Truly Shattuck
{{short description|American actress}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Truly Shattuck
| image = Truly Shattuck 1.jpg
| imagesize =
| caption = Burr McIntosh Monthly August, 1905
| birthname = Clarice Etrulia de Bucharde
| birth_date = {{birth date|1875|07|27|mf=y}}
| birth_place = San Miguel, California, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1954|12|6|1875|7|27|mf=y}}
| death_place = Woodland Hills, California, U.S.
| othername =
| occupation = Musical Actress
| yearsactive =
| spouse = Stephen A. Douglas,
}}
Truly Shattuck (July 27, 1875 – December 6, 1954) was a soubrette star of vaudeville, music halls, and Broadway whose career began in tragedy and ended in relative obscurity.
Early life
Truly Shattuck was born at San Miguel, San Luis Obispo County, California in an adobe house adjoining the historic Mission San Miguel Arcángel.Who’s Who in Music and Drama edited by Harry Prescott Hanaford and Dixie Hines – 1914 p. 279. Her birth name was said to be Clarice Etrulia de Burchards (or Burcharde).Truly Shattuck - Tlle New York Times. December 10, 1954 p. 27 Shattuck was the surname of her stepfather, and her mother was Jane Shattuck.
In 1893 Jane Shattuck murdered Harry Poole, her daughter's boyfriend, after he refused to commit to marriage after the couple spent the night together. Shattuck's mother was originally convicted of first degree murder, but was later released after winning a temporary insanity appeal. At the time Shattuck was a chorus girl at the Tivoli Opera House in San Francisco and as a result of the national exposure generated by Poole's murder, her career began to take seed.{{cite book |last1=Duke |first1=Thomas Samuel |chapter=KILLING OF HARRY POOLE BY JANE SHATTUCK. |pages=96–97 |title=Celebrated Criminal Cases of America |date=1910 |publisher=James H. Barry Company |location=San Francisco |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pkQ37-_VMpQC |oclc=3811019 |language=en |quote=By Thomas Samuel Duke, Captain of Police, San Francisco; Published with Approval of the Honorable Board of Police Commissioners of San Francisco, 1910. (Public Domain Free Download)}}
Career
Shattuck made her first New York vaudeville appearance at Tony Pastor's theater in 1896. Her first major role came the following year playing Mephisto in Very Little Faust and Much Marguerite,adapted by Richard F. Carroll, Hervé and Fred Eustis (music), Clement King (lyrics) - Internet Broadway Database staged at Hammerstein's Olympia Theatre.Auditorium Olympia – The New York Times August 22, 1897 Shattuck went on to tour for a number of seasons as a lead performer in several traveling burlesque and vaudeville companies. When John Philip Sousa's marches were the rage in the 1890s, Truly caused a bit of controversy by putting words to his music and singing them at music halls such as Koster & Bial's in New York. Shattuck spent the last year or so of the 19th century in Germany performing at Berlin and Dresden before supporting Edna May in the 1900 London production of An American Beauty,Hugh Morton (aka C. M. S. McLellan) (lyrics) Gustave Kerker (music) - Internet Broadway Database
In 1904 she went from vaudeville to Broadway to play Celestine in the musical An English Daisy,Walter Slaughter (music), Edgar Smith (Lyrics) at the Casino Theatre and later that year in George M. Cohan's Little Johnny Jones at the Liberty Theatre.Music, Book, Lyrics by George M. Cohan - Internet Broadway Database In 1906 she played Mrs. Franklin-Jones-Berrymore in the musical farce The Governor's Son staged at the Aerial Gardens (now the New Amsterdam Roof). She created the role of Violette in A Parisian ModelBook by Harry B. Smith; Lyrics by Harry B. Smith; Music by Max Hoffman, Sr. at the Broadway Theatre in 1906 and the following year she played Adelaide Forster (the lady) in the George Broadhurst play The Lady from Lane'sLyrics by George Broadhurst; Music by Gustav Kerker staged at the Lyric Theatre and Casino Theatre. Her last Broadway roles came in 1910 as Trixie Stole in Judy ForgotAvery Hopwood (Book and Lyrics) Silvio Hein (Music) at the Broadway Theatre and as Alma in “Alma, Where Do You Live?” with Weber and FieldsGeorge V. Hobart (Book and Lyrics), Jean Briquet (Music)Music in German immigrant theater: New York City, 1840-1940 By John Koegel 2009 – p. 306
She was the first to sing Ernest R. Ball's 1906 song Love Me, and the World Is MineOn This Side by E.V. Durling - Tucson Daily Citizen April 29, 1949| p.10{{Contradictory inline|article=Love Me and the World Is Mine (song)|section=History}} and the following year began an extensive European tour performing at music halls in St. Petersburg, Vienna, Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg, Frankfort and London. Throughout her early career she was a frequent performer with Weber and Fields in shows like Hip! Hip! Hooray! as Vera Shapeleigh at Weber's Theatre in November, 1907.
