summer.
Kiley (18:50):
That reminds me, another podcast that I listen to has
called this summer a hog girlsummer for some reason.
Yeah.
I don't know.
We don't have time to explorethat right now, but it's funny.
Anyway, you saying thatreminded me of it.
So appearing at benefitperformances and public rallies,
the Barrymores wereinstrumental in the success of
the strike, which actuallyforced theater managers and
(19:12):
agents to recognize theunionization of the profession
under actors' equity.
Originally started in 1896, thefirst actors' union charter was
recognized by the AmericanFederation of Labor as an
attempt to create a minimum wagefor actors being exploited.
which is pretty important.
Unfortunately, in January,1913, the union charter failed,
(19:33):
but actors seeking fair wagesand treatment didn't let that
stop them.
And several influential actorsknown as the players, which is
why I went with the player quotefrom earlier, held secret
organizational meetings at Edwinbooths, the players, which was
a private social club at hisGramercy park mansion.
In the meeting, held on May 26,1913 at the Pabst Grand Circle
(19:57):
Hotel in New York City, which Ithink is still there.
Actors' Equity was founded by112 professional theater actors
who established its constitutionand elected Francis Wilson as
president.
Actors' Equity joined theAmerican Federation of Labor in
1919 and called a strike seekingrecognition as labor union.
The strike ended the dominanceof the Producing Managers
Association, including theaterowners and producers like Abe
(20:21):
Erlinger and his partner MarkKlaue, who were big on the
exploitation end of things.
The strike increased membershipfrom under 3,000 to
approximately 14,000 actors.
Nice.
I know.
Additionally, the Chorus EquityAssociation, which would merge
with Actors' Equity in 1955 wasfounded during the strike as
well.
So Ethel was highly involved inthis actor's equity strike, and
(20:45):
it may have been in partmotivated by the fate of both of
her parents, who were bothlongstanding actors.
Her mother had needed bettermedical care when she had
tuberculosis, and her father hadrequired years of
institutionalized care.
So her support for the strikeprobably stemmed from a lot of
that because she they weren'table to do those things.
(21:06):
Also, if
Jonathan (21:06):
he had medical care, he may not have gone insane.
Kiley (21:12):
Bingo.
Uh-huh.
So her support of the strikeangered many of her producer
friends and stuff and actuallycost her some friendships with
pretty influential producerslike George M.
Cohen, who was an actor,songwriter, and producer.
Jonathan (21:27):
Yeah.
I mean, that's what happens onstrikes is when you strike,
People lose money.
Yep.
And if not everyone's on board,they're going to be very bitter
about the fact that you justcost them money.
Kiley (21:39):
Yep.
And it's very, very easy to seewho cares about other people
and who doesn't.
Jonathan (21:44):
Uh-huh.
Incredibly obvious.
Kiley (21:46):
Uh-huh.
After the strike, Ethelcontinued to find great success
on the stage.
In 1926, she scored one of hergreatest successes as the
sophisticated spouse of aphilandering husband in W.
Somerset Monham's comedy, TheConstant Wife.
And Monham actually counted himYeah.
At least from that brief
Jonathan (22:17):
description there.
Kiley (22:18):
Yep.
I mean...
At least her personal life waslike that.
Jonathan (22:22):
Vulnerability sells.
Yep.
Honest acting is good acting.
Kiley (22:26):
Yep.
So during the 1920s and 30s,she only made one film, Rasputin
and the Empress, in 1933, whichwas the sole work in which she
appeared with both of herbrothers.
And apparently, Ethel had adifficult time adapting to the
changes that had happened infilm since her film in, like,
1919, especially theintroduction of the microphone.
Jonathan (22:48):
Yep.
Kiley (22:49):
At the end of a scene in which Ethel admitted she had
been moaning, flailing her armsand touching curtains all over
the set, Lionel approached herand goes, Ethel.
What the hell are you doing?
And she replied, I haven't thefaintest idea.
At which point the Barrymoreprofessionalism came to the fore
as Lionel and John both gaveher some lessons in how to
(23:10):
moderate her voice for themicrophone.
All went well from then on,even though Ethel insisted on so
many retakes during the shootthat instead of Empress of the
Russians, the crew called herthe Empress of the Rushes.
Jonathan (23:22):
Oh, yeah.
Kiley (23:24):
In 1944, Clifford Odets convinced her to play an
impoverished Cockney motheropposite Cary Grant in the film
None But the Lonely Heart.
For that performance, sheeffectively toned down her
acting style and received anAcademy Award for Best
Supporting Actress.
Wow, nice.
Yeah.
She again gave a compassionateperformance in The Spiral
Staircase in 1946 and finallyseemed comfortable making
(23:47):
movies.
In her later films, she waspretty typically cast as the
imperious but lovable matriarchof the family.
So think like Maggie Smith'sYou don't watch Downton Abbey.
Never mind.
I don't watch
Jonathan (24:03):
Downton Abbey.
Kiley (24:03):
You can say that for the listeners.
