Eleanor Robson Belmont
Eleanor Elise Robson Belmont was an English actress and prominent public figure in the United States. George Bernard Shaw wrote Major Barbara for her, but contractual problems prevented her from playing the role. Mrs. Belmont was involved in the Metropolitan Opera Association as the first woman on the board of directors, and she founded the Metropolitan Opera Guild.
Early life
Eleanor Elise Robson was born on 13 December 1879 in Wigan, Lancashire. She was the daughter of Madge Carr Cook and Charles Robson. Her mother was an English-born American stage actress and as a young girl, Eleanor moved to the United States. Her father disappeared or deserted her mother in 1880, and her mother remarried to Augustus Cook in 1891. Cook later sued her for annulment of their marriage.Career
Her stage career began at age 17 in San Francisco and she worked in stock companies from Honolulu to Milwaukee. In 1899, she was a member of the summer stock company at the Elitch Theatre—the original Summer stock theatre.She made her New York debut in 1900 as Bonita, the ranchman's daughter in Augustus Thomas's Arizona.
Her ten-year career as a leading Broadway actress included top roles in such plays as Robert Browning's In a Balcony, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet opposite Kyrle Bellew, Israel Zangwill's Merely Mary Ann, Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer, Zangwill's Nurse Marjorie, and Paul Armstrong's adaptation of Bret Harte's Salomy Jane.
Robson authored a play, Christopher Rand, which had the unfortunate timing of opening in New Haven just as the stock market crashed in October 1929, resulting in its anticipated Broadway run being cancelled.