Nella Bergen

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Nella Bergen
A white woman with curly dark hair piled up loosely and wrapped with a scarf; she is seated and wearing a light-colored gown with extensive beading
Nella Bergen, from a 1911 photograph
Born
Ellen G. Reardon

(1873-12-02)December 2, 1873 (or 1871)
Brooklyn, New York
DiedApril 24, 1919(1919-04-24) (aged 45)
Freeport, New York
OccupationActress
Spouse(s)
James Dunne Bergen
​
​
(m. 1892; div. 1899)​

​
​
(m. 1899; div. 1913)​

Nella Bergen (December 2, 1873[a] – April 24, 1919) was an American stage actress and singer who performed in operettas on Broadway and in London at the turn into the 20th century.

Early life and education[edit]

Ellen G. Reardon was born in Brooklyn, New York,[1] the daughter of John Edward Reardon and Margaret M. Reardon.[2] All of her grandparents were immigrants from Ireland. Her father was a police captain in Brooklyn.[3][4] She studied voice with Polish-born opera singer Adelina Murio-Celli d'Elpeux.[5]

Career[edit]

A scene from The Free Lance as performed in Seattle in 1907, featuring Bergen in a white gown, standing on the far right, and three costumed male actors seated to her right

Bergen was a church soloist as a young woman.[6] She began her professional stage career as a soloist with the bandmaster Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore.[1][2] As an actress and singer she appeared mainly in operettas, musicals, and comedies. Her Broadway credits included roles in The Charlatan (1898–1899), Baroness Fiddlesticks (1904), Wang (1904),[7] The Free Lance (1906–1907), The Talk of New York (1907), and He Came from Milwaukee (1910).[1][3][8]

Bergen also toured with theatrical productions, including in London performances of The Mystical Miss,[9] El Capitan[10] and The Charlatan in 1899. She sang at a wintertime outdoor show at a hospital for tuberculosis patients in 1909.[11] She had one film credit, for the 1899 silent short film The Summer Girl. Her image was used to sell sheet music for popular songs.[12]

Bergen proposed and supported the establishment of a care home for the pets of people in theatre work, whose schedules and income fluctuations could make pet care difficult or irregular. "There are no creatures on earth that suffer more than the animal pets of stage folk," she told The New York Times in 1909.[13]

Personal life[edit]

Reardon married twice. Her first husband was Connecticut manufacturer James Dunn Bergen, whose surname she used professionally; they married in 1892 and divorced in 1899.[6][14] Her second husband was DeWolf Hopper; they married in 1899[4] and divorced in 1913,[15] which made theirs the longest of Hopper's six marriages (his other wives included Edna Wallace Hopper and Hedda Hopper). She died from pneumonia in 1919, at the age of 45, at her home in Freeport, New York.[3]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Bergen's gravestone gives 1871 as her birth year.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Briscoe, Johnson (1907). The Actors' Birthday Book: An Authoritative Insight Into the Lives of the Men and Women of the Stage Born Between January 1 and December 31. Moffat, Yard. p. 269.
  2. ^ a b "Brooklyn Prima Donna; Nella Bergen, who is with DeWolf Hopper in 'El Capitan'". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. September 20, 1896. p. 16. Retrieved July 14, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ a b c "Nella Bergen Dead". The New York Times. April 26, 1919. p. 15. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 18, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ a b "De Wolf Hopper to Marry? It Is Reported That He Will Wed Miss Nella Bergen Immediately". The New York Times. Minneapolis (published June 4, 1899). June 3, 1899. p. 3. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 18, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "Mme. Adelina Murio-Celli d'Elpeux". The New York Times. April 11, 1900. p. 9. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 18, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ a b "Will Nella Bergen Remarry?". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. June 4, 1899. p. 33. Retrieved July 14, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Nella Bergen". The Theatre. 4 (42): 208. August 1904.
  8. ^ "He Came from Milwaukee". The Metropolitan Magazine. 33 (3): 400. December 1910.
  9. ^ "'The Mystical Miss' Opens in London". The New York Times. December 14, 1899. p. 6. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 18, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "Nella Bergen, the Handsome Isabelle in 'El Capitan'". The Sketch. 27: 297. September 6, 1899.
  11. ^ "Play for Consumptives; De Wolf Hopper and His Company Entertain at Riverside Hospital". The New York Times. January 20, 1909. p. 9. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 18, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "I'd rather be on old Broadway with you". NYPL Digital Collections. Retrieved July 14, 2023.
  13. ^ "Home for Stage Folks' Pets; Nella Bergen Says She Has Pledged $1,000 to Insure Its Establishment". The New York Times. January 23, 1909. p. 5. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 18, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ "Nella Bergen Now of Fargo". The Journal. May 4, 1898. p. 2. Retrieved July 14, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Absolute Decree for Nella Bergen Hopper". Times Union. April 21, 1913. p. 1. Retrieved July 14, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.

External links[edit]

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