Ruth Maycliffe (born Fern Krehbiel; -) was an American actress who
rose to fame when she made her Broadway debut in the Clyde Fitch
comedy, Girls, in . She made national headlines again when she
reportedly married a prince in and a count in .Fern Krehbiel
(sometimes spelled Kraybill) was born near Winfield, Kansas, on
December , , the daughter of Reuben and Luella (Roberts) Krehbiel. Her
mother, Luella Krehbiel, was a Socialist Party organizer who traveled
the country giving speeches. Fern grew up in Winfield and Coffeyville.
When she was sixteen, she moved with her mother to Kansas City, where
she attended a drama school and acted with the Woodward Stock Company
in Omaha and Kansas City.In the fall of , she moved to New York and
obtained a part in the Clyde Fitch vaudeville comedy, Miss McCobb,
Manicuriste. It was there that she was "discovered" by Fitch, who was
reportedly so taken with her performance that he wrote a character
into his next play, Girls, especially for her. She made her Broadway
debut in Girls the following year, and immediately became "one of the
most popular ingénue actresses that ever stepped upon a Broadway
stage."Maycliffe starred opposite Charles Cherry in Fitch's The
Bachelor in , and Edward Peple's The Spitfire in . In she starred in
George M. Cohan's Officer , which was later made into a silent film.
Soon afterwards she married and retired from acting, returning to the
stage one last time in to star in Saturday to Monday, a satire of the
women's suffrage movement. A reviewer in Life magazine wrote at the
time, "After a considerable absence from the New York stage Miss Ruth
Maycliffe returns to display an unexpected versatility of a young
person considerably more attractive than those usual to Suffrage
ranks, who is strong in her convictions and actions at first, but
later shows herself a womanly woman of the right sort."
rose to fame when she made her Broadway debut in the Clyde Fitch
comedy, Girls, in . She made national headlines again when she
reportedly married a prince in and a count in .Fern Krehbiel
(sometimes spelled Kraybill) was born near Winfield, Kansas, on
December , , the daughter of Reuben and Luella (Roberts) Krehbiel. Her
mother, Luella Krehbiel, was a Socialist Party organizer who traveled
the country giving speeches. Fern grew up in Winfield and Coffeyville.
When she was sixteen, she moved with her mother to Kansas City, where
she attended a drama school and acted with the Woodward Stock Company
in Omaha and Kansas City.In the fall of , she moved to New York and
obtained a part in the Clyde Fitch vaudeville comedy, Miss McCobb,
Manicuriste. It was there that she was "discovered" by Fitch, who was
reportedly so taken with her performance that he wrote a character
into his next play, Girls, especially for her. She made her Broadway
debut in Girls the following year, and immediately became "one of the
most popular ingénue actresses that ever stepped upon a Broadway
stage."Maycliffe starred opposite Charles Cherry in Fitch's The
Bachelor in , and Edward Peple's The Spitfire in . In she starred in
George M. Cohan's Officer , which was later made into a silent film.
Soon afterwards she married and retired from acting, returning to the
stage one last time in to star in Saturday to Monday, a satire of the
women's suffrage movement. A reviewer in Life magazine wrote at the
time, "After a considerable absence from the New York stage Miss Ruth
Maycliffe returns to display an unexpected versatility of a young
person considerably more attractive than those usual to Suffrage
ranks, who is strong in her convictions and actions at first, but
later shows herself a womanly woman of the right sort."
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