Lost in Europe?

The Journal-Tribune - August 1914

Ann Swinburne, American Singer, and A Friend are Lost in Europe

(Miss Margaret Itten, Miss Swinburne)

Ann Swinburne, the American singer, sent this photograph of herself and Miss Itten, a friend who was travelling with her from St. Moritz, July 28, three days before Germany declared war on Russia. She was going on to Rome within a few days. Since then nothing has been heard of her. Her relatives and friends have appealed to Ambassador Gerard in Germany and other American representatives but up to last week had learned nothing.

Victor Herbert is anxious to have her here now to rehearse for the stellar roles in "Sweethearts", "Madame Modiste", and the "Madcap Duchess". She is to appear in each of those when the season opens.

Magnificent Production of "The Climax" 1909

Coshocton Daily Times - Ohio - 11.16.1909
THE THEATRICAL WORLD

"...Ann Swinburne gives a thoroughly artistic portrayal of the character of Adelina Von Hagen. The role calls for musical as well as dramatic ability and Miss Swinburne is quite equal to the double demand. Her voice is musical, flexible and beautifully cultivated and her dramatic instinct is unerring. She possesses the ability to do heavy emotional work without overdoing it; the expression of her eyes in the second act when she finds that her voice has left her is something marvelous. Moreover, Miss Swinburne is a beautiful woman."

Opera Star Who Sang to Soothe Her Dying Husband

As R. E. Schirmer, head of a New York music publishing house, was dying at Santa Barbara, California, he had his wife, known in the operatic world as Ann Swinburne, sing selections from Beethoven. His last request was that she sing for him.

- 1921

"Socially Speaking" - Cholly Knickerbocker 1949

"Handsome Mrs. J. Philip Benkard, who is just about as social as anyone can get, but who would rather talk about the days when, as Ann Swinburne, she was a belle of the light opera world, became a bride for the third time in Monte Carlo.

News that Ann is now Mrs. Charles Andrews Munroe will come as a surprise to her friends here, but if won't surprise anyone to learn that her two sons, Rudolph Schirmer and Philip Benkard, were on the spot when the knot was tied.

Ann has always been extremely devoted to the boys. There was a time when she closed up her Newport villa at the height of the social season and leased a shloss in the Austrian Tyrol near Saltzberg, just so Rudy could continue with his music studies.

Her first marriage to Rudolph Schirmer made Ann a happy young girl. She pitched in and took an active role in the music publishing business in which Schirmer was a partner and won renown as a beauty with brains.

When Schirmer died, Ann wrapped her life in her young son Rudy and it was some years later that socially-prominent banker, J. Philip Benkard, made her his wife.

Young Philip was born of this marriage and everyone knew that the former singing star of such Broadway hits as "The Madcap Duchess" and "The Count of Luxembourg" had once again made an ideal match.

Then tragedy struck. Benkard, a lieutenant colonel in World War I, was stricken with a heart attack as he took part in an Army day parade and it proved fatal.

As for Charlie Munroe, it's his second marriage. His wife, the former Rhea Logan, Chicago, died in 1933.

Ann Swinburne - Theatrical Resume

Light Opera

The Madcap Duchess - 1913 (Victor Herbert, composer)
The Count of Luxembourg - 1912 (Franz Lehar, composer)
Robin Hood - 1912
The Climax - 1910

Ann of a Thousand Names

Ann Ditchburn (birth name)
Ann Swinburne (Stage Name)
Ann Schirmer (Mrs. Rudolph E.)
Ann Benkard (Mrs. J. Philip)
Ann Munroe (Mrs. Charles A.)

Young Ann

Ann Munroe - Death

Ann Munroe died on November 21, 1973, at Doctor's Hospital in New York. She was the widow of financier Charles A. Munroe, of Nassau, Bahamas and Monte Carlo, Monaco.

New York Times

Ann Swinburne - NY Dramatic Mirror 1913

'Young Anne Swinburne[sic] overwhelms us with her modesty. She is reported to have instituted suit for an injunction and $10,000 damages against the George W. Dillingham Company for selling a novelized version of The Count of Luxembourg with her picture for a frontispiece. If this announcement is more than a press agent's inspiration, Miss Swinburne's representative will probably encounter difficulties hereafter in inducing dramatic editors to accept her pictures for publication. And it will serve her right.'Miss Swinburne is a charming young singer. She is by no means a dominating artist. Much of her popularity is due to her young and the grace which goes with her years. She is one of many nice, charming girls who bob up and down in the whirl of the theatrical millrace. Some have commanded as much attention as she, and then have been forgotten. Not one within the scope of our observation has been averse to seeing her picture published, pretty much regardless of when, where and how. Why an otherwise charming little songbird should suddenly develop symptoms of antipathy to a legitimate form of publicity is one of the things that stagger the editorial mind. Possibly Miss Swinburne has outgrown the need of propaganda.'(The New York Dramatic Mirror, New York, Wednesday, 22 October 1913, p.8a/b)

Ann Munroe - Eulogy (Part 3)

Ann Munroe Eulogy (Part 2)

Ann Munroe - Eulogy (Part 1) Rudolph Schirmer

To Grandma's House I Go...

