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{{Short description|American actress and stage designer (1872–1953)}}{{About|the American stage actress|the Swedish actress and model|Maud Adams}}{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2023}}{{Use American English|date=October 2023}}

factoids

| birth_place = Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.19531711|1}}| death_place = Tannersville, New York, U.S.| occupation = actress| partner = Lillie Florence (ca.1891–1901, died)Louise Boynton (1905–1951, died)| years_active = 1880–1918, 1931–1934| signature = Maude Adams signature.svg}}Maude Ewing Adams Kiskadden (November 11, 1872 – July 17, 1953), known professionally as Maude Adams, was an American actress and stage designer who achieved her greatest success as the character Peter Pan, first playing the role in the 1905 Broadway production of Peter Pan; or, The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up.BOOK, Patterson, Ada, Ada Patterson,weblink Maude Adams: A Biography, 1907, April 22, 2011, Adams' personality appealed to a large audience and helped her become the most successful and highest-paid performer of her day, with a yearly income of more than $1 million during her peak.WEB,weblink Famous Stage Actress Biography of Maude Adams, Adams began performing as a child while accompanying her actress mother on tour. At age 16, she made her Broadway debut, and under Charles Frohman's management, she became a popular player alongside leading man John Drew Jr. in the early 1890s. Beginning in 1897, Adams starred in plays by J. M. Barrie, including The Little Minister, Quality Street, What Every Woman Knows and Peter Pan. These productions made Adams the most popular actress in America.Marcosson and Frohman, p. 175 Her work on these shows' production design and innovative technical lighting helped to make them a success, and she was named as inventor on three light bulb patents. She also performed in a number of other plays. Her last Broadway play, in 1916, was Barrie's A Kiss for Cinderella. After a 13-year retirement, she appeared in more Shakespeare plays and then taught acting in Missouri. She retired to upstate New York.

Early life and career

File:Maude Adams age 1880.jpg|thumb|left|Adams (left) and Flora Walsh in The Wandering Boys in San FranciscoSan FranciscoAdams was born in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, the daughter of Asaneth Ann "Annie" (née Adams) and James Henry Kiskadden. Adams's mother was an actress, and her father had jobs working for a bank and in a mine.{{citation |last=Engar |first=Ann W. |title=Utah History Encyclopedia |year=1994 |editor-last=Powell |editor-first=Allan Kent |access-date= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170113125435weblink |url-status=live |contribution=Adams, Maude |contribution-url=https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/a/Adams_Maude.shtml |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |publisher=University of Utah Press |isbn=0874804256 |oclc=30473917 |archive-date=2017-01-13}} Little else is known of Adams's father, who died when she was young.The 1870 Utah census lists James H. Kiskadden as the head of a household that included his wife, Lucina, and several younger Adamses, perhaps siblings of Lucina. James reported his birthplace as Ohio. The 1880 California census reports James Kisskaden (age 48), Anne Kisskaden (age 29) and Maude Kisskaden (age 7) living in San Francisco. The latter two list their birthplace as Utah. James was not a Mormon, and Adams once wrote of her father as having been a "gentile". The surname "Kiskadden" is Scottish. On her mother's side, Adams's great-grandfather Platt Banker converted to Mormonism and moved his family to Missouri, where his daughter, Julia, married Barnabus Adams. Barnabus and Julia then migrated as part of the first company to enter the Salt Lake Valley with Brigham Young in 1847, where he cut timbers for the Salt Lake Tabernacle.Cannon, Ramona W. "Woman's Sphere", Relief Society Magazine, September 1953, Vol 40, no. 9, p. 595 Adams was also a descendant of Mayflower passenger John Howland.{{Citation| last = Roberts| first = Gary Boyd| title = The Mayflower 500| publisher = New England Historic Genealogical Society| date = 2020| isbn = 978-0-88082-397-5| page = 268}}Adams appeared on stage at two months old in the play The Lost Baby at the Salt Lake City Brigham Young Theatre.BOOK, Black, Susan Easton, Woodger, Mary Jane, Women of Character, 2011, Covenant Communications, Inc., American Fork, UT, 978-1-60861-212-3, 1–3, She appeared again at the age of nine months in her mother's arms. Over her father's objections, Adams began acting as a small child, adopting her mother's maiden name as her stage name. They toured throughout the western U.S. with a theatrical troupe that played in rural areas, mining towns and some cities. At the age of five, Adams starred in a San Francisco theater as "Little Schneider" in Fritz, Our German Cousin and as "Adrienne Renaud" in A Celebrated Case. At the age of nine, Adams lived with her Mormon grandmother and Mormon cousins in Salt Lake City while her mother remained in San Francisco.BOOK, Hunter, J. Michael, Mormons and Popular Culture: The Global Influence of an American Phenomenon, 2013, Praeger, Santa Barbara, 9780313391675, 135–139,weblink Maude Adams and the Mormons, November 20, 2017,weblink It is not clear whether she identified as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as her mother did. She was never baptized Presbyterian, although she attended a Presbyterian school. Later in life, Adams took long sabbaticals in Catholic convents, and in 1922 she donated her estates in Lake Ronkonkoma, New York, to the Sisters of the Cenacle for use as a novitiate and retreat house.WEB,weblink Lake Ronkonkoma History, Legends & Myths, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20100204081238weblink">weblink February 4, 2010, WEB,weblink Lake Ronkonkoma Historical Society, March 31, 2017, December 1, 2017,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20171201043024weblink">weblink dead, She never converted to Catholicism or discussed the topic in any interviews.Adams debuted in New York at age 10 in Esmeralda and then returned briefly to California. She then returned to Salt Lake City to live with her grandmother and studied at the Salt Lake Collegiate Institute. She later wrote of Salt Lake City: "The people of the valley have gentle manners, as if their spirits moved with dignity." Adams also later wrote the short essay "The One I Knew Least", where she described her difficulty in discovering her personality because of playing so many theatrical roles as a child.

