Beatriz Michelena

Beatriz Michelena
Beatriz Michelena in 1914, on the cover of The New York Dramatic Mirror
Born	(1890-02-22)February 22, 1890 New York City, New York, USA
Died	October 10, 1942(1942-10-10) (aged 52) San Francisco, California, USA
Other names	Beatriz Michelena Middleton
Years active	1910–1927
Spouse(s)	George E. Middleton

Beatriz Michelena (February 22, 1890 – October 10, 1942) was an American actress during the silent film era, known at the time for her operatic soprano voice and appearances in musical theatre. She was one of the few Latina stars visible on the silver screen in the United States in the 1910s. She was the leading lady in each film project she was involved in, and co-founded a production company with her husband, producing four of her own movies.

She wrote popular articles for newspapers, including an advice column for girls, describing what it was like to be an actress, and answering questions from readers. For adult readers, Michelena wrote other pieces such as a history of the moving picture industry. In 1920 when she stopped making films, she returned to her career as a singer.

Michelena faded from historiography for many years, but her place in history has recently been re-examined; she was mentioned in 2002 in a presidential proclamation and her 1914 film Salomy Jane is enjoying a limited re-release.

Beatriz Michelena was reportedly born in New York City in 1890, six years after her sister Vera Michelena. Her father, Fernando Michelena (1858–1921), whose parents were Spanish; settled in Caracas, Venezuela where he was born. Her father was a noted tenor, was singing the title role of the opera Ernani with a traveling theatre company that performed famous operas translated to English for American audiences. (She listed her birthplace as New York in the 1920 US Census, but in the 1930 census she said California.)

Over much of her childhood, Michelena’s parents toured with the Emma Abbott Grand Opera Company. Beatriz's father in later life taught music and worked as a vocal coach and, at the time of his death, was serving as president of Arrillaga Musical College, San Francisco. Beatriz and her sister Vera were trained by their father in classical voice and drama studies, and they followed in his footsteps by beginning singing careers of their own. Vera first appeared onstage in the Princess Chic Opera company (1901) at 17, taking a leading role in The Man from China (1904). Beatriz, too, performed with Princess Chic in 1901, taking chorus roles suitable for a child of 11. By mid-1904, with Vera busy pursuing her career in New York, Fernando Michelena settled in San Francisco, California to teach voice. There, he raised Beatriz and continued to train her, a soprano, in operatic vocal techniques. He passed his stage experience to his daughter: the way to move as another person, the way to make simple but authoritative gestures, and the way to build intensity over the span of a performance. Maria Antonia Field, a Californian writer, would later chronicle her time as a student of Michelena’s father in her book, Five Years of Vocal Study under Fernando Michelena.