Ben DeBar

Benedict DeBar (1812–1877) was a prominent American actor-manager. He is associated with operating a major theater in St. Louis, and best known for portraying the role of Falstaff. He was also connected by marriage with the Booth family of actors.[1]

DeBar as Falstaff

Career

Born in England, he came to America as an equestrian performer in 1837.[2] He was the stage manager for Noah Ludlow and Sol Smith (uncle of Sol Smith Russell) for their St. Charles Theater in New Orleans and, when they retired in 1843, he assumed ownership of their New Orleans and St. Louis theaters.[2]

Upon the outbreak of the American Civil War, he moved St. Louis, but retained ownership of the St. Charles Theater in New Orleans until 1876.[2] In 1873 he moved from the St. Louis Theatre to DeBar's Grand Opera House.[2][3][4] He remained active as a performer even while managing his theatrical companies.[2] For example, he opened the 1862–1863 season in war ravaged St. Louis in September 1862, started the season with a company that included himself as a comedian, Emma Maddern as the stock 'chambermaid', and Ella and Mary Maddern as the 'walking ladies.' [5]

DeBar is credited for first presenting Emma Maddern, mother of actress Emily Stevens and community theater director Robert Stevens, as an actress.[6][7] He was also associated with Thomas Davey, who managed a circuit of theaters in the old Southwest. Davey was also married to Elizabeth Maddern, sister of Emma Maddern and mother of actress Mrs. Fiske.[8][9]

Falstaff

As an actor, DeBar was best known for portraying William Shakespeare's character Falstaff.[10][11][12] In 1878, a statue of Shakespeare was dedicated in Tower Grove Park, St. Louis; on the east face of the monument base is a depiction of DeBar as Falstaff.[13] He was perhaps motivated to explore this character, as he grew corpulent with age.[14]

Family

DeBar married twice, first in 1838 in New York City to Mary Conduit,[15] an opera singer who had been a widow. DeBar and Conduit, together, had a daughter, Alma DeBar, who, on April 28, 1864, in Saint Louis, Missouri, married James Vila Dexter (1836–1899). Mary Conduit DeBar died of consumption October 29, 1841, aboard the steamboat Maid of Kentucky on the Mississippi River, near Cape Girardeau, Missouri, 140 miles (225 km) south of St. Louis. She was buried in Cape Girardeau.

DeBar again married in 1843 to Henrietta Emma Adalaide Vallée (1828–1894), who died at the Edwin Forrest House in Philadelphia.

Lincoln assassination

Clementine DeBar Booth (1810–1874), sister of Ben DeBar, was the mother of Blanche Booth (1844–1930), who was the daughter of Junius Brutus Booth Jr., and the niece of John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln.[16] Junius and Clementine divorced when Blanche was a child, and Ben DeBar adopted her.[16] Following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, The DeBar house in St. Louis was thoroughly searched.[16] Ben DeBar was known in St. Louis as a Southern sympathizer ("At the outbreak of the war he was several times admonished by the Provost Marshals for pandering to rebel tastes on the stage of his Theater"), but the investigation into the assassination concluded that as the war was drawing to a close, he had modified his sympathies to protect his pecuniary interests.[16][17] Blanche was an actress, using her mother's (and adopted father's) name, Blanche DeBar.[16]

Death

He died August 28, 1877, in St. Louis of "disease of the brain".[18] His estate was contested in St. Louis Probate Court by his widow—filed January 24, 1878)—who claimed that a power of attorney given to John G. Priest, executor – which deprived her of her right of dower involving a large amount of real estate claimed by Ben DeBar's creditors – was a forgery.[19]

References
  1. "Notable Players of Past and the Present (No. 19): Ben DeBar," New York Clipper, Vol. 58, No. 12, May 7, 1910, p. 310
  2. Pg. 210; The Cambridge Guide to American Theatre, 2nd Edition (Don B. Wilmuth, editor)
  3. "General Notes," The New York Times, Vol. 22, Total Issue No. 6768, May 28, 1873, p. 1, col. 3 (accessible at timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1873/05/28; the article is in the public domain)
  4. "Grand Theatre – 514 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri" (online article), by Charles "Chuck" E. Van Bibber (of St. Louis), www.cinematreasures.org (Cinema Treasures, LLC, Los Angeles), posted on or before March 28, 2009
  5. "Recollections of an Old Actor; Charles A. Rone; Missouri Historical Society March 17, 1906; Vol. 4, Issue 1)
  6. Historical Montreal: Annals of the Montreal Stage With Biographical and Critical Notices of the Plays and Players of a Century (2nd ed.), by Franklin Graham, Montreal: John Lovell & Son (publisher) (1902); pg. 152; OCLC 684689621
  7. History of the American Stage – containing biographical sketches of nearly every member of the profession that has appeared on the American stage, from 1733 to 1870, by T. Allston Brown, Dick & Fitzgerald (1870) (digital copy courtesy of Internet Archive); OCLC 7441750 (all editions), 898838083 (all editions), 1062998634 (all editions)
  8. Uncle Remus Magazine; April 1908(pg 20)
  9. The Print of My Remembrance (My Remembrances), by Augustus Thomas, Charles Scribner's Sons (1922), pg. 12 (digital copy courtesy of Internet Archive); OCLC 35293416, 1067081774, 503805829, 645162438
  10. St. Louis, an Informal History of the City and Its People; 1764–1865, by Charles van Ravenswaay (1911–1990); Candace O'Connor (ed.), Missouri Historical Society Press (1991), p. 442; OCLC 24431022
  11. Early Days in Detroit, by Friend Palmer (1820–1906), Detroit: Hunt & June (1906); pg. 988; OCLC 1067093953
  12. "Dramatic," Benham's Musical Review, Vol. 10, No. 3, March 1875, pg. 67 (digital copy courtesy of HathiTrust)
  13. Tower Grove Park of the City of St. Louis – review of its origins and history, plan of improvement, ornamental features, etc., by David H. MacAdam (1842–1899), St. Louis: R.P. Studley & Co. (Robert Page Studley; 1826–1890) (1883), pg. 45 (digital copy courtesy of Internet Archive); OCLC 498811379
  14. The Golden Age of the New Orleans Theater, by John Smith Kendall (1874–1965), Louisiana State University Press (publisher), Vail-Ballou Press, Inc., Binghamton, New York (printer) (Samuel Ellsworth Vail; 1863–1937; John Benjamin Ballou; 1874–1957) (1952), p. 290 (digital copy courtesy of HathiTrust)
  15. "Married," Times-Picayune, May 1, 1838, p. 2, col. 5 (accessible via Newspapers.com at www.newspapers.com/clip/78728188)
  16. The Lincoln Assassination: The Evidence, William C. Edwards (born 1947) & Edward Steers Jr., PhD (eds.), University of Illinois Press (2009); ISBN 9780252033681
    "Report of the Provos Marshall General of St. Louis to the Assistant Secretary of War; April 24, 1865," pps. 98–101
  17. Right or Wrong, God Judge Me: The Writings of John Wilkes Booth, John Rhodehamel & Louise Taper (eds.); University of Illinois Press (1997; 2001); OCLC 47206170
    "Footnotes," p. 87
  18. "Early Actors of the Stage; In Memoriam"; http://genealogytrails.com
  19. "Ben De Bars' Estate: A Contest in the Court—The Administrator Accused of Using a Forged Power of Attorney," The New York Times, Vol. 27, Total Issue No. 8229, January 27, 1878, p. 5 of 10, col. 4 of 7 (top) (accessible at timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1878/01/27/80672363.html; the article is in the public domain)
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