For the listeners, think MaggieSmith in Downton Abbey.
Jonathan (24:08):
Also, that is unfortunately just the career
path for actresses.
Kiley (24:14):
Oh,
Jonathan (24:14):
you're over 40?
Welcome to the mother role.
You're very old.
Maybe even a grandmother.
Kiley (24:22):
Yes.
We're not going to go intothat.
Yeah.
So Ethel continued workinguntil heart disease forced her
to slow down and eventuallyretire in 1958.
Through it all, she managed toraise her three children to
adulthood.
The most important thing in mylife, she would say.
often asked what kind of motherEthel Barrymore had been, Ethel
(24:50):
Barrymore Colt once replied,quote, So all three children
would dabble in theater andfilm.
Samuel Colt became a Hollywoodagent and occasional actor.
(25:11):
Ethel became an actress andsinger, appearing on Broadway in
Stephen Sondheim's Follies.
And John Drew Colt also becamean actor.
Ethel outlived both of herbrothers, unfortunately.
John died in 1942 and Lionel in1954.
Ethel Barrymore died ofcardiovascular disease on June
18, 1959, at her home inHollywood, less than two months
(25:33):
shy of her 80th birthday.
That night at the EthelBarrymore Theater in New York
City, the audience was informedthat the curtain for Lorraine
Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sunwould go up late.
At 8 p.m., the house lightsdimmed to half for five minutes
in silent tribute to the womanfor whom the theater That's
right.
Jonathan (26:19):
That's very cool.
Kiley (26:20):
Yeah, I had fun with that one.
Jonathan (26:21):
Also, was Drew Barrymore just named after the
two last names of her ancestors?
Yes.
Or maybe she picked thatbecause actors tend to pick
their names if they havesomething.
Did Drew Barrymore pick her ownname?
Kiley (26:38):
You know what I bet would probably be able to tell us
pretty easily?
Jonathan (26:41):
Google.
Kiley (26:42):
Google, baby.
Drew Barrymore.
American actress.
Born Drew Blythe Barrymore.
Jonathan (26:52):
So three.
Kiley (26:53):
All three last names.
All
Jonathan (26:55):
three last names of her ancestors.
Kiley (26:57):
I love it.
Oh, my gosh.
Jonathan (26:59):
Wild.
Kiley (27:00):
All three last names of her ancestors.
Perfect.
Jonathan (27:04):
I guess that's one way to do it.
Yup.
Okay.
So we have some fun facts foryou.
But before we get there, we'regoing to do our call to action
real quick.
With social media in turmoil,as we may be mentioned at least
a few episodes.
Probably.
We're going to stop mentioningthat now.
We're just going to transition.
Transition fully into look atour show notes.
(27:24):
We have in or the episodedescription.
Yeah, we have a bunch of linksthere to all of our stuff.
How you can contact us.
It'll be updated no regardlessof what happens.
The most important one is go tohalfway podcast.com.
That's where we put everythingthat we work on.
Right now it's two things.
There is a third thing that's alittle bit of a puzzle, if
there's some puzzly people outthere that want to see.
Kiley (27:46):
If you like solving mysteries, take a look.
Jonathan (27:49):
Yeah, and hopefully that number climbs.
It's a lot of work, but we'reloving doing it.
So we'll see what else we makein the future.
Kiley (27:58):
Yeah.
Jonathan (27:59):
Okay.
Kiley (28:00):
Fun facts.
Jonathan (28:00):
Fun facts.
Oh, wait, no, we didn't thankthe fishermen for the use of our
theme song, Another Day.
You can find a link to theirSoundCloud down in our show
notes.
Kiley (28:08):
Yes.
Jonathan (28:09):
Now we can do fun facts.
So let's go to...
Well, since we're going to betalking about Japan in our next
episode, we will do the fun factfor August 14th of...
1281.
That's an old day.
You can tell that I don't sayold days very, very often.
Kiley (28:30):
Had to think really hard about that order of numbers,
didn't
Jonathan (28:34):
you?
During Kublai Khan.
Kiley (28:36):
Kublai Khan.
Jonathan (28:37):
That's how you say Kublai?
It has an
Kiley (28:39):
I in it?
I'm pretty sure.
Jonathan (28:40):
You're right.
That is Kublai Khan.
Kiley (28:41):
Yeah.
Jonathan (28:42):
During Kublai Khan's second Mongol invasion of Japan,
his invading Chinese fleet of3,500 vessels disappears in a
typhoon.
Kiley (28:51):
Womp womp.
Jonathan (28:52):
Oops, you tried.
I
Kiley (28:54):
find it really funny that it took you so long to decide
on that one when I opened mynotes and went, oh, he's going
to pick the one about Japan.
Jonathan (29:01):
Well, I got to read them all.
Kiley (29:03):
Fair enough.
Fair enough.
Jonathan (29:05):
So what's your fun fact?
Kiley (29:06):
My fun fact is going to be on August 20th of 1998.
Not very long ago.
