Amy Ricard (January 1, 1882 — August 17, 1937) was an American actress and suffragist.

Amy Ricard
Richard in 1908
Born(1882-01-01)January 1, 1882
DiedAugust 17, 1937(1937-08-17) (aged 55)
OccupationActress
Years active1900–1910
Spouse
Lester Lonergan
(m. 1909; died 1931)

Early life

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Amy Ricard was born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in Denver, Colorado.[1] Her mother was Emma A. Ricard.[2] She studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.[3] She also trained as a soprano singer, with Horton Kennedy.[4]

Career

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Amy Ricard in The Torches, from a 1917 publication.

Ricard appeared in Broadway in The Pride of Jennico (1900), Janice Meredith (1900-1901), The Stubbornness of Geraldine by Clyde Fitch (1902),[5] Babes in Toyland by Victor Herbert (1903-1904),[6][7] The College Widow (1904-1905),[8] Mary and John (1905), Matilda (1906-1907), The Literary Sense (1908), The Reckoning (1908),[9] Girls by Clyde Fitch (1908 and 1909), The Torches (1917),[10] The Woman on the Index (1918), and Those Who Walk in Darkness (1919).[11] On the Boston stage, with her husband Lester Lonergan, she starred in An Idyl of Erin (1910).[12]

Dorothy Parker wrote of The Woman on the Index in Vanity Fair, saying "The thing was so well done. You know yourself that with a cast including Julia Dean, Amy Ricard, and Lester Lonergan, you can't really have such a terrible evening."[13]

Amy Ricard made her political views in favor of women's suffrage public, wearing a "Votes for Women" pin and speaking at suffrage events in New York City.[14]

Personal life

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Amy Ricard's engagement to poet and editor Charles Hanson Towne was announced in 1908,[15][16] but she married Irish actor and playwright Lester Lonergan, as his third wife, in 1909. The couple owned a summer cottage on Indian Island in Maine, which was among the buildings removed by the Portland Water District in 1922 to return the island to an undeveloped state.[17] Ricard was widowed in 1931,[18] and she died in 1937, aged 55, in New York City.[19][20]

References

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  1. ^ Dixie Hines, Harry Prescott Hanaford, eds., Who's Who in Music and Drama (H. P. Hanaford 1914): 260.
  2. ^ "The Record of Deaths" New York Dramatic Mirror (May 14, 1910): 12.
  3. ^ Johnson Briscoe, The Actors' Birthday Book (Moffatt, Yard and Company 1908): 19.
  4. ^ "Miss Amy Ricard" Buffalo Times (February 15, 1903): 2. via Newspapers.com 
  5. ^ "Mary Mannering's New Play" Munsey's Magazine (January 1903): 625-626.
  6. ^ William A. Everett, Paul R. Laird, Historical Dictionary of the Broadway Musical (Rowman & Littlefield 2015): 29-30. ISBN 9781442256699
  7. ^ "Amy Ricard Will Star in the New Opera by Victor Herbert" Pittsburgh Gazette (March 20, 1903): 14. via Newspapers.com 
  8. ^ "This Week's Plays" Washington Post (September 11, 1904): 5. via Newspapers.com 
  9. ^ "Schnitzler's Plays at Madison Square" New York Times (January 14, 1908): 7. via ProQuest
  10. ^ "In the Spotlight" Theatre Magazine (December 1917): 348.
  11. ^ Alexander Woollcott, "The Play" New York Times (August 15, 1919): 12. via ProQuest
  12. ^ "Boston Theatres" Journal of Education (September 8, 1910): 223.
  13. ^ Dorothy Parker & Kevin C. Fitzpatrick, Dorothy Parker: Complete Broadway, 1918-1923 (2014): 40. ISBN 9781491722657
  14. ^ "Pretty Gotham Actress Becomes Suffragette" Oakland Tribune (May 7, 1908): 7. via Newspapers.com 
  15. ^ Untitled social item, Washington Post (February 23, 1908): 2. via Newspapers.com 
  16. ^ "Amy Ricard to Wed Charles H. Towne" New York Times (February 15, 1908): 7. via ProQuest
  17. ^ "Indian Island summer cottage owned by actors Amy Ricard and Lester Lonergan, Standish, 1923", Portland Water District, Maine Memory Network.
  18. ^ "Lester Lonergan Dies Suddenly" Daily News (August 15, 1931): 54. via Newspapers.com 
  19. ^ "Mrs. Amy Lonergan" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (August 18, 1937): 11. via Newspapers.com 
  20. ^ "Mrs. Lester Lonergan" New York Times (August 18, 1937): 19. via ProQuest
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