Early adult career

File:Adams Peter Pan.jpg|thumb|Adams as Peter PanPeter PanAdams returned to New York City at age 16 to appear in The Paymaster. She then became a member of E. H. Sothern's theatre company in Boston, appearing in The Highest Bidder, and then was on Broadway in Lord Chumley in 1888. Charles H. Hoyt then cast her in A Midnight Bell where audiences, if not the critics, took notice of her. In 1889, sensing he had a potential new star on his hands, Hoyt offered her a five-year contract, but Adams declined in favor of a lesser offer from the powerful producer Charles Frohman who, from that point forward, took control of her career. She soon left behind juvenile parts and began to play leading roles for Frohman, often alongside her mother."Annie Adams", Internet Broadway Database, accessed January 20, 2016 In 1890, Frohman asked David Belasco and Henry C. de Mille to specially write the part of Dora Prescott for Adams in their new play Men and Women, which Frohman was producing. The next year, she appeared as Nell in The Lost Paradise.In 1892, John Drew Jr. (one of the leading stars of the day) ended his 18-year association with Augustin Daly and joined Frohman's company. Frohman paired Adams and Drew in a series of plays beginning with The Masked Ball and ending with Rosemary in 1896. She then spent five years as the leading lady in John Drew's company.WEB,weblink Maude Adams, Collectors Post, November 2, 2006, March 7, 2016,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160307182917weblink">weblink dead, There, "her work was praised for its charm, delicacy, and simplicity." The Masked Ball opened on October 8, 1892. Audiences came to see its star, Drew, but left remembering Adams. Most memorable was a scene in which her character feigned tipsiness for which she received a two-minute ovation on opening night. Drew was the star, but it was for Adams that the audience gave twelve curtain calls, and previously tepid critics gave generous reviews. Harpers Weekly wrote: "It is difficult to see just who is going to prevent Miss Adams from becoming the leading exponent of light comedy in America. The New York Times wrote that Adams, "not John Drew, has made the success of The Masked Ball at Palmer's, and is the star of the comedy. Manager Charles Frohman, in attempting to exploit one star, has happened upon another of greater magnitude." The tipsy scene started Adams on her path to being a favorite among New York audiences and led to an eighteen-month run for the play.Less successful plays followed, including The Butterflies, The Bauble Shop, Christopher, Jr., The Imprudent Young Couple and The Squire of Dames. But 1896 saw an upturn for Adams with Rosemary. A comedy about the failed elopement of a young couple, sheltered for the night by an older man (Drew), the play received critical praise and box office success.Marcosson and Frohman, p. 128

