Sentimental Sunday - Women with Hats - Edna Wallace Hopper

I just love these two cabinet cards taken in 1898 of Edna Wallace Hopper (17 Jan 1872 or 74 - 14 Dec 1959) who was a famous American stage and silent film actress and her dog.   She was born to Walker and Josephine Wallace in either 1872 or 74, but refused to give her exact birth date and no one could find out for certain because her birth records were destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.  In these photographs she is wearing very typical 1890's garb while posing with her beloved dog. Her hat is quite impressive and you will notice she is wearing a long chain around her neck that appears to be a dog whistle.  Also on her hip is an object that I was quite curious about, but I found something similar today and believe it to be a vintage scent bottle (see picture). The photographer is Benjamin J. Falk (1853 - 1925), who was one of the leading celebrity photographers in New York City at that time. He opened his studio at 13 and 15 West 24th St. N.Y. Madison Square in 1892.  He also had studios at twenty-third street and Broadway (on the present site of the Flatiron Building) and the Waldorf Astoria at West 33rd Street.

vintage scent bottle

Edna was no stranger to drama in her personal life. Her father was the head night usher at the California Theatre.  According to Wikipedia, while she was still young her parents took in a wealthy boarder, Alexander Dunsmuir (1853 - 1900) co-heir to the Dunsmuir coal and shipping fortune.  Unfortunately her mother fell in love with their boarder and ran off with him and left Edna, her father and her sibling. Wally sued for divorce and Alex's parents disapproved so their marriage was on hold.  Alex apparently was an alcoholic and began to drink heavily.  In the spring of 1886 he disappeared in San Francisco on a drinking binge for ten days. After his father died in 1889 Alex bought the estate of Souther Farm now known as Dunsmuir House, near San Francisco at a cost $350,000 and deeded it to Josephine. Alex and Josephine were married on 21 Dec 1899 in California and honeymooned in New York City.  

Edna Wallace Hopper 1898 NYC

Edna had gone to New York to train for the stage. While there she had married DeWolf Hopper (1858-1935) on 28 June 1895. They appeared together in comic operas including John Philip Sousa's El Capitan, but divorced in 1898, the same year these photos were taken.  They were a somewhat mismatched couple on stage and in life; DeWolf was tall for the times at 6 foot 3 inches and Edna was less than five feet and weighed 85 pounds. By the time her mother married Alex Dunsmuir, Edna was already a star on Broadway. She met with them while they were in New York.  Unfortunately, Alex was very sick with alcohol withdrawal, worsening each day and died on New Year's Day in a New York City Hospital.  Josephine, now a widow, returned to her new San Leandro estate where she died of cancer on 22 Jun 1901.

By this time Edna had achieved great fame starring in her most famous role, Lady Holyrood in the popular London inportation Florodora.  Although she did not play one of the renowned Florodora Sextettes, she shared in the wide adulation of the many male admirers who mobbed the backstage door after each performance.  She remained very active on stage over the next decade including starring in George M. Cohen's Fifty Miles from Boston in 1907.  In 1908 she married Wall Street broker Albert O. Brown.

1910

During the 1910's and early 1920's her career slowed down but took a different direction.  She was one of the earlier stage actors to have a facelift and had the operation filmed.  Over the next eight years she made personal appearances and tours showing the film and giving beauty tips.  Over the years she would put her name on a line of products noted for keeping her youthful looks - Edna Wallace Hopper Cosmetics.  

She separated from her second husband Brown and he died in the 1930's.  She went on to become the only woman of the thirty-six member board of L. F. Rothschld & Co..  She traveled daily by subway to her office to handle investments until shortly before her death in New York City from complications of pneumonia on 14 Dec 1959 at the reported age of 94 leaving no immediate survivors.  She is buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, Alameda County, California.

Sources:

1.  Wikipedia
2.  Shades of the Departed:  http://www.shadesofthedeparted.com/2011/08/todays-shades-old-photograph.html#links
3.  Find-A-Grave:  http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=19073997

Sepia Saturday #128 - You Belong To Me - Jo Stafford

This week's Sepia Saturday prompt relates to music, song, etc and as usually happens I never know where I'm going with the theme and where I'll end up.  I remembered that I had a pile of old sheet music I bought on one of my "antiquing" junkets that I had no idea what I was going to do with them, I just liked the way they looked.  This particular piece of sheet music is a song I have heard and liked my whole life except I have always heard it sung by one of my all time favorites, Patsy Cline.  The words and music are by Pee Wee King, Redd Stewart and Chilton Price, and was recorded previously by Jo Stafford in 1952 for Columbia Records.  I have to admit I had never heard of Jo Stafford before today (she was a little before my time) but evidently she was quite famous and had a beautiful voice.