The Supreme Court of Canadarules that Quebec cannot legally
secede from Canada without thefederal government's approval.
That seems
Jonathan (29:20):
odd.
I think if a huge chunk of landwants to say they're not
involved in a governmentanymore, I don't think the
government should really get asay as to whether that's
Kiley (29:31):
true.
You know what?
I smell a revolution.
I don't know.
I don't
Jonathan (29:37):
know.
We're all about revolution.
Kiley (29:38):
A while ago, so maybe not yet.
Jonathan (29:40):
Hot union summers.
Kiley (29:41):
Hot revolution summer.
Jonathan (29:44):
In general, we're a punch-up family.
Anyways, thank you all forlistening.
Hear us next time talk aboutour trip to Japan.
We're going to make sure wehave some, it's kind of going to
be fun fact filled.
We're not
Kiley (29:59):
going to dive too deep into anything.
A plethora of fun facts withslightly more information than
usual.
Yeah.
Jonathan (30:06):
Fun fact-o-rama we're going to be doing centered
around Japan.
So as always, I've been yourhalfwit.
Kiley (30:11):
And I'm your historian.
Jonathan (30:12):
And we hope you listen next time.
Kiley (30:14):
Bye.
Hello and welcome to HalfwitHistory.
(00:34):
I'm Jonathan.
Kiley (00:34):
And I'm Kiley.
Jonathan (00:35):
And this is a show where we talk about the upcoming
week, but a long time ago.
Kiley (00:39):
And sometimes not so long ago.
Jonathan (00:41):
What kind of long or not so long ago are we doing
today?
Kiley (00:46):
This week, we are taking a look at a shining star of ages
past.
And no, I'm not talking aboutthe outer space type of star.
Jonathan (00:54):
No, why not?
Kiley (00:56):
Well, because I'm talking about a superstar.
An actor.
A performer.
Jonathan (01:03):
Oooohhh.
Kiley (01:04):
As the player says in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are
dead, we are actors.
We're the opposite of people.
And the actor that I'm going tobe talking about today was
called Ethel Barrymore.
dubbed the First Lady of theAmerican Theater, and she was
born on August 15th, 1879.
Jonathan (01:21):
And that's our date?
Kiley (01:22):
And that is our date, yes.
You may notice that August 15thlooks nothing like a date in
September.
Uh-huh.
Jonathan (01:29):
So we got the opportunity to go to Japan for a
good amount of time.
We were there for three weeks.
Kiley (01:36):
Yeah.
Jonathan (01:37):
And then it took a while to get back on our feet
afterwards.
Kiley (01:41):
I'm still taking naps, so...
Jonathan (01:43):
Yeah.
So...
We are releasing this one, eventhough it's not technically the
upcoming week.
It's what we were supposed torecord over the vacation that we
took.
And then the other updaterelated to that is we are going
to put out an episode.
Our next episode is going to beabout our trip to Japan.
(02:04):
Yeah.
If anyone wants to listen tothat.
And we're going to basicallytalk about the things that we
did and then find a few of thosethings and talk a little bit
more about them from ahistorical sense.
Yeah.
to give you guys a picture ofall the things we did and
learned and the fun we had.
Kiley (02:20):
Yeah.
Jonathan (02:20):
And then one more little update before we jump
back into our real topic here isthat we are going to be taking
a little bit of a break.
Kiley has just started upschool again and they've messed
up what her schedule is and sheneeds to make brand new lesson
plans again.
Kiley (02:37):
I'm having a fun time.
It's great.
Jo (02:39):
We need to take a little bit of a break.
She's going to start working onepisodes from December backwards
so you'll at least hear usthen.
And at some point, we're goingto figure out something else
that we can do so that we canremain a little bit more
consistent.
We got better.
Kiley (02:52):
And then we failed again.
I don't know what happened.
Jonathan (02:55):
No we didn't fail again.
We were doing well workingbackwards.
And then life happened.
And we got the chance to go ona vacation.
And we haven't done that in avery, very, very long time.
Kiley (03:05):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we're going to figure out away to make this a little bit
more consistent.
Jonathan (03:10):
And if anyone has any suggestions, is what you love
about our show, what you wish wewould do a little differently
or if you're looking to hearabout something specific or you
have an idea, just let us know.
All of our contact informationis down in the show notes.
Yes.
And that is a long enoughdetour from the topic that we
are giving you today.
Yes.
Back to our actress.
Kiley (03:30):
Ethel Barrymore.
Jonathan (03:31):
Ethel Barrymore, born on August 15th, definitely
today.
Kiley (03:34):
Definitely, definitely this upcoming week.
Yeah.
So I'm sure many of you heardthe last name Barrymore and
thought, Like Drew Barrymore?
Jonathan (03:44):
Uh-huh, I did when I asked for the title of the
episode so I could save it.
And I'm like, surely it can'tbe.
So I asked Kiley to clarify.
Kiley (03:53):
So the short answer is yes.
Ethel Barrymore is actually thegreat aunt of Drew Barrymore.
