The Bennetts: An Acting Family

Chapter Two. 1900–1904

1900–1904 23 ⟈ Chapter Two 1900–1904 From the time they met during rehearsals of A Royal Family, Mabel Morrison was one woman Richard Bennett consistently failed to dominate. No doubt this first-generation actor was somewhat intimidated by Mabel’s distinguished theatrical pedigree. Her father, Lewis Morrison, was one of the most successful actor-managers of his time. Morrison had practically made a career out of touring in one role—Mephistopheles in his own production of Faust—and he had long been one of Richard’s idols. Mabel’s mother, Rose Wood, was one of the most prominent actresses of the 1880s. Rose had enjoyed her first success touring with stock companies in the midwestern and southern United States and had appeared with her husband at the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia. But it was as a leading lady at New York’s famed Wallack’s Theatre that she found stardom, in roles such as Lydia Languish in Richard Sheridan’s The Rivals. Rose’s side of the family could boast of having had actors in several preceding generations. Her father, William F. Wood, was one of the most skilled pantomimists of his day. A derivative of the classic Italian commedia dell’arte, pantomime was a thriving art form in the early nineteenth century, a lively combination of song, dance, pratfalls, and biting topical satire, often aimed at leading public figures. Eventually, the material of pantomime moved onto higher moral ground, and here William F. Wood found fame in dramas such as The Cherokee Chief and His Poor Dog Tray and The Bennetts 24 The Dumb Man of Manchester. Rose’s grandfather, William Wodin (later changed to “Wood”) was a Welshman who traveled to England , where in the waning days of the eighteenth century he became a strolling player—an actor who moved from town to town, performing in whatever space might be available, whether it was country inn or country fair. Mabel was not the only member of her generation to continue the family tradition. Her older sister, Rosabel, had gone on the stage while still in her teens, achieving particular distinction in 1885 as Marguerite in her father’s production of Faust. A graceful and willowy dark-haired beauty, Rosabel was later praised by one newspaper critic as one of the theater’s outstanding interpreters of the doomed Marguerite. Rosabel soon took on additional duties. Rose Wood and Lewis Morrison were divorced in 1890. While Lewis found himself another wife, actress Florence Roberts, the collapse of the marriage triggered a latent streak of emotional instability in Rose. She began to withdraw more and more, leaving Rosabel in charge of her younger siblings—Mabel and Victor Jago. Lewis, away on tour and busy with his new wife, provided unstinting financial support but little else. Rose’s bouts of depression would grow worse as time went on, and she would finish out her life as a virtual shut-in. Perhaps it was the loss of anything resembling a stable home environment that made Mabel so eager to set out on a career of her own. She had made her professional debut at an even earlier age than Rosabel—in 1896, when she was thirteen, in the secondary part of Anita in an adaptation of Prosper Merimée’s Carmen, with Rosabel in the title role. Despite Mabel’s impatience to launch her acting career, it seems that there was little rivalry between the sisters . Increasingly, Lewis Morrison’s frequent absences and Rose Wood’s gradual withdrawal from the mainstream of life assigned Rosabel to the role of surrogate mother to her two younger siblings . For Mabel, this fragmented family life gave rise to a fierce desire for independence. For the youngest child, Victor, the chaos of his parents’ life left him with a distaste for the acting profession; 1900–1904 25 he would be the only Morrison of his generation to turn his back on the theater, opting instead for a military career. Mabel’s performance in Carmen struck her father as so promising that once the tour closed, he began to coach her in the role of Juliet. He reasoned that, unlike many actresses who attempted it, she would be the correct age to play Shakespeare’s heroine. Her subsequent success in the part cemented her father’s belief in her abilities, and for the next few years he included her in the extensive national tours...