Jane Peyton

Jane Peyton (October 26, 1870 – September 8, 1946) was an American lead and supporting actress whose career did not commence until she was nearly 30. During her time on stage, she appeared in several long-running Broadway plays and successful road tours. Peyton was perhaps best remembered for performances in The Ninety and Nine, The Earl of Pawtucket, The Heir to the Hoorah, The Three of Us, and The Woman. Once the wife of actor Guy Bates Post, Peyton retired after 14 years on stage, when she married the writer Samuel Hopkins Adams.

Jane Peyton
Jane Peyton c.1904
Born(1870-10-26)October 26, 1870
Spring Green, Wisconsin
DiedSeptember 8, 1946(1946-09-08) (aged 75)
Auburn, New York
Other namesJennie Van Norman
OccupationActress

Early life

Jennie Van Norman was born in Spring Green, Wisconsin, the daughter of George Bosworth Van Norman and Elizabeth Atkinson.[1][2] Her father served as a sergeant and later drill master with Company H, Wisconsin 8th Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War. After the war, he purchased a small meat packing company in Spring Green that eventually expanded to include branches in Milwaukee and Chicago and employ over 200 workers.[3][4] Peyton's mother, a native of Maine, died on October 24, 1875, in Milwaukee at the age of 37.[5][6] Peyton's father next married Cornelia Elizabeth Parsons on November 4, 1876. She died on April 8, 1878,[7] leaving Van Norman to marry Minnie A. Booth,[4][8] in Milwaukee on November 4, 1878.[9]

In her youth, Peyton gave recitals and sang at social and church gatherings and at G.A.R. functions hosted by her father. She married a local physician after attending Northwestern University and for some years hence, her activities routinely merited a mention in newspaper society pages. With the encouragement of Otis Skinner, in the summer of 1900, she left her family and comfortable life behind and departed for New York for a career in theatre.[10][11]

Career

Peyton's debut was a minor rôle in Prince Otto, a romantic melodrama Skinner adapted from the book by Robert Louis Stevenson. Prince Otto opened at Wallack's Theatre on September 3, 1900, and closed after five weeks with a run of 40 performances.[12][13] She played Lady Fitz-Herbert in Tom Moore, a fictionalized romantic drama about a young Thomas More (Andrew Mack) by Theodore Burt Sayre. The play opened on August 31, 1901, at the Herald Square Theatre, and closed on October 5 after 40 performances.[12][14] Peyton was the adventuress Kate Van Dyke in Ramsay Morris' The Ninety and Nine, a melodrama loosely based on the hymn by Ira D. Sankey. The Ninety and Nine was presented at the Academy of Music on October 7, 1902, and closed after a run of 128 performances on January 24, 1903.[12][15][16] On August 27, 1903, at the Republic Theatre in Rochester, New York she opened with William Collier, Sr. in Eugéne Presbrey's society comedy[12] Personal. The play began a 38-run engagement at New York's Bijou Theatre the following week.[12][17]

Later that year and into the next, she became the third, and some considered the best,[18][19] leading actress to support Lawrence D'Orsay in Augustus Thomas' comedy, The Earl of Pawtucket. The critic Zona Gale wrote:

So with "The Earl of Pawtucket"—a revival of last season—to be mentioned because for Mr. Lawrence D'Orsay's amusing performance has at last been found a leading woman—Miss Jane Peyton, whose beauty and distinction and ability promise large things. (The Critic, 1904)[20]

In the early summer of 1905, Peyton assumed the rôle of Mrs. Kate Brandon in Paul Armstrong's comedy, The Heir to the Hoorah, at the Hudson Theatre.[21] She remained with The Heir to the Hoorah when it reappeared that fall at Boston's Hollis Street Theatre and for the ensuing national tour.[22][23]

In The Three of Us, she played Mrs. Tweed Dix to Carlotta Nillson's Rhy Macchesney. Written by Rachel Crothers, The Three of Us opened at the Madison Square Theatre on October 17, 1906, and continued on into May of the following year with total of 227 performances.[12][24] In The Great John Ganton, J. Hartley Manners' adaptation of the novel by Arthur Jerome Eddy, Peyton played Mrs. Jack Wilton to George Fawcett's John Ganton. The play opened on May 3, 1909, at the old Lyric Theatre and closed the following month after a run of 40 performances.[12][25]

With William C. De Mille's drama The Woman, she played Grace, the wife of Judge Jim Blake (John W. Cope). The Woman, ended its season-long run of 247 performances at the Theatre Republic on April 19, 1912.[12][26]

