Maude Adams (1872-1953) was America’s most popular and highest paid actress of her day. Beyond her skills onstage, she also helped invent technology to improve stage lighting and develop color film photography.
Maude Adams (1872-1953) was America’s most popular and highest paid actress of her day. Beyond her skills onstage, she also helped invent technology to improve stage lighting and develop color film photography.
Special thanks to our exclusive Pride Month sponsor, Mercedes-Benz! Mercedes-Benz continues to support and stand with the LGBTQIA+ community. Listen all month long as we celebrate women whose authentic expression in their lives and bodies of work have expanded the norms of gender and sexuality in the performing arts.
History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.
Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Ale Tejeda, Sara Schleede, and Alex Jhamb Burns. Special thanks to Shira Atkins.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan and this is Womanica.
June is Pride Month, and to celebrate, we’re highlighting queer stars of the stage and screen.
Today’s star was America’s most popular and highest paid actress of her day. Beyond her skills onstage, she also helped invent technology to improve stage lighting and develop color film photography.
Please welcome Maude Adams.
Maude Ewing Adams Kiskadden was born in 1872 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her father was a banker. And her mother was a famous actress known as Annie Adams.
Maude accompanied her mother on tours and started her own acting career at a young age. She made her on-stage debut in The Lost Baby when she was only two months old. Maude’s family then moved to San Francisco, and she spent her childhood traveling with a theatrical troupe.
After a brief stint at Salt Lake Collegiate Institute, Maude continued performing and took on bigger roles. At age 16, Maude moved to New York City and made her Broadway debut. Audiences loved Maude. During the opening of The Masked Ball in 1892, the crowd applauded, with a standing ovation, for a full two minutes. She took 12 curtain calls at that performance.
Maude also acted in several of J.M. Barrie’s plays. Most notably, in 1905, Maude was the first person to ever perform as Peter Pan on Broadway. In this play alone, she starred in more than 1,500 shows, earning $20,000 a month — a nearly unheard of salary at the time. Children and adults alike were captivated by Maude’s energetic portrayal. She also had a hand in making her costume, creating the now-famous “Peter Pan” collar.
Maude’s favorite role of her career came in 1910, when she played the title character in the French play, Chantecler. The character, a barnyard rooster, was prideful and aggressive — and traditionally performed by men. That didn’t stop Maude. The show was a financial success, and Maude performed the leading role 320 times in 89 cities. But reviewers criticized Maude’s performance, claiming she was too feminine to pull off the character.
Maude performed in her last Broadway play in 1916, in the show A Kiss for Cinderella. In 1918, following a severe case of influenza, she retired from acting and turned her focus to stage production.
Throughout the 1920s, Maude worked with technicians and engineers to improve stage lighting, making it smaller, stronger, and more mobile. Maude went on to partner with General Electric and Eastman Kodak Company. She helped create an even stronger incandescent light bulb that made color movies possible.
Maude was never given credit for these inventions. Her lawyer advised her to sue, but she never did. Her lights revolutionized stage production and became industry standards in Hollywood. Her collaborator, Basset Jones, once referred to her as “the greatest production artist this country ever saw.”
Despite her technological innovations in film photography, Maude preferred the stage. She never transitioned to acting in motion pictures. In fact, she only appeared on film once in her life, in a 1938 screen test for the movie “The Young In Heart.”
Maude came out of retirement in 1931. For the next three years, she acted in stage productions, earning up to $1 million annually. Afterward, she became head of the drama department at Stephens College in Missouri.
Maude never married. Nor did she ever have any public relationships with men. Her producer, Charles Frohman used these facts to build up a reputation for Maude. That she was innocent and virtuous.
But historians have since concluded that Maude did have several romantic relationships throughout her life — with women — which she kept private. She was with her first long term partner, Lillie Florence, from the early 1890s until Lillie’s death in 1901. She then met Louise Boynton in 1905, and the two were partnered until Louise’s death in 1951.
Maude died of a heart attack just two years later. She and Louise are buried together at Maude’s Long Island estate.
All month, we’re highlighting queer stars of the stage and screen. For more information find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator.
Talk to you tomorrow!