Ethel Barrymore Colt

Ethel Barrymore Colt (April 20, 1912 – May 22, 1977) was an American actress, producer, and soprano born in Mamaroneck, New York. A member of the ninth generation of the Barrymore acting family, she was the daughter of Russell G. Colt and Ethel Barrymore, the niece of John Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore, and the granddaughter of Maurice Barrymore, Georgie Drew Barrymore, and Samuel P. Colt. She had two brothers, Samuel Colt and John Drew Colt. Her parents divorced on July 6, 1923. Over the course of her career, Colt performed in more than 100 concerts across the United States, Canada, and South America, and maintained an active presence on Broadway from 1930 to 1971.

Colt attended the Lenox School in Manhattan and later Notre Dame Convent in Moylan, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1929 and receiving the school's gold medal in music that June. She subsequently studied at the Villa Gazzola school in Verona, Italy, and trained at Italian music conservatories. Her professional stage debut came in 1930 alongside her mother in the Broadway production of Scarlet Sister Mary, in which she played Serraphine, the illegitimate child of a South Carolina Black family. Both she and her mother performed in blackface, marking the first time any member of the Barrymore family had done so. She was eighteen years old at the time of the debut.

In 1931, producer George White signed Colt to star in his Scandals, but she departed after several of her songs were reassigned to Ethel Merman, leaving her with a single musical number. She returned to the production in 1932 as part of a touring company and that same year toured in a revue headed by Harry Richman. During the summer of 1933, she played small parts in Municipal Opera productions in St. Louis, and that fall she took the female lead in the Broadway farce Under Glass. In 1934, she and her brother Samuel appeared in minor roles in L'Aiglon at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York City, a production in which their mother starred.

Colt spent five years with the Jitney Players, a traveling theater organization, where her contributions extended beyond performing to include driving a truck, making costumes, and writing material. When the organization went into bankruptcy in 1934, Colt was among the actors owed money. She subsequently reorganized the group, raised funds for its continuation, and served as its manager for three years, during which time fourteen to sixteen people depended on her for their livelihoods. Her managerial duties included selecting plays, maintaining relationships with universities through theatrical clubs and campus workshops, and occasionally revising works for the company. These adaptations included a 1938 version of Diplomacy set against contemporary wartime Europe and a version of Rip Van Winkle that combined the original Washington Irving story with five existing adaptations, featuring music composed by a fellow company member.

On Broadway in 1937, Colt portrayed Grace Harkaway in London Assurance, for which she also wrote lyrics. That same year she played Penelope Halchester in the musical Orchids Preferred, and in 1938 she appeared as Pheasant in Whiteoaks. During 1937, she briefly dropped her middle name for professional purposes, appearing in the program for London Assurance simply as Ethel Colt. In 1941, she acted for three weeks in summer productions at the Iroquois Amphitheater in Louisville, Kentucky, and on March 24 of that year she portrayed her mother in a radio program on WABC in New York City that traced the elder Ethel's career from her debut in The Rivals through her then-current work in The Corn Is Green.

Colt's later stage work included playing Constance Bonacieux in The Three Musketeers in Memphis in 1951, starring in Let Us Be Gay in Memphis in 1952, and portraying Madame Dubonnet in The Boy Friend at the Clinton Playhouse in 1958. She served as a soloist with the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park during the summers of 1954 and 1955. In 1960, she performed in Knights of Song for the St. Louis Municipal Opera, taking the non-singing role of Mrs. William S. Gilbert. Her Broadway credits also included Cradle Song, L'Aiglon, and the musical Follies, in which she portrayed Christine Crane at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1971, a role that required her to learn tap dancing for an eight-minute dance sequence. Among her other Broadway appearances was the production Martha. In the 1970s she continued working in professional touring and regional productions.