Ida Vernon
Ida Vernon, was the stage name of a naturalized American actress of Scottish-Canadian origin, who began acting at age 12 in 1856, and finished up her career in 1917. During her sixty-one years in the theater she played opposite many of the most famous actors of the American stage, including Edwin Booth, to whom she was twice engaged. She managed a Richmond theatre during the American Civil War, and was twice imprisoned by Union authorities for blockade running during the conflict. Her most enduring character was that of Sister Genevieve, which she created for the 1874 American debut of The Two Orphans. While performing that role on December 5, 1876, she narrowly escaped the Brooklyn Theatre fire that killed over 275 people. Vernon was the original Lady Bracknell in the American premiere of The Importance of Being Earnest. Later in her career she played an important supporting part in The Man from Home, which ran for 500 performances on Broadway.
Early life
She was born on September 4, 1843, to parents from Scotland. According to Vernon, she was born at sea on a British ship carrying her mother to Canada to join her father, a British Army officer who was posted there. Vernon said "I lived at home in the Canadian military stations until my sister and I were sent to the convent in Montreal. There I was expected to recite poems to visitors. That is why the Sisters called me 'the little actress'. Two years later, when I was twelve, I learned what the term meant."Vernon's parents had moved to New York; while visiting them on Christmas vacation, she was taken to see Uncle Tom's Cabin at the Chatham Theatre, and decided to become an actress. She persuaded her father and brother to call upon actor-manager Thomas Barry at his hotel, who convinced them the best way to discourage acting ambition was to allow her to try it.
Stage name controversy
"Ida Vernon" is a stage name; from different sources it is known that her first name was Isabella, and her surname MacGowan. There is no known public statement by either Ida Vernon or the journalists who interviewed and wrote about her, that her name was Isabella MacGowan. Vernon, though she spoke of her parents, an older brother, and a sister in interviews, did not herself mention any personal or family names. However, a brother's name was revealed by a journalist covering the Brooklyn Theatre fire of 1876.Vernon should not be confused with another actress of the same name, who was active in Cleveland theater during 1854-1855. This Cleveland actress was playing parts such as Ophelia and Desdemona more usual for a young woman than a girl of ten or eleven.
Early career
Vernon said her parents agreed to place her with Thomas Barry and his wife, who became her first drama coaches. The Barrys took her to Boston as a member of the Boston Theatre stock company at $10 per week. According to her later recollection, she made her first appearance on stage at age 12 in Boston on April 15, 1856, playing a blossom fairy in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Her first known verifiable credit was as Juno in The Tempest on September 15, 1856, with Thomas Barry as Prospero. When Barry retired from the stage, Vernon continued with the Boston Theatre stock company, supporting John Gibbs Gilbert in The Corsair in February 1857. In June 1857, she had her first stage triumph, when the new Boston Theatre manager took her to Montreal in She Stoops to Conquer. Vernon recalled a half-century later being showered with flowers on the stage by her former schoolmates and friends.Back in Boston, Vernon supported Agnes Robertson in Jessie Brown; or, The Siege of Lucknow during April 1858. She then joined Charlotte Cushman in Manhattan at Niblo's Garden in June 1858 for London Assurance. Cushman was stern and abusive with rehearsal errors, a major change in style for Vernon who was used to the considerate and forgiving Barry. Fortunately for Vernon, Cushman left Niblo's Garden in early July 1858, and John Brougham took over.
Louisville
Vernon, now fifteen, took on a visiting leading lady role at Louisville, Kentucky in September 1858. She told interviewer Eileen O'Connor in 1916 that it was usual in those days for leading performers to visit stock companies around the country. Vernon worked steadily with this company, with new productions each week, save for a period of illness at the end of 1858, and a week's transfer to Cincinnati in March 1859.Vernon stayed at the Louisville Theater through May 1859, when it abruptly closed. Vernon wrote open letters to the leading Louisville newspapers that month, telling how the theater management siphoned off profits in Louisville, trying to prop up their failing Cincinnati theater operation. They had gradually reduced the performers wages over the season, and owed her and the other cast members back pay.
