Josephine Harriman

The dancer Josephine Harriman by Moffett Studio.

Like Elizabeth Brice and Charles King, Josephine Harriman appeared in Charles Dillingham’s THE SLIM PRINCESS (1911); Elsie Janis was another member of the cast. Her time on Broadway was short, stretching from 1907 (THE GIRL BEHIND THE COUNTER) to 1915 (THE PEASANT GIRL). With Elizabeth Brice, she was a member of the 1913 ZIEGFELD FOLLIES cast.

Moffett photographed her in 1914, when she was a member of the cast of Charles Frohman’s production of THE LAUGHING HUSBAND.

Double standards

Charles Bryant (1879-1948) in BELLA DONNA (1912-13). Photo by Moffett Studio [George Moffett and Evan Albert Evans, from 1905]

There is nothing new under the sun. For instance, Charles Bryant and Alla Nazimova starred together in Charles Frohman’s production of BELLA DONNA, based on the 1909 novel by Robert Hichens. For reasons having to do with their respective careers, Bryant and Nazimova (as she was more generally known, and billed) married in 1912 and divorced in 1925.

When Bryant married (again) in 1925, he appeared on the marriage register as “single.” There was a double standard here, since the revelation that Nazimova and Bryant had only lived together (the marriage was evidently unconsummated) damaged the career of Nazimova, the more famous of the pair in 1925, rather than Bryant.