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Elena Miramova (27 May 1901 – 8 July 1992"California Death Records"
California Department of Health Services, Office of Health Information and Research, Vital Statistics Section, RootsWeb.ancestry.com, 1 September 2008.
) was an American actress and playwright.


Beginnings and training

Miramova was born in 1901 in
Tsaritsyn Volgograd,. formerly Tsaritsyn. (1589–1925) and Stalingrad. (1925–1961), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. The city lies on the western bank of the Volga, covering an area of , with a population ...
,
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
(currently,
Volgograd Volgograd,. formerly Tsaritsyn. (1589–1925) and Stalingrad. (1925–1961), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. The city lies on the western bank of the Volga, covering an area of , with a population ...
,
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
), and emigrated to
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
with a brother who died when she was eleven years old. She worked at a nightgown factory to support herself until a wealthy family with an interest in theatre discovered her and helped put her through school."Miss Miramova Explains." ''The New York Times'', 11 April 1943. Note: Nellie Cornish, E.M.'s mother, writes that this discovery took place in Detroit.
Samuel James Hume Samuel James Hume (June 14, 1885 – September 1, 1962) was an American dramatic director, producer, art museum director, and book dealer. Samuel Hume was born in San Francisco, California in 1885, the son of James B. Hume, a famous Wells Fargo ...
, who discovered Miramova, had been director of the Arts and Crafts Theatre in Detroit and became director of the Berkeley Greek Theatre in 1918. The girl had an instant attraction to the stage, and now on stage in Berkeley, Hume felt her Russian accent would limit her in a career in theater.Cornish, Nellie C. (1964), Browne, Ellen Van Volkenburg; Beck, Edward Nordhoff (eds), ''Miss Aunt Nellie. The autobiography of Nellie C. Cornish'', foreword by Nancy Wilson Ross, Seattle: Univ. of Washington Press. p. xiii, pp 142–45. He sent her to study acting and work on her accent at the experimental
Cornish School Cornish College of the Arts (CCA) was a private art college in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1914 by music teacher Nellie Cornish. The college's main campus is in the Denny Triangle neighborhood near downtown Seattle. It officially bec ...
in
Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
in 1922. After some months, she came at last to live with the school's founder and director,
Nellie Cornish Nellie Centennial Cornish (1876 – 1956) was a pianist, teacher, writer, and founder of the Cornish School (now Cornish College of the Arts) in Seattle, Washington. She was influenced by the pedagogical ideas of Maria MontessoriNate Lippens, shor ...
, who having "always wanted a daughter of my own" sometime later adopted Miramova. Her training at the Cornish School formed the basis of a successful theatrical career. While at the Cornish School she met the Russian singer and director,
Vladimir Rosing Vladimir Sergeyevich Rosing () (November 24, 1963), also known as Val Rosing, was a Russian-born operatic tenor and stage director who spent most of his professional career in the United Kingdom and the United States. In his formative years he ex ...
, who had come there to teach a four-week master class. The close relationship with Rosing would continue in New York, London and later in California.


Early performances

She married the producer Frederic Theodore Rolbein and traveled through Europe with him, winning acclaim with several roles she performed in England and in continental Europe. She played Bianca in the 1931 play ''Anatol'', which played 16 January 1931 to Feb 1931 at London's Lyceum Theatre to mixed reviews. Later that year, she appeared for three weeks in the play ''
Grand Hotel A grand hotel is a large and luxurious hotel, especially one housed in a building with traditional architectural style. It began to flourish in the 1800s in Europe and North America. Grand Hotel may refer to: Hotels Africa * Grande Hotel Beir ...
'' at the
Adelphi Theatre The Adelphi Theatre is a West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster, central London. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiv ...
, after the lead
Eugenie Leontovich Eugenie Leontovich (born Yevgeniya Konstantinovna Leontovich; ; March 21 or April 3, "Eugenie Leontovich, 93; actress, writer, director", ''Chicago Tribune'', April 4, 1993, pg. 6."Eugenie Leontovich, 93, Actress, Playwright and Teacher, Is De ...
fell ill and left the production for a short rest. Despite Miramova's brief time in the role, she was spotlighted as "outstanding in a cast of clever players," and her portrayal of the Russian ballerina Grusinskaya was hailed as "a thing of sheer beauty." In the following year she appeared in another Russian leading role in London. ''
The Stage ''The Stage'' is a British weekly newspaper and website covering the entertainment industry and particularly theatre. Founded in 1880, ''The Stage'' contains news, reviews, opinion, features, and recruitment advertising, mainly directed at thos ...
'' praised her "impassioned and most spirited" Vera Levine, a young idealist in the U.S.S.R. in
F. L. Lucas Frank Laurence Lucas (28 December 1894 – 1 June 1967) was an English Classics, classical scholar, literary critic, poet, novelist, playwright, political polemicist, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and intelligence officer at Bletchley Pa ...
's '' The Bear Dances'' (
Garrick Theatre The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located in Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster, named after the stage actor David Garrick. It opened in 1889 with ''The Profligate'', a play by Arthur Wing Pinero, and another Pinero play, ...
, 1932), the first dramatisation of the Soviets on the West-end stage. Returning to New York after her husband died, she found that her strong Russian accent typecast her as a "Continental actress" in the American theatre and limited the roles she was offered; her fortunes took a downward turn, and she recalled during a later interview how she had been barred from a hotel room for non-payment while rehearsing a show.


