Walter Hampden
Walter Hampden was the stage name of Walter Hampden Dougherty (June 30, 1879 – June 11, 1955), an American actor and theater manager. He was a major star on London and Broadway stages, on television, and in films. He was a member of the American Theosophical Society and acted in a theatrical production of The Light of Asia at Krotona in Hollywood.
Personal life
Walter Hampden Dougherty was born on June 30, 1879 in Brooklyn, New York as the son of Alice Hill and John Hampden Dougherty, an attorney. Walter's education began at Harvard University, and he completed a degree at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute in the class of 1900. It was at Brooklyn Polytechnic where he played Shylock in a student production of The Merchant of Venice.[1] He then went to France for a year's study of singing, dancing, and speech. He also played the cello. He later wrote of the importance of this musical training for him an an actor:
Few persons, perhaps, realize the similarity between the arts of song and of drama. My period of vocal study in Parts was very helpful as a training for the reading of lines. The foundation of the singer’s equipment is his legato and much the same thing is the basis of a good dramatic delivery. The poetry of Shakespeare is a kind of music; it has its periods, its changes in what may be called pitch and tempo. Crescendi in music correspond to the impassioned climaxes with which drama abounds.[2]
He married Mabel Moore (1879-1978), an actress in Sir Frank Benson's theatrical company, on July 17, 1905. After they moved to New York, they and their children Paul and Mary lived for a time with Walter's family – parents, two brothers, a sister, and six servants.[3]
While Hampden spent a great deal of time in Hollywood and touring, he and Mabel maintained a home in Ridgefield, Connecticut with their daugher Mary, as well as in Beverly Hills or Pasadena.[4][5] He died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Los Angeles, California, on June 11, 1955, while shooting his final film role in the film Diana, with Lana Turner. His wife Mabel and son Paul were at his side when he died. He was 75 years old.
Theatrical career
After his study in France, Hampden joined Sir Frank Benson’s company in England, debuting in 1901. He played more than 70 classical roles in three years.[6] His performance as Hamlet drew critical acclaim in England, and he reprised the role after returning to the United States in 1907. Newspapers called him "America's best Hamlet," and Charles Hanson Towne wrote a poem "To Walter Hampden as Hamlet" for Vanity Fair.[7]
That role of Hamlet became the foundation for his own repertory company, which toured from coast to coast. Another major role was as the titular Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. First performing Cyrano in 1923, he revived the role in 1926, 1928, 1932, and 1936. Ethel Barrymore was his leading lady. They opened their own theater and played together in acclaimed production sof The Merchant of Venice 91925) and An Enemy of the People (1927). Hampden helped launch the American Repertory Theatre, playing Cardinal Wolsey in William Shakespeare's Henry VIII. His last Broadway performance was in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible in 1953.
Some of his films included The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), in the role of archbishop; All This and Heaven Too (1940); Northwest Mounted Police (1940), as "Big Bear" in a Cecile B. DeMille production; They Died with Their Boots On (1941); Reap the Wild Wind (1942); All about Eve (1950); 5 Fingers (1952), a noir spy film; Treasure of the Golden Condor (1953); The Silver Chalice (1954); Sabrina (1954), as Oliver Larrabee; The Prodigal (1955); Strange Lady in Town (1955); and his final role, The Vagabond King (1956). Hampden hosted a radio program, "Great Scenes from Great Plays" during 1948-1949. On television he performed MacBeth. He served as president of the Players' Club in New York for 27 years.