So they're related.
Jonathan (04:00):
Very cool.
Kiley (04:00):
And both women...
are part of what was referredto as theater's royal family, at
least in America.
Jonathan (04:07):
Oh, I don't think I was aware of that.
Kiley (04:10):
So I'm going to back up a little bit in case you, like
Jonathan, were not aware ofthis.
Beep, beep, beep.
Oh, no.
Okay, so Ethel, Lionel, andJohn Barrymore...
who, those are her twosiblings, could claim an
impeccable family tree.
Their maternal grandfather'sname was John Drew, and he lived
from 1827 to 1862, and he wasthe leading tragedy actor of the
(04:35):
19th century American stage anda beloved Shakespearean actor
to boot.
Their maternal grandmother, soJohn Drew's wife, Louisa Lane
Drew, who had been an even moreformidable presence on the stage
than her husband, and who wassaid to be the only fellow
thespian of whom Edwin Boothfelt threatened, so Edwin Booth
was like the big Shakespeareanactor of like the 1800s.
(04:58):
And he was also John WilkesBooth's brother.
Oh, yeah.
Interesting.
What a twist.
I know.
So he was like the biggestShakespearean actor of the time.
And he felt threatened by howgood she was.
So,
Jonathan (05:14):
OK,
Kiley (05:14):
considering the fact that she's female and he's male,
that's like a really big deal,especially in that time.
Anyway, so.
Louisa would go on to managePhiladelphia's most famous
theater in this time called TheArch.
And she was known in thetheater world as the Duchess.
And anyone who had hopes for afuture on the stage never got on
her bad side.
She could like completely sinkyour career if she wanted to.
Jonathan (05:36):
Why do I feel like I knew that she was called the
Duchess?
Was this brought up in like anysort of more modern media?
Kiley (05:44):
I have no idea.
Huh, okay.
The only thing I can think ofis the Duchess from the
Aristocats.
Maybe.
I don't know.
I almost...
I
Jonathan (05:57):
probably heard something somewhere about this,
and that just sparked a memory.
Kiley (06:01):
Well, now I'm suddenly wondering if there's a
connection between...
the owner of all the cats andthe Aristocats and her.
I'm sure there isn't.
I'm sure my brain is just like,here, have this information and
it has no relation whatsoever.
If I'm wrong and you know, tellme.
Anyway.
So John and Louisa Drew'schildren were on the stage
almost as soon as they couldtalk.
(06:22):
Georgiana Drew, their daughter,became the favorite comedian of
the discerning Gilded Ageaudiences.
Her brother Sidney was a notedcomedian, and her second brother
John Jr.
was eventually dubbed the firstgentleman of the American
stage.
And to complete the picture,Georgiana married a dashing
young Englishman just making aname for himself in American
theater.
Herbert Maurice Blythe had beenborn in India of Anglo-Indian
(06:47):
parents who were civil servantsThere you go.
What a way to do it.
I mean, hey, you definitelycould have found a worse name.
(07:10):
So he arrived in America in1874, secured his first stage
role the following year, andthen shortly afterward married
Georgiana Drew.
The couple had three children,Lionel, who was born April 28th
of 1878, Ethel, our star of thestory, who was born on August
15th, 1879, and John, bornFebruary 15th, 1882.
(07:31):
There's a lot of Johns in this.
I'm just going to say it now.
Jonathan (07:34):
Listen, there's a lot of Johns in English language.
Kiley (07:38):
Everywhere, yes.
Jonathan (07:39):
Everywhere.
Kiley (07:40):
Yeah, there's one.
There's a John in eachgeneration.
Jonathan (07:42):
Yeah.
Kiley (07:45):
So Ethel was actually named after her father's
favorite character, Ethel, inWilliam Makepeace Thackeray's
The New Comes.
I'm not familiar with that, butapparently that's where she got
her name from.
Jonathan (07:56):
Me neither.
Kiley (07:57):
She spent her childhood in Philadelphia with her
brothers where they attendedRoman Catholic schools.
Their childhood wassurprisingly stable given the
fact that their parents werefrequently touring.
But the children stayed withtheir maternal grandmother,
Louisa, with frequent visitsfrom their uncles on their way
to or from engagements, as wellas a plethora of house guests
from the Best Society inPhiladelphia, New York, and
(08:18):
Boston who were brought home forlong weekends by their parents.
Jonathan (08:22):
My goodness.
Kiley (08:23):
Yeah.
So they knew a lot of peoplefrom a very young age.
Oh, no.
Yeah.
Like someone was like, oh mygosh, are you okay?
(08:58):
And she's like, I'm fine.
He's like, What?
Actilia.
Yeah, exactly.
So in 1884, the family sailedto England and stayed there for
two years.
Maurice had inherited asubstantial amount of money from
an aunt and decided to exhibitand star in some plays in
London's Haymarket Theatre.
