Edna Wallace Hopper
| Edna Wallace Hopper | |
|---|---|
 Edna Wallace Hopper in 1910 | |
| Born |
Edna Wallace January 17, 1872 San Francisco, California |
| Died |
December 14, 1959 (aged 87) Manhattan, New York City |
| Cause of death | Complications of pneumonia |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Spouse(s) |
DeWolf Hopper (1893-1898) Albert Oldfield Brown (1908) |
Edna Wallace Hopper (January 17, 1872 - December 14, 1959) was an American actress on stage and in silent films.[1] She was known as the "eternal flapper".
Biography
She was born on January 17, 1872 as Edna Wallace in San Francisco, California to Josephine and Waller Wallace. She was probably born on January 17, 1872, but she refused to give her age and said no one could find out for sure because her birth records were destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Her father was head night usher at the California Theater. Edna had one sibling.
Edna had gone to New York to train for the stage. While there, she had married DeWolf Hopper (1858–1935) on June 28, 1893. They appeared in several comic operas together, including John Philip Sousa's El Capitan, before they divorced in 1898. The couple presented a striking physical contrast on stage. DeWolf, at 6 ft 5 in, was exceptionally tall for the time, while Edna stood under five feet tall and weighed less than 100 pounds. By the time of her mother's marriage to Alex, Edna was already a star on Broadway.
Edna met up with her mother and new stepfather while they were in New York. Alex, her stepfather, was sick with alcohol withdrawal got worse every day and died on New Year's Day in a New York City hospital.
Her mother returned as a widow to her new Oakland estate. She died of cancer there on June 22, 1901.
By this time Wallace Hopper had starred in her most famous role, Lady Holyrood in the popular London importation Florodora. Though not playing one of the renowned Florodora Sextettes, she shared in some of the wild adulation of male admirers who mobbed the stage door after every performance.
Wallace Hopper remained active on stage over the next decade, including starring in George M. Cohan's Fifty Miles from Boston in 1907. Edna married Wall Street broker Albert Oldfield Brown in 1908. Her professional activity lessened in the 1910s but resumed in a new direction in the 1920s. One of the earlier stage actors to have a facelift, Wallace Hopper had the operation filmed and then made personal appearance tours over the next eight years showing the film and giving beauty tips.
She performed the same role she began her acting career with in 1893. It was to be the final performance of the Empire Theater in Manhattan, which was scheduled for demolition.[2]
She put her name on a line of personal care products and cosmetics, Edna Wallace Hopper Cosmetics sold by American Home Products.
Wallace Hopper separated from her second husband and he died on March 5, 1945.[3]
She went on to become the only woman of the thirty-six member board of L. F. Rothschild & Co. She traveled daily by subway to her office to handle investments.
She died on December 14, 1959 in Manhattan, New York City.[1]
References
- 1 2 "Edna Wallace Hopper, Actress With Perpetual Youth, Is Dead. Star of 'Floradora', Other Hits of the Early 1900's. Lectured on Beauty. A Stock Trader". New York Times. December 15, 1959. Retrieved 2015-03-10.
- ↑ The June 8, 1953 issue of Life Magazine featured an article on Edna Wallace Hopper, who was a popular stage actress and singer during the turn of the 20th Century. In this article, Mrs. Hopper, in her 80's at the time of the article.
- ↑ "Albert O. Brown, 73, Lambs Ex-Shepherd". New York Times. March 6, 1945. Retrieved 2014-12-31.
Albert Oldfield Brown, former stock broker who was Shepard of the Lambs Club from 1922 to 1932, died yesterday in the Harkness Pavillion of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, His age was 73. ...
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Edna Wallace Hopper. |
- Biographical bits and picture of Alex Dunsmuir
- Edna Wallace Hopper at the Internet Broadway Database
- Her picture
- Edna Wallace Hopper Youth Cream Face Powder box
- Edna Wallace Hopper at the Internet Movie Database
- postcard of Edna Wallace Hopper 1872-1959
- Edna Wallace Hopper photo gallery at NY Public Library
- 1915 passport photo and application form:... she has lied about her actual age dropping ten years off of her actual 42 years(courtesy the puzzlemaster, flickr)
