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Sisters Mary Baldwin Stephenson and
Theresa Baldwin were the daughters of English immigrants Thomas and Anna Johnson Baldwin of New Bedford, Massachusetts. The girls took acting lessons in
1903 and set off on stage careers that
brought them together in Chicago on
December 30, 1903, at the Iroquois
Theater. Theresa was in the
audience with cast members of another play being performed in the city that had
been suspended that day due to the funeral of its lead comedian, and Mary
was in the chorus
performing Mr. Bluebeard.
Theresa Jane Baldwin, age twenty-one, had been
performing in the chorus of The Billionaire
in Chicago until the unexpected death of
Jerome Sykes, caused the production
to be cancelled. Rather than attending his funeral the
afternoon December 30, 1903, some of his fellow cast members,
offered free tickets, attended a Mr. Bluebeard matinee.▼1 Theresa
Baldwin's enjoyment of the performance would have been keener because her
sister was in the cast.
Both sisters escaped from America's
worst theater disaster that afternoon;
but the details of their escape are not
known. They were among the lucky
performers who found new positions in less that a month,
performing in Winsome Winnie in Pittsbrgh.
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