Stella Hammerstein

Stella Hammerstein was an American actress. She was sometimes billed as Stella Steele.[1]

Stella Hammerstein

Early years

Hammerstein was the daughter of Oscar Hammerstein I and Malvina Jacobi Hammerstein,[2] both of whom initially opposed her going into show business as a profession. In 1908, she told a New York Times reporter of her father's reaction when, at age 20, she told him that she was going into musical comedy: "Papa without more ado piled me over his knee and applied the hairbrush vigorously."[1] Eventually he accepted her desire to be an actress.[1]

Career

In 1902, Hammerstein joined the stock theater company headed by Daniel Frohman. She debuted on January 7 of that year in Frocks and Frills.[3] In 1904, she went to London to study drama and soon joined an opera company. Her stay was cut short when her father ordered her home as a way of breaking up a romantic relationship that she had developed with a magazine publisher.[4] She returned to London in April 1907 to join one of the theatrical companies of George Joseph Edwardes.[5] In 1908, she returned to the United States to perform in George M. Cohan's The Yankee Prince when it had its premiere in Hartford, Connecticut.[6]

Hammerstein's hopes of eventually singing grand opera and becoming a prima donna were dashed when her father's throat specialist told her in 1908 that her vocal cords were "much too weak for really great music".[7]

Hammerstein's Broadway credits included Everywoman (1911), The American Idea (1908), The Yankee Prince (1908), Winsome Winnie (1903), The Blonde in Black (1903), Notre Dame (1902), and Frocks and Frills (1902).[8] She also appeared in On the Eve at the Hollis Street Theatre in Boston in 1909.[9]

She initiated her vaudeville career in 1912 in a playlet, The Tyranny of Fate, in Atlantic City.[10] The following year, she co-authored Getting the Goods, a play for vaudeville.[11]

Hammerstein appeared in the films The Ace of Death (1915),[12] Anna Karenina (1915),[13] and Social Hypocrites (1918).[14]

Hammerstein Amusement Company

In September 1919, approximately two months after the death of their father, Hammerstein and her sister, Rose Hammerstein Tostevain, became owners of the Hammerstein Amusement Company. A judge of the Supreme Court of the State of New York ruled that the two daughters were the rightful owners of 4,998 shares of the company's total of 5,000 shares of stock. The ownership had been the subject of a legal dispute involving the sisters, Oscar Hammerstein's widow, and a trust company with which the shares had been deposited as security for alimony payments to Oscar Hammerstein's first wife.[15]

Personal life

On October 5, 1912, Hammerstein married Frederick Lionel Chester Keating, an attorney, in Jersey City.[16] They were divorced in March 1920, and on April 1, 1920, she married Charles Fyles Pope,[17] vice-president of the International Doll Association.[18]

References
  1. "Lure of the Footlights as Felt by a Manager's Daughter". The New York Times. New York, New York City. May 31, 1908. p. Part Five - 6. Retrieved November 17, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. Bloom, Ken (2013). Routledge Guide to Broadway. Routledge. p. 98. ISBN 9781135871178. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
  3. "Debut Of Hammerstein's Daughter". The Baltimore Sun. Maryland, Baltimore. January 3, 1902. p. 8. Retrieved November 16, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "She Desired to Wed". The Indianapolis News. lin. November 23, 1906. p. 19. Retrieved November 16, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. "Dramagraphs". The Los Angeles Times. California, Los Angeles. April 21, 1907. p. Part VI - 1. Retrieved November 17, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "To Try a New One Here". Hartford Courant. Connecticut, Hartford. March 26, 1908. p. 7. Retrieved November 17, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. "Her Voice Won't Do for Opera". El Paso Times. Texas, El Paso. October 26, 1908. p. 8. Retrieved November 17, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. "Stella Hammerstein". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Archived from the original on 16 November 2018. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
  9. "Drama". New England Magazine. XLI (2): 248. October 1909. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
  10. "Dramatic-Musical". The Grizzly Bear. X (4): 12. February 1912. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
  11. "Stella Hammerstein Again". Variety. May 9, 1913. p. 1. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
  12. "Stella Hammerstein in 'Ace of Death' Gaumont". Motion Picture News. December 4, 1915. p. 84. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
  13. "Stella Hammerstein with Fox". Motion Picture News. April 10, 1915. p. 42. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
  14. "Five Big Metro Plays in April". Motion Picture News. March 30, 1918. p. 1904. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
  15. "New Hammerstein Opera Incorporated". Musical Courier. September 25, 1919. p. 27. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
  16. "Stella Hammerstein Weds". The Sun. New York, New York City. October 7, 1912. p. 9. Retrieved November 17, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. "Hammerstein's Daughter Weds, Divorced in March". The Morning News. Delaware, Wilmington. April 3, 1920. p. 2. Retrieved November 19, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. "Stella Hammerstein Remarries -- Groom Is Son of Late Governor Pope". Musical America. April 24, 1920. p. 26. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
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