Fay Templeton
Encyclopedia
Fay Templeton was an American
stage
actress.
Her parents were actors/vaudevillians and she followed in their footsteps, making her Broadway
debut in 1900. She continued to appear there until 1934. For a time she dated Sam Shubert
, of the famous Shubert family of theatre owners, up until his death in a railroad accident.
Some of her notable performances were in HMS Pinafore
and Roberta
.
After her death at the age of 73, she was interred in Kensico Cemetery
in Valhalla, New York
.
Fay Templeton was born on December 25, 1865, in Little Rock, Arkansas
, where her parents were starring with the Templeton Opera Company. John Templeton, Fay’s father, was a well-known Southern manager, comedian, and author. Helen Alice Vane, Fay’s mother, starred with her husband. At age three, Templeton, dressed as Cupid, sang fairy tale songs between the acts of her father’s plays. Gradually, she was incorporated into the productions as a bit player and then, at five, had actual lines to recite. At eight, she played Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at New York’s Grand Opera House. She sang a contemporary tune, “Up in a Balloon,” and created a sensation.
At fifteen, Templeton was an accomplished light opera singer. She played in several juvenile versions of Gilbert and Sullivan
productions, often as the leading singer. The same year, she eloped with Billy West, a blackface minstrel performer, but they separated after a honeymoon of six weeks.
On October 7, 1885, Templeton had her formal debut in a revival of Evangeline. The play ran for 201 performances. In this show, she displayed talent as both a comedian and mimic.
After several years on the road playing in various melodramas and musical farces, Templeton was given the title role in Hendrik Hudson, which opened at the 14th Street Theater on August 18, 1890. It was a “trouser role,” one in which an actress appears in male clothing, then a popular feature of operettas. Her role was of a faithless husband. She won accolades singing “The Same Old Thing,” but the show itself lasted only sixteen performances.
Between shows, in 1887, Templeton began living with Howell Osborne, a wealthy broker for Jay Gould; there is no record that they ever married, and the two had no children. The two lived in England and toured the continent for several years. She starred in Monte Cristo, Jr., an 1886 hit that ran for two seasons.
By 1890, Templeton had formed her own opera company and starred in various operettas, none of which fared well financially. In 1895, she starred in another trouser role in E. E. Rice’s Excelsior, Jr. at Oscar Hammerstein’s new Olympic Theater.
In 1896, the comic duo Joe Weber
and Lew Fields
bought a Broadway theater and formed a stock company made up of headliners, including Templeton. Although she was now buxom even by Gay Nineties standards, her comedic versatility, long dark hair, sultry smile, and throaty-voiced singing won over audiences. She enjoyed the Webserfieldsian productions and believed her time at the Music Hall to be one of the best of her career. In a 1900 show, she introduced John Stromberg’s “Ma Blushin’ Rosie, Ma Posie Sweet,” which became the hit of the show. In 1901, she introduced “I’m a Respectable Working Girl” in the new Music Hall show; she did encore performances several times each evening.
After Weber and Fields split, George M. Cohan
hired Templeton to play the lead in Forty-Five Minutes from Broadway. Fay introduced the hit songs “So Long Mary” and “Mary Is a Grand Old Name.” A few months later, she married Pittsburgh industrialist William Patterson, co-founder of Heyl & Patterson Inc.
, and announced her retirement from the stage; she and Patterson also had no children.
In 1911, Weber and Fields began planning their reunion with a Jubilee touring company featuring all the old Music Hall stars. Templeton was one of the first to volunteer. The tour lasted five months and broke all records for touring companies. She continued in vaudeville with an act that included songs from previous shows. In 1913, Templeton again announced her retirement.
In 1925, she appeared in an old-timer’s show at the Palace Theater, working with Weber and Fields. Asked if she would continue to perform, she replied, “It’s been great fun, but it’s a new Broadway and a new theater, and hereafter I’ll be content to look on from out front.” But she returned to the stage again in 1926 to play Buttercup in a revival of Pinafore. Again, she claimed it was her last appearance on stage.
When Templeton’s husband died suddenly in 1932, she returned to the stage to earn a living, appearing in Jerome Kern’s Roberta as Aunt Minnie, a dress shop owner in Paris. Bob Hope, in his stage debut, handled the comedy. She had only one song, “Yesterday.” The show ran for nine months.
At age seventy-one and suffering from arthritis, Templeton found herself out of funds and entered the Actors’ Fund Home in New Jersey. On October 3, 1939, she died in San Francisco, California
, where she had moved to live with a cousin. She is buried in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York; few attended her funeral.
