Johnstone Bennett

Johnstone Bennett (1870 – April 14, 1906) was an American actress and vaudeville performer.

Johnstone Bennett
Harvard Theatre Collection - Johnstone Bennett

Early life

Walenton (or Valentine) Cronise[1] was possibly born in France, or Spain,[2] or at sea (sources tell various stories), and was adopted as an infant by Mrs. Mary Bennett in the United States.[3] When Bennett died, she was adopted again, by actress Sibyl Johnstone. She called herself "Johnstone Bennett" after the two women who raised her.[4]

Career

Johnstone Bennett was with a small touring company when she was discovered by Richard Mansfield and cast in Monsieur (1887) in Madison Square Theatre.[5] Still with Mansfield's company, she appeared in Prince Karl (1887), Lesbia (1888), A Parisian Romance (1888), and Beau Brummell (1890). She also appeared in Honor Bright (1888), All the Comforts of a Home, A Noble Son (1889), The Story of Rodion (1895), and in starring roles of Jane (1891),[6] The Amazon, Fanny,[7] and A Female Drummer (1898). In vaudeville she performed in sketched titled A Quiet Evening at Home and American Types.[8][9][10][11]

Bennett wore masculine clothing and short hair, both on and off the stage. She collected cuff buttons and shirt studs,[12] and had her skirts made with trouser-style pockets.[13] She hired a male valet instead of a maid or press agent,[14] and she lent her name to a haberdashery company in New York.[15] In 1899 she caught a mouse in her dressing room, and planned to keep it for a pet.[16]

Novelist Willa Cather described her as "jovial, natty Johnnie Bennett, a hail-fellow-well-met, and the trimmest tailor-made New Woman of them all. She is another one who has learned how to cheat time: her cheeks are just as ruddy and her big gray eyes as frank and frolicsome and boyish as they were in the days of Jane, eight or nine years ago."[17] Theatrical manager Robert Grau remembered Bennett as "distinctly without an equal in her time."[18]

Personal life

Johnstone Bennett was destitute in her last years and survived with assistance from the Actors' Fund. She tried moving to California for her health,[19] but it did not improve and she returned to New Jersey. She died from tuberculosis in 1906, aged 36 years, in Bloomfield, New Jersey.[20][21][22]

References
  1. Fraser, Stuart (March 1913). "A Rose by Any Other". Green Book Magazine. p. 517.
  2. "The Theatre" Evening Star (January 26, 1901): 22. via Newspapers.comopen access
  3. "Our Gallery of Players" The Illustrated American (November 5, 1892): 434.
  4. Wilson, Scott (2016). Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons (3rd ed.). McFarland. p. 56. ISBN 978-1-4766-2599-7.
  5. Untitled theatrical news item, New York Times (July 17, 1887): 12. via Newspapers.comopen access
  6. "Jane" The Illustrated American (October 31, 1891): 501-502.
  7. "The Stage" Munsey's Magazine (October 1893): 100.
  8. A. D. Storms, "Johnstone Bennett" The Players' Blue Book (Sutherland & Storms 1901): 260-261.
  9. "The Stage" Munsey's Magazine (December 1892): 339.
  10. Thomas Allston Brown, ''A History of the New York Stage (Dodd Mead 1903): 182, 340, 425, 428, 429, 432, 436.
  11. "Johnstone Bennett" Los Angeles Times (May 6, 1906): 73. via Newspapers.comopen access
  12. Untitled opinion item, Detroit Free Press (April 22, 1892): 14. via Newspapers.comopen access
  13. "Has Her Valet" The Tennessean (October 18, 1896): 21. via Newspapers.comopen access
  14. "Lime Light Flashes" The Capital (June 24, 1899): 10.
  15. "Metropolitan" Profitable Advertising (February 15, 1898): 351.
  16. "Vanquishes a Mouse; Johnstone Bennett's Trousers Stood Her in Good Stead" Los Angeles Herald (June 23, 1899): 3. via California Digital Newspaper Collectionopen access
  17. Willa Cather, "The Player's Rubiyat" (February 4, 1899), reprinted in William J. Curtin, ed., The World and the Parish: Willa Cather's Articles and Reviews 1893-1902, Volume 2 (University of Nebraska Press 1970): 543. ISBN 9780803215450
  18. Robert Grau, Forty Years Observation of Music and the Drama (Broadway Publishing Company 1909): 96.
  19. "A Noted Actress Ill and In Want" San Francisco Chronicle (August 16, 1905): 3. via Newspapers.comopen access
  20. "Johnstone Bennett Ill" New York Times (March 24, 1906): 9. via ProQuest
  21. "Johnstone Bennett Dead" New York Times (April 15, 1906): 9. via ProQuest
  22. "Miss Johnstone Bennett Dead" Chicago Tribune (April 15, 1906): 6. via Newspapers.comopen access
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