Clara Lipman

Clara Lipman (December 6, 1864 – June 22, 1952) was an American actress and playwright whose Broadway career spanned from 1896 to 1927. Born in Chicago, Illinois, she was the second of five children of Abram and Josephine (née Brumer) Lipman. Her father worked as a loan broker, and his income allowed Lipman to attend college and receive private instruction in the classics, music, and languages. She was the wife of comedian Louis Mann and the sister of Lieder singer Mattie Lipman Marum.

Lipman began in amateur productions in Chicago before making her professional debut at Niblo's Garden in New York City on November 30, 1885, playing Nettie in the Kiralfy Brothers' spectacular The Rat Catcher, an adaptation of The Pied Piper of Hamelin. The following January she joined Helena Modjeska's company, appearing as Bérangère in Sardou's Odette. Subsequent seasons with Modjeska brought her roles in Alexandre Dumas's Camille, the comedy Frou Frou by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, and Shakespeare's As You Like It. She then spent a season or two in Chicago performing on the German-language stage with Friedrich Mitterwurzer before joining Charles Dickson's company in the early 1890s.

With Dickson's company, Lipman's portrayal of Molly Summers in Incog established her as a principal player and led to a succession of leading roles. These included Madge Tippett in Little Tippett, Gertrude Sanders in The Laughing Girl, Clara Loveridge in The Strange Adventures of Miss Brown, Julie Bon-Bon in The Girl from Paris, Liane Tourbillion in The Girl in the Barracks, Estelle Coocoo in The Telephone Girl, Jane Anderson in Master and Pupil, and Elizabeth Carter in All on Account of Eliza. It was during the Incog engagement that Lipman and Louis Mann first appeared together, and the two subsequently married. In his 1912 memoir Fifty Years in Theatrical Management, producer Michael Leavitt recounted that Mann had sought his help in co-starring with Lipman in a new production, confiding that a successful tour was a condition of winning her hand. Leavitt agreed, the production succeeded, and Mann and Lipman wed at the close of that season. Among audiences of the period, the couple were particularly associated with The Laughing Girl, The Strange Adventures of Miss Brown, The Girl from Paris, The Telephone Girl, and All on Account of Eliza.

Lipman was also active as a playwright, authoring approximately twenty-two plays, twelve of them written in collaboration with playwright Samuel Shipman. Several of her works reached Broadway, with Elevating a Husband achieving the greatest success, running 120 performances in 1912. Additional Broadway credits as a performer and book writer include Children of Today, Julie Bonbon, and the play Nature's Nobleman. Lipman and Mann made their final Broadway appearance together in 1927 in the dramatic comedy That French Lady, in which they played Madame Nina de Poulet and Karl Kraft respectively.

Lipman outlived her husband, who died in 1931, by more than two decades. She died on June 22, 1952, at her residence in New York City. Her New York Times obituary noted that the only surviving close relative at the time of her death was the daughter of a sister.