Barrie and stardom

File:The-Little-Minister-1897.jpg|thumb|left|Adams and Robert EdesonRobert Edeson(File:Maude Adams in The Little Minister.jpg|thumb|upright|Poster for The Little Minister (1897))File:Mucha-Maud Adams as Joan of Arc-1909.jpg|thumb|upright|Adams as Joan of Arc, painted by Alphonse MuchaAlphonse MuchaFrohman had been pursuing J. M. Barrie (the future author of Peter Pan) to adapt the author's popular book The Little Minister into a play, but Barrie had resisted because he felt there was no actress who could play Lady Babbie. On a trip to New York in 1896, Barrie attended a performance of Rosemary and at once decided that Adams was the actress to play Lady Babbie.WEB,weblink Famous American Actors and Actresses, p. 92, 1961, Dodd Mead & Company, Frohman worried that the masculine aspects of the book might overshadow Adams's role. With Barrie's consent, several key scenes were changed to favor Lady Babbie.Marcosson and Frohman, p. 129 The play opened in 1897 at the Empire Theatre and was a tremendous success, running for 300 performances in New York (289 of which were standing room only) and setting a new all-time box office record of $370,000; it made Adams a star.Marcosson and Frohman, p. 131 It also toured successfully, running for 65 performances in Boston.Another play by Barrie, Peter Pan; or, The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up (1904), became the role with which Adams was most closely identified. She was the first actress to play Peter Pan on Broadway. Only days after her casting was announced, Adams had an emergency appendectomy, and it was uncertain whether her health would allow her to assume the role as planned. Peter Pan opened on October 16, 1905 at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. to little success.Fields, p. 184 It soon moved to Broadway, where the play had a long run.NEWS,weblink Charles Frohman's Leading Theatres, March 31, 1906, The New York Herald, April 10, 2020, Adams appeared in the role on Broadway several times over the following decade.{{Citation needed|date=July 2011}} The collar of her 1905 Peter Pan costume, which she had co-designed, was an immediate fashion success and was henceforth known as the "Peter Pan collar".NEWS, Felsenthal, Julia, Where the Peter Pan Collar Came From—and Why It's Back,weblink 21 January 2012, Slate Magazine, January 20, 2012, Adams starred in other works by Barrie, including Quality Street (1901), What Every Woman Knows (1908), The Legend of Leonora (1914), and A Kiss for Cinderella (1916). In 1899, she portrayed Shakespeare's Juliet. While audiences responded to her performance with standing ovations, critics generally disliked it. The critic Alan Dale, reviewing her debut in the role at the Empire Theatre, called her Elizabethan English "grotesque at times" and commented that Adams had performed with "pretty purring", not classical. On the other hand, he described her performance as "romantic", "sublime" and "not sinking beneath the waves."NEWS, Dale, Alan,weblink Alan Dale Reviews the Performance, 9 May 1899, The New York Journal and Advertiser, April 10, 2020, Audiences loved her in the role,NEWS, Eldridge, Aunt Louisa,weblink Twelve Times the Curtain Rose, 9 May 1899, The New York Journal and Advertiser, April 10, 2020, selling out the 16 performances in New York.{{citation needed|date=October 2013}} Romeo and Juliet was followed by L'Aiglon in 1900, a French play about the life of Napoleon II of France in which Adams played the leading role, foreshadowing her portrayal of another male (Peter Pan) five years later. The play had starred Sarah Bernhardt in Paris with enthusiastic reviews, but Adams's L'Aiglon received mixed reviews in New York. In 1909, she played Joan of Arc in Friedrich Schiller's The Maid of Orleans. This was produced on a huge scale at the Harvard University Stadium by Adams."Maude Adams in a Rehearsal of "Joan of Arc" at the Stadium. The New York Times, May 30, 1909 The June 24, 1909 edition of the Paducah Evening Sun (Kentucky) contains the following excerpt:Joan at Harvard, Schiller's Play reproduced on Gigantic scale. ... The experiment of producing Schiller's Maid of Orleans beneath starry skies … was carried out [by] Adams and a company numbering about two thousand persons ... at the Harvard Stadium. ... A special electric light plant was installed ... a great cathedral was erected, background constructed and a realistic forest created. ... Miss Adams was accorded an ovation at the end of the performance.WEB,weblink The Paducah Evening Sun; excerpt (June 24, 1909), Chroniclingamerica.loc.gov, June 24, 1909, February 7, 2014, She appeared in another French play with 1911's Chantecler, the story of a rooster who believes his crowing makes the sun rise.BOOK,weblink Broadway, Bloom, Ken, 4 December 2003, 8, Taylor & Francis, 9780203644355, She fared only slightly better than in L'Aiglon with the critics, but audiences again embraced her, on one occasion giving her 22 curtain calls. Adams later cited it as her favorite role, with Peter Pan a close second.

