Paula Edwardes

Paula A. Edwardes (1878[1] – after 1926) was an American stage performer in musical comedies and vaudeville.

Paula Edwardes, from a 1904 magazine cover.

Early life

Edwardes was born in New York City[2] or possibly Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in Boston, where she began her stage work as a chorus girl.[3]

Career
Paula Edwardes in 1907, in costume for Princess Beggar

She had a part in The Belle of New York (1897), which traveled to London; her sister Peggy Edwardes was also in the company. She was also in The Great Ruby.[2] Her Broadway appearances included roles in A Runaway Girl (1898–1899); The Show Girl (1902); The Defender (1902); Winsome Winnie (1903); The Man from Now (1906); and The Princess Beggar (1907).[4] Edwardes was known for performing soubrette parts using an exaggerated accent called "Americanized Cockney" by one reviewer.[5]

In 1906, ragtime composer Cora Folsom Salisbury wrote a valse caprice for piano named "Paula" and dedicated it to Edwardes.[6] In 1907, she contracted to provide "electric music" (recordings) in theatre lobbies before her live performances, one of the first musical theatre stars to be recorded for such purposes.[7] At the end of 1907, there were rumors[8] that she was engaged to marry steel magnate Joseph E. Schwab,[9] rumors that both parties denied.[10] In 1910 she was headlining a variety show in New York.[11]

Later life

As Edwardes grew older, she was no longer suited to soubrette parts and did not win other roles. "Thus Paula Edwardes, when her youth faded, faded simultaneously from view," explained critic George Jean Nathan; he told of an encounter with the older Edwardes, dressed girlishly and claiming to be her own teenaged niece, in hopes of reclaiming the fame of her earlier days.[12] In 1926, a police officer found Edwardes, holding a crucifix and praying in the rain, on a street corner in New York City.[13] She said that a dream had instructed her to do so, and she was escorted to Bellevue Hospital for care.[14]

References
  1. American and British Theatrical Biography by J. P. Wearing c.1979 ISBN 0-8108-1201-0
  2. Helen Arthur, "Beauties of the American Stage" National Magazine (December 1904): 327–329.
  3. Johnson Briscoe, The Actors' Birthday Book, Moffat, Yard (1907): 213.
  4. Frank Cullen, Florence Hackman, Donald McNeilly, eds. Vaudeville Old & New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performances in America, Psychology Press (2007): 283. ISBN 9780415938532
  5. Lewis Clinton Strang, Prima Donnas and Soubrettes of Light Opera and Musical Comedy in America, L. C. Page & Company (1900): 114–119.
  6. Bill Edwards, "Cora May Folsom Salisbury Aulman" Ragpiano.com.
  7. "Electric Music in Lobby", The New York Times (January 4, 1907).
  8. "To Marry Paula Edwardes" Baltimore Sun (December 18, 1907): 11. via Newspapers.comopen access
  9. "An Actress for a Schwab", The Day (January 13, 1908): 3.
  10. "Wouldn't Marry Joseph Schwab" Pittsburgh Press (December 19, 1907): 2. via Newspapers.comopen access
  11. "Week's Bills at the Theatres" New York Times (June 14, 1910): 11.
  12. George Jean Nathan, The Theatre, the Drama, the Girls, A. A. Knopf (1921): 356–357.
  13. "Famous Opera Star of Past Century Found Kneeling in Prayer on Street" Bridgeport Telegram (August 14, 1926): 1. via Newspapers.comopen access
  14. "Find Noted Actress Praying in Storm", New York Times (August 14, 1926): 3.
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