This piece of sheet music was evidently a popular piece with the former owner as you can see by all the pencil marks on the second page.  I have no idea what all these notations mean as I know nothing about playing music, I just enjoy the outcome.

According to Wikipedia Jo Elizabeth Stafford (November 12, 1917 - July 16, 2008) was an American singer of traditional American pop music and jazz standards and occasional actress whose career ran from the late 1930's to the early 1960's.  Stafford was greatly admired for the purity of her voice and was considered one of the most versatile vocalists of the era.   She came from a musical family and was also related to Sgt. Alvin York a famous WWI hero.  The article is quite interesting and lengthy - I encourage you to read it if you are interested in the music of this time period. 

Here is a great YouTube video of her recording of You Belong To Me with different photo clips of her throughout her career by mr40sfan - she does have a beautiful voice:

For more great musical themes as well as other song-worthy posts, check out this week's Sepia Saturday.

Fashionable Friday - 1860's Montpelier, Vermont Woman

1860's Montpelier, VT Woman

This Carte de Visite shows a  lovely Montpelier, Vermont woman sitting in a chair which is a very common pose for the times.  She is wearing the typical hooped dress, belted and although difficult to see I suspect her hair his held with a snood. It's also very hard to see, but I believe she is wearing a ring on her left index finger; that seems to me to be unusual.

This CDV was taken by S. O. Hersey, Photographer, State Street of Montpelier.  Because of the revenue stamp on the back we know this photo was taken between 1864 and 1866.  I very little information on this photographer but I did find him on an IRS Tax Assesment List on ancestry.com in Montpelier District 1 in 1866.


  

Wedding Wednesday - Couple from Waldmunchen, Germany

This well-dressed bride and groom are from Waldmunchen, a town in the district of Cham in Bavaria, Germany situated near the border of the Czech Republic.  There is no date and nothing to identify this couple.  The bride is wearing a beautiful headdress, white gloves, a floor length veil and is carrying a large bouquet of flowers.  She is wearing a dark colored dress with unusual lace panels on the skirt and around the high neckline.  She also us wearing several  unique pieces of jewelry as well.  You will notice she is several inches taller than her groom.

The photographer was Joseph Missoni of Cham.  I believe this cabinet card, which is on the black, graphite type cardboard to have been take around 1900 give or take a couple of years.

Tin Type Tuesday - Mother and Five Daughters

This tin type of a mother and her five daughters, although undated and subjects unidentified, says to me probably late 1890's or early 1900's.   The mother is second from the left and she is surrounded by her five daughters who appear to be anywhere from seven years to perhaps sixteen years old.  They appear to be not as well dressed as some of the subjects you see in the cartes de visites and cabinet cards of the same era and are perhaps of some ethnic background.  It is a fascinating photograph nonetheless - I find their faces quite interesting.

Sentimental Sunday - Women with Hats - Lady in White

Here is a cabinet card with an unidentified woman from Tiffin, Ohio taken by O. P. Frees.  She is seated on a studio prop "rock wall" and wearing a white dress with a fitted bodice, black hat with white flowers and leaning slightly on a black umbrella.

Most of the clues point to the photo being taken about the late 1880's to early 1890's although it is uncommon but not unheard of to see women wearing white dresses during this time period.  I found the photographer Oliver Perry Frees (4 Feb 1852 - 13 Apr 1921) in Ancestry.com in the 1900 Seneca County, Ohio census.  His age was listed as 48, married 24 years to Mary age 47, one son Orva aged 23.   I found a marriage record for an Oliver Frees and Mary S. Wilcox in Seneca County, 22 Dec 1875.  I also found a death record for Oliver Frees in Seneca County on 13 April 1921.  There were numerous Tiffin City Directory records starting with 1903.  I still want to believe that this photo was taken between 1889 - 1894 and it is entirely possible that he would have began his photography career earlier than 1900 even though he does not show up in earlier censuses.