Amelia Bingham

Background

Amelia Bingham was born at Hicksville, Ohio, United States, the daughter of John B. and Marie (Hoffman) Smiley. Her father kept the local hotel.

Education

Amelia studied at Ohio Wesleyan University.

Career

In 1890, while at home for the summer from Ohio Wesleyan University, Amelia took part in amateur theatricals, and a guest of the hotel conceived a good opinion of her acting. He was Lloyd Bingham, manager of a theatrical road company. At his persuasion she went on the stage, toured the Pacific Coast as a member of McKee Rankin's company, and on December 18, 1893, made her New York debut in The Struggle for Life at the People's Theatre. Meanwhile she had married her discoverer. During the following years she acted in a series of melodramas: The Power of Gold, The Shaughraun, The Colleen Bawn, The Village Postmaster, The Mummy, Captain Impudence, and Nature. In 1897, under the management of Charles Frohman, she starred in The White Heather and was later seen in The Pink Dominos, On and Off, The Proper Caper, At the White Horse Tavern, The Cuckoo, His Excellency the Governor, and Hearts are Trumps. Year after year Amelia and her husband returned for their vacation to Hicksville, where she gradually overcame the prejudices of her Methodist relatives and friends, the final proof of her uprightness coming when she lent money to a fellow-townsman in distress.

In the summer of 1900 she went to Europe for rest and change. On her return she found herself without an engagement and, taking her cue from several English actresses, decided to become her own producer. She took over the Bijou Theatre in New York, accepted Clyde Fitch's Climbers after every important manager in the city had declined it, assembled an excellent company, and produced the play, January 15, 1901, with great success. She herself took the part of Mrs. Sterling. In 1902 she produced Lady Margaret and The Modern Magdalen and in 1903 The Frisky Mrs. Johnson, another conspicuous success. Later she acted in Olympe, Mlle. Marni, and The Lilac Room.

Later plays in which she appeared were: One of Our Girls, A Contented Woman, The Eternal City, A Modern Lady Godiva, My Wife's Husbands, Her Other Self, The New Henrietta, a revival of The Climbers, Mama's Affairs, the 1925 revival of Trelawney of the Wells, and The Pearl of Great Price, to her part in which she objected because, as she said "for years I have played decent women on the stage. " In 1909 she fulfilled a vaudeville engagement in London, appearing in an act called Great Moments from Great Plays. Her husband, who had been her manager, died at sea while a member of the Ford Peace Party December 22, 1915. Her home in later years, 103 Riverside Drive, was a veritable museum of mirrors, armor, statuary, coins, bric-a-brac, antiques, and thirteen striking clocks, some collected by her husband, others the gifts of admirers. It was there that she died of heart disease aggravated by a touch of pneumonia.

Achievements

• Amelia Bingham was a well-known actress of her time, whose Broadway career extended from 1896 until 1926. Her road tours took her in time into every state in the Union, and with her statuesque beauty and vibrant voice she became one of the most successful of American actresses, her popularity peaked around 1897. She tallied more than 9, 000 of 30, 000 votes cast in a newspaper competition for the title of American State Queen.

Connections

Amelia was married to Lloyd Bingham, manager of a theatrical road company.

Father:

John B. Swilley

Mother:

Marie (Hoffman) Swilley

Spouse:

Lloyd Bingham

Brother:

Edward Swilley

Sister:

Catherine (Swilley) Richards

Sister:

Clara May (Swilley) Hartzler

Sister:

Ella (Swilley) Tannehill