The Real Molly Brown

As Maryvale approaches its 2024 fall musical production of The Unsinkable Molly Brown, I bet you’re wondering: ‘Well, who’s Molly Brown?’ This article will talk about the life of the real Molly Brown, and how this fascinating woman came to be so famous.

Born in 1867 in Hannibal, Missouri to poor Irish immigrants, Margaret Brown was not born wealthy. She went to school until she was about 13, and as she grew older, she developed a strong willed and passionate personality. She started working in a factory  after leaving school, and dreamed of moving west until she eventually ended up in Leadville, Colorado. In Leadville, she noticed how hard it was to be a miner. Witnessing the poverty in Leadville, Molly was motivated to work in a soup kitchen and join charity efforts to help the poor. 

She eventually met J.J. Brown, a mining engineer who was smart but lacked money. They married in 1886, and moved to Stumptown, which was close to the mine J.J. worked in. In 1893, the Silver Crash came and created extreme poverty in Leadville, as the mines lacked gold and silver became worthless. However, due to J.J. ‘s discovery of gold in the Little Johnny Mine,  J.J. and Molly became millionaires. 

After receiving a life changing amount of money, J.J and Molly bought a large house for themselves and their children Lawrence and Catherine Brown. in the bustling city of Denver. Denver did not escape the effects of the Silver Crash, as there was still a large population of poor families and children struggling in the slums, leading Molly to join progressive reformers in Denver. Molly joined the reformers to advocate for improvements to the city, even working with reformer Ben Lindsey (a judge and politician) for the creation of the first juvenile court system. 

Molly and J.J. also used their fortune to travel the world, taking a trip together to Ireland, France, Russia, India and Japan. After Molly and J.J went through a quiet separation in 1909,  Molly continued with her travels and philanthropic projects. However, when she was in Egypt, she received news of her ill grandson and boarded the famous Titanic to see him. While on the Titanic on April 14th 1912, she heard the crash and went out of her way to help passengers while she figured out what was happening. She and a group of mostly women boarded a lifeboat off the ship and rowed for hours until they reached the Carpathia, the ship that answered the distress call sent by the Titanic. She took action helping the survivors by distributing blankets and supplies to the other surviving women who had nothing. She rallied the passengers of the Carpathia to help these women and managed to raise $10,000 for the survivors. News about her spread rapidly, and one paper called her “the unsinkable Mrs. Brown”, falsely claiming that she stepped off the ship and said “Typical Brown luck. I’m unsinkable!”. 

Molly Brown led quite the life as a Philanthropist and advocate for the poor, working class, and for women. While Maryvale’s production of her story will be a rather embellished version of her life, it’s sure to give audience members an incredible show. Maryvale has received a generous grant to perform this show from The Music Man Foundation and Educational Theatre Foundation.

Make sure to buy tickets to see The Unsinkable Molly Brown on November 15th, 16th, and 17th to support Maryvale and see an excellent show based on an inspiring woman.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.maryvale.com/performingarts

Break a leg cast and crew!