The Monday After: Chase was a Stark County star of stage, screen

Adelaide Chase acted on stage and on screen, from vaudeville to Broadway and finally film.

A "Through a Century" item earlier this year in The Canton Repository reminded us of the acting aspirations of a young local woman a century ago.

"100 YEARS AGO," the single sentence began, "Miss Adelaide Chase, 1011 Auburn Place NW in Canton, left for New York City, where she planned to take up dramatic work."

Her obituary, published in the Repository on Jan. 3, 1984, bookended the successful career of the actress, who by that time had returned to Stark County to live in Massillon and contribute to the arts in her community.

"Broadway, vaudeville and movie actress Adelaide M. Chase died Sunday in Community Hospital," the death notice reported. "She was in her mid-70s."

The obit, published before a Mass of Christian Burial at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Massillon and a burial in Forest Hill Cemetery in Canton, recalled Chase's many stage and screen credits.

"Miss Chase played repertory theater in Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia, and on Broadway appeared in plays including 'Drift,' 'On Call Woman,' and 'Flesh.'

"Her films include 'The Scarab' and 'The Hummingbird.'"

Known to local residents

Chase likely would have been noted in her community even without those distinct and distant acting accomplishments.

"Born and reared in Canton, she was the daughter of Russell G. Chase, a private secretary to William McKinley during his 'front porch' campaign for the presidency," her obituary recalled.

The obit also remembered her place in the history of local airwaves.

"Miss Chase was the first woman to broadcast over WHBC Radio in Canton and was on radio programs in New York, Chicago, Cincinnati and Indianapolis."

Later, the obit noted, Chase was a dramatic coach for Canton City Opera.

But, it was her acting – on stage and in front of the camera – that earned her the most fame.

A picture accompanying a 1979 profile of the actress shows her standing with comedic actor Charlie Chaplin. Chase also worked with such stars as Gloria Swanson, Basil Rathbone and May Robson.

"Stories about vaudeville, silent films, 'talkies,' and Broadway cascade from the woman," noted then Repository staff writer Whitney Smith in the profile published Nov. 9, 1979. "Adelaide Chase's life has been a giant theatrical gesture. Retired years ago by choice, she talks as though she's never left the stage."

Getting her acting start

Chase was born into a family filled with individuals who were working in the fields of theater and politics. She started her own theatrical career at age 16, performing with the stock company of her uncle, Russell Henrici of Fairmont, West Virginia.

"As a kid I had two uncles who were performers," she had told Smith in 1979. "One was in legitimate theater, the other an escape artist.

"Well, the one uncle they'd handcuff and lock in straitjackets. They would manacle his legs and ankles with irons, tie him up and put him in a barrel. The police would check him over and find no way out. Then they'd submerge him and he'd escape in a flash. He was a regular Houdini.

"I was born into a strange, strange family," she added in the interview. "I admit it."

The other uncle, she said, gave her theatrical costumes which she used to bring her passion for acting to life.

"As a youth, I idolized Mary Pickford," she said in the profile. "And I was nuts about Theda Bara. My God, she was a wonderful vamp. We had a leopard skin draped over a big piano in half the garage. I used to practice out there all the time."

An article published in the Repository on Nov. 13, 1922, reported on her early performance as May Robson's daughter in a play called "Mother's Millions," a stage production that was touring through the west. Introducing Chase, the article also detailed her early acting in Canton.

"Miss Chase is well known in Canton, having appeared in a number of home-talent productions in the city during her school days," the brief article reported. "She is a graduate of McKinley High School and made her professional debut with the MacLean Stock company at the Grand Theater last winter."

Professional career begins on small stages

Her family's association with magic would come back to help her early in her career. As a vaudeville trouper, Smith reported, Chase was a member of a magic tour traveling through small towns throughout the United States.

"I recall one winter – it must have been about 40 below zero – when we were headed north near Canada," Chase remembered in the profile. "The players and I were crammed into a truck with two fantail peacocks, three rabbits and other assorted animals. No heaters. Talk about hard times."

Chase became the youngest leading lady in the country in stock productions when she began appearing with the Henry Carleton Players in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Among other stock engagements, wrote Smith in his profile, were performances with the Permanent Players at the Winnepeg Theater in Manitoba, Canada, and the Pauline McLean Players in Canton and Akron.

The young actress also performed as a leading lady for Stuart Walker's Repertory Theater in Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia, starring with many well-known leading men of her time.

And, she spent more than two years acting in Hoboken, New Jersey, acting with what Smith called "an offbeat 'Gay Nineties' act called 'Neither Maid Nor Widow Nor Wife.'" Meanwhile, she was doing "other theatrical stints in New York City."

Actress returns to Stark County

Breaking into acting in movies about the time that silent films turned into "talkies," Chase appeared in a handful of moving picture roles for Paramount Pictures and Warner Brothers. In one film, she told Smith, she served as a stand-in for Gloria Swanson in "The Hummingbird."

While she had done radio work in a number of cities, when she returned to Stark County she principally was associated with WHBC.

"She directed WHBC's first weekly play program," wrote Smith in his profile, "and had her own 15-minute weekly program called 'The Chatterbox.'"

Chase stayed in theater through Canton Civic Opera.

"Thirteen years after assisting in the production of Canton Civic Opera's first performance, 'The Bartered Bride,' in 1940, Miss Adelaide Chase of 3316 Tuscarawas St. W will return to the organization as dramatic coach," the Repository reported in October 1953.

But by the time Smith's 1979 profile appeared in the Repository, her life had moved away from performing on the stage.

"My life has changed incredibly since I left the theater," she said, noting that she had turned her passion and attention away from the stage toward supporting worthy causes. "You know, these days I wouldn't even want to learn the lines over again. I just don't have the patience. Just don't have the time."

Reach Gary at gary.brown.rep@gmail.com. On Twitter: @gbrownREP.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: The Monday After: Chase was a Stark County star of stage, screen