It was during this trip thatthe Barrymores met Oscar Wilde,
(09:18):
and Ethel would later recallbeing reprimanded by her parents
because she was, like, visiblyafraid of him when she gave,
like, served him some, like, teacakes.
And then they were like, whyare you, why were you so weird
with him and she's like I don'tknow I'm scared
Jonathan (09:33):
he's a very big name I'm nervous
Kiley (09:35):
and he looks wild
Jonathan (09:37):
yeah
Kiley (09:39):
Sorry, that was a bad joke.
Jonathan (09:41):
I rolled my eyes so hard that I see the waveform
Kiley (09:45):
in the recording.
Anyway, Ethel would alsoremember the two years that they
spent in London as some of thehappiest of her childhood,
mostly due to the fact that theBarrymores were more of a
nuclear family in London thanthey were in the U.S.
because they were actually allliving together most of the
time.
So upon returning to the U.S.
in 1886, her father took her toher first baseball game, which
(10:07):
established a lifelong love ofthe sport.
and also introduced her to theidea of becoming a concert
pianist, which we can tell justfrom the intro to this that she
did not do, but that was kind oflike her ambition for a long
time.
Oh, okay.
Which is kind of funny.
In the summer of 1893,Barrymore was in the company of
her mother Georgie, who had beenailing from tuberculosis and
(10:27):
took a curative sabbatical toSanta Barbara, California.
Georgie, unfortunately, didn'trecover and died in July of
1893, a week before her 37thbirthday.
Yikes.
So she was pretty young, yeah.
Essentially, Ethel and Lionel'schildhoods ended when Georgie
died.
They were forced to go to workin their teens with neither of
them finishing high school.
John was a few years youngerand stayed with their
(10:50):
grandmother and other relatives.
Ethel's first appearance onBroadway was in 1895 in a play
called The Imprudent YoungCouple, which starred her uncle,
John Drew Jr., and Maude Adams.
And she actually later appearedwith Drew and Adams again in
1896 in Rosemary.
Okay.
So her uncle pretty muchfacilitated her entrance into
(11:11):
Broadway in a way.
In 1897, Ethel went withWilliam Gillette to London to
play Miss Kittredge inGillette's Secret Service.
She was about to return to theStates when Henry Irving and
Ellen Terry offered her the roleof Annette in The Bells.
The show ran a full tour, andEthel created the role of
Euphrosyne in Peter the Great atthe Lyceum, the play having
(11:32):
been written by Irving's son,Lawrence.
So at this point, men allacross...
Both England and the U.S.
were getting pretty smittenwith Ethel, notably Winston
Churchill, who asked her tomarry him.
Oh! Yep.
She had no desire to be apolitician's wife, however, and
refused.
Jonathan (11:48):
Good choices.
Kiley (11:49):
Yeah.
Years later, Winston married awoman named Clementine Hoser,
who actually looks a lot likeEthel.
Oh, boy.
But Ethel and Winston allegedlyremained friends for the rest
of her life, like forever.
kind acquaintances kind ofthing.
Oh, well, that's good.
So, like, no hard feelings, Iguess.
So, after her season in London,Ethel returned to the U.S.,
(12:10):
where Charles Froman cast her inseveral roles, culminating in
one that would shoot her tostardom, Madame Tritone in
Captain Jinx of the HorseMarines.
Jonathan (12:19):
That sounds fun.
Kiley (12:20):
That sounds like a really entertaining show, just
thinking.
It also makes me think of oneof those, like, really cheap
romance novels that you get at,like, the grocery store.
I can see.
I don't know why, but thatmakes me laugh.
So this show opened at theGarrick Theatre in London's West
End on February 4th of 1901.
(12:41):
When the tour concluded inBoston in June, she had outdrawn
two of the most prominentactresses of the day, Mrs.
Patrick Campbell and MinnieMattern Fisk.
Also, unbeknownst to Ethel, herfather had witnessed the
performance as an audiencemember and walked up to his
daughter, congratulated her, andgave her a big hug.
It would be the first and onlytime he would see her on stage
(13:01):
professionally.
Later that year, after he hadbeen behaving erratically for a
fair amount of time, Maurice wasdeclared legally insane, which
was...
Basically, the result of havingcontracted syphilis immediately
when he came to New York, thatwent untreated and basically
ravaged everything.
Yeah, it'll do that to you.
Yeah, it's not good.
(13:21):
This is your PSA to get checkedfor any and all STDs.
Yep.
So he was declared legallyinsane.
And unfortunately, he wascommitted to an asylum.
And it was actually Ethel'spainful duty to sign those
commitment papers to put himthere.
And he would end upinstitutional Rough.
Uh-huh.
Uh-huh.
(13:44):
basically exemplified her blunthumor and absolute distaste for
(14:11):
attention would become a partof the national language at the
time, which is really ironic tome that she didn't really like
having a ton of attention whenshe was an actress.
Jonathan (14:21):
Well, I think that's actually kind of common, and we
won't take that weird littleturn there, but a lot of actors
are introverts.
Kiley (14:31):
Yeah, that's true.
