Maude Adams, An American Idol: True Womanhood Triumphant in the Late-Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth Century Theatre

Since this is such a vast work I will only comment on certain things.

In the first chapter she covers Maude's family and her appearances in various plays. With each play there are various quotes from people who wrote about Maude's performance in it. It covers her performances through the play Rosemary.

Chapter 2 covers the years from 1897 through 1907. The chapter devotes a lot of space to the play The Little Minister. Then it moves on to Romeo and Juliet, which was not a triumph for her, on through Peter Pan which, most definitely, was a triumph for Maude Adams.

Chapter 3 is about the years 1908 through 1918. This covers her plays through A Kiss for Cinderella in which she collapsed due to the flu.

Chapter 4 is Changing Careers. With Frohman dead Maude begins having trouble with the people running the company. There's a reference to a play she would have been in but didn't because of that trouble. Further trouble happened with a group who claimed they owned the rights to all the Barrie plays and that blocked her from performing in any of his plays again. Her interests changed into the technical workings of a movie project and stage lights. She appeared in her final play and did some radio broadcasts but her career as an actress was over.

Chapter 5 looks at Maude Adam's 'limitations and abilities.'

Apparently some people were unhappy that Maude Adams because so successful even though her acting abilities as such were somewhat limited. She also '...fell into her artistic rut by continually relying upon certain physical and vocal mannerisms, her audience-pleasing 'tricks' .' The author gives specific details and examples of criticisms of her acting.

Maude Adams is also accused of having little emotional power in her acting. One thing that helped her, according to the author, is that she spent much of her off-stage time studying acting. She did not have a variety of acting voices but still she was able to reach people and they came to see her despite any faults the critics charged her with.

Chapter 6 is America's Favorite Actress. Apparently there had been for a long time some prejudice against women acting in the theater and Maude Adams success and popularity helped dim that somewhat. Various quotes from various play reviews show how the people in general thought of her.

People in New York by the end of 1913 had paid some $2,500,000 to see her. Now consider. This is almost a century ago. I don't know what that would be in today's dollars, but I'm sure it would be a very high sum. She also talks about how popular photos of Maude Adams were.

Chapter 7 is about True Womanhood: The Old Ideal in a Chancing Society.

While a new breed of American ladies fought the established social, economic and political order, Maude came to be revered as a living symbol of old-fashioned femininity.She seemed to be the perfect model of True Womanhood.

The author talks about how society's attitudes towards women were changing in America. The concept of True Womanhood started during the 1820's and ran through the 1890's. Another author said that the True Woman had four main virtues: piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity. She also had traits of gentleness, tendernes, patirence, serenity, benevolence, mercifulness and a loving heart.

In other words, a good woman was one who was perfectly moral, submissive to her husband, and knew what was needed to run a household. She also has a lot of information on sexual behavior during that time (and some of the things that were believed are absurd.) She also says that this concept of True Womanhood had its greatest negative effects on middle-class women.

Then she goes into the concept of the New Woman, and how she was different from the True Woman. There's a lot of fascinating material in this part of the chapter.

Chapter 8 is about Maude Adam's 'True Woman Personality.' Apparently a lot of her acting was her normal personality coming through and that's what a lot of people really seemed to like. She was just herself and didn't make out like she was anything ultra-special.

Writers and critics often alluded to her virginal innocence of heart and mind.

Sweet was a word very frequently used to describe Maude's personality.

She also notes that a lot of people did not think she was pretty (something which I disagree with quite strongly.)

Gaiety, vivacity, playfulness and whimsicality were the hallmarks of this golden girl personal of hers, qualities which presupposed purity of heart and mind and body and innocence in the ways of the world.

She was also described as charming and elfish.

Chapter 9 discusses the various roles she played in J.M. Barrie productions. This chapter discusses the various Barrie plays she was in and reaction to her performances in them.

Chapter 10 is on how other roles she played supported and undermined the image. Most of the roles she molded in a Barrie-like approach, although the part of the rooster in Chantecler threatened to damage her popular image.

Chapter 11 talks about Maude's lifestyle. She granted no interviews and articles that appeared about her were supposed to be directly tied in to whatever play she was in at the moment. Her lifestyle was simple and in some ways resembled those of a nun. She was also quite reclusive and was not one for parties. When she went out somewhere she basically disguised herself so she would not be recognized. She was quite basically what could be today considered an anti-star, behaving the opposite of almost all stars today.

She was shy and totally devoted to her work and that part took up much of her time.

She also never married and never had children. She was generous to charities and those who worked with her. The author also writes about how Maude demonstrated submissiveness, another trait of the True Woman.

Chapter 12 is 'A Real-Life New Woman.' The chapter notes that Maude was married to her work which is why she never actually married anyone. Again, as in other chapters, this one talks about various plays in which she performed.

The author notes three traits of Maude's New Woman version. She had a desire for self-development, she rejected feminine passivity and the loved independence and freedom. Then she discusses Maude's work on stage lighting.