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Richmond Times-Dispatch August 4, 1935

Home > Newspaper Articles > Sallie Partington - A Favorite of Theatregoers during Civil War Era

Sallie Partington, Once Richmond's Toast

Capital City's Old-time Theatregoers Will Recall
Benefit for War-time Favorite

By Bruce Chesterman

This is the story of Richmond's own favorite actress, Sallie Partington, whose career began here as a child, who became the idol of the soldiers of the South, who on the stage of the Richmond Theatre played leading roles opposite the great Wallack and Joe Jefferson, and many of the other stars, and in after years lived in obscurity and poverty within seven short blocks of the scene of her wartime triumphs.

Those were the glamorous days of the theatre in Richmond, before the War between the States, and during that mighty conflict, and for a decade following it--the period when Richmond ranked high in the world of the stage, a period which has been recorded in its annals along with New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Cincinnati.

And the story of those days was told the writer by those who acted and worked in the three theatres of Richmond of that time, the Marshall, the Varieties and the Richmond Theatre, with such illustrious players as Edwin Forrest, Edwin Booth, Lawrence Barrett, John McCullough, James Wallack, Joe Jefferson, E. A. Sothern, E. L. Davenport and Charlotte Cushman, names that have been emblazoned in the history of the American stage.

As a chronicler of the stage, I discovered Sallie Partington living in a meager, bare room, over a grocery store at the corner of Fourth and Jackson Streets, and it fell to my lot to aid her in saving from the auctioneer's hammer the only property she owned in the world, a little farm of a few acres in Hanover County near Richmond. I interested in her behalf Thomas G. Leath, manager of Academy of Music, where a benefit performance was staged, and when her plight became known, many came forward to offer her financial assistance, among them Captain John Cousins of Glen Allen, who with his long, flowing hair, was a familiar figure on the streets of Richmond, a Southern gentleman of the old school, whose printing establishment sent its products not only to every State in the Union, but to faraway Australia, and other distant lands.

In telling the story of Sallie Partington and the Richmond Theatre, the names of Peter Jackson and Lonnie Graves, two other Richmonders, are so closely connected with it, that it would not be complete without relating the part they also played in an era of the stage in which this city figured so prominently that it is mentioned in a London edition of one of the most authoritative works on the drama. It is a far cry from the Richmond of those days, when the greatest artists of the stage played here for an entire week, and in some instances for longer engagements, to the later period with which this generation is acquainted, when it became a one-night stand.

It was during the last illness of Peter Jackson, whose connection with the Richmond playhouses dated from 1853, while I was calling at his home on North Fourth Street, that it was quite casually mentioned to me that Sallie Partington was living in a room over a grocery store on the next corner. I had heard the name of Sallie Partington all my life. I have been told by my father of this famous wartime actress who was the favorite of Southern soldiers, who had been cheered by great generals as they sat in the boxes, and to whom in the exuberance of their spirits, the men in the ranks often threw money to the stage when she appeared before the footlights. But Sallie Partington had dropped out of the life of Richmond a decade after the war, for her talents were then in demand in some of the finest stock companies in America, including the Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Baltimore and St. Louis, and in still later years had gone "on the road." To my generation of Richmonders she was only a name connected with wartime Richmond, and the days following the great struggle between North and South, of which we had heard so much.

Immediately upon leaving the home of Mr. Jackson, I went to the corner grocery mentioned, and climbing the one flight of stairs, knocked at the door at the landing. To the invitation, "Come in," which came in a woman's voice, I entered, and there in a cheerless room, though it was clean and well-kept, I found Sallie Partington. I introduced myself, and the fact that I had been directed to her lodging by one of the family of Peter Jackson, was sufficient to insure for me a gracious reception.

Sallie Partington was a woman not above medium height, with a comely figure, and she still might have played "Little Barefoot," as Maggie Mitchell did at 60. Even then, 35 years after the war, though the marks of age were upon her, she had a spark of the old fire that inspired the soldiers of Lee's army, and when she recalled the days when she played upon the stages of Richmond theatres, her eyes shone, and her voice was vibrant in its intensity.

"Yes," she said, "I was the favorite of all the soldiers, and I often visited the hospitals, and helped minister to the sick and wounded. Often when I would be riding or driving, groups of soldiers in the streets would stop and cheer me as I passed. At night at the theatre I was always greeted with enthusiasm. At many a performance have the soldiers thrown money to me upon the stage."

The famous actress proved a very good subject for an interview. "I was born," she said, "at No. 28 High Street, Islington, England, that town now being a part of London. Never mind the year of my birth, she said, with a smile, when in the temerity of my then youthful days I asked that question. "My father was John Partington, a confectioner. When I was at a very tender age my father and mother left England, and with their eight children located in New York City, and a little later we moved to Richmond and boarded at a Mrs. Chamberlayne's on Broad Street near Ninth. There were four girls--Jennie, Kate, Mary and myself--and we all went on the stage when very young children.

