Irene "René" Harris (July 15th, 1876 - September 2nd, 1969) was a First Class passenger of the Titanic. She was the first female theatrical manager and producer in the United States and the wife of Henry Birkhardt Harris. She escaped the sinking in Collapsible D.
She and her husband boarded the Titanic at Southampton, they occupied cabin C-83 (ticket number 36973).
As Gregg Jasper and Randy Bigham have written in their biography of Renee Harris, Broadway Dame:
Five days into the voyage, Sunday, April 14, the Harrises were still enjoying their shipboard routine. But a portent of the looming tragedy came when Renée suffered a freak injury that afternoon. She had been playing poker with her husband and six others in the B-Deck suite of millionaire Thomas Cardeza; Harry had asked her to ‘sit in,’ as she put it, in order to keep out a man suspected of being a cardsharp. When Harry pointed him out to her earlier, she was surprised he ‘looked so virtuous.’ Renée remembered “stakes were a dollar a chip” and that she was ‘ahead by $90’ when the summons for dinner was sounded: ‘We played our game of poker on an enclosed deck just outside the main stairway. Heeding the bugle call for dressing, I was making my way to my stateroom when in descending the stairs I slipped, I believe, on a greasy spot left by a tea cake. I took a header down six or seven steps.’ Incidentally, although it’s been incorrectly stated that her accident occurred on Saturday, Renée was clear in various published accounts, as well as in a letter to Gregg Jasper, that she “fell down the stairs the afternoon of the tragedy.
René Harris was rescued in Collapsible D. Her husband died in the sinking.
When she boarded the Carpathia she was accommodated in a cabin vacated by the artist Colin Campbell Cooper and his wife Emma. Mr. Campbell would later record the rescue in two paintings.
After Harry’s death, René discovered to what extent he was in debt. Nevertheless, after arriving in New York, she grabbed life by the horns and decided to continue her husband's work. She wanted to turn his Hudson Theater into a monument in his honor. For years she standed her ground in the world of the showbizz, and was the first female theaterdirector and producer on Broadway, something she felt she didn't nearly get enough credit for.
The 1929 Wallstreet crash hit hard. For four long years she couldn't bring in any show to fill her theater. She complained she had nothing but 'flops' and she nearly had a way to get things back on track, but she had no luck. Irene had managed to arrange for the fabulous "Green Pastures" but her podium didn't have enough room to include the large tredmill on stage, which was a very significant piece in the play. It became a blockbuster later. It could've made the difference in her crisis.
In 1932 the theater was struck by the depression and had to be sold. She needed money so she sold her own Titanic story. She was very annoyed by the fact that people only remembered her for that, rather than her career in the theather business, providing entertainment for hundred thousands of people, and her being the first female theater director and producer on Broadway, in which she took great pride, whilst the memory of Titanic only gave her pain and unwanted emotions.
Irene was married four more times after Henry yet kept the Harris surname because she always felt he was the only one that she cherished throughout her whole life.
Portrayals[]
A Night to Remember (1958)[]
Natalie Benesch as René Harris in A Night to Remember (1958)
In A Night to Remember, René is portrayed by Natalie Benesch. She only appeared once, when she and her husband were getting ready to sleep but suddenly a steward came to their cabin who told them to wear warm clothes, put on life jackets and go up on deck.
S.O.S. Titanic (1979)[]
Lise Hilboldt and Ed Bishop as Renè and Henry Harris in S.O.S. Titanic
| “ |
Sinking ships? That's must be funny. |
” |
—Irene Harris | ||
In S.O.S. Titanic, she was portrayed by Lisa Hilboldt. She first appeared waving goodbye with her husband when the Titanic leaving Southampton. While the couple was walking on the deck, they met and became acquainted with Daniel and Mary Marvin.
René often noticed the gamblers in the First Class Smoking Room who did not go to dinner, even accosted them but there was no response.
René and Henry Harris in the First Class Dining Saloon
On the afternoon of April 12, René and Margaret Brown went to take an electric bath in the Turkish Bath, where René commented that she felt half boiling to the Turkish Bath stewardess Maude Slocombe.
On the afternoon of April 14, later before dinner, René accidentally tripped and fell from the Grand Staircase, injuring her arm. At the dinner, she was greeted and encouraged by passengers in the dining room.
René did not realize how serious the situations were during the sinking, and even thought that there was a party on deck due to seeing fireworks. René separated from her husband when she had to leave in one of the lifeboats, where she looked after the Navratil children.
She was last seen brooding on board the Carpathia, grieving the loss of her husband.
Sources[]
'De Titanic, de ware verhalen' ©2012 Edward P. De Groot