Eddie Foy, Sr.
Will Dockery
> By Elaine Woo
> January 20, 2009
> Susanna Foster, a singer and 1940s leading lady whose most famous role
> was the terrorized prima donna in the first talking version of
> "Phantom of the Opera," died Saturday of heart failure at the Lillian
> Booth Actors Home in Englewood, N.J., according to publicist Dale
> Olson. She was 84.
>
> Foster costarred with Claude Rains and Nelson Eddy in the 1943 Academy
> Award-winning remake of the 1925 silent screen version of the macabre
> melodrama that starred Lon Chaney. It was one of a dozen films Foster
> made before virtually disappearing from the screen in 1945.
>
> After leaving Hollywood, she performed on stage, including a 1948 Los
> Angeles Civic Light Opera production of "The Naughty Marietta," one of
> composer Victor Herbert's best-known operettas. Foster performed
> opposite her soon-to-be husband, popular baritone Wilbur Evans.
>
> Foster was born Suzanne DeLee Flanders Larson on Dec. 6, 1924, in
> Chicago and grew up in Minneapolis. When she was only 3, she won
> attention for her ability to mimic popular performers, such as
> vaudevillian Eddie Foy and actresses Bebe Daniels and Jeanette
> MacDonald.
I was fascinated last night by the short scene in the George M Cohan
biopic where Cohan, played by Jimmy Cagney, meets Eddie Foy, Sr. and
began researching him:
http://www.wikinfo.org/index.php/Eddie_Foy%2C_Sr.
Eddie Foy, Sr. (born Edwin Fitzgerald [1] March 9, 1856, in Greenwich
Village, New York City; died February 16, 1928, Kansas City,
Missouri), was an actor, comedian, dancer and vaudevillian.
Contents [hide]
1 Biography
1.1 Early years
1.2 Return to Chicago
1.3 Eddie Foy and The Seven Little Foys
2 References
3 External links
[edit] Biography
[edit] Early years
Foy's parents, Richard and Mary Fitzgerald immigrated to the United
States from Limerick, Ireland in 1855 and lived first in New York's
Bowery, then in Greenwich Village, where Eddie was born.
My father, Richard Fitzgerald, ran a tailor shop. It occupied the
front room of a two-story building, and we lived very comfortably in
the other rooms above and back of the shop. Father and Mother had been
married over in old Limerick a few years before and had crossed the
ocean along with the hordes of Irish, English, and German immigrants
who came to this country by the hundred thousand in those three or
four decades just before the Civil War. Like Saint Patrick, we came of
'decent people.' My mother's brother was a missionary in some of the
Pacific islands, and a very influential one, I'm told. I was brought
up in strict piety, and though some folks may not believe it, the
effects thereof never quite departed me. -From 'Clowning Through
Life', Eddie Foy's autobiography, written with Alvin F. Harlow,
published in 1928.</
In his 1928 autobiography, Foy wrote of his uncles, his mother's
brother who was a missionary, he mentions her brother who was a sailor
and her brother in Chicago who sent them tickets to come there in
April 1865 following the death of his father.
Richard Fitzgerald died in an insane asylum in 1862 from syphilis-
induced dementia, [2] and his widow took her four children (Eddie was
second oldest) to Chicago, where she reportedly at one time tended the
mentally ill widow of Abraham Lincoln.[3] Six-year-old Eddie began
performing in in the streets and local saloons to support his family.
This left him little time for formal education.
I almost never had any opportunity to go to school in my boyhood. Once
I went a few months to a night school when I was about twelve; I
didn't know then and I don't know now whether it was operated by the
city or not. My teacher at the night school was a beautiful and
gracious lady who completely won my heart. It's hard for a boy to
guess at adult ages; she might have been anywhere from twenty-five to
thirty-five. -From 'Clowning Through Life', Eddie Foy's 1928
autobiography.
At 15, he changed his name to Foy. According to one story, he knew
James A. Foy (1861-1943), and adopted his surname because he liked it
and it would fit nicely on marquees.
James A. Foy. He went to parochial school in Chicago in his own youth.
A playmate was Edward Fitzgerald. One day, when they had both become
young men, they met again. "Foy, I envy you—I wish I had a short name
like yours," said Edward Fitzgerald, who was developing stage
ambitions. Years rolled by and "Eddie Foy" became a nationally
renowned comedian. He was the Edward Fitzgerald of Chicago parochial
school days. -C. J. Bulliett, Chicago Daily News of Saturday, August
24, 1935.