In 1910 Shattuck declared bankruptcy in a New York court with nearly $2,800 liabilities and no assets.Two Actresses Out of Bankruptcy – The New York Times – November 29, 1910 p. 6 It was reported in the press at the time that her extravagant lifestyle, expensive cars, clothes and a yacht, caused her downfall.Truly, Tis Wonderful – Oakland Tribune – September 10, 1910 p. 5 Her husband, Stephen A. Douglas, claimed that she went through a half-million dollars in four years. The two wed in 1899, and according to the press spent very little time together over their marriage. Douglas, who was salesman, was granted a divorce in 1914 some four years after he filed on the grounds of desertion.Truly Is Free At Last - Oakland Tribune – September 10, 1910 p. 5
On October 13, 1911, she was rushed to Johns Hopkins Hospital suffering from a brain abscess. She had been in Baltimore performing at the Academy of Music in Alma, Where Do You Live? and would be absent from the stage for nearly two years.Truly Shattuck Stricken - The New York Times October 14, 1911 - p. 13 She returned to vaudeville in 1913 with a new partner, Thomas A. Wise, a comedian who played in The Lady From Lane's. In 1919 she received positive reviews with Emma O'Neil in their vaudeville skit Punctuating Life's Manuscript.Bert Williams at the Royal - New York Dramatic Mirror – April 15, 1919 p. 565
Shattuck turned to Hollywood in 1915 and over the next twelve years would appear in some sixteen silent films. Her first known movie was The Iron Strain,Reginald Barker (Director), C. Gardner Sullivan (scenario) in which she played Mrs. Van Ness. Her last was in 1927 as Mrs. P. Belmont-Fox in Rubber Heels.Victor Heerman (Director), Thomas J. Crizer, Ray Harris, J. Clarkson Miller and Sam Mintz (Writers) Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com) At the time of the taking of the 1920 US census Shattuck was recorded as a house guest of Rudolph K Hynicka and his young wife Dorothy at their Los Angeles residence. Hyincka was a journalist who rose to control virtually every political appointments in Cincinnati over some two decades.1920 US Census RecordsCincinnati Ex-Czar R.K. Hynicka Dies - The New York Times- February 23, 1927
Later years
After her vaudeville and film career closed, Shattuck was reduced to working as a waitress and later as a seamstress, but was unable to hold on to either job for very long. In September 1929, after several months of unemployment, Shattuck was arrested in Chicago for trying to shoplift a $16.50 green dress. She later pleaded guilty, but was released after the department store dropped the charges.Truly Shattuck Is Set Free In Charge of Shoplifting - Rochester Evening Journal September 18, 1929, p.9 One paper quoted her saying, “A woman must dress if she wants to work.” Truly Shattuck, Famous as Stage Beauty, Caught Stealing Dress Owosso Argus-Press - September 18, 1929, p.2 A year later it was reported that she had been appointed personal secretary to a Mrs. A. L. Erlanger.Chester B. Bahn - Syracuse Herald – September 8, 1930 p. 29
In 1930, Dr. Henry J. Shireson, a cosmetic surgeon, lost his medical license after one of his patients had to have her legs amputated after he attempted to correct her bow-legs (genu varum). It came out in the investigation that a decade earlier he had performed weight loss surgeries on Shattuck, Sophie Tucker and several other celebrities of the day.Dr. Shireson is Barred; Board Revokes License of Chicago Specialist in Beauty. The New York Times, January 24, 1930, p. 24
Shattuck was among the more than two hundred mourners who attended Fatty Arbuckle's funeral in New York in July 1933.Stage Folk Mourn at Arbuckle Bier – The New York Times – July 2, 1933 p. 10
During the remainder of her life, Shattuck would periodically return to the stage and on occasion perform in radio productions.Stage Star of 1890s – Truly Shattuck Funeral Service in Hollywood – Oakland Tribune December 10, 1954 p. 34Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wisconsin) April 17, 1937 | p. 7 In 1935, Hollywood reporter Alan McElwain listed her among a group of once-popular performers working at the time for $7.50 a-day as a movie bit player.Hollywood Film Shop by Alan McElwain - The Gallup Independent and Evening Herald, Gallup, New Mexico), December 10, 1935 p. 2
Death
Partial filmography
- Peggy (1916)
- A Wise Fool (1921)
- The Speed Girl (1921)
- Beauty's Worth (1922)
- The Glory of Clementina (1922)
- The Hottentot (1922)
- Daughters of the Rich (1923)
- Rubber Heels (1927)
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{commons category|Truly Shattuck}}
- {{IMDb name|0789451}}
- {{IBDB name|59728}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shattuck, Truly}}
Category:American women singers
Category:People from San Luis Obispo County, California
Category:American music hall performers
Category:American vaudeville performers
Category:American burlesque performers
Category:American silent film actresses
Category:19th-century American actresses