Josephine Victor

Josephine Victor (born Josephine Gunczler; June 28, 1885 – 1963) was a Hungarian-born American stage actress, director, and playwright.

Josephine Victor, from a 1916 publication.
Josephine Victor, in a 1920 publication

Early life

Victor was born in the Tokay Hills in Hungary in 1885,[1] and moved to New York City as a child. She may have attended the Wheatcroft School of Acting on a scholarship.[2] She used her brother Victor's first name for a surname when she began acting.[3] She began performing with the Howard Kyle Company,[4] and made headlines as early as 1906, when her costume caught fire on stage, and she doused the flames without breaking character.[5]

Career

On Broadway she debuted in The Secret Orchard by Channing Pollock (1908), and appeared in Temperamental Journey (1913),[6] The Yellow Ticket (1914),[7] The Bargain by Hermann Georg Scheffauer (1915),[8] Just a Woman by Eugene Walter (1916),[9] Martinique by Laurence Eyre (1920),[10] Dolly Jordan by Ben Iden Payne (1922),[11] The Cup (1923),[12] Judgment Day by Elmer Rice (1934),[4] Wise Tomorrow (1937),[13] and finally Summer Night (1939).[14] She is credited as director of one play, Doctor X (1931), a "mystery thriller".[15] She toured the United States with a vaudeville show in 1921.[16] She also appeared on the London stage, in Pelican by F. Tennyson Jesse (1924), and in a few films.

Victor was also a playwright.[17] In 1910 she co-wrote a play, Ashes, with Eleanor Maud Crane. Later, as Josephine Victor Reid, she wrote The Prize Pig's Tea-party (1934), a play, How to Get Rich (1930). She also co-wrote two plays, Clay Pigeon (1936, with Marjorie Paradis) and Read about Laura Keene (1937, with I. S. Strouse). She collaborated with Laurence Eyre on creating the 1920 play Martinique, but was not credited as its co-author.[18]

Personal life

Josephine Victor married Francis E. Reid, a publicist and drama critic.[19] She was widowed in 1933.[20] She died in 1963, aged 78 years.

Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
1946The StrangerMinor RoleUncredited
1947Desire MeWomanUncredited, (final film role)

References
  1. "Miss Josephine Victor" Washington Herald (November 18, 1907): 9. via Newspapers.com
  2. "Josephine Victor in Joan of Arc Play" Evening Public Ledger (June 15, 1918): 11. via Newspapers.com
  3. "News and Gossip of Stageland" The Gazette Times (September 14, 1913): 34.
  4. Alan Kreizenbeck, Zoe Akins: Broadway Playwright (Greenwood Publishin 2004): 171-172. ISBN 9780313298158
  5. "Girl in Flames Says Her Line without Break" Atlanta Constitution (January 17, 1906): 1. via Newspapers.com
  6. "Beauty" Omaha Daily Bee (October 27, 1913): 9. via Newspapers.com
  7. "Shift in 'The Yellow Ticket'" The Sun (June 9, 1914): 9. via Newspapers.com
  8. Louis V. De Foe, "Personal Triumphs of the Season" Green Book Magazine (April 1916): 690-691.
  9. Gerald Bordman, American Theatre: A Chronicle of Comedy and Drama, 1914-1930 (OUP USA 1995): 41. ISBN 9780195090789
  10. Theatre Magazine (June 1920): 509, 526-527.
  11. Gerald Bordman, American Theatre: A Chronicle of Comedy and Drama, 1914-1930 (OUP USA 1995): 188. ISBN 9780195090789
  12. Thomas S. Hischak, Broadway Plays and Musicals: Descriptions and Essential Facts of More Than 14,000 Shows Through 2007 (McFarland 2007): 99-100. ISBN 9780786453092
  13. Gerald Bordman, American Theatre: A Chronicle of Comedy and Drama, 1930-1969 (): 156-157. ISBN
  14. Arthur Pollock, "Summer Night at the St. James" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (November 30, 1939): 11. via Newspapers.com
  15. "And the Joke was on the Manager" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (January 11, 1931): 28. via Newspapers.com
  16. "Heard on Broadway" Theatre Magazine (October 1922): 242.
  17. Brenner, "Memory Lane" Amarillo Globe (June 25, 1936): 7. via Newspapers.com
  18. "Teary Plaudits Disturb Miss Josephine Victor" New York Herald (May 9, 1920): 47. via Newspapers.com
  19. Helen Ten Broek, "Is Stage Matrimony a Failure?" Theatre Magazine (Midsummer 1920): 24.
  20. A. H. Phillips, "Obituary: Francis E. Reid '87" Princeton Alumni Weekly 34(November 3, 1933): 157.
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