Georgie Eva Cayvan (August 22, 1857 – November 19, 1906) was a popular stage actress in the United States in the later part of the nineteenth century.

Early life

Georgia Cayvan was born at

Bath, Maine Bath is a city in Sagadahoc County, Maine, United States. Bath is included in the Brunswick, Maine, Brunswick Micropolitan statistical area, micropolitan area. Bath has a 2024 population of 8,870. It is also the county seat of Sagadahoc County ...

. She attended and graduated from the Boston School of Oratory. She initially earned a living as a professional fortune teller. She had insight into how to play out stage drama and brought her characters to fruition with her humor and expressive eyes.

Career

Cayvan in 1879 accepted her first job on stage as Hebe in

H.M.S. Pinafore ''H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor'' is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London on 25 May 1878, and ran for 571 performances, w ...

with the

Boston Ideal Opera Company The Boston Ideal Opera Company, later The Bostonians, was a comic opera acting company based in Boston from 1878 through 1905.Bordman, Gerald & Thomas S. HischakThe Oxford Companion to American Theatre p. 87 (3d ed 2004) History Effie Hinckley Ob ...

. She was a member of the Union Square Company. She appeared in ''

Hazel Kirke ''Hazel Kirke'' is a play in four acts written by American actor and dramatist Steele MacKaye. Overview The play was written between 1871 and 1879 in the town of Dublin, New Hampshire.Quinn, p. 497 MacKaye meant it to be expressly for New York ...

'' at the

Madison Square Theatre The Madison Square Theatre was a Broadway theatre in Manhattan, on the south side of 24th Street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway (which intersects Fifth Avenue near that point). It was built in 1863, operated as a theater from 1865 to 1908, an ...

in New York City in 1881. She played the part of Dolly Dutton. In 1881 she played the heroine part in a road company in such comedies and dramas as ''The Professor'' (1881); ''The White Slave'' (1882); ''Siberia'' (1883); ''May Blossom'' (1884); ''The Wife'' (1887); ''The Charity Ball'' (1889); and ''Squire Kate'' (1892). She then appeared in "

Oedipus Tyrannus ''Oedipus Rex'', also known by its Greek title, ''Oedipus Tyrannus'' (, ), or ''Oedipus the King'', is an Classical Athens, Athenian tragedy by Sophocles. While some scholars have argued that the play was first performed , this is highly uncerta ...

" at the Boston Theater. Cayvan also acted at

Booth's Theatre Booth's Theatre was a theatre in New York built by actor Edwin Booth. Located on the southeast corner of 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue, Booth's Theatre opened on February 3, 1869. The theatre featured a grand vestibule with Italian marble floor ...

in New York City. She performed at the

Fourteenth Street Theatre The Fourteenth Street Theatre was a theatre located at 107 West 14th Street just west of Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City.Berg, J.C. (9 January 2011)The Fourteenth Street Theater, ''nycvintageimages.com'' History It was designed by A ...

in "The White Slave" and Laura in "The Romany Rye." She also played Marcelle in "A Parisian Romance" in the Union Square Company. Cayvan was successful in the leading part of

David Belasco David Belasco (July 25, 1853 – May 14, 1931) was an American theatrical producer, impresario, director, and playwright. He was the first writer to adapt the short story ''Madame Butterfly'' for the stage. He launched the theatrical career of ...

’s "La Belle Russe." She was also a short time with

Dion Boucicault Dionysius Lardner "Dion" Boucicault (né Boursiquot; 26 December 1820 – 18 September 1890) was an Irish actor and playwright famed for his melodramas. By the later part of the 19th century, Boucicault had become known on both sides of the ...

. In 1893 Cayvan became one of the first people to wear a glass dress. Cook, J. Gordon , ''Handbook of Textile Fibres, Man-Made Fibres'', p. 641, Woodhead Publishing (1984), Kane, Joseph Nathan, ''Famous First Facts'', THE H. W. WILSON COMPANY, 1933, 1935, 1950; "Glass Dress", ''The first GLASS DRESS of spun glass was made in 1893 for Georgia Cayven who ordered twelve yards of glass cloth at $25 a yard from the E. D. Libbey Glass Company, Toledo, Ohio, who produced it at their exhibit at the World Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 111. The cloth was made into a dress for her, but was not practical for wearing purposes.'' The dress was too brittle to be practical however. It was exhibited at the

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in Chicago from May 5 to October 31, 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The ...

in The Chicago's World's Fair of 1893. An article in ''The New York Times'' of July 28, 1893, predicted that glass dresses would become a fashion "fad." It points out that the first dress was made for Cayvan for her performance in "American Abroad." It was made by the Libbey Glass Company. Author Amelia Ransome Neville in her book gave an account of seeing Cayvan wear the

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) is a common type of fibre-reinforced plastic, fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened i ...

dress made by Edward Drummond Libbey. She points out that Cayvan wore it in ''The Charity Ball''. In 1886 Cayvan contracted with

Daniel Frohman Daniel Frohman (August 22, 1851 – December 26, 1940) was an American theatrical producer and manager, and an early film producer. Biography Frohman was born to a Jewish family in Sandusky, Ohio. His parents were Henry (1826–1899) and Ba ...

, becoming the star of the Lyceum Theater in New York. Cayvan toured with her own company (which included

Lionel Barrymore Lionel Barrymore (born Lionel Herbert Blyth; April 28, 1878 – November 15, 1954) was an American actor of stage, screen and radio as well as a film director. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in '' A Free Soul'' (1931) ...

) starting in 1896. In March 1897, she performed with her company in El Paso, Texas in a production called "Squire Kate". She was involved in a difficult divorce case in 1896 as being the other woman.Barbas, Samantha, ''The First Lady of Hollywood: A Biography of Louella Parsons'', University of California Press (2005), p. 46, She was, however, totally exonerated after defending herself. Cayvan received much support from several women's groups.

Later life and death

After an operation in 1892 her health began to fail. In 1900 her poor health forced her to retire to the Sandford Sanitarium in

Flushing, New York Flushing is a neighborhood in the north-central portion of the New York City borough of Queens. The neighborhood is the fourth-largest central business district in New York City. Downtown Flushing is a major commercial and retail area, and the ...

. There she died in 1906, aged 49, after an illness. She is buried at Newton Cemetery, Newton Massachusetts.

References

External links

Georgia Cayvan: Broadway Photographs
Univ. of South Carolina) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cayvan, Georgia 19th-century American actresses American stage actresses American vaudeville performers Actresses from Queens, New York People from Bath, Maine 1857 births 1906 deaths