Jonathan (14:32):
You always have to remember that people who are
actors, for the most part...
were theater kids.
And theater kids get picked on.
It's hard to remember thatsometimes because especially
very big actors and the ones yousee all the time on film is
like, oh, they're very macho.
(14:53):
They're very charismatic.
They're all these things.
And it's like, you have toremember they were the drama
kids.
Kiley (15:00):
Yeah.
And then, I mean, you haveactors who are clearly very
outgoing and are extroverts,which makes...
you think that everyone else islike that too, when they
probably aren't.
Jonathan (15:09):
Yeah.
Kiley (15:09):
They're the minority.
Yeah.
Okay.
Or
Jonathan (15:12):
they've grown into it.
Kiley (15:14):
Also fair.
Um, okay.
So, um, she used this line inher to avoid doing a current
call essentially.
Um, She would also parody usingthis line in a 1949 Christmas
broadcast on Bing Crosby's radioshow, although she couldn't
actually make it through thewhole line reading because she
kept bursting into laughter.
Her leading roles in A Doll'sHouse by the Norwegian dramatist
(15:36):
Henrik Ibsen in 1905 and AliceSit by the Fire by Scottish
dramatist James N.
Berry in 1906 established heras one of the foremost actresses
in the American theater.
Her portrayal of Lady HelenHaddon, a lower-class woman who
enters high society by marriageonly to be destroyed by it in
Zoe Atkins' De Classe wasanother of her successes in the
(15:57):
early 1900s and it prompted thethen fledgling theater critic
for Vanity Fair Dorothy Parkerwhich if anyone has followed
like historical theater criticstuff, Dorothy Parker's a huge
name, to state precociously,quote, if during my
theater-going lifetime there hasbeen one other performance so
perfect as the one EthelBarrymore gives, I can only say
(16:19):
I had the hideous misfortune tomiss it.
Basically saying...
Yeah.
Oh.
Yeah.
While Russell commuted to WallStreet every morning, Ethel
(16:49):
retired from the stage to givebirth to three children between
1910 and 1913, Samuel, EthelBarrymore Colt, and John.
And John.
Like I said, there's one inevery generation.
However, by the end of thedecade, it would become pretty
apparent that Russell'sinterests lay more with other
women than with providing forhis family.
(17:09):
Uh-oh.
In 1911, Ethel allegedlyactually filed for divorce, but
later recanted this as amisunderstanding by the press.
So it's kind of unclear whetheror not she did in fact start to
make overtures for divorce atthat time.
that early or if it wassomething that like the press
thought they heard and like ranwith.
Yeah.
(17:29):
There's also at least onesource that alleged Colt abused
her and that he had fathered achild with another woman while
they were still married.
They divorced in 1923 but on acordial basis and according to
her memoirs they would sometimesstill have supper together even
after like having been divorcedfor ages.
Ethel never remarried, and herdaughter would actually claim
(17:50):
that her mother's existenceafter the divorce was almost
nun-like.
Ethel once told a close friend,quote, Which is fair.
In 1914, Ethel made her filmdebut in The Nightingale.
(18:10):
She and her brothers recognizedthe potential of this new
medium film, although Ethelnever quite took easily to the
screen.
She appeared in films in NewYork and Hollywood through 1919,
but she never cared forHollywood or for working in
films, so she ended up returningto New York City and the stage.
In 1919, Ethel and her brothershad high-profile roles in the
(18:31):
Actors' Equity Association'sstrike against the unfair
practices of theater owners andmanagers.
And this feels very timelyconsidering SAG-AFTRA is on
strike right now and the WritersGuild and everything.
So I'm like, hey, yeah.
Yeah, timely.
Yeah.
Yeah, I love
Jonathan (18:47):
it.
Hot strike summer.
Hot strike summer.
Kiley (18:50):
That reminds me, another podcast that I listen to has
called this summer a hog girlsummer for some reason.
Yeah.
I don't know.
We don't have time to explorethat right now, but it's funny.
Anyway, you saying thatreminded me of it.
So appearing at benefitperformances and public rallies,
the Barrymores wereinstrumental in the success of
the strike, which actuallyforced theater managers and
(19:12):
agents to recognize theunionization of the profession
under actors' equity.
Originally started in 1896, thefirst actors' union charter was
recognized by the AmericanFederation of Labor as an
attempt to create a minimum wagefor actors being exploited.
which is pretty important.
Unfortunately, in January,1913, the union charter failed,
(19:33):
but actors seeking fair wagesand treatment didn't let that
stop them.
And several influential actorsknown as the players, which is
why I went with the player quotefrom earlier, held secret
organizational meetings at Edwinbooths, the players, which was
a private social club at hisGramercy park mansion.
In the meeting, held on May 26,1913 at the Pabst Grand Circle
(19:57):
Hotel in New York City, which Ithink is still there.
Actors' Equity was founded by112 professional theater actors
who established its constitutionand elected Francis Wilson as
president.
