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Chamberlain and Lyman Brown Papers Chamberlain attended Harvard University, but dropped out when he acquired Donald Meek’s stock company in Lowell, Massachusetts (probably purchased for him by his father, George M. Brown) which Chamberlain then owned and managed. He also acted with several companies in Boston and Lowell, including the Harvard Stock Company, and the Castle Square. As well, Chamberlain Brown appeared with Margaret Anglin in Hippolytus at the Tremont Theatre in Boston (1911). He also produced and performed with the Brown-Horton Stock Company sometime around 1911. By 1913, Chamberlain Brown had come to New York and performed in The Yellow Jacket at the Fulton Theatre, as well as in vaudeville. In 1914, he was listed as press representative for Brown, Sullivan and Brown at Aeolian Hall, with Lyman as the Boston representative. The Brown-Peacock Exchange (business and publicity representatives) was also listed at Aeolian Hall from August 1913 to January 1914. By March 1914, the company had become the Chamberlain Brown Exchange. Lyman Brown would work with Chamberlain in the summers, finally also dropping out of school to join his brother in the business. Their first office was at Aeolian Hall; they then moved to the Fitzgerald Building (West 43rd Street and Broadway), then 156 West 45 th Street, and finally, 145 West 45 th Street. Their only known New York City residences included 853 Seventh Avenue from approximately 1929 to 1932 and the Hotel Belvedere from 1950 to 1952. Chamberlain Brown claimed to have discovered Clark Gable, Helen Hayes, Alfred Lunt, Rudolph Valentino, Leslie Howard, Jeannette MacDonald, Jack Haley, Don Ameche, Preston Foster, Robert Walker, Glenda Farrell, Carlotta Monterey, Conrad Nagel, Tallulah Bankhead, Helen Menken, Harry K. Morton, Nita Naldi and many others. The Brown agency represented such theater notables as John Carradine, Mrs. Leslie Carter, Lon Chaney, Jr., Ruth Chatterton, Constance Collier, Glenda Farrell, Dorothy Gish, Hal Holbrook, Miriam Hopkins, Otto Kruger, Fritzi Scheff, Spencer Tracy, and Tom Ewell (once an agency employee) among others. The agency correspondence files are extensive and range from the famous to the would-be, aspiring performer. Some of their most famous correspondents include Tallulah Bankhead, Ralph Bellamy, Sidney Blackmer, Yul Brynner, John Carradine, Charles Coburn, George M. Cohan, Joan Crawford, George Cukor, Glenda Farrell, Jack Haley, Otto Kruger, Claire Boothe Luce, Bela Lugosi, Guthrie McClintic, Helen Menken, Alla Nazimova, Clifford Odets, Ronald Reagan, Gloria Swanson, Laurette Taylor, Spencer Tracy, Sophie Tucker, Rudy Vallee, Peggy Wood, Fay Wray, and Ed Wynn. Chamberlain Brown also corresponded with soldiers and sailors during and after World War II, as well as with a number of prisoners, some of whom he knew before their incarceration. Lyman, the ever-dependable brother, ran the agency’s bread and butter trade: stock productions. He also managed at least two of their own stock companies in Westchester and Atlantic City. 3
Chamberlain and Lyman Brown Papers In addition to their agency activity, the Brown brothers began their numerous and financially disastrous attempts at producing. Kept by Pierre Gendron, starring Minnie Dupree at the Comedy Theatre in 1926, was Chamberlain Brown’s initial Broadway production. Brown then presented Frances Starr in Immoral Isabella? by Lawton Campbell at the Bijou Theatre in 1927. (In his autobiographical manuscript, Brown claims that Clifford Odets appeared in the cast as an extra, but this is unverified.) In 1928, Brown produced two plays on Broadway: Elmer Harris’s play The Great Necker with Blanche Ring at the Ambassador Theatre and A Lady for a Night by Hutcheson Boyd at the Forty-Ninth Street Theatre. Also in 1928, under the aegis of the Chamberlain Brown Cosmopolitan Artists, at the Cosmopolitan Theatre, he presented (“at popular prices”) Mrs. Dane’s Defense, with Violet Heming, Sherlock Holmes with Gene Raymond and Fritzi Scheff, and Within the Law with Violet Heming and Claudette Colbert. The Brown brothers’ first stock company in the metropolitan area was at the Greenwich Theatre in Connecticut. Under the auspices of the Chamberlain Brown Players (also known as the L. Chamberlain Brown Players), between 1929 and 1930 they presented over thirty plays such as As You Like It starring Preston Foster and Lyle Talbot, and Parade starring Spencer Tracy. Brilliants, written by Lyman Brown using the pseudonym Basil Bruce Trevino, was also scheduled for performance there. Other stars who appeared at Greenwich included Don Ameche, Glenda Farrell, Mayo Methot, Georgette Cohan, Jessie Royce Landis, and Henry Daniell. In 1931 and 1932, the Chamberlain Brown Players played overlapping seasons at the Riviera Theatre in New York City and at the Westchester Theatre in Mt. Vernon, New York. Productions included Private Lives with Peggy Wood at the Riviera and at the Westchester Theatre. Also at the Westchester Theatre, Ruth Gordon starred in A Church Mouse and Alice Brady starred in Dishonored Lady and Ladies of the Jury. Glenda Farrell and Cesar Romero appeared in Strictly Dishonorable. Other stars who performed at the Westchester included Fritzi Scheff, Sydney Greenstreet, Otto Kruger, Florence Reed, Mrs. Leslie Carter, Georgie Drew Mendum, and Pauline Lord. The Chamberlain Brown Players also played a summer season at the Apollo Theatre in Atlantic City in 1933. Productions included stock staples of the era such as A Church Mouse, Dangerous Corner, Dinner at Eight, The Shanghai Gesture, The Vinegar Tree, and When Ladies Meet. Lyman Brown appears to have run the company diligently, but by this time, the financial problems that would chronically plague the brothers had begun to predominate. However, they attempted another summer season in Atlantic City at the Earle Theatre in 1934, but it was short-lived. Idle Tongues, a play by Chamberlain Brown, was presented at the Cedarhurst Playhouse on Long Island in 1934, after several other production attempts. In 1936, the Chamberlain Brown Players attempted another summer season including plays such as Blind Alley, The Distaff Side, Night of January 16 th , and Remember the Day at the Bronxville Auditorium, but were forced to cancel one play, Love on the Dole. 4
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