Clare Kummer

Clare Kummer, born Clare Rodman Beecher on January 9, 1873, in Brooklyn, New York, was an American composer, lyricist, and playwright active on Broadway across several decades. She died on April 21, 1958, in Carmel, California, at the age of 85.

Kummer came from a distinguished literary and religious family. Her parents were Eugene Francis Beecher and Susan Wood Beecher, and she was the granddaughter of Rev. Edward Beecher and great-granddaughter of Lyman Beecher. Among her great-aunts and great-uncles were Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher.

Her professional writing career began with individual songs contributed to New York musicals starting in 1903, with credits including Sergeant Blue in 1905 and A Knight For a Day in 1908. She subsequently moved into writing complete productions, working primarily in musical comedy and drama. Her stage output was extensive, encompassing Noah's Ark in 1906, The Opera Ball in 1912, The Choir Rehearsal in 1914, Good Gracious, Annabelle from 1916 to 1917, A Successful Calamity in 1917, The Rescuing Angel in 1917, Be Calm, Camilla in 1918, Rollo's Wild Oat in 1920, and The Mountain Man in 1921. That same year she contributed several one-act works, including a second staging of The Choir Rehearsal, Chinese Love, The Robbery, and Bridges, with some of these one-acts presented at the Punch and Judy Theatre. Later Broadway credits included Banco in 1922, One Kiss in 1923, Annie Dear in 1924, Madame Pompadour in 1924, Pomeroy's Past in 1926, So's Your Old Antique in 1930, Amourette in 1933, Her Master's Voice in 1933, Spring Thaw in 1938, and Many Happy Returns in 1945.

Beyond the stage, Kummer received credit on at least eight films and three television programs, most of them adaptations of her theatrical work. Good Gracious, Annabelle was adapted twice for the screen, first as a silent film in 1919 and again as a sound production titled Annabelle's Affairs in 1931. She also authored at least one book, Bible Rimes for the Not Too Young, published in 1910.

Kummer married twice. Her first husband was playwright and author Frederick Arnold Kummer; they wed in 1895 and divorced in 1903, and together they had two daughters, Marjorie and Frederica. Marjorie later married English actor Roland Young. Kummer's second marriage was to Arthur Henry in 1910, a union that came about through their shared acquaintance with Theodore Dreiser. Arthur Henry died in 1934, leaving Kummer widowed. A selection of her papers is held by Princeton University and the New York Public Library.