îPARA äPAR@ ` ┤TEXT ` ªCowl, Jane1883╨1950actor and playwrightBorn in Boston on December 14, 1883, Grace Bailey grew up from the age of three in Brooklyn, New York. She attended public schools and in 1902╨1904 Erasmus Hall, during which time she made her first stage appearance, under the name Jane Cowl, in David Belasco╒s 1903 production of Sweet Kitty Bellairs. Over the next several years she played many small parts while studying the craft of acting and perfecting her technique under Belasco╒s painstaking direction. She also took a few courses at Columbia University. Her first major role was in Is Matrimony a Failure? in 1909, and in it she won high critical praise. After two seasons with the Hudson Theatre stock company in Union Hill, New Jersey, she returned to Broadway in the fall of 1910. The failure of The Upstart was followed by the success of The Gamblers that year, and in September 1912 she achieved star billing in Within the Law, which ran for over 540 performances at the Eltinge Theatre. Common Clay was also a success for her in 1915. In 1917 Cowl appeared in her first motion picture, a Samuel Goldwyn production called The Spreading Dawn made in Fort Lee, New Jersey. In February of that year she opened on Broadway in Lilac Time, which she had written in collaboration with Jane Murfin, a friend since they had played together in Belasco╒s The Music Master in 1904. Lilac was a moderate hit in New York and on tour, but Cowl╒s and Murfin╒s next two efforts, Daybreak, 1917, and Information Please, 1918, were failures. In 1918╨1919 Jane Cowl starred in The Crowded Hour. Late in 1919 she opened in Smilin╒ Through, written by her and Murfin under the pseudonym ╥Alan Langdon Martin╙ (they suspected sex discrimination might have contributed to their previous failure). Smilin╒ Through was a theatrical phenomenon, running for 1170 performances on Broad way. In 1922, after the short-lived Malvaloca, she scored a personal triumph in Romeo and Juliet, in which she established a world record for Shakespearean productions of 856 consecutive performances (157 in New York, the rest on tour across the country). By this time she was acclaimed the most beautiful woman on the American stage. A dry spell followed, Pelleas and Melisande, 1923, Antony and Cleopatra, 1924, The Depths, 1925, and One Trip of the Silver Star, 1925, were unsuccessful. Success came again in Noel Coward╒s Easy Virtue in New York in 1925 and London in 1926. She was again a hit in Robert Sherwood╒s comedy The Road to Rome in 1927. The Jealous Moon, which she wrote with Theodore Charles, 1928, a revival of Paolo and Francesca, 1929, another of Art and Mrs. Bottle, 1930, Twelfth Night, a production she designed, 1930, and Camille, 1931, were all brief ventures. First Lady, by George S. Kaufman and Katherine Dayton, 1934, was a success; Thornton Wilder╒s The Merchant of Yonkers, 1938, was not; and John Van Druten╒s Old Acquaintance, opening in December 1940, was her last substantial run. For a number of years thereafter she played stock theaters and tried various revivals around the country. Her final New York stage appearance was in The First Mrs. Fraser in 1948. In 1943 she appeared as herself in the movie Stage Door Canteen (she was a co-director of the actual Stage Door Canteen operated during World War II by the American Theatre Wing), and from 1949 she had feature parts in several unmemorable films. Jane Cowl died in Santa Monica, California, on June 22, 1950. «styl ` H ! ¬ 5¬ 5¬ + !I E !I Y !I M !I d !I ( !I 3 !I S !I _ !I ₧ !I ¼ !I δ !I ÷ !I 5¬ !I t !I å !I ┘ !I π !I S !I c !I n !I s !I ╩ !I ╥ !I ▐ !I ≡ !I * !I : !I X !I g !I !I !I } !I å !I ⌐ !I ╣ !I └ !I ╒ !I ▌ !I ± !I ∙ !I !I !I * !I j !I u !I ╧ !I ▀ !I Ω !I · !I
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