Dorchester Illustration 2696 Chrystal Herne
Today’s illustration is a composite of photographs of actress Chrystal Herne owned by the New York Public Library.
Chrystal and Julie Herne were the daughters of James A. Herne, a playwright, and his wife Katherine Corcoran, an actress. Both girls grew up in Dorchester; they lived on Beale Street.
Chrystal began her stage career at age sixteen in Washington D.C. She went on to appear in nearly forty Broadway plays. Julie and Chrystal once acted together in Sag Harbor, one of their father’s plays.
Julie was always interested in writing and became a playwright and screen writer. She worked for Paramount developing film scenes until about 1925 when she turned to writing for the stage.
Chrystal and Julie Herne have a stop on the Dorchester trail of the Boston Women’s Heritage Trails, https://www.bwht.org/explore/childhood-home-of-julie-and-chrystal-herne/.
More information may be found on Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrystal_Herne.