Florence Gerald
Florence Melton Gerald was an American stage actress, poet, and writer. She was known for her acting roles in Broadway theatre.
Early life and education
Florence Melton Gerald was born on September 23, 1858, in New Orleans, to parents Omega Melton and Judge George Bruce Gerald. Her maternal grandfather James G. Melton had owned the only hotel at Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas in the 19th-century, which had been a gathering place on March 2, 1836, after Texas Declaration of Independence, and was once home to the original Texas Liberty Bell.Gerald attended Waco University in Waco, Texas, where she studied poetry and graduated in 1873, and in 1880. She published the book, Adenheim and Other Poems.
Career
After graduation, she was hired as an elocution instructor at Waco Female College. Her interest in working as a playwright started after her graduation.In 1898, she headed for the theater district in New York City to begin her stage acting career. Under the management of Charles Frohman, Gerald started her acting career on Broadway in, The Girl from Maxim’s at the Grand [Opera House (Manhattan)|Grand Opera House].
Gerald wrote the play, The Woman Pays, which was adapted into the 1915 silent film by screenwriter Harry Chandlee.
She appeared in the R. L. McLaughlin Stock Co. at the Ohio Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio in the summer of 1924.
Gerald died at age 83, on September 6, 1942, at the St. James Hotel at Broadway and 26th Street in New York City. She is buried at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, Westchester County, New York in the Actors' Fund area.