Blanche Oelrichs

Short Biography

Blanche Oelrichs (pen name: Michael Strange), was born Blanche Marie Louise Oelrichs on October 1, 1890, in New York, N.Y., to a socially prominent family. Blanche was the reigning débutante of Newport society. In 1910, she married Leonard M. Thomas, a rising young diplomat. She soon became a devoted suffragist, sporting a bobbed haircut. In 1914 she began writing poems. Her collection "Miscellaneous Poems" was published in 1916 under the pen name Michael Strange (she used that name for all her published and stage work). In 1918, she adapted Leo Tolstoy's "The Living Corpse" which was produced successfully on Broadway with John Barrymore in the lead. In 1919, she had a volume of poems published, titled merely "Poems". After her divorce from Thomas in 1919, she fell in love with John Barrymore (1882-1942), and they got married in 1920; and on March 3, 1921, they had a daughter, Diana Barrymore. Also that year, Blanche wrote "Claire de Lune" which was presented in April 1921, starring John and Ethel Barrymore - it would later be turned into a movie Clair de lune (1932). From 1925 to 1927, she performed on stage with a summer stock company in Salem, MA. She divorced John Barrymore in 1928, and married Harrison Tweed in 1929. In 1936, Blanche had a poetry and music program on a New York radio station, and her immensely popular radio readings of poetry (hers and others), accompanied by a full orchestra, became a regular feature on WOR. Blanche had her autobiography published, "Who Tells Me True" (1940). Blanche died in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 5, 1950. Blanche left us a legacy, for the works she'd done as author, actress and radio personality.