TPARA LPAR@ ` LTEXT ` >Marbury, Elisabeth1856╨1933theatrical and literary agentBorn in New York City on June 19, 1856, Elisabeth Marbury grew up in a well-to-do and cultured home. She was privately educated, to a large extent by her father. Until 1885 she occupied herself with social activities, Sunday school teaching, and a brief but quite successful foray into poultry raising on the family╒s Oyster Bay farm. In that year her success in organizing a benefit theatrical performance prompted producer Daniel Frohman to advise her to devote herself to the management side of the theater. In 1888 she persuaded Frances Hodgson Burnett, who had written a dramatic version of her best-selling Little Lord Fauntleroy but who had little knowledge of the theater or of business generally, to take her on as business manager and agent. The association quickly proved highly profitable to both. In 1891 she traveled to France and convinced playwright Victorien Sardou to allow her to be his representative in the English-speaking market and that of the other members of the SociÄtÄ des Gens de Lettres. For over 15 years she represented Sardou, Georges Feydeau, Edmond Rostand, Ludovic HalÄvy, Henri Meilhac, Jean Richepin, Francis de Croisset, and others. Her work on their behalf included securing suitable translations, sound productions with leading actors, and full royalties. She also represented George Bernard Shaw, James M. Barrie (whom she prevailed upon to rewrite The Little Minister for Maude Adams), Hall Caine, and Jerome K. Jerome, among British authors, and Rachel Crothers and Clyde Fitch among Americans. Her office was thus a center of the New York theatrical business, and for many years she worked closely with Charles Frohman and his Theatrical Syndicate in bringing order to a rapidly expanding field of enterprise. She later also worked with the rival Shubert brothers╒ organization. From early in her career Marbury found time for an occasional piece of writing. Manners: A Handbook of Social Customs, appeared in 1888; she was coauthor of A Wild Idea, a play produced in 1889, and she adapted Merry Gotham, produced in 1892, from a French play. In 1914 she joined several other agents in forming the American Play Company, and in 1915 she turned as well to producing and helped stage Nobody Home, 1915, Very Good, Eddie, 1915, and Love o╒ Mike, 1916, all with music by Jerome Kern, and See America First, 1916, by Cole Porter. These works contributed significantly to the development of the characteristically American form of musical comedy. In 1913 she brought Vernon and Irene Castle, whom she had seen on one of her innumerable trips to Paris, back to New York and set them up in a fashionable dancing school that was the springboard for their brief but spectacularly popular career. From 1887 she was a close friend and companion of Elsie De Wolfe, whom she assisted in creating a career in interior decoration, and in 1903 she bought and set about restoring the Villa Trianon near Versailles, where they became noted hostesses. Also in 1903 she joined Anne Morgan, Florence J. Harriman, and others in organizing the Colony Club, the first women╒s social club in New York. During World War I Marbury devoted much time to relief work for French and later American soldiers and spent several months in France working in military hospitals and giving talks to the troops. She translated Maurice BarrÅs╒s The Faith of France, 1918, and was decorated by the French and Belgian governments. She became active in politics in Alfred E. Smith╒s 1918 gubernatorial campaign in New York, and in 1920 she was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. From that year she served on the party╒s National Committee. In 1923 she published an autobiography, My Crystal Ball. After several years of declining health Elisabeth Marbury died in New York City on January 22, 1933. ~styl ` , ! ¬ 5¬ 5¬ < !I U !I ▐ l !I Ñ !I ╗ !I l 5¬ m !I ╡ !I ╚ !I ═ !I ▐ ╪ !I !I ▐ ' !I j 5¬ k !I ╝ !I ß !I !I !I ? !I K !I !I
!I !I " !I . !I : !I e !I v !I , !I ▐ : !I !I ▐ !I !I ▐ * !I â 5¬ ä !I i !I | !I ╟ !I ╓ !I nlink ` HYPR U lHYPR ═ ╪HYPR 'HYPR , :HYPR HYPR *