Actors' Equity joined theAmerican Federation of Labor in
1919 and called a strike seekingrecognition as labor union.
The strike ended the dominanceof the Producing Managers
Association, including theaterowners and producers like Abe
(20:21):
Erlinger and his partner MarkKlaue, who were big on the
exploitation end of things.
The strike increased membershipfrom under 3,000 to
approximately 14,000 actors.
Nice.
I know.
Additionally, the Chorus EquityAssociation, which would merge
with Actors' Equity in 1955 wasfounded during the strike as
well.
So Ethel was highly involved inthis actor's equity strike, and
(20:45):
it may have been in partmotivated by the fate of both of
her parents, who were bothlongstanding actors.
Her mother had needed bettermedical care when she had
tuberculosis, and her father hadrequired years of
institutionalized care.
So her support for the strikeprobably stemmed from a lot of
that because she they weren'table to do those things.
(21:06):
Also, if
Jonathan (21:06):
he had medical care, he may not have gone insane.
Kiley (21:12):
Bingo.
Uh-huh.
So her support of the strikeangered many of her producer
friends and stuff and actuallycost her some friendships with
pretty influential producerslike George M.
Cohen, who was an actor,songwriter, and producer.
Jonathan (21:27):
Yeah.
I mean, that's what happens onstrikes is when you strike,
People lose money.
Yep.
And if not everyone's on board,they're going to be very bitter
about the fact that you justcost them money.
Kiley (21:39):
Yep.
And it's very, very easy to seewho cares about other people
and who doesn't.
Jonathan (21:44):
Uh-huh.
Incredibly obvious.
Kiley (21:46):
Uh-huh.
After the strike, Ethelcontinued to find great success
on the stage.
In 1926, she scored one of hergreatest successes as the
sophisticated spouse of aphilandering husband in W.
Somerset Monham's comedy, TheConstant Wife.
And Monham actually counted himYeah.
At least from that brief
Jonathan (22:17):
description there.
Kiley (22:18):
Yep.
I mean...
At least her personal life waslike that.
Jonathan (22:22):
Vulnerability sells.
Yep.
Honest acting is good acting.
Kiley (22:26):
Yep.
So during the 1920s and 30s,she only made one film, Rasputin
and the Empress, in 1933, whichwas the sole work in which she
appeared with both of herbrothers.
And apparently, Ethel had adifficult time adapting to the
changes that had happened infilm since her film in, like,
1919, especially theintroduction of the microphone.
Jonathan (22:48):
Yep.
Kiley (22:49):
At the end of a scene in which Ethel admitted she had
been moaning, flailing her armsand touching curtains all over
the set, Lionel approached herand goes, Ethel.
What the hell are you doing?
And she replied, I haven't thefaintest idea.
At which point the Barrymoreprofessionalism came to the fore
as Lionel and John both gaveher some lessons in how to
(23:10):
moderate her voice for themicrophone.
All went well from then on,even though Ethel insisted on so
many retakes during the shootthat instead of Empress of the
Russians, the crew called herthe Empress of the Rushes.
Jonathan (23:22):
Oh, yeah.
Kiley (23:24):
In 1944, Clifford Odets convinced her to play an
impoverished Cockney motheropposite Cary Grant in the film
None But the Lonely Heart.
For that performance, sheeffectively toned down her
acting style and received anAcademy Award for Best
Supporting Actress.
Wow, nice.
Yeah.
She again gave a compassionateperformance in The Spiral
Staircase in 1946 and finallyseemed comfortable making
(23:47):
movies.
In her later films, she waspretty typically cast as the
imperious but lovable matriarchof the family.
So think like Maggie Smith'sYou don't watch Downton Abbey.
Never mind.
I don't watch
Jonathan (24:03):
Downton Abbey.
Kiley (24:03):
You can say that for the listeners.
For the listeners, think MaggieSmith in Downton Abbey.
Jonathan (24:08):
Also, that is unfortunately just the career
path for actresses.
Kiley (24:14):
Oh,
Jonathan (24:14):
you're over 40?
Welcome to the mother role.
You're very old.
Maybe even a grandmother.
Kiley (24:22):
Yes.
We're not going to go intothat.
Yeah.
So Ethel continued workinguntil heart disease forced her
to slow down and eventuallyretire in 1958.
Through it all, she managed toraise her three children to
adulthood.
The most important thing in mylife, she would say.
often asked what kind of motherEthel Barrymore had been, Ethel
(24:50):
Barrymore Colt once replied,quote, So all three children
would dabble in theater andfilm.
Samuel Colt became a Hollywoodagent and occasional actor.
(25:11):
Ethel became an actress andsinger, appearing on Broadway in
Stephen Sondheim's Follies.
And John Drew Colt also becamean actor.
Ethel outlived both of herbrothers, unfortunately.
John died in 1942 and Lionel in1954.
Ethel Barrymore died ofcardiovascular disease on June
18, 1959, at her home inHollywood, less than two months
(25:33):
shy of her 80th birthday.
