Velma Whitman


Velma Virginia Whitman was an American actress who appeared in comedy theatre and silent films during the 1900s and 1910s. A Virginian, she began appearing in theatre roles in 1905 and became known for her portrayal of complicated emotional characters. After appearing with multiple different theatre groups, she established her own in 1906 named Whitman's Comedians, and acted as the leading woman for most performances, alongside her husband as the leading man. The large theatre company became well known throughout the American South for its numerous and varied plays up through 1910.
Performing with other companies once again from 1911 through 1912, including her husband's newly formed theatre company named Own Stock, she moved to California in 1913 and began appearing in a large number of silent films in the just-formed field of motion pictures. She became a lead performer for Siegmund Lubin's Lubin Manufacturing Company and had dozens of major roles up through 1919.

Early life

Velma Virgnina Barger was born on December 6, 1885 in the Portage Township, Hancock County, Ohio. Her parents were Rose Belle and Lewis Barger. When she was a young girl, her family moved to Findley, Ohio where her father worked for the nearly opened Marvin Theater. The family lived in the northside of Findley in a house owned by theater owner William Marvin. Whitman's first role was in a performance at the Marvin Theater.
After her parents' divorce, her mother remarried and became Mrs. Frank Underwood and lived in Kansas City, Missouri. Her father also remarried and moved to Goldboro, North Carolina around 1903.
She married Fred S. Whitman of Findley in Newport, Ohio on August 1, 1902.

Career

Early roles

Whitman started her theatrical career after joining the C.S. Sullivan theatre company and starring in the 1905 production of Dora Thorne in the titular role, based on the novel of the same name by Charlotte Mary Brame. The Twice-a-Week Plain Dealer referred to Whitman's role as highly demanding, where a "less talented woman would fail" in the emotional range needed for the character, but she managed to give a "most worthy portrayal". After having worked with the Boler Stock Company in Denver at the end of 1905, she then joined the Crawford's Comedians group for a 1906 production of Under Two Flags from the novel by Ouida, where Whitman played the role of army mascot Cigarette.

Whitman's Comedians

In late 1906, Whitman formed her own vaudeville company under the name Whitman's Comedians, featuring Jack Roseleigh as the leading man and herself as the leading woman. In addition to an entire theater troupe, the company featured 20 musicians so they could provide their own accompaniment during plays. Her company played shows across the American South in large cities, doing shows exclusively in Texas from the end of 1907 through the beginning of 1908. The Atchison Daily Globe noted that their August 1909 show in Atchison, Kansas, was one of the very few they ever did in a city with less than 50,000 people.
Whitman was well known for her extensive collection of English and French gowns from prominent designers that she used in her performances, with her gowns described in a 1909 edition of the Waxahachie Daily Light as "one of the largest and most elaborate wardrobes of any leading woman in the country". One of the frequent theatrical productions by the company was The Mysterious Model, where Whitman played the main female lead Niobe, and is a retelling in modern day based on the mythology of Pygmalion and Galatea. The Winfield Daily Courier described Whitman's depiction of Niobe giving the character "a purity and innocence that were charming in her modern surroundings".

Broadening acts

In 1911, Whitman started playing roles in other stock company shows for multiple theatrical seasons, frequently as the leading lady, such as the West End Heights Stock Company throughout 1911 and the North Brothers Stock Company throughout 1912. During an extended series of performances in Oklahoma in March 1912 with the latter company, The Daily Oklahoman noted of her role in A Little Brother of the Rich that Whitman "not only possesses beauty of face and figure, but has a graciousness about her that simple charms, and she is an actress, too, in the truest sense of the word". Whitman and her husband would leave the North Brothers Stock Company in August 1912, though still remaining at their home in Oklahoma City. Roseleigh would later form his own company at the end of 1912 named Own Stock, where Whitman would join him as the ongoing leading role opposite him.
During January 1913, Whitman starred in shows held by the Frank North Stock Company in Fort Worth, Texas, to temporarily replace their former lead, Ruth Robinson. For the rest of February and March 1913, she stayed with Mrs. Philip Mohan in Santa Barbara, California, and announced on March 20 that she was planning to move permanently to California to begin starring in films. She joined the Lubin Company run by Wilbert Melville in July of that year as one of two leading women for the company's films. Her first film role for the studio was in the 1913 film Playing With Fire.

Personal life

Whitman was living in Long Beach, California at the time of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and suffered loss of personal property. She had one brother, Fred Barger, who was also an actor and moved to California with her.
Whitman was married to Mike Levy, stage name Jack Roseleigh, after joining his company. She died at her home in Los, Angeles, California on July 18, 1937 at the age of 51 years. She was buried in Kansas City, Missouri, next to her mother.

Theatre

  • Dora Thorne as Dora Thorne
  • Under Two Flags as Cigarette
  • The Mysterious Model as Niobe
  • Nature's Nobleman as Chick
  • Reaping the Harvest as Lady Isabel
  • The Peacemaker as Nellie Durkin
  • Friends; A Comedy Drama in Four Acts as Marguerite Otto
  • Divorçons as Madam Cyprienne De Prunelles
  • Her Greatest Sin as Alice Rutherford
  • The Sign of the Four as Mary Morton
  • Thelma as Thelma Gouldmar
  • Her Sister's Sin as Bessie Barton
  • Van, the Virginian
  • Woman Against Woman as Florence Grantly
  • The Girl and the Sheriff
  • Amy, the Circus Girl as Amy
  • The House of a Thousand Candles as Marian Devereaux
  • The Squaw Man as Nat-U-Rich
  • Old Heidelberg as Kathie
  • The Man on the Box as Bettie Annessley
  • White Squadron as Onesta De Silveria
  • Forgiven as Annie Dennison
  • Going Some as Helen
  • The World and the Leper as Lady Dolly Mult
  • The Blue Mouse as The Blue Mouse
  • The Servant In The House as the Vicar's wife
  • A Little Brother of the Rich as Sylvia Castle
  • A Corner In Coffee as Miss Livingstone
  • The Vinegar Buyer as Mildred Arlington
  • Bobby Burnit as Agnes Elliston
  • Paid the Price as Madeline Waldron
  • East Lynne as Lady Isabelle and Madam Vine
  • His Last Dollar as Eleanor Downs
  • Mam'selle as Mam'selle
  • The New Magdalene as Mercy Merrick
  • Lena Rivers as Lena Rivers
  • Partners as Mary Brandon
  • Alice of Old Vincennes as Alice
  • In Love With Her Husband as Nellie Lee
  • The Melting Pot as Vera Renendal
  • The Golden Ranch Round Up as Margery
  • The Blockhead and the Wise Guy as Kate Mayne
  • Heart of New York as Ethel Douglas
  • Checkers as Pert Barlow
  • The Third Degree as Mrs. Howard Jeffries Jr.
  • Strongheart as Dorothy
  • The Road to Yesterday
  • The Climbers as Blanche Sterling
  • Clothes
  • Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch as Mrs. Wiggs
  • Father and the Boys as Bessie Brayton
  • Mary Jane's Pa
  • The Regeneration
  • The Aviator
  • The Barrier as Necia
  • Mr. Raffles as Gwendoline

Filmography