Theosophical Society involvement
Hampden was admitted to the American Theosophical Society on June 6, 1911 in New York City. He was sponsored by architect Claude Bragdon and ATS president Weller Van Hook.[8] His membership lapsed in 1915. The Genesee Lodge of Rochester, New York reported in 1911 on a meeting held jointly with the Rochester Lodge:
In the spring Mr. Walter Hampden of"The Servant in the House" fame gave a delightful informal talk to both branches at the residence of Mr. Bragdon. He related many interesting mystical experiences that had occurred in connection with his portraal of "Manson". During his stay in Rochester he became sufficiently interested in Theosophy to join the emovment and we now number him among our members.[9]
LIght in Asia
In 1918 Hampden gave up lucrative engagements in New York to play the title role of Siddhartha in a theatrical version of Edwin Arnold's poem The Light of Asia at Krotona, the Theosophical colony in Hollywoood, California. The production ran for 35 performances in the Krotona Stadium that could seat 800 people, and also in Beachwood Canyon.[10] Music was provided by Charles Wakefield Cadman and Camille Zekwer; dancers included Ruth St. Denis and her Denishawn company; with Louis Horst as musical director. The production was sponsored by a Philadelphia Theosophist, Christine Wetherill Stevenson.[11]
The play attracted great attention in Los Angeles and surrounding communities; among the distinguished spectators were the Mayor of Los Angeles, John Masefield of England, the Japanese consul, and a number of prominent motion picture producers and stars."[12]
Helen Keller attended a performance. Walter Hampden must have been pleased with the Krotona production, because in October 1928 he produced, staged, and starred as Siddhartha in another production at his own Hampden's Theatre in New York City. Ruth St. Denis was again the choreographer, and the play was produced and staged by Hampden. It was described as an original play by Theosophist Georgina Jones Walton (who was married to Robert Kelsey Walton), and ran for 23 performances.[13]
Collaborations with Claude Bragdon
Claude Bragdon left his architectural practice in Rochester, New York, and moved to New York City. He designed productions for Broadway plays, often collaborating with Walter Hampden.
In 1923-1924 at the National Theatre, Bragdon designed and produced the entire production of Cyrano de Bergerac. Hampden staged it and played the title role. It ran for 232 performances.
In 1928 at Hampden's Theatre, Hampden produced and starred in King Henry V, and Bragdon directed, with a total of 44 performances.
Bragdon created the scenic design for a 1934 revival of Hamlet at the 44th Street Theatre, produced and staged by Hampden.
Theosophical plays
In 1925, a New York Theosophist Clare Tree Major wrote in a Theosophical magazine that she was founder and director, with Walter Hampden, of the School of the Theatre:
Will you some day in the columns of your paper call attention to the dearth of theosophical plays and suggest this field as a most valuable one from the educational standpoint, as well as a lucrative one, for the exercise of any writing gift among our membership. The time is ripe in every way for the production of a great mystic play or plays which contain theosphical teachings...
Surely we must have writers in the society who can put their philosophy into entertainment form. If such writers do not know the theatre sufficiently well, we shall be glad to aid them to develop into plays any material they care to send us. The play is somewhere. The higher powers will not overlook so great a medium for the teaching, even if only by suggestion, of theosophical truths. We will produce it. Who wil be the channel through which it will reach the world?"[14]
Additional resources
SEE ALSO The Light of Asia.
Articles
- Walter Hampden in Britannica.com.
- Hampden, Walter in Theosophy World.
Books
- Smith, Geddeth. Walter Hampden: Dean of the American Theatre. 2008.
Archival collections
- New York Public Library Archives & Manuscripts has several relevant collections, including:
- Wesleyan University Special Collections and Archives has some correspondence.
Notes
- ↑ Jeffrey L. Rodengen Changing the World: Polytechnic University, the First 150 Years (Ft. Lauderdale: Write Stuff Enterprises, 2005), 106.
- ↑ R. M. Knerr, "What the Actor Learns from Vocal Study" Musical America (June 11, 1921): 3.
- ↑ 1910 U. S. Federal Census.
- ↑ 1940 U. S. Federal Census.
- ↑ 1950 U. S. Federal Census.
- ↑ Walter Hampden in Britannica.com.
- ↑ "To Walter Hampden as Hamlet" Vanity Fair May 1919.
- ↑ Membership Ledger Cards roll 3, number 03547. Theosophical Society in America Archives.
- ↑ "In the Field" The Theosophic Messenger 13 no.1 (October, 1911): 60.
- ↑ Catherine Parsons Smith, Making Music in Los Angeles: Transforming the Popular, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007), 135.
- ↑ Smith, 135.
- ↑ Joy Mills, 100 Years of Theosophy in America, (Wheaton, Ill.: Theosophical Publishing House, 1987), 58.
- ↑ "The Light of Asia" in Internet Broadway Database.
- ↑ Claire Tree Major, "Theosophical Plays" The Messenger 13 no.3 (August, 1925): 60.