Personal life

Peyton married Milwaukee physician Dr. Robert Curtis Brown at her father's residence on October 26, 1892, and settled down to life that revolved around social activities of the city's elite.[27] This changed in July 1900, when Peyton traveled to New York to begin rehearsals for Skinner's Prince Otto. Upon hearing of his daughter's departure, George Van Norman threatened to disinherit her, and ultimately, in July 1902, Peyton's husband was granted an uncontested divorce on the grounds of desertion.[10][11]

Peyton next married Arthur Cecil Gordon Weld, at the time the musical director at the Casino Theatre and one-time musical director of the Florodora Company. The two most likely first met when Weld worked in Milwaukee in the 1890s. For legal reasons, twice-divorced Weld could not remarry in New York, so instead the ceremony took place at the Hotel Walton in Philadelphia on May 22, 1903. This marriage ended in divorce on October 23, 1907.[28][29]

She married Guy Bates Post, star of The Heir to the Hoorah and former husband of Sarah Truax, on August 21, 1907. On February 16, 1915, Peyton and Post were granted an annulment on the grounds that at time of their wedding she was still married to Weld, claiming they were unaware that her final divorce decree would not take effect until October.[29][30]

On March 11, 1915, at the residence of Peyton's friend Josephine Wright Chapman, she wed the writer Samuel Hopkins Adams. This union lasted over 30 years, and ended with her death, aged 75, in Auburn, New York.[31][32]

gollark: Approximately, yes, but facial muscles are hard.
gollark: I never actually worked out how to do smirks.
gollark: ¿
gollark: ***BEE YOU.***
gollark: I don't sleep, except when I sleep.

References
  1. Southworth, George Champlin Shepard 1897, p.26. Descendants of Constant Southworth
  2. SS Santa Elana passenger manifest, New York to Los Angeles, November 11, 1935, Ancestry.com
  3. U.S., Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861–1865 about George B. Van Norman, Ancestry.com
  4. George B. Van Norman Biography - Civil War Wisconsin Retrieved April 25, 2014
  5. Died. Milwaukee Daily Sentinel (Milwaukee, Wisconsin), October 25, 1875, p. 5
  6. 1870 U.S. Census George and Lizzie Van Norman, Spring Green, Wisconsin, Ancestry.com
  7. Parsons, Henry - 1920, p.390 - Parsons Family: Descendants of Cornet Joseph Parsons
  8. said to be a member of the famous Booth family of actors (see ref "GBVN).
  9. Marriage. Milwaukee Daily Sentinel (Milwaukee, Wisconsin), November 06, 1878, p. 8
  10. "Prefers Stage to Big Fortune". Newark Daily Advocate, July 24, 1900, p.5
  11. "Divorced from an Actress". Fort Wayne News, July 1, 1902, p. 9
  12. Jane Peyton - Internet Broadway Database Retrieved April 30, 2014
  13. "Notes of the Week". The New York Times, September 30, 1900, p. 19
  14. "Novelties of the Coming Theatrical Season". The New York Times, August 11, 1901, p. SM3
  15. "Stage Offerings to Keep the First Nighters Busy". The New York Times, January 18, 1903, p. 34
  16. Everybody's Magazine, Volume 10, 1904, p. 397
  17. "Collier in His New Play at Rochester". The New York Times, August 28, 1903, p. 7
  18. Everybody's Magazine, vol. 10, 1904, p. 397 Retrieved April 30, 2014
  19. Munsey's Magazine, vol. 31, 1904, p. 623 Retrieved April 30, 2014
  20. The Critic, vol 44, 1904, p. 417 Retrieved April 30, 2014
  21. "The Heir to the Hoorah". The Summary, Volume 33, July 15, 1905, p. 2] Retrieved April 28, 2014
  22. "The Heir to the Hoorah". Boston Daily Globe, September 12, 1905, p. 11
  23. The Auditorium (advertisement). The Newark Daily Advocate, December 26, 1 905, p. 3
  24. "Carlotta Nillson in The Three of Us". The New York Times, October 18, 1906, p. 9
  25. "Great John Ganton is all Geo. Fawcett". New York Times, May 4, 1909, p. 9
  26. "'The Woman' Grips and has a Purpose". New York Times, September 20, 1911, p. 13
  27. "To Be Married To-Day Nuptials of Miss Jennie Van Norman and Dr. R. C. Brown". The Milwaukee Sentinel, October 26, 1892, p. 3
  28. "Arthur Weld is Married". New York Times, May 23, 1903, p. 1
  29. "Guy Bates Post's Marriage Annulled". New York Times, February 17, 1915, p. 11
  30. "Actress Seeks Freedom". New York Times, December 31, 1914, p. 5
  31. "Samuel H. Adams Marries". New York Times, March 12, 1915, p. 11
  32. Mrs. Samuel H.Adams. New York Times, September 9, 1946, p. 9
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