José Ruben (December 8, 1884 – April 28, 1969)New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturlization Records, 1794-1943 for Jose Ruben, Southern District, New York, (Roll 0162), Petition No. 22314, retrieved from Ancestry.com was a French-born actor whose career from 1910 on was in the United States. He first rose to prominence in 1916-1917 with the Washington Square Players, and for the next ten years was a highly regarded lead player. He acted in over twenty silent films and was a fixture on Broadway stages, as both performer and director, for over forty years. He also taught drama at Barnard College and was a stage director for the New York City Opera.
Early life Ruben was born in Paris, France, to a family wealthy enough to fund his education and travel. He had at least two younger sisters. According to an early profile, he could outargue anyone in the family, so it was decided he should study law. He had studied English in secondary school, but found it difficult to understand native speakers, so he spent six months living in London in order to develop an ear for the language.
After two years at the Sorbonne, he abandoned law to enter the Conservatoire de Paris as a dramatics student. He completed the two-year course in 1904 and became an apprentice at the Théâtre l'Louvre. The following year Ruben joined the Théâtre de l'Odéon, from which he entered Sarah Bernhardt's troupe in 1906. Ruben stayed with Bernhardt for the next four years, playing in a large repertoire of French-language productions throughout France, England, and other parts of Europe.
Arrival in America Ruben was still a member of Bernhardt's troupe when it arrived in America for a tour in 1910. Beginning with L'Aiglon by Edmond Rostand in Chicago on October 31, 1910, the tour performed a different production from its repertoire of twenty plays each night. Lost among a troupe of forty-six, with the critics attention focused almost exclusively on Bernhardt, it is not possible to detail Ruben's contribution to the tour, which finished up with Camille in New York City on June 21, 1911. While Bernhardt and her troupe sailed for France the following day, Ruben stayed behind in America. When teaching at Barnard College in 1944, a school reporter asked him about Sarah Bernhardt, to which he "reluctantly" replied: "She was a great actress in that time, but I dread to think of how audiences would react to her today".
The Garden of Allah Through Bernhardt's American business manager Ruben met producer George C. Tyler, who in turn introduced him to Robert Hichens and Mary Anderson. Hichens and Anderson decided Ruben would be perfect in the role of Batouch for their stage version of Hichen's The Garden of Allah, which Tyler was producing for Liebler & Company. The play opened October 21, 1911, at the Century Theatre, marking Ruben's first verifiable Broadway credit and his first English-language role. Ruben was one of only two supporting actors singled out for praise by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reviewer, and also earned commendation from the New York World critic. Described as a spectacle with a story, the production was the largest ever mounted on an American stage to that point. The cast included numerous authentic inhabitants of Tunisia and Algeria, as well as livestock. When the play closed on May 18, 1912, it had been viewed by 375,000 people, and established Ruben as able to handle English-language roles.
The Liebler Company cast Ruben for its national tour of The Garden of Allah starting in Chicago at the Auditorium on August 31, 1912. The tour encompassed actors, props, sets, and livestock (camels, goats, horses, and mules) used in the production. While the animals were housed in a nearby stable, those cast members actually from North Africa were accommodated in a warehouse, since no Chicago hotel would accept them as guests. The tour visited Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia throughout the Fall of 1912, playing Boston from January thru March 1913. While in Boston, Ruben filed a Petition for Naturalization, with the help of the tour's manager and two journalists as witnesses. Ruben continued with the tour until it finished in May 1913.
Ruben and Madame Yorska Ruben joined the company of the French Drama Society in Manhattan in December 1913. This was headed by Madame Yorska, like Ruben a former pupil of Bernhardt. A colossal poseur, her real name was Elsie Stern; she was from New Orleans, Louisiana, but was perfectly willing to let journalists and audiences think she was French. The troupe performed matinee programs at the Harris Theatre, before going on tour. Ruben played all the leading male roles opposite Madame Yorska. The tour finished up the season in Ottawa, Canada, during May 1914.
During the early fall of 1914, Madame Yorska's troupe toured on a vaudeville circuit in a one-act play called Days of War, with Ruben as the male lead. Ironically, one reviewer praised Ruben's performance while mentioning difficulty understanding Yorska's strongly accented English. Ruben returned with the troupe to New York City and for the winter of 1914-1915 played French-language works in Manhattan and a few nearby cities. During the first half of 1915 Ruben continued with Madame Yorska's troupe, again playing Days of War in vaudeville theatres, and performing benefits for French war relief.
Biograph film work Ruben appears to have detached himself from Madame Yorska's troupe in the summer of 1915. He returned to New York where he made a short film, A Daughter of Earth. This was the first of many pictures he would make at the Biograph Company during 1915-1916, but not his first film. He had done an independently produced short called Lord Chumley in 1913-1914, for which his role is unknown and verification is lacking.