Fay Templeton did not bother with entering motion pictures, making phonograph recordings, or performing on radio shows. She was devoted to the theater. As a result she is not remembered today like other stout grand dames of the turn of the century theater, such as Marie Dressler
, Lillian Russell
, May Irwin
, Trixie Friganza
, all of whom at one point or another appeared in motion pictures. Templeton, though pretty in the face like Russell, refused movies and in so doing, missed having her stage presence and routines recorded for lasting posterity or for future generations to visit through the chasm of time.
, Judy Garland
performs an impression of Templeton singing Mary's a Grand Old Name.
In the 1942 musical, Yankee Doodle Dandy
, Templeton was portrayed by actress Irene Manning
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
stage
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
actress.
Her parents were actors/vaudevillians and she followed in their footsteps, making her Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
debut in 1900. She continued to appear there until 1934. For a time she dated Sam Shubert
Sam S. Shubert
Samuel S. Shubert was a Polish-born American producer and theatre owner/operator. He was the middle son in the Shubert family and was raised in Syracuse, New York.-Biography:...
, of the famous Shubert family of theatre owners, up until his death in a railroad accident.
Some of her notable performances were in HMS Pinafore
HMS Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
and Roberta
Roberta
Roberta is a musical from 1933 with music by Jerome Kern, and lyrics and book by Otto Harbach. The musical is based on the novel Gowns by Roberta by Alice Duer Miller...
.
After her death at the age of 73, she was interred in Kensico Cemetery
Kensico Cemetery
Kensico Cemetery, located in Valhalla, Westchester County, New York, was founded in 1889, when many New York City cemeteries were becoming full, and rural cemeteries were being created near the railroads which served the city...
in Valhalla, New York
Valhalla, New York
Valhalla is an unincorporated hamlet and census-designated place that is located within the town of Mount Pleasant, New York, in Westchester County. Its population was 3,162 at the 2010 U.S. Census...
.
Biography
Born into a theatrical family, Fay Templeton excelled on the legitimate and vaudeville stages for more than half a century. As an actress, singer, and comedian, she was a favorite headliner and heroine of popular theater.Fay Templeton was born on December 25, 1865, in Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
, where her parents were starring with the Templeton Opera Company. John Templeton, Fay’s father, was a well-known Southern manager, comedian, and author. Helen Alice Vane, Fay’s mother, starred with her husband. At age three, Templeton, dressed as Cupid, sang fairy tale songs between the acts of her father’s plays. Gradually, she was incorporated into the productions as a bit player and then, at five, had actual lines to recite. At eight, she played Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at New York’s Grand Opera House. She sang a contemporary tune, “Up in a Balloon,” and created a sensation.
At fifteen, Templeton was an accomplished light opera singer. She played in several juvenile versions of Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
productions, often as the leading singer. The same year, she eloped with Billy West, a blackface minstrel performer, but they separated after a honeymoon of six weeks.
On October 7, 1885, Templeton had her formal debut in a revival of Evangeline. The play ran for 201 performances. In this show, she displayed talent as both a comedian and mimic.
After several years on the road playing in various melodramas and musical farces, Templeton was given the title role in Hendrik Hudson, which opened at the 14th Street Theater on August 18, 1890. It was a “trouser role,” one in which an actress appears in male clothing, then a popular feature of operettas. Her role was of a faithless husband. She won accolades singing “The Same Old Thing,” but the show itself lasted only sixteen performances.
Between shows, in 1887, Templeton began living with Howell Osborne, a wealthy broker for Jay Gould; there is no record that they ever married, and the two had no children. The two lived in England and toured the continent for several years. She starred in Monte Cristo, Jr., an 1886 hit that ran for two seasons.
By 1890, Templeton had formed her own opera company and starred in various operettas, none of which fared well financially. In 1895, she starred in another trouser role in E. E. Rice’s Excelsior, Jr. at Oscar Hammerstein’s new Olympic Theater.
In 1896, the comic duo Joe Weber
Joseph Weber
Joseph Weber was an American physicist. He gave the earliest public lecture on the principles behind the laser and the maser and developed the first gravitational wave detectors .-Early education:...
and Lew Fields
Lew Fields
Lew Fields , born as Moses Schoenfeld, was an American actor, comedian, vaudeville star, theatre manager and producer....
bought a Broadway theater and formed a stock company made up of headliners, including Templeton. Although she was now buxom even by Gay Nineties standards, her comedic versatility, long dark hair, sultry smile, and throaty-voiced singing won over audiences. She enjoyed the Webserfieldsian productions and believed her time at the Music Hall to be one of the best of her career. In a 1900 show, she introduced John Stromberg’s “Ma Blushin’ Rosie, Ma Posie Sweet,” which became the hit of the show. In 1901, she introduced “I’m a Respectable Working Girl” in the new Music Hall show; she did encore performances several times each evening.
