Louise Gunning

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Louise Gunning
Boston, Massachusetts, US
DiedJuly 24, 1960(1960-07-24) (aged 82)
Sierra Madre, California
, US
OccupationMusical actress
Spouse(s)Frederick Pitney, Oskar Seiling

Louise Gunning (April 1, 1878 – July 24, 1960) was an American soprano popular on Broadway in Edwardian musical comedy and comic opera from the late 1890s to the eve of the First World War. She was perhaps best remembered as Princess Stephanie of Balaria in the 1911 Broadway production of The Balkan Princess. During the war years Gunning began to close out her career singing on the vaudeville circuit.

Early life and career

Gunning was born on April 1, 1878, in

Baptist minister. Her mother, Mary Gunning, was a choir director who, besides her daughter, also trained the silent film actress Lucille Lee Stewart.[2] Gunning made her first stage appearances as a chorus singer in a Frank Daniels show and later as a solo act singing Scottish ballads. In 1897 (around the time of her parents' divorce)[3] she appeared in a New York production of The Circus Girl, followed in rapid succession by performances in the Charles H. Hoyt farce comedies A Stranger in New York, A Milk White Flag and A Day and a Night. In the fall of 1899 she sang in the Rogers Brothers hit farce musical The Roger Brothers in Wall Street at the old Victoria Theatre, New York.[4][5][6][7][8]

In 1902 Gunning sang It Seems Like Yesterday in the Isidore Witmark and Frederic Ranken musical comedy The Chaperons at the Cherry Blossom Theatre, Washington, D. C. and the following year at the

Astor Theatre, and in October 1908 the title role in the Frank Pixley and Gustave Luders comic operetta, Marcelle, staged at the Casino Theatre.[6][8]

Louise Gunning as Marcelle, 1908

In February 1911, Gunning first played in

Forty-Five Minutes from Broadway.[6][8]
Reportedly Gunning was forced to cancel a European tour and return to America when in 1914 war threatened the continent.[10] In 1915 she began a series of vaudeville singing engagements that would continue into the early 1920s.[11]

Personal life

In October 1903 Gunning married Frederick Pitney, owner of a New York cab company,

University of Munich and was a student of Joseph Joachim in Berlin. Before coming to America at about the age of 26, Seiling had done considerable concert work in Germany and England.[15]

In America Seiling performed in concerts and with chamber music groups before turning to teaching. He taught at Occidental College and, from 1907 to 1912, was head of the Violin Department at the University of Southern California and starting in 1913 held the same position for seven years at the University of Redlands. Seiling later taught privately at his music studio in Los Angeles and organized the Los Angeles Brahms Music Society. For a time Gunning and her husband were known for hosting outdoor music events at their Sierra Madre ranch that drew music lovers from all parts of the state.[15][16]

Gunning died, aged 81, on July 24, 1960, at Sierra Madre. She was preceded in death by her husband on December 7, 1958. Both are interred at the Sierra Madre Pioneer Cemetery.[5][16]

Resources

  1. ^ Louise Gunning on Acting as a Musical Art. San Francisco Call, Volume 111, Number 136, April 14, 1912, p. 31 Retrieved July 28, 2013
  2. ^ The Moving Picture World, February 26, 1916, p. 1276 Retrieved July 28, 2013
  3. ^ Brooklyn Daily Eagle Alminac, 1897, pp. 440-441 Retrieved July 27, 2013
  4. ^ Briefly Told. The Washington Times, August 16, 1903, p. 3, col. 2 Retrieved July 27, 2013
  5. ^ a b Gänzl, Kurt – The Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre – Volume 2, 2001, p. 833
  6. ^ a b c Munsey's Magazine, Vol. 40, 1908, p. 418 Retrieved July 24, 2013
  7. ^ Parker, John – Who's Who in the Theatre, p. 270 Retrieved July 26, 2013
  8. ^ a b c Louise Gunning – Internet Broadway Database Retrieved July 27, 2013
  9. ^ Frank Daniels in "The Office Boy." New York Times, September 15, 1903, p. 9
  10. ^ a b Louise Gunning Marries. The New York Times, July 28, 1915, p. 9
  11. ^ Topping the Vaudeville Bills. New York Times, November 14, 1915; p. X9
  12. ^ Louise Gunning Still Fancy Free. The Evening World (New York), October 19, 1903, p. 5 Retrieved July 27, 2013
  13. ^ Aside. Evening Star (Washington, D. C.), October 24, 1903, p. 18, col. 6 Retrieved July 27, 2013
  14. ^ Louise Gunning Happy Mother. The Evening World (New York), October 21, 1905, p. 5 Retrieved July 27, 2013
  15. ^ a b Who's Who in California, 1942-1943 Retrieved July 26, 2013
  16. ^ a b Rites Set for Former Violinist. Pasadena Independence, December 10, 1958, p. 11

External links

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