With his fourth Biograph short, Ashes of Inspiration, Ruben became the central figure in the storyline, an artist torn between his wife and his muse. He is again the central figure in his fifth short for Biograph, The Rehearsal, this time as a playwright with a treacherous fiancé and a new helpmate. His first longer work was a Biograph special three-reeler, produced in association with Klaw and Erlanger, titled His Hand and Seal, from a story by Carolyn Wells. By the time Biograph stopped making movies in late spring 1916, Ruben had appeared as a lead in twenty-three films.
Washington Square Players Ruben had returned to the stage briefly in May 1916, but otherwise had no known performing work for several months after the steady job with Biograph ended. It was perhaps a measure of desperation that saw him join the Washington Square Players (WSP), a semi-amateur troupe that drew lots of critical attention but which couldn't afford to match professional Broadway salaries.According to columnist Louis Sheaffer, Ruben went from $500 a week at Biograph to $50 a week with the WSP. See Brooklyn Daily Eagle for March 22, 1951, page 6. Ruben appeared with the WSP on the first bill of their third season. The WSP specialized in one-act plays, usually presenting four on each bill. Ruben debuted in Lover's Luck, immediately drawing praise from the critics. His professional training and experience stood out among the largely untrained players, most of whom had careers other than the stage. Alexander Woollcott went so far as to say that Ruben "is by far the best actor the group has known".
The WSP responded to the favorable notices by casting Ruben in three playlets for its second bill starting November 13, 1916. He played an unwed husband in Another Way Out, an original satire of Greenwich Village social mores by Lawrence Langner; the tragic lead in Bushido, a translated excerpt from an 18th Century Japanese play by Takeda Izumo; and a self-absorbed character in Altruism, a satirical farce by Karl Ettlinger. Of Ruben in Bushido, Heywood Broun wrote "José Ruben gives an extraordinarily impressive performance as the father who sacrifices his son. It is the best bit of acting in the evening...". The critic for The New York Times agreed, while also praising Ruben for the other two plays in which he performed. This program of plays, strongly supported by Ruben's acting, would become the most successful of all WSP bills, playing over 100 performances thru February 1917.
Midway thru this four-month run Ruben played the lead in a special matinee for WSP subscribers only, and was also the subject of a profile in The New York Times. For the season's third bill he performed in just one play, A Private Account, for which the New York Herald said Ruben was "the greatest find the Washington Square Players have made this season".At the time this was universally acknowledged by critics, but in hindsight a young drama apprentice from Buffalo, New York, who made her professional debut with one line in Bushido, would go on to greater fame as Katharine Cornell. Illness limited Ruben's participation in the WSP's fourth bill of the season, but he recovered in time to star with Mary Shaw in Ghosts, which ended the season. Meant for a one week engagement, it was held over for three weeks due to popular demand. Alexander Woollcott and Heywood Broun again wrote highly of Ruben's acting as Oswald Alving.
Madame Sand Ruben left the WSP after a single season. He signed with director Arthur Hopkins in June 1917 for a production to be mounted that fall. This was Madame Sand, a comedy about George Sand and her lovers by Philip Moeller starring Mrs. Fiske. The production previewed in Baltimore during late October, and premiered at Broadway's Criterion Theatre on November 19, 1917. Aside from Mrs. Fiske, who wore pants and smoked cigars while in character, Ruben was the only actor singled out for praise by critics. The reviewer for Brooklyn Life said Ruben's acting "is not eclipsed even by that of so great an actress as Mrs. Fiske, and he far surpasses any member of her supporting company". Burns Mantle recognized that the play itself would appeal only to "a limited and intellectual public"; it closed at the Knickerbocker Theatre on January 12, 1918. Madame Sand then went on tour for two months, with Ruben continuing in his role.
Broadway stage: 1918-1920 Laurette Taylor chose Ruben for a program of excerpts from three Shakespeare plays, in which he played Romeo to her Juliet in the balcony scene. It played for a single matinee at the Criterion Theatre on April 5, 1918, to a small audience of fellow actors. Her performance was panned by reviewers, and even Ruben drew a very rare poor review, with only Heywood Broun commending him.
Ruben had more success partnering with Olive Wyndham in an English translation of Georges Courteline's The Fine System, which played on the B. F. Keith vaudeville circuit during May and June 1918. He was then cast in I.O.U., which co-starred Mary Nash; it opened at the Savoy Theatre in Asbury Park, New Jersey on August 5, 1918. Ruben's character changed from the Japanese "Baron Tori" in the tryouts to the East Indian "Ramdah Sima" by the time the play reached Broadway on October 5, 1918, but no rewriting could save this play. It closed after a brief run, upon which Ruben married his co-star. Newspapers made much of their romance, with a full-page story and photos, even suggesting the play folded early because they couldn't convincingly play antagonists.
Almost immediately the couple's work pulled them apart; Nash went into another New York play while Ruben joined the touring company of A Marriage of Convenience. The tour finished up in January 1919; there is a seven-month gap before Ruben's next known performing work. During the latter part of this time Actors' Equity Association (AEA) launched an actor's strike. Ruben was elected to the board of the Actors' Fidelity League, a new organization of actors opposed to the strike tactics of AEA. However, with the backing of Samuel Gompers and the American Federation of Labor, the AEA won out.