After Weber and Fields split, George M. Cohan
George M. Cohan
George Michael Cohan , known professionally as George M. Cohan, was a major American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer, and producer....
hired Templeton to play the lead in Forty-Five Minutes from Broadway. Fay introduced the hit songs “So Long Mary” and “Mary Is a Grand Old Name.” A few months later, she married Pittsburgh industrialist William Patterson, co-founder of Heyl & Patterson Inc.
Heyl & Patterson Inc.
Heyl & Patterson Inc. is an American specialist engineering company, founded in 1887 and based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.-19th Century:Heyl & Patterson was founded by Edmund W. Heyl and William J. Patterson in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, initially as a sales agency for elevator and...
, and announced her retirement from the stage; she and Patterson also had no children.
In 1911, Weber and Fields began planning their reunion with a Jubilee touring company featuring all the old Music Hall stars. Templeton was one of the first to volunteer. The tour lasted five months and broke all records for touring companies. She continued in vaudeville with an act that included songs from previous shows. In 1913, Templeton again announced her retirement.
In 1925, she appeared in an old-timer’s show at the Palace Theater, working with Weber and Fields. Asked if she would continue to perform, she replied, “It’s been great fun, but it’s a new Broadway and a new theater, and hereafter I’ll be content to look on from out front.” But she returned to the stage again in 1926 to play Buttercup in a revival of Pinafore. Again, she claimed it was her last appearance on stage.
When Templeton’s husband died suddenly in 1932, she returned to the stage to earn a living, appearing in Jerome Kern’s Roberta as Aunt Minnie, a dress shop owner in Paris. Bob Hope, in his stage debut, handled the comedy. She had only one song, “Yesterday.” The show ran for nine months.
At age seventy-one and suffering from arthritis, Templeton found herself out of funds and entered the Actors’ Fund Home in New Jersey. On October 3, 1939, she died in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, where she had moved to live with a cousin. She is buried in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York; few attended her funeral.
Fay Templeton did not bother with entering motion pictures, making phonograph recordings, or performing on radio shows. She was devoted to the theater. As a result she is not remembered today like other stout grand dames of the turn of the century theater, such as Marie Dressler
Marie Dressler
Marie Dressler was a Canadian-American actress and Depression-era film star. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1930-31 in Min and Bill.-Early life and stage career:...
, Lillian Russell
Lillian Russell
Lillian Russell was an American actress and singer. She became one of the most famous actresses and singers of the late 19th century and early 20th century, known for her beauty and style, as well as for her voice and stage presence.Russell was born in Iowa but raised in Chicago...
, May Irwin
May Irwin
May Irwin , was a Canadian actress, singer and star of vaudeville.-Early life and career:Born at Whitby, Ontario 1862 as Georgina May Campbell, her father, Robert E. Campbell of Whitby, Ontario, died when she was 13 years old and her stage-minded mother, Jane Draper, in need of money, encouraged...
, Trixie Friganza
Trixie Friganza
Trixie Friganza , born Delia O’Callaghan, began her career as an operetta soubrette, working her way from the chorus to starring in musical comedies to having her own feature act on the vaudeville circuit....
, all of whom at one point or another appeared in motion pictures. Templeton, though pretty in the face like Russell, refused movies and in so doing, missed having her stage presence and routines recorded for lasting posterity or for future generations to visit through the chasm of time.
In popular culture
In the 1941 musical, Babes on BroadwayBabes on Broadway
Babes on Broadway is a 1941 musical film starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland and directed by Busby Berkeley, with Vincente Minnelli directing Garland's big solo numbers. The film, which features Fay Bainter and Virginia Weidler, was the third in the "Backyard Musical" series about kids who put...
, Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
performs an impression of Templeton singing Mary's a Grand Old Name.
In the 1942 musical, Yankee Doodle Dandy
Yankee Doodle Dandy
Yankee Doodle Dandy is a 1942 American biographical musical film about George M. Cohan, known as "The Man Who Owns Broadway". It stars James Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston, and Richard Whorf, and features Irene Manning, George Tobias, Rosemary DeCamp and Jeanne Cagney.The movie was written by...
, Templeton was portrayed by actress Irene Manning
Irene Manning
Irene Manning was an actress/singer.She was born Inez Harvuot in Cincinnati, Ohio in a family of five siblings. Her family loved to go on outdoor picnics where the featured activity was group singing. This family environment helped Irene to develop a keen interest in singing at a very early age...
.
External links
- Fay Templeton at Who's Who in Musicals
- Fay Templeton photo gallery NYP Library
- Fay Templeton on cover of 1900 sheet music
- Fay Templeton North American Theatre Online
- Fay Templeton Univ. of Washington Sayre collection