Florence Shirley

Florence Shirley, born Florence Isabell Splaine on June 5, 1892, in New York City, was an American stage and film actress whose Broadway career spanned from 1912 to 1945. She was the daughter of Francis Splaine, and her sister, Blanche Shirley, was also a stage actress. Shirley died in Hollywood, California on May 12, 1967, at the age of 74.

Shirley's introduction to the stage came in 1906, when she was fourteen years old and took a small part in a Christmas pantomime at the Castle Square Theatre in Boston. John Craig, director of the Castle Square Stock Company, subsequently cast her in additional children's roles, including boys' parts in Shakespeare productions. By 1909 she had advanced to adult ingenue work with the company, taking on roles such as Maria in The School for Scandal, Esther Strong in Our New Minister, Ione Nuneham in The Evangelist, Marie in A Parisian Romance, Mollie Worth in All On Account of Eliza, Charyllis in A Bachelor's Honeymoon, Rose Budd in A Contented Woman, and Nami in The Geisha. Her performance as Nami drew favorable notice from The Boston Globe, which reported that she was making an emphatic hit in the role and that a duet she performed with Wilfrid Young invariably brought down the house.

Her work at Castle Square continued through 1910 and into 1911, encompassing a wide range of parts. Among the roles she took on during that period were the Fairy Queen in a pantomime production, Edward Prince of Wales in Richard III, Lulu Bloodgood in Are You A Mason?, Trixie Clayton in Brewster's Millions, Nellie Garthorne in Zira, Violet Lansdowne in Girls, and Geraldine Wilcox in George M. Cohan's musical The Talk of New York. Her 1911 appearances at Castle Square included Osric in Hamlet, Louka in Arms and the Man, Jessica in The Merchant of Venice, Josephine Van Dusen in Cecil B. DeMille's The Genius, Beatriz in The Rose of the Rancho, and Lucille Perkins in Mary Jane's Pa, among others.

In September 1911 Shirley departed Castle Square to join Blanche Ring's theatre troupe, making her debut with the company on October 5, 1911, at the Majestic Theatre in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in the premiere of composer Karl Hoschna's musical The Wall Street Girl. She played Pearl Williams and was featured performing the song "(Come With Me to) Spoony Land." The production toured nationally through 1911 and 1912, reaching Broadway's George M. Cohan Theatre on April 15, 1912, the same day the Titanic sank. Later that week, on April 20, 1912, Shirley participated in a benefit concert at the same theatre for those affected by the disaster.

Following the Broadway run of The Wall Street Girl, Shirley returned to Boston, where she starred opposite Donald Meek in The Edge of the Whirlpool at Keith's Theatre, a new play by Ed Payne. She then rejoined Castle Square for the 1912–1913 season, performing roles including Phyllis Faraday in Green Stalkings, Cynthia Garrison in The Man of the Hour, Helene in Madame X, and Margery Daw in The Gingerbread Man. In February 1913 she briefly rejoined The Wall Street Girl company for a limited run in Georgia before returning to Boston. Her Castle Square work continued into 1914, with parts including Amy Leroy in The Country Boy, Miss Lucy in Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, and Kate Ballard in Hawthorne of the U.S.A.

In the fall of 1914 Shirley toured in the title role of Holman Day's Along Came Ruth, succeeding Irene Fenwick in the part in a production by Henry W. Savage, and continued touring in the role into 1915. In September 1915 she created the role of The Flapper in the premiere of His Majesty Bunker Bean at the Garrick Theatre in Detroit. The production toured nationally and ran for six months at the Cort Theatre in Chicago before reaching Broadway's Astor Theatre on October 2, 1916. The success of Bunker Bean established Shirley more prominently in the profession, and she went on to create two notable roles in subsequent Broadway productions: Fanny Welch in Jerome Kern, Guy Bolton, and P. G. Wodehouse's musical Oh, Lady! Lady!! in 1918, and Mrs. Anna Merton in Apple Blossoms in 1920. Her Broadway credits across this period and beyond include the play Doctor X, the play Fast Service, the play Take My Tip, and the play Embers, among other productions.

After a thirteen-year absence from New York, Shirley made one final Broadway appearance in 1945 in the comedy Alice in Arms. Having relocated to California, she had by that point established a parallel career as a film character actress. Her screen work began with the 1939 film The Women, in which she played Miss Archer. She went on to appear in more than fifty films, frequently in small uncredited parts but also in larger supporting roles on occasion.