BINGHAM, AMELIA

(1869-1927)

   Born Amelia Smiley (or Swilley, according to Robert L. Sherman) in Hicksville, Ohio, she grew up waiting tables in her father's hotel. She attended Ohio Wesleyan University, but was at home when Lloyd Bingham, advance man for the Negrotto troupe, came to the hotel and enlisted her to play the piano during the company's engagement there. Soon she was performing with the company on tour and then moved up to McKee Rankin's company. She married Bingham in 1891. In 1892, she made her New York debut in The Struggle for Life. By 1900, she was a star touring with her own company. Indeed, she was chosen to inaugurate Kansas City's Willis Wood Theatre in 1902.