Nellie McHenry

Nellie McHenry (May 29, 1853 – May 4, 1935) was an American stage actress born in St. Louis, Missouri, whose career spanned several decades of American theatrical life. She died on May 4, 1935, at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, New Jersey, at the age of 81. Her Broadway appearance came in 1911, when she performed in the musical The Quaker Girl.

McHenry began her stage career as a ballet girl at the Pine Street Theatre in St. Louis under the management of Ben DeBar. By 1868 she had joined DeBar's Opera House Company, and during these early years she worked alongside prominent figures of the American stage including Edwin Forrest, Edwin Booth, and Lawrence Barrett. In the summer of 1869 she traveled to Kansas, where she performed as a soubrette with the Irwin's Dramatic and Operatic Troupe before returning to DeBar's company. She appeared with Lisa Weber's Burlesque and Comedy Combination troupe in Topeka, Kansas and Missouri during the summer of 1871, and by 1872 was part of the stock company at the Chicago Academy of Music, subsequently performing with the Chicago Museum company as well.

Her association with Hooley's Comedy Company in Chicago marked a significant turning point. She made her first appearance at Hooley's Theatre on February 8, 1875, performing soubrette roles in plays by Bartley Campbell. It was at Hooley's that she met both light comedian John Webster, whom she would later marry, and Nate Salsbury. Together with Webster and W. S. Daboll, she and Salsbury formed the Salsbury Troubadours, a six-person comic opera company that gave its first performance in Chicago in May 1875. McHenry appeared in several of the company's farces, among them Patchwork, The Brook, and Bronson Howard's Green Room Fun. Her portrayal of the lead soubrette in The Brook brought her particular recognition, and a tour with the Troubadours to Australia further established her reputation as a skilled actress.

In 1880 McHenry performed in M'liss at the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia. Two years later, in 1882, she starred as Dollie Dashwood in Three of a Kind, a comedy written by Edward E. Kidder specifically for the Salsbury Troubadours. From 1884 through 1890 she appeared in seven productions at Macauley's Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky. By 1886 she had become widely known by the nickname Jolly Nellie McHenry. She remained the lead performer in the Troubadours' farce comedies until late 1888, and when Salsbury withdrew from active stage life the organization was reorganized under the name Nellie McHenry and Company, with McHenry leading her own troupe.

By 1890 she had also appeared in advertisements promoting the Sweet Caporal brand for Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company. In 1892 McHenry and her company began touring in A Night at the Circus, written by Henry Grattan Donnelly. She played Mlle. Electra, a circus rider who leaves her company after a dispute with her manager, becomes entangled with two married lawyers who grow infatuated with her, and ultimately plots revenge by forcing the men to perform humiliating circus roles. In the production's final act she appeared as the Queen of the Arena, costumed as a circus rider and mounted on a horse.

In 1895 McHenry introduced two new works. The first was The Bicycle Girl, a cyclo-comedy written for her by Louis Harrison and performed exclusively by her, which she debuted at the Grand Opera House amid the period's bicycle craze. That same year she also debuted A Night in New York, an operatic comedy written for her by Henry Grattan Donnelly, in which she played a dual role: Miss Henriette, a demure New England maiden, and Peerless Peri, a vaudeville queen. In January 1899 she performed Vincent Maggio's The Dimple in Her Chin. In the early 1900s she starred in a revival of M'liss, touring in the production for five years. McHenry is recognized as among the first performers to appear in what later became known as farce comedies.

McHenry was married twice. Her first marriage, in 1871, ended after five months. In June 1873 she married John N. Webster in Toledo, Ohio. Webster disappeared one night in 1900 at Niagara Falls and was presumed to have been lost to the falls; his body was never recovered.