Pre-war stage
Vernon returned to New York in June 1859, with an engagement at Laura Keene's Theatre. She was a supporting player at this point, taking second place to the Sisters Gougenheim who played the leading parts, both male and female. By October 1859 she was back at Niblo's Garden performing with the stock company, starting with William Evans Burton in Dombey and Son. Vernon joined with playwright-actor G. L. Aiken in his stage adaptation of The Hidden Hand by E. D. E. N. Southworth. They first performed it in Buffalo, New York during December 1859. Taking advantage of The Octoroon, G. L. Aiken wrote The Fate of an Octoroon; or the Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, adapted from Harriett Beecher Stowe's work, with Vernon in the title role.In April 1860, Vernon took part in the inaugural performance at Mrs. Brougham's Theatre, which the New-York Tribune found underwhelming and suggested Mrs. Brougham's tenure "is not likely to be prolonged". A week later Vernon had her first known trouser role as Prince Zamna in The Bronze Horse, for J. M. Nixon's Troupe at Niblo's Garden. Nixon's Troupe was more circus than theater; the spectacle opened with Vernon mounting a real horse on stage and riding it some thirty feet up into canvas "clouds".
The remodeled New Richmond Theatre opened on September 8, 1860, with Ida Vernon and Sallie Partington listed among eighteen others as the stock company. For the first five months Vernon supported visiting stars, such as Emma Waller and Joey Gougenheim. In February 1861 she finally had her first "benefit", selecting a dramatization of The Woman in White, and Andy Blake by Dion Boucicault.
American Civil War
Nashville and return to Richmond
With the outbreak of fighting in April 1861, Vernon's connection with the Richmond Theatre was temporarily severed. She appears next at the opening of the Nashville Theatre in September 1861, co-starring with Walter Keeble in The Gamester. Vernon remained in Nashville through October, playing another trouser role as William in Black-Eyed Susan. The announcement of her impending return to Virginia in The Richmond Times-Dispatch for the delayed opening of the theatre season, was preceded by a short article on the difficulty British subjects were having in obtaining passports for crossing the battle lines to "Lincolndom". Just prior to Vernon's departure from Nashville, her fellow actors and city residents gave her a benefit evening.Vernon did not return to the Richmond Theatre stage until December 2, 1861, when she starred in Camille, a stage adaptation of The Lady of the Camellias. Just four days later she was given a benefit, for the "theatre has been literally crowded each night". A local theatre critic mentioned that she was still new in her profession, but was willing to perform in the South when others were not. They concluded: "Miss Vernon is a Southern actress".
During June 1862, Vernon was reunited with Walter Keeble at the Richmond Varieties, playing the leads in Romeo and Juliet. The venue had just reopened after a closure due to "the exigencies of the times". Keeble and Vernon followed Romeo and Juliet with Richard III. Vernon placed a reward notice in the Richmond Dispatch for bracelets stolen from her dressing room on July 8, 1862. The Merchant of Venice was Vernon and Keeble's Shakespearean offering for August 1862. These programs usually contained a dance number by one or more of the Partington sisters and a one-act closer.
Alabama sojourn and blockade running
Vernon went from Richmond to Montgomery, Alabama in November 1862. It was December before she appeared in a production of The Iron Chest. For New Year's Day 1863, Vernon played another trouser role as a page in Richelieu. A Philadelphia paper reporting on Southern theatres said "Miss Ida Vernon is playing a successful star engagement" at Montgomery. Vernon finished her Montgomery engagement on January 22, 1863, and was presented onstage with a set of jewelry from the citizens.From Montgomery, Vernon went to Mobile, Alabama, where she performed in Romeo and Juliet starting in late March 1863. After four plays, a local newspaper said audiences had been "unusually large" for Miss Ida Vernon. After a month-long engagement, Vernon was granted a complimentary benefit by popular acclaim, performing as Peg Woffington in Masks and Faces.
Vernon appeared in Wilmington, North Carolina in late May 1864, having returned from the North. She had escorted a young niece, who had been living with her, across the lines back to the girl's parents. Trying to return, she was caught and detained by Union authorities for a few days. She tried again, was caught once more and imprisoned at Fortress Monroe for six weeks. Eventually she travelled to Canada, where she caught a ship to Bermuda, and another to Wilmington. The only contraband she brought back with her were copies of recent European plays that had not yet been seen in the South. At Wilmington her leading man was Theodore Hamilton; they performed in The Stranger by August von Kotzebue, and other stock works, concluding both their engagements with The Taming of the Shrew.
Vernon returned to the New Richmond Theatre in August 1864, bearing with her the manuscript for a stage adaptation of East Lynne. It had never been performed in the Confederacy. Her leading man was the New Richmond Theatre's manager, Richard D'Orsay Ogden. A Charleston correspondent wrote that Miss Ida Vernon was attracting large audiences to the theatre for East Lynne. Though she performed in other works, East Lynne would be her mainstay for the next year. She took it to Wilmington, North Carolina in September and October 1864, but suffered a severe illness on returning to Richmond in December 1864.