Stella Mayhew

Stella Mayhew (November 19, 1874 – May 2, 1934) was an American actress and vaudeville performer.

Stella Mayhew, from a 1907 publication.
Stella Mayhew, from a 1908 publication.

Early life

Stella Mayhew was born Izetta Estelle Sadler[1] in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,[2][3][4][5] and began acting as a child in Grafton, Ohio,[6] where her father was a teacher and school principal.[7][8]

Career

On the stage, her first major role was in blackface, as "Aunt Lindy" in On the Suwanee River.[2] Mayhew was seen in revues La Belle Paree (1911, again in blackface, with Al Jolson),[9][10] The Whirl of Society (1912, again in blackface, again with Al Jolson),[11] A World of Pleasure (1915), and in musical comedies including Flo Flo (1904), The Show Girl (1904), The Man from China (1904), Fritz in Tammany Hall (1905), Lifting the Lid (1905), The Whole Damm Family (1905),[12] Comin' Through the Rye (1906), The Jolly Bachelors (1910, again in blackface),[13] Vera Violetta (1911, again with Al Jolson),[14] A Mix-Up (1916),[15] Lace Petticoat (1927), Hit the Deck (1927), Mrs. Bumpstead-Leigh (1929),[16] and Hello Paris (1930).

"Miss Mayhew is not a great vocalist so far as trills are concerned," explained critic Roland Burke Hennessy in 1904. "But when it comes to intelligence, snap, go, and the ability to get out of a song fully three times as much as the author and composer have put into it, Miss Mayhew is to be recommended for any and all occasions."[17] A Los Angeles reviewer commented in 1915 that "Miss Mayhew frolics from wing to wing and from footlights to back-drop in her own Stella Mayhewish fashion and every move and every action is a laugh."[18]

Mayhew appeared in a few short films, including episodes of the serials Our Mutual Girl (1914) and The Hallelujah Lady (1929). She was mentioned as starting her own film production company in 1919.[19] She also made several musical recordings,[20] which have been digitized for a new century's listeners.[21]

After she performed in a 1913 fundraiser for firemen's pension fund, Stella Mayhew was named Third Assistant Chief of the New Rochelle Fire Department.[22][23] She also sang at a 1910 benefit for the Sanitarium for Poor Children at Rockaway Park.[24]

Personal life

Stella Mayhew married singer and composer Billie Taylor;[25] they divorced in 1922. Mayhew lost her house in Beechhurst, New York, and her life savings, in the stockmarket crash in 1929, and she died "penniless" in 1934, aged 59 years, in the National Vaudeville Artists' Ward at French Hospital, from sepsis after an ankle injury at the Times Square subway station.[26][27][5] Mayhew was baptized as a Roman Catholic in her last days, and funeral arrangements were made in that tradition, with funding from the National Variety Artists Association.[28]

References
  1. "Says Stella Mayhew Died Intestate" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (July 17, 1934): 13. via Newspapers.com
  2. Johnson Briscoe, "November 19: Stella Mayhew" Actors' Birthday Book (Moffat, Yard 1907): 256.
  3. Roy Liebman, Vitaphone Films: A Catalogue of the Features and Shorts (McFarland 2010): 372. ISBN 9781476609362
  4. Armond Fields, Women Vaudeville Stars: Eighty Biographical Profiles (McFarland 2006): 25-26. ISBN 9780786425839
  5. "Stella Mayhew, Actress, is Dead" New York Times (May 3, 1934): 22. via ProQuest
  6. "Stella Mayhew's Meenie" National Courier (August 15, 1914): 20.
  7. "Stella Mayhew, Allegheny Girl" Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (May 9, 1915): 38. via Newspapers.com
  8. "Mayhew Began as 'Little Eva'" Evening Public Ledger (November 21, 1914): 14. via Newspapers.com
  9. La Belle Paree (audio recording), Library of Congress.
  10. Thomas S. Hischak, The Jerome Kern Encyclopedia (Rowman & Littlefield ): 105. ISBN 9780810891678
  11. Harry Jolson, Mistah Jolson (Read Books 2013). ISBN 9781447485551
  12. "Early Summer Attractions for Amusement Seekers" New York Times (June 25, 1905): X4. via ProQuest
  13. "'The Jolly Bachelors'–The Broadway" Hampton's Magazine (March 1910): 409.
  14. "Lively Operetta at Winter Garden" New York Times (November 21, 1911): 9. via ProQuest
  15. "Stella Mayhew Merry in 'A Mix-Up'" Boston Globe (February 8, 1916): 13. via Newspapers.com
  16. "Mrs. Fiske Sparkling in New Comedy" New York Times (April 2, 1929): 26. via ProQuest
  17. Roland Burke Hennessy, "Stella Mayhew in The Man from China" Broadway Weekly (May 19, 1904): 10.
  18. "Mayhew Star of High Jinks" Los Angeles Herald (March 29, 1915): 10. via California Digital Newspaper Collection
  19. "Stella Mayhew, Comedienne, to Form Own Producing Company" Motion Picture News (November 15, 1919): 3611.
  20. "Stella Mayhew has Loving Beauty in the Far West" Edison Amberola Monthly (May 1910): 20.
  21. Jody Rosen, "How Pop Sounded Before it Popped" New York Times (March 19, 2006): A1. via ProQuest
  22. "Fire Department Doings" Fire and Water Engineering (July 2, 1913): 14.
  23. "Woman Chief at a Fire" New York Times (June 22, 1913): 1. via ProQuest
  24. "In Aid of Rockaway Park Sanitarium" New York Times (July 17, 1910): 9. via ProQuest
  25. "Stella Mayhew at the Orpheum" Pacific Coast Musical Review (January 11, 1919): 7.
  26. "Stella Mayhew, Penniless and Alone, Dying; Former Stage Star Lost All in 1929 Crash" New York Times (April 30, 1934): 17.
  27. "Stella Mayhew Dies" Cochocton Tribune (May 2, 1934): 5. via Newspapers.com
  28. "Old Timers Attend Mayhew Funeral" New York Times (May 5, 1934): 17. via ProQuest
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