Later years and death

Adams retired in 1918 after a severe bout of influenza.Harbin, Marra and Schanke, pp. 15–18 During the 1920s, she worked with General Electric to patent improved and more powerful stage lighting,WEB,weblink Out of the Limelight, Bisno, Adam, Ladino, Marie, United States Patent and Trademark Office, June 1, 2021, December 29, 2022, ({{US Patent|1,884,957}}, {{US Patent|1,963,949}}, {{US Patent|2,006,820}}) and with the Eastman Company, to develop color photography. It has been suggested that her motivation for her association with these technology companies was that she wished to appear in a color film version of Peter Pan, and this would have required better lighting and techniques for color photography.WEB,weblink Trivia on Famous Stage Actress Biography of Maude Adams, Trivia Library, February 7, 2014, Her electric lights ultimately became the industry standard in Hollywood with the advent of sound in motion pictures in the late 1920s.WEB,weblink Maude Adams, Better Days Curriculum, April 10, 2020, After 13 years away from the stage, she returned to acting, appearing occasionally in regional productions of Shakespeare plays, including as Portia in The Merchant of Venice in Ohio, in 1931, and as Maria in Twelfth Night in 1934 in Maine.Often described as shy, Adams was referred to by Ethel Barrymore as the "original 'I want to be alone' woman".BOOK, The Great White Way: a re-creation of Broadway's golden era of theatrical entertainment, 107, 1962, Dutton, Allen, Churchill, Her retiring lifestyle, including the absence of any relationships with men, contributed to the virtuous and innocent public image promoted by Frohman and was reflected in her most successful roles. Biographers have concluded that Adams was a lesbian.BOOK,weblink Making American Culture, Patricia, Bradley, 2009, Palgrave Macmillan, 9780230100473, BOOK, Madsen, Axel, The Sewing Circle: Sappho's Leading Ladies, February 2002, Kensington Publishing Corporation, New York City, 978-0758201010, 3,weblink BOOK, Schanke, Robert A., That Furious Lesbian: The Story of Mercedes de Acosta, May 10, 2004, Southern Illinois University Press, 0809325799, 14,weblink She had two long-term relationships that only ended upon her partners' deaths: Lillie Florence, from the early 1890s until 1901, and Louise Boynton from 1905 until 1951.{{rp|16}} Adams was known at times to supplement the salaries of fellow performers out of her own pay. Once while touring, a theater owner significantly raised the price of tickets, knowing Adams's name meant a sold-out house. Adams made the owner refund the difference before she appeared on the stage that night.Robbins (1956), p. 219 Adams was the head of the drama department at Stephens College in Missouri from 1937 to 1949, becoming known as an inspiring teacher in the arts of acting.Fields, p. 299After her retirement, Adams was on occasion pursued for roles in film. The closest she came to accepting was in 1938, when producer David O. Selznick persuaded her to do a screen test (with Janet Gaynor, who later played the female lead) for the role of Miss Fortune in the film The Young in Heart. After negotiations failed, the role was played by Minnie Dupree. The 12-minute screen test was preserved by the George Eastman House in 2004.WEB,weblink The Young in Heart, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, April 21, 2017, April 22, 2017,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20170422135937weblink">weblink dead, She died, aged 80, at her summer home, Caddam Hill, in Tannersville, New York, and is interred in the cemetery of the Sisters of the Cenacle, Lake Ronkonkoma, New York.WEB,weblink Long Island Oddities, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20080915021200weblink">weblink September 15, 2008, Louise Boynton is buried alongside her.Wilson, Scott. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.: 2. McFarland & Company (2016) {{ISBN|0786479922}} In 1898, Adams purchased a farm in Lake Ronkonkoma called Sandy Garth, which in 1922 she donated to the Sisters of St. Regis, and had the Cenacle Retreat House built for them. See BOOK, Images of America: Lake Ronkonkoma, 88, 2011, Arcadia Publishing, Keith, Oswald, Dale, Spencer,