Later roles

Despite the above concerns, she was next cast as Theodora in the comedy ''Theodora, the Quean'' (the word "quean" meaning "harlot"), which had five performances at Philadelphia's
Forrest Theatre The Forrest Theatre is a live theatre venue at 1114 Walnut Street in the Center City area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It has a seating capacity of 1,851 and is managed by The Shubert Organization.
, beginning 31 January 1934. Her next appearance was in Scarborough, New York in the play ''Short Story'' in September 1934. The next year, she played Marianne Pentland in the drama ''Times Have Changed,'' from 25 February 1935 to March 1935."Elena Miramova." The Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. 1 September 2008. She then went to Ann Arbor, Michigan for the Ann Arbor Festival in May 1937, where she played in the comedy ''Tovarich'', and that same year, starred in ''Lucrezia Borgia'', which opened 9 August 1937 at the Wharf Theatre in Provincetown. By the time she appeared as Mrs. Carroll in the 1937 drama ''The Two Mrs. Carrolls'', at Pittsburgh's
Nixon Theatre The Nixon Theatre was a theatre in Philadelphia. It was built in 1910 and closed around 1984. It held 1,870 seats. The architectural design of the Nixon Theatre was made by John D. Allen. It was located on 34 S 52nd Street, Philadelphia, PA. T ...
, Miramova had already "pretty much taken London by storm" in past performances of the play. She then performed briefly in
Ogunquit Ogunquit ( ) is a resort town in York County, Maine, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 1,577. Ogunquit is part of the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area. History Ogunquit was first a village within ...
, Maine in the show ''Fata Morgana'', during the week of 11 July 1938. Later, she starred in the two-person show ''Close Quarters'', which opened 6 March 1939 and ran for six shows at the
John Golden Theatre The John Golden Theatre, formerly the Theatre Masque and Masque Theater, is a Broadway theatre, Broadway theater at 252 West 45th Street (George Abbott Way) in the Theater District, Manhattan, Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York ...
in New York. Finally, she appeared in the Berkeley Theatre Festival in April 1941.


Miramova the writer

Frustrated with her career difficulties and pondering the quirks of the Russian character, Miramova decided in 1940 to write her own play, with custom-tailored roles for herself and two of her fellow Russian-American actresses. In collaboration with
Eugenie Leontovich Eugenie Leontovich (born Yevgeniya Konstantinovna Leontovich; ; March 21 or April 3, "Eugenie Leontovich, 93; actress, writer, director", ''Chicago Tribune'', April 4, 1993, pg. 6."Eugenie Leontovich, 93, Actress, Playwright and Teacher, Is De ...
, her long-time friend with whom she had shared ''Grand Hotels starring role in 1931, she wrote the comedy ''Dark Eyes'' and submitted the script to producer
Ben Hecht Ben Hecht (; February 28, 1894 – April 18, 1964) was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, journalist, and novelist. A journalist in his youth, he went on to write 35 books and some of the most enjoyed screenplays and play ...
for an opinion. The play went into production in 1942, premiered in January 1943, and enjoyed a six-month run at the
Belasco Theatre The Belasco Theatre is a Broadway theater at 111 West 44th Street, between Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Originally known as the Stuyvesant Theatre, it was bu ...
in New York."''Dark Eyes'' To End Run." ''The New York Times.'' 23 July 1943. In March 1943,
Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...
purchased the film rights to the play. Miramova earned $250,000 in the transaction, but the planned movie was never made. In addition to its theatrical success, ''Dark Eyes'' also provided a rare insight into Miramova's psyche. She played the character Tonia Karpova, and during a 1943 interview with ''The New York Times'', she described both herself and her stage alter-ego as "not a plate of sex appeal, but kind, metaphysical, and trying very hard to keep a belief in God"; the interviewer characterized Miramova, like Tonia, as delicately feminine, intelligent, strong, and enduring. She began work on a second play in 1944, a comedy about a mother and daughter, but this work apparently was never completed.


Marriage and final years

In May 1945, she married army captain Byron Carr Moore in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Her theatrical career seems to have ended at this time, as no further mention of her in print sources in English can be found. She spent the winter of 1946-7 in Iceland, where her husband had been hired by the recently founded Icelandic airline
Loftleiðir Loftleiðir (, ), internationally known as Icelandic Airlines (abbreviated IAL) or Loftleiðir Icelandic, was a private Icelandic airline headquartered on the grounds of Reykjavík Airport in Reykjavík, which operated mostly trans-Atlantic flig ...
to train their first pilots. During the year that Miramova spent in Iceland, she was a regular visitor to the house of
Halldór Laxness Halldór Kiljan Laxness (; born Halldór Guðjónsson; 23 April 1902 – 8 February 1998) was an Icelandic writer and winner of the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature. He wrote novels, poetry, newspaper articles, essays, plays, travelogues and sh ...
, who received the
Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...
in 1955. Miramova gave at least one private reading of her "new play" at Laxness' house. In her memoirs, Laxness' wife Auður fondly remembers Miramova, whom she calls "one of those enchanting women one can never forget".Laxness, Auður and Edda Andrésdóttir. ''Á Gljúfrasteini'', Reykjavík: Vaka-bókaforlag, p. 56.


Death

Elena Miramova Moore died in
Ventura, California Ventura, officially named San Buenaventura (Spanish for "Saint Bonaventure"), is a city in and the county seat of Ventura County, California, United States. It is a coastal city located northwest of Los Angeles. The population was 110,763 at the ...
on 8 July 1992, at the age of 92.


See also

* Dark Eyes *
Eugenie Leontovich Eugenie Leontovich (born Yevgeniya Konstantinovna Leontovich; ; March 21 or April 3, "Eugenie Leontovich, 93; actress, writer, director", ''Chicago Tribune'', April 4, 1993, pg. 6."Eugenie Leontovich, 93, Actress, Playwright and Teacher, Is De ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miramova, Elena Actresses from New York City 1901 births 1992 deaths Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States