Amelia Bingham

Amelia Swilley Bingham (March 20, 1869 – September 1, 1927) was an American actress from Hicksville, Ohio. Her Broadway career extended from 1896 until 1926.

Bingham attended Ohio Wesleyan University before marrying Lloyd Bingham. Her father was a Methodist minister who managed a hotel. Her future husband persuaded her father to permit Bingham to go on stage approximately a year before the couple married.

Her first role in a stage production came on the Pacific Coast. Her New York City debut came at the People's Theatre, 199 Bowery, in 1893. Her role was a leading part in a melodrama entitled The Struggle For Life.

Her first successes in the 1890s included The Power of Gold, The Shaughran, Colleen Bawn, The Village Postmaster, and Captain Impudence. By 1897 she was managed by Charles Frohman and was the leading lady in The White Heather. With Frohman she was featured in The Pink Domino, The Proper Caper, On and Off, At the White Horse Tavern, The Cuckoo, and His Excellency The Governor.

Bingham's popularity as a performer peaked around 1897. She tallied more than 9,000 of 30,000 votes cast in a newspaper competition for the title of American State Queen. Earlier stars like Lillian Russell, Maud Allan, Ada Rehan, and Fannie Davenport received a mere hundred votes each.

She started the Amelia Bingham Company which produced The Climbers starring Bijou Fernandez. A visit to London, England in 1900 acquainted her with actresses who were their own producers. The Climbers by Clyde Fitch premiered at the Bijou Theatre on January 15, 1901, and had an extended run. Other plays which were staged with her oversight were Lady Margaret, The Modern Magdalen, and The Frisky Mrs. Johnson. Bingham performed and produced Olympe (1904), a Broadway play in which she later toured with Gilbert Miller. Bingham acted the lead in Big Moments from Great Plays (1909) and starred with William H. Crane and Douglas Fairbanks Sr. in The New Henrietta, prior to World War I. However illness began to hinder her from working around 1914. In 1918 she appeared in The Man Who Stayed Home.

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