Pauline Chase

Pauline Chase, born Pauline Bliss on May 20, 1885, in Washington, D.C., was an American actress who built her career on stages in both the United States and the United Kingdom. The daughter of Dr. Ellis Bliss, she received her early education at the Convent of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in New York and began acting at the age of 15. She died on March 15, 1962, in Royal Tunbridge Wells, England.

Chase first attracted the notice of producer Charles Frohman through his production of the musical play The Girl from Up There, starring Edna May, which opened at the Herald Square Theatre in January 1901. Frohman recruited her for the cast, assigning her the role of Sybilla, when he transferred the production to the Duke of York's Theatre in London's West End that April. Still only fifteen, she made her first Atlantic crossing for that engagement. Upon returning to the United States in September of that year, she created a sensation as the Pink Pajama Girl in The Liberty Belles, one of her verified Broadway credits. Her Broadway career spanned 1899 to 1910 and included appearances in The Cadet Girl, The Rounders, Our Miss Gibbs, and My Lady, among other productions.

In 1903 Chase returned to London with Frohman to appear in The School Girls at the Prince of Wales Theatre, remaining in England for several years thereafter. In December 1904 she was an original cast member of the first-ever production of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up at the Duke of York's Theatre, playing the role of the first twin, with Nina Boucicault in the title role. The following year, while performing the role of Columbine in Barrie's Pantaloon, she appeared twice before the King and Queen at Windsor and Sandringham and received a personal gift from their Majesties in recognition of her performance.

During the 1905 Christmas season, Chase was again in the cast of Peter Pan at the Duke of York's Theatre. When the lead actress, Cissie Loftus, fell ill during the subsequent provincial tour, Chase stepped into the title role as understudy. Barrie was sufficiently impressed that he selected her as his preferred Peter Pan going forward. She held the role for eight consecutive Christmas seasons at the Duke of York's Theatre, accumulating over 1,400 performances, and the part brought her widespread fame. The costume she wore in those productions is preserved at the Museum of London.

In 1906 Chase was baptized into the Church of England, adding the names Ellen and Matthew to her own in honor of her godparents, actress Ellen Terry and author James Matthew Barrie. That autumn she took the lead role in Chevalier's wordless play The Scapegoat, and in 1907 she appeared in A Little Japanese Girl at the Duke of York's Theatre. In 1908 she performed in Paris, first in Peter Pan at the Vaudeville Theatre and then in Pantaloon at the Théâtre des Arts.

When not performing, Chase spent considerable time in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, where she was frequently visited by Frohman. She was known as the Pocket Venus of New York and moved in prominent social circles alongside Frohman. Her attachment to Marlow was such that she arranged for her mother's remains to be exhumed from a grave in Washington and reinterred at Holy Trinity Church in the town. A fountain statue erected in Marlow in 1924 in memory of Frohman is widely believed, though without documented confirmation, to have been modeled on Chase.

Chase retired from the stage following the conclusion of the 1913 Christmas run of Peter Pan to marry banker Captain Alexander Victor Drummond, with whom she had three children. She emerged from retirement once in 1916 to appear in The Real Thing at Last, a satirical film scripted by Barrie and screened at a benefit for the YMCA attended by members of the British royal family. It was her sole screen appearance.