Mabel Green

Mabel Green (1 November 1887 – 29 November 1975), born Mabel Gladys Coomber, was a British actress.

Mabel Green
Mabel Green pictured in May 1905
Born	Mabel Gladys Coomber 1 November 1887 Notting Hill, London
Died	29 November 1975(1975-11-29) (aged 88)

Early life

Mabel Gladys Coomber was born in Notting Hill, London, the daughter of Alfred Coomber and Matilda (Maud) Tanner Coomber.

Career

 

Mabel Green, from a 1907 publication

Mabel Green first came to attention in the English adaptation of André Messager's The Little Michus (1905), with Maxine Elliott and Adrienne Augarde;^[1] the reviewer in The Observer found Green and Augarde's performances "refreshing," "singing and acting as they did with a girlish abandon and an absence of effort."^[2] Later stage appearances came for Green in The Dairymaids (1907), The Florentine Tragedy (1909), The Balkan Princess (1910),^[3] and in pantomimes Cinderella (1920–1921), Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (1921–1922),^[4] and The Co-optimists (1924).^[5] She was popular as a subject of postcard photographs and other memorabilia.^[6][7]

In 1911 Green sang at the Tivoli music hall.^[8] Her performances there were not so well-received as her other work, with the Guardian reviewer commenting that "Mabel Green has a nice, sweet voice, a pretty smile, and some other qualities, but you cannot feel that there is any meaning in the gentle sentiments she sings about."^[9]

Green was an early motoring enthusiast, posing for photographs with her REO Landaulette in 1907.^[10][11]

Personal life

Mabel Green married three times. Her first husband was Tom Stanley Steel; they married in South Africa in 1912. They divorced in 1917. Her second husband was Prussian-born Julius Sigismund Wetzlar, deputy chairman of the Anglo American Corporation of South Africa. He died in 1938.^[12] Her third husband was Zante Gower Burmester; they married in 1940. He died in 1971. She died in 1975, aged 88 years.^[13]

References

1. "The Return of Sir Henry Irving". The Sphere. 21: 128. May 6, 1905.
2. "'The Little Michus' at Daly's". The Observer. April 30, 1905. p. 5. Retrieved May 18, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
3. "The Prince of Wales; The Balkan Princess". The Observer. February 20, 1910. p. 8. Retrieved May 18, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
4. H. B. (December 24, 1921). "The Opera House". The Guardian. p. 8. Retrieved May 18, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
5. "Advertisement". The Guardian. April 4, 1924. p. 1. Retrieved May 18, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
6. "'Real Photo' Postcards (advertisement)". The Sketch. 61: XII. 10 February 1908.
7. Coysh, Arthur Wilfred (1996). The Dictionary of Picture Postcards in Britain, 1894-1939. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 978-1-85149-231-2.
8. "The Tivoli". The Guardian. April 4, 1911. p. 11. Retrieved May 18, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
9. "The Tivoli". The Guardian. October 31, 1911. p. 16. Retrieved May 18, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
10. "Little Michu and Motor Expert, Miss Mabel Green Driving her New 16-hp REO Landaulette". The Sketch. 57: 157. 13 February 1907.
11. "Miscellanea". The Bystander. 13: 362. 13 February 1907.
12. "Diamond Deposits of German South West Africa (E. Oppenheimer and Alpheus F. Williams), William L. Honnold papers". Claremont Colleges Library. 4 June 1914. Retrieved 2021-04-23.
13. "Mabel Green (Mabel Gladys Coomber)". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 2021-04-23.

External links

• The National Portrait Gallery holds 22 portraits of Mabel Green, most of them publicity photographs by Bassano
• "Mabel Green advertises Odol mouthwash, London, 1912" Footlight Notes (December 19, 2014), a blog post about Green
• A 1905 photograph of Green at Getty Images