Little Women Letters From the House of Alcott: Selected by Jessie Bonstelle and Marian De Forest (1914)
(Originally published in 1914. This volume from the Cornel...)
Originally published in 1914. This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies. All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume.
Jessie Bonstelle was an American actress, producer, and theatre manager. She was known as "The Maker of Stars. "
Background
Jessie Bonstelle was born in 1872, in the little town of Greece, New York, United States. She was the youngest of eight children of Henry Joseph and Helen Lovisa Bonesteele and was christened Laura Justine. As a child she was nicknamed Jessie. The change in surname came when as a young girl she gave an entertainment in a small town where the local printer did not have enough large "E's" for the poster and shortened the name to Bonstelle to fit his supply of type. This she adopted as her professional name. She had the theatre's traditional fear of growing old and always kept the date of her birth a secret.
Education
Until she was fifteen Jessie attended a convent school.
Career
Under the guidance of her mother Miss Bonstelle made her first public appearance at a church entertainment before she was three. She had an excellent memory and at the age of nine was able to recite 150 selections, mostly from Shakespeare. She began her professional career in a road show as the deserted wife in Bertha, the Beautiful Sewing Machine Girl. Augustin Daly then gave her a part in the chorus of one of his shows with a chance to understudy. She worked for the Shuberts in Syracuse managing their theatre when she was but nineteen.
After operating stock companies of her own in Rochester, Toronto, and Buffalo, Bonstelle went to Detroit in 1910 and leased the Garrick Theatre which she ran until 1922. Later she purchased her own theatre, the Playhouse, which opened on January 1, 1925. The idea of a community theatre grew upon Miss Bonstelle and she aroused sufficient public interest in the scheme to make it successful. In 1928 the Playhouse became the Detroit Civic Theatre, operated along the lines of the Theatre Guild in New York. Miss Bonstelle was one of the board of governors and kept the theatre running through the depression up to the time of her death.
Bonstelle was not only the leader of the movement but director, founder, instructor, supervisor, and actress as well. Before she reached her ultimate goal in Detroit she managed the Municipal Theatre in Northampton, Massachussets, for five years beginning in 1912, took over the Harlem Opera House in New York in 1923 and tried out plays for producers, and at one time went to Hollywood to establish a school for training motion-picture actors. While operating a stock company in Philadelphia she produced Little Women, and within a year there were thirteen companies playing it all over the country. Among the many well-known players of the stage and screen whom Miss Bonstelle discovered and developed were Ann Harding, Katherine Cornell, Jessie Royce Landis, Ben Lyon, Melvyn Douglas, and Frank Morgan.
Achievements
Jessie Jessie was known as one of the pioneering women stage directors, managing many stock companies, directing Broadway productions and training many young performers who went on to be famous actors. She also founded one of America's first civic theaters - the Detroit Civic Theatre.
(Originally published in 1914. This volume from the Cornel...)
Personality
Personally Miss Bonstelle was a keen, smiling little lady with blonde hair and penetrating eyes. Absolutely unpretentious, an indefatigable worker, she possessed great patience and the ability to get the best results from all of her company.
Connections
In 1892 Bonstelle married Alexander Hamilton Stuart, an actor, who died in 1911.
