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16.00 USD
Mary Anderson was a greatly loved stage and silent film actress of both the Victorian, and Edwardian periods. Born in 1859, in Sacramento California, her family moved, shortly thereafter, to Louisville Kentucky, where her father enlisted in the Confederate States Army. He was killed in battle during the Civil War, lost to Mary, while she was still a very young child.
At the age of fourteen, having taken an interest in Shakespeare, she received ten acting lessons at the encouragement of her stepfather. In 1875, she made her debut performance as Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet" at a theater in Louisville, and from this built a very successful stage career that spanned more than a decade.
This lovely card, published by J. Beagles of London, is an image of Miss Anderson, in 1887, when she was appearing in a London production of Shakespeare's "Winter's Tale," in which she played both Perdita and Hermione. The card itself, was quite possibly published in around 1912, when she began appearing in silent films under the name Mary Navarro. This is just a guess as to why a twenty-something year old photograph was being published by J. Beagles as a postcard. Mind you, we're not complaining, as it isn't very often we get to share cards of Victorian era stage images, and this is a really fine print of the photograph.
A couple of years after this photograph was originally taken, Miss Anderson, at that time touring in the U.S., suffered from a nervous breakdown and retired from the stage at the age of thirty.
She then returned to England, where she met Antonio Fernando de Navarro, an American Sportsman and a barrister, whom she married in 1890, hence the stage name Mary Navarro that she used in motion pictures. The two settled in England.
She lived happily, gave birth to two children, and as well as making a name for herself in the new medium of motion pictures, was a renowned hostess in artistic circles. In fact, it has been suggested that the character Lucia, in the "Mapp and Lucia" novels by E.F. Benson, was based upon Mary Anderson. E.F. Benson was known to have visited the home of Mary Anderson. Getting off subject, we definitely want to recommend the Mapp and Lucia novels to any of our customers who enjoy the clever word play and satirical humor of Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest." They are hilarious! Some years ago the BBC produced a really great series based on these novels, but as is so often the case, the books really are better by far.
Mary Anderson Navarro died at home in 1940, at the age of 80.
Thanks to Wikipedia for much of our biographical information!
A very nice unposted card circa 1910. some age discoloration on the back side, but none that we can see on the front image. There is a horizontal line showing up faintly at about shoulder height in our scan. This is a scanner line, and not present on the card.
Please examine our high res scans for detail.
Postage is for first class shipping in a secure photo mailer, and we happily combine shipping on all paper goods. If you purchase two cards, we will refund the postage on the second card, and when you purchase three or more cards from us at the same time, your shipping will be entirely free, except for international orders which, because of sudden increases in international shipping rates will still be charged one card's shipping fees on orders of three or more.
And please come visit our blog at:
redpoulaine.blogspot.com
where we post biographical and historical tidbits, images of cards and photographs for sale, some already sold but remembered fondly, related images of historical interest and sometimes even images of items that have not yet arrived in the shop, but that are expected to arrive soon, as well as coupon codes, links to other related sites, and more!
