Representative women of New England/Gertrude Quinlan
GERTRUDE QUINLAN, actress, was born in Boston, Mass., February 23, 1880. She is a daughter of Michael Charles and Ellen (Barret) Quinlan and the fifth in a family of seven girls. Michael C. Quinlan, her father, was a school-master in Ireland, his native country. Since he came to the United States and settled in Boston, he has lived in retirement, engaging in no active occupation.
Miss Quinlan was graduated at the Franklin Grammar School in Boston in 1892, and during the school year of 1893 she attended the Girls' High School in that city. From the age of four years she has sung in various church and charity concerts, and, knowing that she possessed a natural and exceptional soprano voice, she determined in her early years to cultivate that gift and make it her means of livelihood, whether it did or did not win her a reputation in the operatic world.
Handicapped at the outset by a lack of means to pay for the training necessary to the most perfect voice and the added difficulty of overcoming the prejudices of father and mother, not to mention other relations, who held certain rigid opinions about a public career, and that career the stage, for one of their own kin, Miss Quinlan at twenty-three years of age is a striking example of what may be accomplished by determined effort o£ will. Having finally gained the reluctant consent of her parents, with her mind centred upon a certain goal, she entered the chorus of the Castle Square Opera Company, singing at the Castle Square Theatre, Boston, in May, 1895. She remained there one year, entering into the hard work of learning the score of a new opera each week, and rehearsing one for the following week, while singing in two performances daily, with such courage and enthusiasm that she was very often taken from the chorus and given some small part, only one or two lines, yet an honor for a girl not sixteen and with only a few months' experience.
In May, 1896, she accompanied the Castle Square Opera Company to Philadelphia, and sang with them at the Grand Opera House for a year and a half. While there she became understudy to Miss Clara Lane, and was often called upon to sing her rôles without so much as a rehearsal to give herself confidence.
Miss Quinlan's first appearance in New York was at the American Theatre, January 17, 1898. in "The Lily of Killarney," taking the part of Anne Shute. During the following summer she played one of the two principals in "Red, White, and Blue," a war drama, with Mr. Raymond Hitchcock, creating the character of Hetty Hall, a little American girl, the company making a tour of the small cities around New York.
This was followed by "Shenandoah" at the Academy of Music, where she character- ized Junie Buckthorne, the General's daughter, until in the summer of 1901 she rejoined the Castle Square Opera Company at the Studebaker Theatre in Chicago, Ill. She sang in Chicago two seasons.
Miss Quinlan has sung in over one hundred and twenty-five operas, and has played all the principal soubrettc parts in the same. She made her first distinct success as Broni Slava in the "Beggar Student," and became an especial favorite as Pitti Sing in the "Mikado" while in Chicago. She is also a piquant come- dienne, and with her pretty voice and pleasing stage manner has made astonishing progress toward marked fame since her appearance in the comic opera, "Tarantella," as Junie, in 1901.
The next year she was given the part of Annette in the cast of "King Dodo," and during the season of 1902-1903 she pleased every one as Chiquita at the Tremont Theatre in Boston and Wallack's Theatre, New York. She has always been under the management of the Castle Scjuare Opera Company, and has rendered them several important services, which naturally advanced her in their estimation and in her profession.
Once in Philadelphia, while "The Princess Bonnie" was being sung, Kitty Clover lost her voice in a most unexpected manner, and could not sing a note. Miss Quinlan immediately grasped the situation, and, although in student costume, came to the front of the stage, and, placing her arms around the voiceless songstress, sang the solo, transposing the words to give proper meaning to her rendition. Another time, in "Mignon," the prima donna, who sang the part of Filina, did not answer her cue, and after a hurried search could not be found. Miss Quinlan stepped into the gap, singing the lines to perfection, and again saved the evening. This latter act proved to be her emancipation from the chorus.
Miss Quinlan is not a member of any societies or clubs, but a most devoted parishioner of the Roman Catholic church. Her voice has had constant care and cultivation since the day she first entered the chorus. It has been trained under Franklyn Smith, of Boston, Mr. Frederic Bruegger, of Chicago, and Mr. Karl Brenneman, of New York.