Sunday, October 17, 2010

AS SEEN ON TV: EDITH DAY

I thought I was out of historical figures to feature from 'Boardwalk Empire', but last week's episode proved me wrong....
EDITH DAY

AS SEEN IN:
'Boardwalk Empire'

AS PLAYED BY:
Erin McGrath

From Wikipedia:
Edith Day (April 10, 1896 - May 1, 1971) was an American actress best known for her roles in musicals.

In 1919, she became a major star playing the title role in Irene. Five months into the run, she departed the cast to create the role in the London production. Embraced by the London critics, she decided to remain there after the show closed and went on to become the first lady of West End musicals, with triumphs in Rose Marie, The Desert Song and Show Boat.

Day retired from acting in the 1930s. In 1960 she briefly returned to the stage in Noel Coward's Waiting in the Wings, later appearing in the London production of Coward's musical Sail Away at the Savoy Theatre in 1962.

Day was married three times, to theatre producer Carle Carleton, actor Pat Somerset and Henry Horne. Her only son died in World War II. She died in London at the age of 75.

A cocktail is named for her, made with dry gin, grapefruit juice, sugar, and an egg white.
'Boardwalk Empire' once again rewrote history, unless she made trips back to the United States on occasion. As the show would have it, a year after moving to Great Britain, she was back in Atlantic City to entertain at Nucky Thompson's birthday bash.

BCnU!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I loved reading this about Edith Day. She owned my house when she came to England in Noel Cowards production of Sail Away. How magical to read about her!

Toby O'B said...

Thank you! I'm glad you liked it.

What I'm really enjoying about doing this feature in my blog is that not only do I learn more about these people as I do my research, but more often than not, I'm discovering them for the first time - as was the case with Edith Day.

Thank you for visiting our green acre of the blogosphere!