That night at the EthelBarrymore Theater in New York
City, the audience was informedthat the curtain for Lorraine
Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sunwould go up late.
At 8 p.m., the house lightsdimmed to half for five minutes
in silent tribute to the womanfor whom the theater That's
right.
Jonathan (26:19):
That's very cool.
Kiley (26:20):
Yeah, I had fun with that one.
Jonathan (26:21):
Also, was Drew Barrymore just named after the
two last names of her ancestors?
Yes.
Or maybe she picked thatbecause actors tend to pick
their names if they havesomething.
Did Drew Barrymore pick her ownname?
Kiley (26:38):
You know what I bet would probably be able to tell us
pretty easily?
Jonathan (26:41):
Google.
Kiley (26:42):
Google, baby.
Drew Barrymore.
American actress.
Born Drew Blythe Barrymore.
Jonathan (26:52):
So three.
Kiley (26:53):
All three last names.
All
Jonathan (26:55):
three last names of her ancestors.
Kiley (26:57):
I love it.
Oh, my gosh.
Jonathan (26:59):
Wild.
Kiley (27:00):
All three last names of her ancestors.
Perfect.
Jonathan (27:04):
I guess that's one way to do it.
Yup.
Okay.
So we have some fun facts foryou.
But before we get there, we'regoing to do our call to action
real quick.
With social media in turmoil,as we may be mentioned at least
a few episodes.
Probably.
We're going to stop mentioningthat now.
We're just going to transition.
Transition fully into look atour show notes.
(27:24):
We have in or the episodedescription.
Yeah, we have a bunch of linksthere to all of our stuff.
How you can contact us.
It'll be updated no regardlessof what happens.
The most important one is go tohalfway podcast.com.
That's where we put everythingthat we work on.
Right now it's two things.
There is a third thing that's alittle bit of a puzzle, if
there's some puzzly people outthere that want to see.
Kiley (27:46):
If you like solving mysteries, take a look.
Jonathan (27:49):
Yeah, and hopefully that number climbs.
It's a lot of work, but we'reloving doing it.
So we'll see what else we makein the future.
Kiley (27:58):
Yeah.
Jonathan (27:59):
Okay.
Kiley (28:00):
Fun facts.
Jonathan (28:00):
Fun facts.
Oh, wait, no, we didn't thankthe fishermen for the use of our
theme song, Another Day.
You can find a link to theirSoundCloud down in our show
notes.
Kiley (28:08):
Yes.
Jonathan (28:09):
Now we can do fun facts.
So let's go to...
Well, since we're going to betalking about Japan in our next
episode, we will do the fun factfor August 14th of...
1281.
That's an old day.
You can tell that I don't sayold days very, very often.
Kiley (28:30):
Had to think really hard about that order of numbers,
didn't
Jonathan (28:34):
you?
During Kublai Khan.
Kiley (28:36):
Kublai Khan.
Jonathan (28:37):
That's how you say Kublai?
It has an
Kiley (28:39):
I in it?
I'm pretty sure.
Jonathan (28:40):
You're right.
That is Kublai Khan.
Kiley (28:41):
Yeah.
Jonathan (28:42):
During Kublai Khan's second Mongol invasion of Japan,
his invading Chinese fleet of3,500 vessels disappears in a
typhoon.
Kiley (28:51):
Womp womp.
Jonathan (28:52):
Oops, you tried.
I
Kiley (28:54):
find it really funny that it took you so long to decide
on that one when I opened mynotes and went, oh, he's going
to pick the one about Japan.
Jonathan (29:01):
Well, I got to read them all.
Kiley (29:03):
Fair enough.
Fair enough.
Jonathan (29:05):
So what's your fun fact?
Kiley (29:06):
My fun fact is going to be on August 20th of 1998.
Not very long ago.
The Supreme Court of Canadarules that Quebec cannot legally
secede from Canada without thefederal government's approval.
That seems
Jonathan (29:20):
odd.
I think if a huge chunk of landwants to say they're not
involved in a governmentanymore, I don't think the
government should really get asay as to whether that's
Kiley (29:31):
true.
You know what?
I smell a revolution.
I don't know.
I don't
Jonathan (29:37):
know.
We're all about revolution.
Kiley (29:38):
A while ago, so maybe not yet.
Jonathan (29:40):
Hot union summers.
Kiley (29:41):
Hot revolution summer.
Jonathan (29:44):
In general, we're a punch-up family.
Anyways, thank you all forlistening.
Hear us next time talk aboutour trip to Japan.
We're going to make sure wehave some, it's kind of going to
be fun fact filled.
We're not
Kiley (29:59):
going to dive too deep into anything.
A plethora of fun facts withslightly more information than
usual.
Yeah.
Jonathan (30:06):
Fun fact-o-rama we're going to be doing centered
around Japan.
So as always, I've been yourhalfwit.
Kiley (30:11):
And I'm your historian.
Jonathan (30:12):
And we hope you listen next time.
Kiley (30:14):
Bye.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!