Laura Keene

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Keene, Laura (1826?–73), actress and manager. Her early history is obscure, even her birth year given as anywhere from 1820 to 1836, although her daughters insisted their mother was forty‐seven at her death. Her real surname is given as Foss, Moss, or Lee. Similarly, the year and place of her professional debut are uncertain, though it is known she did at one time act with Madame Vestris. Keene came to America in 1852 and first appeared before New York audiences as Albina Mandeville in J. W. Wallack's mounting of The Will, remaining with the company to become a popular favorite before leaving to assume management of a Baltimore theatre. When this failed she toured California and Australia before returning to New York in 1855 to open her own playhouse and quickly become Wallack's only serious rival. Although Keene staged some highly praised Shakespearean mountings, her company was best known for its contemporary works. Among her successes were Camille, Jane Eyre, and Our American Cousin. It was in these productions that Joseph Jefferson and E. A. Sothern rose to prominence. Her mounting of Our American Cousin established a long‐run record at “a first class house,” although Uncle Tom's Cabin and The Drunkard had run longer at more popular theatres. The onset of the Civil War presented financial problems for her, which she met initially by offering elaborate musical spectacles. When these finally palled, she abandoned her theatre and took to the road. She was playing Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington when Lincoln was assassinated there. While she had no part in the assassination, her career never recovered from her association with the incident. Although a somewhat puffy‐faced, heavy‐featured woman, she was, Jefferson noted, “esteemed a great beauty in her youth; even afterwards her rich and luxuriant auburn hair, clear complexion and deep chestnut eyes, full of expression, were greatly praised; but to me it was her style and carriage that commanded admiration, and it was this quality that won her audience. She had, too, the rare power of varying her manner, assuming the rustic walk of a milkmaid or the dignified grace of a queen.” Biography: The Life of Laura Keene, John Creahan, 1897.