Her father was a native of New York who served in the U.S. Army before marrying Lizzie MacBride on October 11, 1883, in Buffalo County, Nebraska.

[4][5] Bessie Learn's first known stage appearance came at age eight with Amelia Bingham, in Hearts are Trumps; playing a baby in a stroller.

She later played in The Little Princess, with Millie James, Lover's Lane on Broadway, with Mary Ryan and had a two-year run with Edwin Arden in Home Folks.

She next appeared with Harry Brodribb Irving in Paola and Francesca and Midsummer Night's Dream and in vaudeville with Robert Hilliard and William Harcourt as the boy, and in the stage play Polly of the Circus.

[1] She became the ingenue of the Edison Company at the age of 22, and in her short time before the camera made an enviable record for vivacious and appealing comedy.