Chats with the Players — S. Rankin Drew, of the Vitagraph Company (1915) 🇺🇸

April 02, 2025

If there is one name more than another that has contributed to the honor and glory of the English-speaking stage, it is that of Drew. The Drews, the Barrymores, the Rankins — all closely related — all names to conjure by, and all as well known at the Antipodes (alas! some are dead and gone) as in New York.

Everybody knows Sidney Drew, that sterling comedian and vaudeville headliner, now with the Vitagraph Company. But not so many know his son, S. Rankin Drew, also a valued member of the Vitagraph forces, who is making an earnest effort to keep the famous family name well up in the world of art, not only by his work on the stage and in Motion Pictures, but also as a talented author, like his mother before him.

Mrs. Sidney Drew became well and favorably known off the stage as a graceful writer, and several of her plays came out under the pen-name of “George Cameron.” It was in one of these — The Still Voice — that Mr. Drew considers he made his greatest success in vaudeville. It is interesting to note that the clever talking sketch, What the Moon Saw, which was recently done at the Vitagraph Theater on Broadway, is from the pen of S. Rankin Drew, and its undoubted success should certainly encourage the young actor-playwright to do still worthier things.

“Altho I come of several generations of stage folk,” said Mr. Drew, with a smile of hearty friendliness, “and was brought up practically on the stage, my earliest infantile recollection being that of reclining in a stage-trunk in my father’s and mother’s dressing-room while they were at their work; altho the stage has, as it were, been handed down to me as a family heritage, of which I feel justly proud; yet, despite all this, or perhaps because of it, my father tried his best to divert my aims and tastes to other spheres of life. But it was not to be. The lure of the stage followed me even to school, where we had organized a dramatic club, and it was there that I first formed a very decided taste for dramatic work. That was at the famous Cutler School, and the first piece that our club put on was that delicious old comedy, The Private Secretary. After that my fate was sealed; it was the stage or nothing.

“Ten years ago I made a tour of the world with my father and mother, and that tour will always remain one of the pleasantest memories of my life. We visited practically every English-speaking country in the world, and every day had its quota of interesting things, and I believe I enjoyed every moment of my life during the trip.

“I remember one rather interesting incident of the voyage from Australia to South Africa. The ship was the Aberdeen, of the Aberdeen Line, and, as is often the case on a long voyage, entertainments were given at times to while away the otherwise rather tedious hours in mid-ocean. We were about two days out from Durban, Natal, when my father and mother put on a little theatrical entertainment for the benefit of the Seamen’s Home. It was the well-known — at least well known in England — ‘Harlequinade,’ which is invariably given as an epilog to the Christmas pantomime. The performance took place on the after-hatch, the scenery being painted by the ship’s carpenter and the costumes fashioned by my mother from pink pajamas or any other light apparel that happened to be handy.

“Among the passengers were a number of Australians and South Africans who, altho of Old Country parentage, had never been ‘Home’ and had never seen a pantomime or the ‘Harlequinade.’ Consequently they were delighted with the performance and more than generous with their approval.”

During the past few years Mr. Drew has made several tours in vaudeville with his father — tours which extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Gulf of Mexico to the prairie cities of Western Canada. His first legitimate appearance was under the Shuberts’ management in a farce entitled Billie, which was written by his mother. Later he appeared in the one-act sketch of his mother’s, The Still Voice, and Mr. Drew says that this work appealed to him more than anything else he had ever done. The play has since been given in pictures. It was a two-reel photoplay and marked the first appearance of his father, Mr. Sidney Drew, as a screen artist. Another work of Mr. Drew’s mother, which is particularly worthy of note, is Agnes, a four-act play which is now familiar to countless thousands of picture theater patrons under the title of “A Million Bid,” which was for some weeks a Broadway feature.

Mr. Drew has been not quite two years in screen work, and always with the Vitagraph Company. His joining of the Moving Picture fores, he says, was, to a large extent, owing to the influence of Lionel Barrymore, his cousin. He likes the work immensely, but freely admits that there are times when he chafes at the necessity of being continually confined in one place, “I am very much of a nomad,” he said, laughing, “and sometimes long for a chance to roam a bit — or at least to temporarily change the location of my field of labor. If the Vitagraph Company should contemplate at an early date sending out a company to work — say, in a semi-tropical location — I sincerely pray that I may be one of their number.”

I have always held that the best work Mr. Drew ever did in screen work — that is, up to the present — was in “An Unwritten Chapter,” with Dorothy Kelley, which was produced, I believe, under the direction of William Humphrey. “The Tattoo Mark” was also an artistic piece of work. The young artist himself, however, thinks that his best and biggest and altogether most worthy piece of work has recently been released — “The Island of Regeneration,” the well-known story of Cyrus Townsend Brady, in which he appears with Edith Storey and Antonio Moreno. Mr. Drew predicts for it a fine reception — owing to its artistic merit as a story if nothing else. But he feels confident also that the players have given the tale a worthy presentation with unusually strong characters.

Mr. Drew’s grandfather, the late McKee Rankin, of “Danites” fame, was personally known to the writer of this sketch. It was during a fishing excursion in the Muskoka Country, north of the city of Toronto, Canada. I was staying at Pratt’s Hotel, a famous hostelry in Rosseau, and among the other guests were “Billy” Florence and Mr. and Mrs. McKee Rankin. I saw them frequently on that occasion, and we had several very interesting chats together on the broad veranda of the hotel. The conversation generally began with hunting and fishing exploits, but invariably drifted to the stage, which was dear to all of us. Young Rankin Drew resembles his grandfather in many respects, including his love of literary work. The former tells me that McKee Rankin once wrote a play of French-Canadian life called The Canuck, which had quite a successful run.

Mr. Drew is a great lover of Dickens and believes the famous English novelist is at last coming into his own in the pictures, particularly thru the able efforts of Mr. Tom Terriss. Another English production — or rather series of productions — that he dearly loves is Gilbert and Sullivan opera, that wonderful cycle of melody and satire that has never since been equaled and probably Drew declares The Mikado to be a veritable classic, a view I have heard expressed by even musicians of note.

Football and horseback riding are the outdoor delights of Mr. Drew. His grandfather was a noted horseman, and he himself could ride when he was but eight years old. He is also fond of hockey and speaks enthusiastically of the encounters he has seen while on tour in Eastern Canada.

“In my comparatively brief stage and screen career,” said Mr. Drew thoughtfully, “I owe much to my father’s aid and wise counsel. To my mother, however, I feel I owe most for my artistic tastes and any talent I may possess. I have a great ambition to follow in her footsteps and become a writer — a playwright, perhaps — and do something worthy in that line on the stage as well as for the screen. I shall do my best toward that end, at any rate, and one can scarcely do more, can he?” And the young screen star and playwright shook hands and smiled pleasantly as he bowed me out of his dressing-room.

Allan Douglas Brodie.