The short, sad story of actress Clara Bloodgood | MCNY Blog: New York Stories

Byron Company (New York, N.Y.). Plays, The Girl with the Green Eyes, 1903. Museum of the City of New York. 93.1.1.19027.

On the evening of December 5, 1907, respected actress and society woman Clara Bloodgood fatally shot herself in a Baltimore hotel room. She was in town to star as the heroine of Clyde Fitch’s The Truth, a role that she originated on Broadway earlier that year.  While not a roaring success, the production received positive reviews in the press, and Mrs. Bloodgood had signed on to star in Fitch’s next new work at the tour’s conclusion.  She was 37 years old.  This week, in honor of Women’s History Month, we remember Clara Bloodgood, how she came to the stage and how she chose to make her exit.

Born Clara Sutton Stephens to well positioned if artistically inclined parents in Long Branch, N. J., the young Miss Stephens was married, divorced, and remarried by the time…

Source: The short, sad story of actress Clara Bloodgood | MCNY Blog: New York Stories