Strangely, I was the only one of my family who never did get a chance to visit Grandmama in her Carbibbean cottage. By the time I was of travelling age, she had taken ill, and despite this sweet note, I was told she was not well enough to have guests. I can't help but think that if I had been able to get to know Ann in my later years, I would have quite enjoyed her. If she would have known of my early inclinations towards the stage, I think she might have thought the same of me, or at least instructed me on the fine art of theatrical delivery. When I reread this note after many years, her geniune affection struck me. I place it here as evidence of the relationship that we might have shared had I not missed that visit to Nassau.

Charlie and Ann's Bahamian Retreat

All the World's a Stage

Born in Portland, Oregon (nee Ann Ditchburn), the daughter of a Protestant minister, Ann honed her vocal skills in the church choir. Adopting the stage name of Swinburne (who she claimed was a distant relative), Ann lost no time in heading east, to New York, where she became the darling of the Light Opera stage, starring in "The Madcap Duchess" and the "Count of Luxemburg" on Broadway and in national tours.


Blessed with charm, looks and an enchanted voice, Ann's star rose swiftly, and she rode it as far as it would take her.

She harbored dreams of an operatic career, but her debut in that arena was met with less than stellar accolades. Sensing that her exit cue was upon her, Ann retired into a good marriage and a brilliant career on the social stage.


Ever the actress, Ann played both the dramas and the comedies in her life with wit and grace. She was applauded for her lifetime epic by all who had the fortune (or the misfortune) to witness the thrilling twists and turns of her journey. She played her roles of wife (Rudolph E. Schirmer, J. Philip Benkard and lastly, Charles Munroe) widow and mother (Rudolph Edward Schirmer and Philip Benkard) with great passion, if not for her fellow players, then for the exhilarating emotions such plots could provide.


Loathed by those who were arrogant enough to outshine her, Anne perfected the art of obtaining undying devotion by her husbands and her closest friends. Ironically, for a woman so well-versed in classical and modern methods of sentiment, it would be safe to say that the real love of her life did not lie in any of the persons related to her. Love, rather, was to be found in the mere act of playing the emotional script of her life, which, not unlike the dramas she enacted, contained three very distinct acts, each one beginning as a brilliant romantic coup and ending in widow's weeds.


Having forged her social career by blurring the borders between fiction and life, not even Ann was sure where the salon ended and the stage began. Thus, Ann's greatest work of art was herself, chiselled and sculpted into her dowager years by a disciplined path of work, ego and will. In her, the old guard had found a new and improved, albeit a good deal more theatrical version of itself (one would be hard-pressed to say that they weren't the better for it). In return, they cast this rising star in the longest-running show ever to play on or off Broadway.

To this, we can only shout, "Bravo!"

At The Close

When the curtain came down,

and the bouquet was tossed,

and her monologues read

(some were salvaged,

...most were lost)

The maestro kissed her memory

The fans did dab their tears

The stagehand spoke a eulogy,

"She was best in "The Young Balladeers."

Thus notices crumbled into yesterday's dust

And charity socials she considered a must

had all blown by the wayside

so long, Upper Crust!

Ashes were scattered from luxury yachts

A series of rituals, "shoulds" and "oughts"

The chauffeur in mourning all morning said he

Les dames de toilette, Helene and Marie

illumined their votives and prayed for her soul

Who could be found to step into her role?

Cook swore she heard a low voice after tea,

"Why weren't the canapes laid out for three?"

And Madame's blue ball gown, all satiny lace,

was felt in the corridor, brushing her face,

"Tis hard to abandon this earthly show

When it's all that you love and desire and know

And worse to imagine them filling your shoes

with amateur ingenues missing their cues

And what I would give for another third act,

oh for more kindness, more patience, more tact.

If only I'd known the rewards to be had,

If only I'd taken more time for the lad,

If only I'd written,

If only I'd read,

If only I'd gotten up early from bed,

I might have been Helen,

I might have been Queen,

If only you'd let me - just one little scene!"

Then quickly, she vanished,

And so did her Age,

Snatched from the earth,

barred from the stage.

Her heirs have no interest

in subtlety's style,

nor in wit, nor in wisdom,

nor womanly guile...

Thus Madame's performances

fade from our view

and only her scrapbook

tells what is true,

that once a fine actress

did play in our midst...

"Her daring and passion

will surely be missed."

LS 2009

Summer with Mummy

Rudolph, Ann and Philip in New York in the early 1930's

River House

One of Anne's New York addresses - 435 E. 52nd St.

Built in 1931 by Bottomley, Wagner and White, River House was said to be "...simply reeking with exclusivity and glamour" (1).

River House had it's own pool, gardens, tennis courts, dining facilities and yacht club. Until the 1940's, when the FDR Drive was built, tenants and members of the River Club would be seen mooring their yachts at the dock.

River House was an Art Deco masterpiece. Rising 30 stories above the water, its 73 apartments ranged from 37,000 to 275,000 - a princely sum at the time. An average aerie boasted 12 rooms, two fireplaces, six baths and a view of the East River.

In the beginning, River House was bordered by tenements, and this striking juxtaposition of haves and have-nots inspired Sidney Kingsley to pen his famous play, "Dead End". Starring the famous "Dead End Kids", real kids cast from New York boys' clubs, the play showed how criminals are born from economic devastation. "Dead End" became a film starring Humphrey Bogart and the "Dead End Kids".

Notable neighbors that might have sashayed past Ann in the lobby included the likes of Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney.

"Living It Up: A Guide to the Named Apartment Houses in New York" by Tomas Norton and Jerry Patterson. McMillan Publishing Co. 1984