Joseph Rhode Grismer (November 4, 1849 â€" 1922) was an American stage
actor, playwright, and theatrical director and producer. He was
probably best remembered for his play The New South and for his
revision of the Charlotte Blair Parker play Way Down East.Joseph Rhode
Grismer was born in Albany, New York, on November 4, 1849, the middle
of three girls and two boys raised by Irish immigrants, Christopher
and Bridget Grismer. According to later records his birth parents may
have been Valentine Grismer and Adelaide Huda. In his youth Grismer
attended the Albany Boys Academy and upon graduation served with the
192nd New York Volunteer Regiment during the waning months of the
American Civil War. After the war’s end Grismer returned to Albany
where at some point he found his calling as a member of the Histrionic
Amateur Dramatic Club.Grismer made his professional stage debut in
Albany around 1870 and by 1873 was playing principal roles at the
Grand Opera House in Cincinnati. There Grismer appeared in hundreds of
stock productions, some in support of such luminaries of the day as
Charlotte Cushman, Laura Keene, Edward Loomis Davenport, Edwin Adams,
Lawrence Barrett, Lilian Adelaide Neilson, John Edward McCullough,
Charles Albert Fechter, and Charles James Mathews.Grismer relocated to
San Francisco in 1877 where for several seasons he played leading
roles at the Grand Opera House, and later the California Theatre and
the Baldwin Theatre. At the latter he met and fell in love with Phoebe
Davies, a young actress from Wales who had come to prominence at the
Baldwin playing Hortense in a production of Dickens’ Bleak House.
They married in San Francisco on June 1, 1882, and not long afterward
formed their own company of stock players known as the Grismer-Davies
Organization and began playing theaters throughout California and
eventually across the Western States and Provinces of North America.
actor, playwright, and theatrical director and producer. He was
probably best remembered for his play The New South and for his
revision of the Charlotte Blair Parker play Way Down East.Joseph Rhode
Grismer was born in Albany, New York, on November 4, 1849, the middle
of three girls and two boys raised by Irish immigrants, Christopher
and Bridget Grismer. According to later records his birth parents may
have been Valentine Grismer and Adelaide Huda. In his youth Grismer
attended the Albany Boys Academy and upon graduation served with the
192nd New York Volunteer Regiment during the waning months of the
American Civil War. After the war’s end Grismer returned to Albany
where at some point he found his calling as a member of the Histrionic
Amateur Dramatic Club.Grismer made his professional stage debut in
Albany around 1870 and by 1873 was playing principal roles at the
Grand Opera House in Cincinnati. There Grismer appeared in hundreds of
stock productions, some in support of such luminaries of the day as
Charlotte Cushman, Laura Keene, Edward Loomis Davenport, Edwin Adams,
Lawrence Barrett, Lilian Adelaide Neilson, John Edward McCullough,
Charles Albert Fechter, and Charles James Mathews.Grismer relocated to
San Francisco in 1877 where for several seasons he played leading
roles at the Grand Opera House, and later the California Theatre and
the Baldwin Theatre. At the latter he met and fell in love with Phoebe
Davies, a young actress from Wales who had come to prominence at the
Baldwin playing Hortense in a production of Dickens’ Bleak House.
They married in San Francisco on June 1, 1882, and not long afterward
formed their own company of stock players known as the Grismer-Davies
Organization and began playing theaters throughout California and
eventually across the Western States and Provinces of North America.
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