The First Lady of American Theater Gets a First-Rate Biography

Ethel Barrymore: Shy Empress of the Footlights By Kathleeen Spaltro University Press of Kentucky, 277 pagesThe author of an acclaimed biography of Lionel Barrymore, Kathleen Spaltro is perfectly poised to write about an actress often hailed as the “First Lady of the American Theater,” but who suffered from crippling stage fright, a reserve that made her efforts at writing an autobiography so disappointing, with a narrow view of acting that resulted in hampering what she might have accomplished in movies, radio, and television.Born into a distinguished theatrical family and flanked by her brothers Lionel and John, Ethel strained as a young actress to move beyond the ingénue roles that audiences adored. When she attempted roles like Nora in “A Doll’s House,” reviewers’ reactions were mixed, often expressing disappointment that she did not select more popular dramas.As Barrymore matured, complaints proliferated about her increasing weight and poor choice of plays. Ms. Spaltro samples a wide variety of reviews of mostly forgotten works. Barrymore appeared in silent film but scorned the medium except as a source of income — badly needed, since like her brothers she had no ability to manage money.So how is it with this mixed record of performances that Barrymore became so renowned? In part, Ms. Spaltro implies, Barrymore looked the part — regal and sometimes even contemptuous of critics even as she thrived on the direct contact with audiences that she missed whenever she entered a Hollywood soundstage — as she did in the 1930s, when ailments exacerbated by what Ms. Spaltro calls a drinking disorder made it difficult for the actress to sustain work in live performances.I’m a little surprised that Ms. Spaltro never mentions Katherine Cornell, Barrymore’s contemporary often saluted as the “First Lady of the American Theater.” Cornell’s choice of plays was far better than Barrymore’s. Ironically, Barrymore’s work in film, especially in “None But the Lonely Heart,” for which she won an Academy Award, made her, culturally, a much more important figure than Cornell, who appeared in only one film.Barrymore’s regal bearing and astringent wit had transformed her by the 1940s into not merely a grande dame but the reigning figurehead of the theater even as she left the stage for a series of character parts in Hollywood films. Her mere presence in a film gave it gravitas. She was like one of those 18th century noblewomen who condescended to appear before the hoi polloi.What saved Barrymore from becoming a snob, however, was her decades of touring in plays, positively extolling the close contact she had with audiences all over the country, giving them such a thrill that her entrances were often greeted with tremendous applause.For decades, Barrymore struggled to tell her own story, insisting that she had to write the book herself before delaying its production, and then offering scant insight into her acting or her famous family of performers. She could never come to terms with the failure of her marriage to a physically abusive husband, and never leveled with anyone, perhaps not even with herself, about her brothers, who relied on her for financial help but otherwise, except for rare occasions, did not offer her much recompense.Just when it seems that Barrymore will never recover from the drinking that debilitated her in the 1930s — a period that Ms. Spaltro draws out in excruciating detail that almost made me want to give up on Barrymore — she goes into rehabilitation and has a second act in film, radio, and television that she herself did not fully appreciate.If you ever think of writing a biography, pay attention to Ms. Spaltro’s concluding chapter. She does far more than reprise or sum up Barrymore’s achievements and failures. It as if the biographer goes into hyper drive, propelling Barrymore’s life beyond the reviews, the aborted and unpublished autobiographies, the disappointing memoir that did finally appear in book form, to elevate our understanding of an actress who shied away from confronting her demons and took refuge all too often in her forbidding presence that intimidated fellow actors but also isolated Barrymore from reckoning with her choices as a woman and artist.Seldom have I read a biography that speaks to the power of biography itself to render another human being with a profound understanding that is not to be secured anywhere else.Mr. Rollyson has published biographies of Marilyn Monroe, Lillian Hellman, Dana Andrews, and Ronald Colman.

The First Lady of American Theater Gets a First-Rate Biography

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