ROLAND REED

Roland Reed doesn't have his own Wikipedia page, but his life is described in a obituary in the San Francisco Call of March 31, 1901. Born in Philadelphia in 1852 of a theatrical family. He took children's speaking parts at the Walnutstreet Theater and following his schooldays joined the company of Mrs. John Drew at the Arch-street Theater. Later he was first comedian with numerous companies and became a star in his own company in 1882, playing in "Cheek". Afterwards he produced many legitimate comedies, including "Humbug", "Lend Me Your Wife", "The Wrong Mr. Wright" and many others. He also was the original Koko in "Mikado" in the United States. "ROLAND REED, THE NOTED COMEDIAN, WHO DIED YESTERDAY FROM CANCER OF THE STOMACH. HE WAS ONE OF THE BEST KNOWN MEMBERS OF THE THEATRICAL PROFESSION."

YVETTE GUILBERT

portrait by Joseph Granié, 1895.

Yvette Guilbert was born in Paris into a poor family as Emma Laure Esther Guilbert on January 20, 1865. At the age of 16 she had started working as a model at the Printemps department store, where eventualy she was discovered by a journalist. As a child she had always been singing, but now she took acting and diction lessons too. It resulted in a debut on stage, first in smaller revenues in 1886 and in the Varieté Theatre in 1888. Her friendship with Léon Xanrof became important and gave her access to the stage at the Chat Noir and led to her breakthrough at the Mouling Rouge. Xanrof was the stage- and pen name of Léon Fourneau. It's an inversion of the Latin fornax which is fourneau (furnace) in French. He was a French humorist, playwright and songwriter. The combination of his witty, but audacious song "Le Fiacre" and the young, virginal looking Yvette Guilbert, dressed in a yellow dress with long black gloves, rocketed her success in France and international. She had also changed her singing style to a more monologue-like style and was often billed as a "diseuse" or "sayer". The lyrics of her songs -some were written by herself- were often raunchy and dealt with tragedy, lost love or poverty. She had international success and performed in England, Germany and the United States in 1895 and 1896. She performed at the Carnegie Hall in New York.
She also wrote 2 novels, which were published in 1902. In the 1920's she wrote an instructional book about singing and held singing classes in New York and Paris. She also had roles in several silent movies, among which the role of Marthe Schwerdlein in F.W. Murnau's "Faust" in 1926. 
She became a respected authority on French medieval folklore and was rewarded the "Legion d'Honneur" -as the ambassadress of the French Song- in 1932. She died on February 3, 1944 in Aix-en Provence.