For me the most amazing thing about this very early game featuring 36 of the most "popular actors" is that after 117 years I recognized only four (I had to look them up).
The Game of Popular Actors includes four groups of nine each photo cards; 36 total. Each group of nine is color tinted, labeled A,B,C and D, and then each is consecutively numbered 1-9. So you know it's complete. It comes with its original double sided instruction sheet.
The box (sides and cover) was covered with a textured red and gray mosaic chromolithography paper. The cover shows three actors in black and white circular photographs against a light blue background with silver "fireworks". 19th century text was printed in yellow, black, white and red. Step by step instructions include another photograph. The back side of the instruction sheet (not shown) advertises other Parker Brothers games of the era.
Briefly, the groups include the following actors.
A (yellow tint)
- Marie Tempest (1838 - 1880) the most famous soprano in late Victorian light opera and Edwardian musical comedies.
- John T. Raymond (1836-1887) comic actor. Among his other noteworthy portrayals were Ichabod Crane in Wolfert's Roost (1879).
- Mrs. James Brown Potter (1859 - 1936) one of the first American society women to take to the stage.
- Agnes Booth (1843 - 1910) an American actress and in-law of John Wilkes Booth
- Julia Marlowe (1865 - 1950) Shakespearean actress who made her Broadway debut in 1895 and went on to appear in more than seventy Broadway productions
- Lillian Russell (1861 - 1922) one of the most famous actresses and singers of the late 19th century and early 20th century. For 40 years she was the companion of businessman "Diamond Jim" Brady
- Wilson Barrett (1846 - 1904) the most famous actor on the London stage of the 1880s.
- Ada Rehan (1859 - 1916) American actress and one of America's greatest performers. Model for statue of Justice presented at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893
- Edwin Booth (1833-1893) American actor. In 1862 became manager of the Winter Garden theater, New York, where he gave a series of Shakespearian productions. His career was dashed for many months when in 1865 his brother, John Wilkes Booth, assassinated President Lincoln.
B (red tint)
- Agnes Huntington (1841 - 1913) the most popular comic opera prima donna in the states
- Pauline Hall (1865 - 1920) rose from an obscure role in the chorus to a prominent position on the stage of the American theater
- Margaret Mather (1859-1898) one of the most famous Shakespearean actresses in the 1880's, married Gustave Pabst, Pabst Brewing Company, but they divorced after she threatened him with a whip
- Fannie Davenport (1850- 1898) American stage actress born in London, England. Started acting at age 7
- Marie Burroughs (1866-1926) Husband of Georgie Drew Barrymore and father of John, Ethel and Lionel.
- A. Salvini (1860-1896) son of the great Italian actor, Tommaso Salvini. He was a romantic actor, played Hamlet to great acclaim in New York and Philadelphia. He was considered the star of his father's troupe.
- W.H. Crane (1845-1928), American stage actor who later appeared in several silent films
- Sara Bernhardt (1844 - 1923) legendary French stage and early film actress, close friends included Gustave Doré and Victor Hugo. Had affair with Prince of Wales, who later became King Edward VII.
- Henry Irving (1838 - 1905) English stage actor known as an actor-manager, first actor to be awarded a knighthood. Irving was the inspiration for the title character 1897 novel Dracula.
C (green tint)
- Rosina Vokes (1854 - 1894), actress and forerunner of modern musical comedy.
- Francis Wilson (1854 - 1935) American actor and writer began his career in a minstrel show, close friend George M. Cohan
- Marie Burress (dates unknown) English opera and stage actress, active in Woman's Suffrage movement
- Miss Eastlake (1865 - 1899) popular English actress, leading lady in Wilson Barrett's company, started her own theater company which went bankrupt
- Sol Smith Russell (1848 - 1902) American actor, grandfather had been a drummer boy at the Battle of Bunker Hill, died of perpetual hiccoughs
- Nat Goodwin (1857 - 1919) American actor and vaudevillian, appeared at the New York Lyceum where he imitated a number of popular actors of the period. Played professional baseball for the Boston Beaneaters, arrested for mail fraud.
- Denman Thompson (1833 - 1911) actor, writer, and creator of Uncle Josh (popular Edison vocal recordings)
- Mrs. Kendall (1848 - 1935) English actress of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, best known for her roles in Shakespeare and English comedies.
- Joseph Jefferson (1829 - 1905) American actor and one of the most famous of all American comedians
D (blue tint)
- Lillie Langtry (1853 - 1929) British actress born on the island of Jersey. A renowned beauty, she was nicknamed the "Jersey Lily" and had a number of prominent lovers, including the future king of England, Edward VII
- E.S. Willard (1880-1920) had an intense but controlled style of acting, had an immense, although now forgotten impact on the theater
- Effie Shannon (1867 - 1954), actress whose career spanned 70 years. In 1942 replaced Jean Adair as sweet murderer Martha Brewster in Arsenic and Old Lace
- John Drew (1827 - 1862) an Irish-American stage actor and theater manager.
- Helen Modjeska (1840 - 1909) renowned actress who specialized in Shakespearean and tragic roles.
- Ellen Terry (1847 - 1928) English stage actress who became the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain. Her great nephew was Sir John Gielgud.
- E.H. Southern (1839 - 1919) early stage and screen actor
- Mary Anderson (1859 - 1940) American stage actress who ended her career at age 30
- T. Salvini (1829 - 1916) actor, distinguished Italian tragedian made five American visits between 1873 and 1889. His voice had been described as #one of the most powerful, flexible, and mellifluous organs ever implanted in a human throat".
Size: Box 5" x 6½" x 1". Cards 3-3/8" x 2¼".
Sold: Apr. 2010
Price Sold: $ 309
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