Volume III: Biographies

HALL, Laura Nelson *

Actress (1914)

Thanhouser Career Synopsis: Laura Nelson Hall appeared in Dope, a film by Direct-From-Broadway Features, a Thanhouser "special production" released circa April 1, 1914. She was not a regular Thanhouser actress.

Biographical Notes: Laura Nelson Hall was born in Philadelphia on July 11, 1876, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William D. Barnhurst, and educated in the same city. She made her stage debut with the Girard Avenue Theatre stock company in Philadelphia, on September 13, 1897, in Our Friends. After remaining with the same company for five months, she departed and was soon seen in New York City at the premiere of The Moth and the Flame, at the Lyceum Theatre on April 11, 1898. Miss Hall then went on tour with The Purple Lady company, after which she was seen at Daly's Theatre, in New York City, in February 1899, in An Enemy of the King. In the summer of 1901 she was with the Edwin Arden stock company in Washington, D.C. In 1902 she was on tour in Le Souris.

During the season of 1906-1907 she was seen in The Three of Us at the Madison Square Theatre, New York. The next season she toured with The Coming of Mrs. Patrick company, after which, in March 1908, she was at Daly's Theatre in Girls. In late December 1908 and early 1909 she starred in the Hartford production of The Easiest Way. February 21, 1909 saw her in the premiere of The Children of Destiny, at the Savoy Theatre, New York City. In the same year she appeared in The Sins of Society and New York. In February 1911 she opened in Everywoman at the Herald Square Theatre. In February 1912 she was in London in The Easiest Way, at the Globe Theatre. During the same month she was seen in The Poor Little Rich Girl at the Hyperion Theatre in New Haven, a play which later moved to Hudson, New York.

In 1914, she toured with the Dope company. In the same year she acted in Thanhouser's film version of the play. In late autumn 1914 she was on stage in What It Means to a Woman, which closed shortly after its premiere. During the 1909-1914 years, her permanent address was 320 West 83rd Street, New York City. One of her spare-time hobbies was sewing. A talented writer, she often crafted stories about the theatre, and her articles appeared in The Green Book magazine, newspapers, and elsewhere. In 1915 she was seen on stage in Demi-Tasse, in 1916 in The Cat and the Kitten, in 1918 in Her Honor the Mayor, and in 1919 in The Merrie Month of May. In 1921 she played the "vamp" in the production of The Survival of the Fittest, at the Greenwich Village Theatre in New York City. An article in the April 3, 1921 issue of The New York Herald stated that she had just returned from an absence from the stage of several years' duration, during which time she devoted her efforts to writing plays, the first of which, she hoped, would soon be seen on Broadway. In 1930 Laura Nelson Hall's summer residence was at 1612 Asbury Avenue, Ocean City, New Jersey. In 1933 she was living in Westchester, New York.

Thanhouser Filmography:

1914: Dope (Direct-From-Broadway Features c. 4-1-1914)

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