Blanche Bates

Who was Blanche Bates?

Blanche Bates was an American actress, born in Portland, Oregon. She made her début in San Francisco in a benefit performance of Brander Matthews's This Picture and That. Among her early successes were her Mrs. Hillary in The Senator, Phyllis in The Charity Ball, and Nora in A Doll's House. She joined Daly's company in 1898 and the next year at Daly's Theatre, New York, played Mirtza in The Great Ruby. In 1901 she appeared as Cigarette in Under Two Flags at the Garden Theatre in New York. Thereafter devoting herself to the productions of David Belasco, she won great success in The Darling of the Gods and The Girl of the Golden West and after World War I in The Famous Mrs. Fair.

In 1902, H.M. Caldwell Company, New York and Boston, published a lavish souvenir book, Blanche Bates Edition of "Under Two Flags" by Ouida, with handsome illustrated covers, and numerous photographs from the play version starring Miss Bates.