Wade Boteler was born on October 3, 1888 in Santa Ana, California, USA not long after his family moved from Missouri. Son of Richard Louis (M.D.) and Ella Conway. Wade's father was a private in the 4th Missouri Cavalry (Confederate States of America) during the War between the States.

He was educated in Southern California schools. He originally intended to study medicine, but after one year he left it for the oil business, to which he devoted four years. According to the 1910 census young Boteler worked as a “tool dresser” in a California oil field, but soon relocated to the East Coast.

Thereafter the enterprising young man decided to study music in New York. After a year in this direction he succumbed to the lure of the stage and "broke into" the profession via the stock route. Three years passed with various stock companies, followed by a season with Charles Frohman.

He became a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, NYC, 1913.  For this school he taught play-analysis and stage mechanics, and directed modern drama for three seasons. He played in Liberty Stock Co., Pittsfield, Mass., summer seasons, 1912-13. He appeared on Broadway in a play called The Silent Voice (1914-15).

Ellen Evelyn James of San Antonio, Texas (born 1891) was in 1913 a student in sculpture in the Art Students league in New York city destined to become much sought after. In fact, the possession of her picture was to be the ambition of countless millions. Why? Well, because Kenyon Cox had used Miss James as the model for the figure and head of "Plenty," a goddess appearing on one of the new $100 bills (below).

Halfway 1914 Miss James executed a bust of one of her acquaintances, Wade Boteler. Charles Dana Gibson pronounced it a marvelous piece of work. Mr. Gibson, who was acquainted with Mr. Boteler, said that the likeness was as good as that of a photograph. The model who inspired such a masterpiece must have been more than an "acquaintance" even then.
It was during the days of study they met. Wade Boteler and his sister Virginia were students in the art life of New York, his sister studying voice culture. Miss Boteler and Miss James became devoted friends, and it was through this intimacy the love affair developed. Only family and friends knew when she was at home during the summer of 1914 that Evelyn was "terribly" in love. They were married on January 4, 1915 in New York.

After graduation Wade became assistant director of instruction at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, (1914-16); played in N. Y. City winter seasons (1914-16); with Burns Stock Co., Colorado Springs (1916). By 1917 he was back in Texas, where his first son Lanham Loftus was born.

Then Wade Boteler enlisted. He was commissioned at Camp Travis and Kelly Field, Texas and placed in charge of entertainment and the organization of acting units for the diversion of the boys at the front. Wade was very successful with his one-night invention, a portable stage on an army truck. He gave his first performance late September 1918 to 3,000 men on the tail end of a three-ton truck. In October 1918 Wade was in charge of Fair Enough, a show which carried a cast of 200 soldiers, many of whom are former professionals at the camp's Liberty Theatre in Camp Travis, and then took to San Antonio. As dramatic director he served for eighteen months until February 1919, when he was released by the war department.