I do not remember at what performance it was that I first went on the stage, but my first speaking part was as a midshipman in 'Black-Eyed Susan.' I played that part at the Marshall Theatre in Richmond before the war, when the house was under the management of James Taylor. I remember my appearance in that piece very distinctly. The only lines I had to speak were, 'Witness for the prison,' but when I went on I was overcome with state fright, and could not say them to save my life, so I burst out crying and ran off the stage. Peter Jackson, the captain for the supers, was standing in the wings, and he came to me and said: 'Don't cry, Sallie, go on and try it again.' I did so, and this time I spoke the lines, and added with a stamp of my foot, "There, I got them out then.' This remark brought down the house, and when I walked off the stage, with the applause ringing in my ears, I thought I was the greatest actress in America."

While Sallie Partington did not become "the greatest actress in America," that proud title being held in that period by Charlotte Cushman, she at least played the leading female roles opposite of the the greatest actors in America, who came to Richmond to be supported by the stock company here. The Richmond stock company, under different managements, occupied the boards of three houses during the period just before the war, during the four years when this city was the capital of the Confederacy, and during the years that followed. The Marshall Theatre, which stood at the southeast corner of Seventh and Broad, was destroyed by fire in 1860. The company then moved to the Trinity Church building, next to the Exchange Hotel, on Franklin Street near Thirteenth, this new home of the drama being called the "varieties."

The building was later used as a house of worship by colored people, when the Richmond Theatre was built on the site of the Marshall Theatre, opening in 1863 with "As You Like It" as the bill. One of the dressing rooms of the new theatre was named the "Sallie Partington dressing room," and, of course, Miss Partington was in the cast of the bill at the beginning.

It was at the Varieties that the Richmond actress began her career as a leading woman. Dorsey Ogden was then manager of that house, she said, and wanted her to play the title role of "Asmodens."

"I was frightened to death at undertaking such an important part," she declared. "That was the starting point of my career, for after that first success of mine I was made to play leading roles in everything. Often I was given a part in the morning, and had to play it that night. However, I drew the line when Mr. Ogden wanted me to play Lady Macbeth, for the tragic roles were not in my line. I played 'Barefoot' -- Maggie Mitchell's, great part -- and I played Oliver Twist to the greatest Fagin that ever lived, James Wallack."

The new Richmond Theatre, which residents of the city today have always heard called the "old Richmond Theatre," was in all probability saved from being destroyed by fire by the presence of mind of Sallie Partington. On The night when a repetition of Marshall Theatre catastrophe was averted, the company was playing a travesty on The Lady of Lyons, and Joe Jefferson , the famous comedian was cast as Claude "Meddlenot," while Miss Partington was Polly Ann. In the burlesque scene with Dishabilly, in which Polly Ann faints in his arms, she said that as she fell she saw a blaze of light in a corner of the third gallery. She immediately recovered from her swoon, much to the amazement of Harry Meer, who was playing Dishabilly and danced off the stage. In the wings she told Mrs. McGill that the third gallery was on fire. Then she returned to the arms of Dishabilly and went on with the scene where she had left off. Stage hands went from the files into the gallery and extinguished the flames, which were afterwards found to be of incendiary origin, as tar had been sprinkled at the spot where the fire was discovered. Everything was done so quickly and quietly that the audience did not know that the theatre had been on fire.

Speaking of some of her engagements after she left Richmond, the actress said that she played in New York both a Barnum's old museum, at which she appeared as "Capitola" in "the Hidden Hand," and at the Bowery Theatre, in "The Red Scarf." The Bowery Theatre, she said, was the workshop of the theatrical profession. "They would have no bootjacks there. Forrest once carried a banner there at the head of the supers. The greatest actors of the day sprang from that old theatre."

From her account of the glories of the past, the actress turned to the trouble then confronting her. Her little farm near Richmond was to be sold to meet a note of $367. She had returned to this farm to spend her declining years with her sister, Mary, who had been a dancer and who was also quite a favorite of the theatre during the war.

When I saw Mr. Leath and proposed that he allow Miss Partington the use of the Academy of Music, rent free, for a benefit, he readily consented, and the work of arranging for the performance went forward at once. Sallie Partington herself appeared in two sketches, one, "The Youth Who Never Saw a Woman," and the other, "Cousin Joe." Those supporting her in these sketches were John Ryall, Miss Mamie Ryall, his daughter; Miss Florence Evans and Messrs. Lonnie Wilson, Bland, Sparks and Le Masurier.

There was an olio of specialties on which appeared Captain Frank Cunningham, the most popular tenor Richmond has ever had, who for a quarter of a century sang at nearly every funeral in the city; Wilkie Freeman and Lonnie Wilson, whose amateur minstrels delighted the city for a number of years in halls from the far West End to Church Hill; Jack Sale and his little daughter, Kate, in Indian club swinging; Jack Golden in a similar performance; Page, the banjoist, and the Jefferson Quartet.

As she had wished, Sallie Partington spent her last days in Richmond. She lived for a while at the home of John Ryall, and then with her brother, Billy Partington, in Fulton. She died at the home of this brother, about 16 years ago, and was buried in a plot in Hollywood next to the grave of her sister, Mary, her last resting place being in the cemetery in which lie the bodies of 12,000 of the men of Lee and Jackson's armies, the soldiers of which had applauded and cheered her when she was their favorite actress in the capital of the Confederacy.

Newspaper Article

Sallie Partington, Once Richmond's Toast

Capital City's Old-time Theatregoers Will RecallBenefit for War-time Favorite

By Bruce Chesterman

Capital City's Old-time Theatregoers Will Recall
Benefit for War-time Favorite