Kevin CW Maistros

Entertainment is in my blood.

Kevin;

Here is a brief history of the Braithwaite side of our family.

John Braithwaite (I believe born in England) came here to America & married.  Had a small farm in Princess Anne County, VA.  Was a slave owner.  He decided to return to Eng with his family just before the Civil War started here in America.  Freed his slaves, took his family to NY to get a boat back to Eng.  His wife was pregnant and their son, John William, was born in NY while waiting for passage to Eng. making him a natural born American.

He grew up in Eng. and became an actor.  He met and married Mary Ellen Thornton who joined him on stage taking the name Mari Helena Braithwaite.  They worked together and separately for many years on the English Stage.

She was, in her later years, a dead ringer for Queen Victoria and played her on stage in “Victoria Regina” for quite a long run.

John William & Mari Helena had 2 sons.  The eldest, Shirley Wybert Braithwaite was carried on stage at the age of 6 weeks in a play (unknown) by his mother and grew up in the theatre. In those days you were apprenticed to all facets of the theatre and so he learned not only acting but also scene building and painting, makeup, directing, lighting etc. and he was also very good at writing.

As he grew up he was well known in English theatre and finally decided to come to America.  He came to Cleveland as the assistant of a well known Magician and after a few years he went his own way.   

He arrived in NY with his first wife around 1908 and went to work in NJ with Thomas Edison, who was making silent films at the time.  He was Edison’s art director, the very first art director in motion pictures. Most of his time off set was spent in, what at the time was, the original Warner Brothers studio and screening room. You lived for a year in the very same studio when you first moved to NY.

When Edison decided to move his company to CA, Shirley, who by then was divorced, his wife having run off with a traveling salesman, decided he didn’t want to go to CA and came back to Cleveland where he was hired by “Phil Spitalny and his all girl Orchestra” to be the art director.  They were at the Hippodrome Theatre in downtown Cleveland.

While there he met and married his 2nd wife, Nellie Rebekah Markel in 1925.  Nellie was very pretty and looked a lot like Maude Adams, a well known movie star. Phil Spitalny decided to move to NY with his orchestra and he and Shirley parted company since Shirley wanted to stay in Cleveland.

He started his own company “The Mayfair Marionettes”.  He made all his own figures (1/3 life size ) carving the bodies out of wood and making the heads out of paper mache after sculpting them in clay and making plaster molds for them.  Nellie made the costumes for the figures and Shirley wrote many of the plays they performed and he was the director.  He also wrote adaptations of well known fairy tales and they played the Cleveland Area elementary schools in the 30’s and 40’s and were very popular.

It comes as no surprise to your family and I, that you have made your own way into film and entertainment. We are all very proud of you and wish you the best of leg breaking as you prepare for your first big movie.

With all the love in the world,

Your Grandmother