Yvonne Garrick

Yvonne Garrick, born Eugénie Marie Louise Garchery on 25 July 1875 in Charolles, was a French stage actress who built her career across Parisian theaters before eventually performing on Broadway between 1918 and 1920. She trained under Maurice de Féraudy at the Conservatoire de Paris, where she earned the top prize among female students upon graduating in 1900.

Garrick launched her professional career immediately after graduation, taking the stage at the Théâtre National de l'Odéon in Château Historique in 1900. The following year she appeared in multiple productions at the same theater, including the title role in Psyche, Le Mariage de Figaro, Colinette, and La Nuit de Mai. In 1902 she returned to the Odéon for Le Luxe des Autres. Her work extended to the Comédie-Française, where in 1905 she played Jessica in Shylock, ou le Marchand de Venice. She took the title role in Jeanne Qui Rit at the Théâtre Réjane in 1908, and the following year starred in Le Poussin at the Odéon. Among her notable Parisian credits was Edouard Pailleron's comedy Le Monde où l'on s'ennuie with the Comédie-Française, a production she would later bring to North American audiences.

Garrick made her New York debut in 1915 in the farce Mon Ami Teddy. In the spring of 1916 she appeared at New York's Théâtre Français in Le Monde où l'on s'ennuie, Arsène Lupin, and La Sacrifiée. During the same period she participated in wartime benefit performances, including a January 1916 event at a New York art gallery where a group of actresses and writers read letters from Edith Wharton's The Book of the Homeless to raise funds for war relief. In 1918 she appeared on programs for Secours Franco-Américain at the Ritz-Carlton and at a Lake Placid fundraiser for the American Friends of Musicians in France. That same year she sang in Le Petit Abbé, a one-act opera by Charles Grisart performed at the Metropolitan Opera alongside Enrico Caruso and Frances Alda.

In 1919 Garrick starred in Frou Frou in Montréal and appeared in Le Gendre de M. Poirier at the Théâtre du Vieux Colombier, while also performing with a company at the Lenox Little Theater. The following year she toured the United States in three short plays opposite Belgian actor Carlo Liten. Her Broadway credits include the play Musk and the revue Let's Go, both produced during her Broadway period of 1918 to 1920. In 1921 she delivered a recitation at a reception for French ambassador Jean Jules Jusserand, hosted by the Cercle Rochambeau in New York. A photograph held by the Library of Congress identifies her as Yvonne Garrick Garchery, and a 1916 portrait by Arnold Genthe is also part of that institution's collection.