Ida St. Leon

Ida St. Leon (16 January 1894 — 8 July 1961) was an Australian circus performer and actress.

Ida St. Leon, from a 1909 publication.
Ida St. Leon publicity photo with signature
Ida St. Leon and George Le Guere, in Mamma's Affair, from a 1920 publication

Early life

Ida Jeannie Jones was born in Sydney, Australia, though some publicity suggested she was born in China.[1] Her parents were Alfred St. Leon and Vernon Ida St. Leon[2] of the "Famous St. Leon Family of European Acrobats".[3] As her parents' work suggests, the younger Ida and her siblings were working as circus performers from an early age.[4] When Ida was thirteen, the family were on Broadway, in Margaret Mayo's show Polly of the Circus (1907);[5] Ida St. Leon took over the lead role from Mabel Taliaferro in 1909,[6] and toured with the show for a few years after that.[7]

Career

Stage credits for Ida St. Leon included Finishing Fanny (1912),[8] Our Children (1913), Help Wanted (1914),[9] Little Women (1914),[10] Upstairs and Down (1916), Rachel Barton Butler's Mamma's Affair (1917),[11][12] The Wheel (1921),[13] and Lightnin (1923).[14]

Of her work in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1916), one unimpressed Los Angeles critic wrote that "Ida St. Leon drawls out her snippy lines in that nasal twang described as 'cute.'"[15] Photographers considered her photograph a "bestseller" in 1913.[16]

Personal life

Ida St. Leon's engagement to businessman Leo Maurice Rosenberg was announced in 1916.[17] The Rosenbergs had a son, Leo in 1917, were "estranged" from 1918 to 1920, then reunited.[18] She was named a co-respondent in the divorce of Eugenia and George McIntyre, with accusations that Ida St. Leon was being "overfriendly" with the husband, and accepting significant gifts of cash from him.[19]

References
  1. "Circus Girl to be a Star" New York Times (7 June 1909).
  2. "Circus in Australia – A way of life for 70 years, 1847–1917" About Australia.
  3. Program, Polly of the Circus (1908), in the Chicago Public Library, Chicago Theatre Collection.
  4. "Queen in Sawdust Ring Now is Stage Favorite" Los Angeles Herald (7 January 1911): 29. via California Digital Newspaper Collection open access
  5. George Jean Nathan, "Through a Star to Stardom" The Burr McIntosh Monthly (September 1909): 12-16.
  6. "Miss Ida St. Leon, The Youngest Leading Woman" The Bega Budget (6 November 1909): 3. via Troveopen access
  7. Cover illustration, Town Talk (10 December 1910): 1.
  8. "Theatrical: Ida St. Leon in Finishing Fanny" Greenville News (15 December 1912): 17. via Newspapers.comopen access
  9. "Tells How She Bounced from Circus to Legitimate Stage" New York Herald (15 February 1920): 42. via Newspapers.comopen access
  10. "'Little Women' Best Play" Tacoma Times (13 February 1914): 7. via Newspapers.comopen access
  11. Burns Mantle, "Ladies First" Green Book Magazine (April 1920): 65.
  12. Thomas S. Hischak, Broadway Plays and Musicals (McFarland 2012): 281. ISBN 9780786453092
  13. Gerald Bordman, American Theatre: A Chronicle of Comedy and Drama 1914-1930 (Oxford University Press 1995): 155. ISBN 9780195090789
  14. "'Lightnin' at Germania Sunday" Freeport Journal-Standard (24 March 1923): 7. via Newspapers.comopen access
  15. Edwin Arthur Hunt, "Our 'Respectable' Actors" Out West Magazine (July 1916): 34.
  16. "Her Face, Her Fortune" San Francisco Call and Post (24 December 1913): 4. via Newspapers.comopen access
  17. "Love God Tempts Star from Path of Stage Success" Oakland Tribune (14 August 1916): 14. via Newspapers.comopen access
  18. "Home and Baby Son Lure Actress from Stage" San Bernardino County Sun (15 August 1920): 5. via Newspapers.comopen access
  19. "Abandoned Wife Accuses Actress" Washington Times (4 May 1920): 1. via Newspapers.comopen access
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