Hope Hampton

Hope Hampton, born Mae Elizabeth Hampton on February 19, 1897, in Houston, Texas, was an American actress, producer, and lyric soprano whose career spanned silent film, opera, and Broadway. Raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she later attended H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College in New Orleans, where she took part in student theatrical productions. She subsequently trained in drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, then known as the Sargent Dramatic School, in New York City.

Hampton's entry into film came through director Maurice Tourneur, for whom she appeared in an uncredited minor role in Woman in 1918. Through Tourneur she met Jules Brulatour, a pioneer of American silent cinema, who founded Hope Hampton Productions with the express purpose of building her into a leading screen presence. Her first starring role under that banner came in A Modern Salome in 1920, and she went on to feature in multiple Brulatour-financed productions throughout the decade, becoming recognized for her portrayals of siren and flapper types. Hampton and Brulatour married in 1923 and remained together until his death in 1946. Hampton's path into film had also been shaped in part by a newspaper beauty contest in Dallas, which a friend had entered on her behalf by submitting her photograph, and the resulting attention had brought her early professional opportunities.

Alongside her film work, Hampton developed a parallel career as a trained soprano, studying with voice teachers Pietro Cimini and Estelle Liebling, the latter of whom also taught Beverly Sills. In 1924 she took the title role in the United States premiere of Leo Fall's operetta Madame Pompadour at the Forrest Theatre in Philadelphia. Her Broadway appearance came in 1927, when she starred in the title role of Alfred E. Aarons's operetta My Princess, also known by the character name Minnie Johnson, at the Shubert Theatre. The production is listed in her verified Broadway credits as Miss Princess.

Her grand opera debut followed on December 21, 1928, when she sang the title role of Jules Massenet's Manon with the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company at the Academy of Music, a performance she partially recreated in a 1929 Vitaphone short film. She returned to the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company in 1929 as Mimì in La bohème, a production conducted by Artur Rodziński with Dimitri Onofrei as Rodolfo, Mary Mellish as Musetta. That same summer she made her European debut at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on June 21, 1929, earning critical recognition in both Manon and Mimì.

In 1930 Hampton's operatic engagements expanded considerably. She sang Marguerite in Faust at the Théâtre du Casino Grand-Cercle in Aix-les-Bains, performed Manon at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liege, the Opéra de Vichy, and the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, and on September 25, 1930, made her debut at the San Francisco Opera in the role of Marguerite. She also appeared at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo and at the Paris Opera before the year's end. In 1933 she sang the title role in Thaïs with the Montreal Grand Opera Company and appeared as Manon at La Fenice in Venice. The following year she performed Manon at the Boston Opera House in February 1934 with Mario Chamlee as Des Grieux and Mario Valle as Lescaut, and repeated the role with the Chicago Grand Opera Company that December.

Hampton returned to the screen in 1938 in The Road to Reno, a film directed by Brulatour that co-starred Randolph Scott and Glenda Farrell. In her later years she became a prominent figure in New York social life, earning the informal designation of the Duchess of Park Avenue. In 1978 she was crowned Queen of the Beaux Arts Ball, presiding alongside King Arthur Tracy. Brulatour had given her a five-story Park Avenue home, built in 1885 and redesigned in 1921 by architect Emery Roth, which was listed for nine million dollars in 2016. Hampton died of a heart attack in New York City on January 23, 1982, at the age of eighty-four.