In popular culture

The character of Elise McKenna in Richard Matheson's 1975 novel Bid Time Return and its 1980 film adaptation, Somewhere in Time (played by Jane Seymour), was based on Adams.WEB,weblink Legendary sci-fi author tackles social commentary, Deseret News, May 29, 2005, April 7, 2014, File:Maude Adams as Phoebe in Quality Street.jpg|thumb|upright|Adams as Phoebe in Quality Street (1901)]]

Broadway appearances

{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}

• The Paymaster 1888
• Lord Chumley 1888
• A Midnight Bell 1889
• Men and Women 1890
• The Masked Ball 1892
• The Butterflies 1894
• The Bauble Shop 1894
• The Imprudent Young Couple 1895
• Christopher, Jr. 1895
• The Squire of Dames 1896
• Rosemary 1896
• The Little Minister – 1897 and 1904
• Romeo and Juliet 1899
• L'Aiglon 1900
• Quality Street 1901
• The Pretty Sister of Jose 1903
• 'Op o' Me Thumb 1905
• Peter Pan 1905, 1906, 1912 and 1915
• Quality Street 1908
• The Jesters 1908
• What Every Woman Knows 1908
• Chantecler 1911
• The Legend of Leonora 1914
• The Little Minister 1916
• A Kiss for Cinderella 1916

{{div col end}}

Notes

{{Reflist}}

References

• BOOK,weblink Maude Adams: Idol of American Theater, 1872-1953, Armond Fields, Armond Fields, McFarland, 2004, 978-0-7864-1927-2,
• BOOK, The Gay & Lesbian Theatrical Legacy: A Biographical Dictionary of Major Figures in American Stage History in the Pre-Stonewall Era, 2005, University of Michigan Press, 9780472068586, Harbin, Billy J., Marra, Kim, Schanke, Robert A.,
• BOOK, Marcosson, Isaac Frederick, Isaac Frederick Marcosson, Frohman, Daniel, Charles Frohman: Manager and Man, John Lane, The Bodley Head,weblink 1916,
• Robbins, Phyllis. Maude Adams: An Intimate Portrait (1956)

Further reading

• Robbins, Phyllis. The Young Maude Adams (1959)
• BOOK, Stern, Keith, Queers in History, Maude Adams, BenBella Books, Dallas, Texas, 2009, 978-1-933771-87-8,
• Jackson, Vicky. "Maude Adams" in Jane Gaines, Radha Vatsal, and Monica Dall’Asta, eds. Women Film Pioneers Project. New York, NY: Columbia University Libraries, 2016.

External links

{{commons category|Maude Adams}}

• {{IBDB name}}
• {{IMDb name|5155958}}
• {{NYPL Digital Gallery keyword|Maude Adams}} held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
• Maude Adams collection, 1879-1956, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
• {{Find a Grave|8}}
• Maude Adams profile and list of biographies
• Maude Adams in Heroines of The Modern Stage by Forrest Izard, c.1915
• Maude Adams at Better Days 2020, Key Players, 2017.
• {hide}Wikisource-inline|list=
  • NIE, Adams, Maude Kiskadden, 1905, x, x,
  • BDA1906, Adams, Maude, 1, 51, x, x,
  • AMERICANA, Adams, Maud Kiskadden, 1920, x, x,
  • COLLIER'S, Adams, Maude Kiskadden, 1921, x, x,

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