In his autobiography, though, Foy states that he took his name from
two sisters named Foy working in concert halls whom he admired, in
1872.
I was sixteen when a very momentous event took place in my life. I
changed ny name! Always trying to break into the show business at some
crevice or other, I teamed up with one of my chums, a youth named Jack
Finnegan, a year or two older than I was, to do acrobatic song-and-
dance stuff. Our two names, Finnegan and Fitzgerald, coupled together
on a program didn't suit my partner. He said it sounded too Irish. I
questioned whether anything could be too Irish, but he overruled me.
He had decided to take the name of Edwards. I pondered long over my
stage moniker. There were two girls, the Foy sisters, working in the
concert halls then (they afterwards became very famous in vaudeville)
whom I admired very much, and I could think of nothing better than
their name. It was short and seemed to me to have a picturesque quirk
about it that made it easy to remember. So our team became Edwards and
Foy, and I have been Eddie Foy ever since. -From 'Clowning Through
Life', Eddie Foy's autobiography, written with Alvin F. Harlow,
published in 1928.
With a partner, Jack Finnegan, Foy began dancing in bars, traveling
throughout the western United States.[4] He worked for a time as a
supernumerary in theatrical productions, sharing a stage at times with
such leading men of the time as Edwin Booth and Joseph Jefferson. With
another partner, Jim Thompson, Foy went west again and gained his
first professional recognition in mining camps and cow towns. In one
such town, Dodge City, Kansas, Foy and his partner lingered for some
time and Foy became acquainted with notable citizens Wyatt Earp, Bat
Masterson, and Doc Holliday.[5] Foy in later years told of an
altercation over a girl with fellow actor Charles Chapin, who was
drunkenly taking pot-shots at Foy. The gunfire awakened Wyatt Earp,
who disarmed the actor and sent both the players home to sleep it off.
Foy is also rumored to have been in Tombstone, Arizona in October 1881
appearing at the local theatre when the Gunfight at the OK Corral
occurred on the 26th of that month.
In 1879, Foy married Rose Howland, one of the singing Howland Sisters,
who were traveling the same circuit.[6] Three years later, Foy and
troupe relocated to Philadelphia and joined the Carncross Minstrels.
That same year, however, Rose Foy died in childbirth, as did the child
she was delivering.[7] Foy lingered with the troupe for two seasons,
then returned to the road. He joined David Henderson's troupe and
traveled all around the U.S. dancing, doing comedy, and acting in
farces. In San Francisco, he met Lola Sefton and was romantically
involved with her for ten years, until her death in 1894.[8] Although
some sources claim they were married, no record of their marriage has
ever been found, nor apparently did Foy ever state clearly that a
marriage had occurred. They had no children.
[edit] Return to Chicago
right|thumb|250px|Sheet music for Wedding Bells from Sinbad with Eddie
Foy on the cover, 1891 He returned to Chicago in 1888 as the star
comedian in variety shows and revues, initially for his own company.
He played the variety circuits for years in a series of song and dance
acts, eventually rising to musical comedy stardom in such Broadway
hits as The Strollers (1901), and Mr. Bluebeard (1903). Foy
specialized in eccentric routines and costumes, often appearing in
drag to hilarious effect. His upper lip extended well below his teeth,
giving him an unusual V-shaped grin, and making him look like he had
no upper teeth. As a result he spoke with a slurred lisp that
audiences adored.
Eddie Foy, Sr. and the Seven Little Foys, 1910.In 1896, Foy married
his third wife, Madeline Morando, a dancer with his company.[9] She
gave him eleven children, of whom seven survived. These were: Bryan
(1896-1977) who became a producer at Warner Bros; Charley (1898-1984),
an actor; Mary (1901-1987); Madeline (1903-1988), an actress; Eddie
Jr. (1905-1983) who carved out a successful career as an actor and
entertainer on stage and screen, including The Pajama Game, and Bells
Are Ringing; Richard (1905-1947) and Irving (1908-2003), a writer.
Eddie Jr.'s son, Eddie III, was a casting director with Columbia
Pictures for over 40 years.
Between 1901 and 1912 Foy Sr. played the leading comic roles in a
series of musical comedies in New York City and on tour including The
Strollers (1901), The Wild Rose (1902), Mr. Bluebeard (1903), Piff!
Paff! Pouf! (1904), The Earl and the Girl (1905), The Orchid (1907),
Mr Hamlet of Broadway (1908/9), Up and Down Broadway (1910), and Over
the River (1912). It was while on tour with Mr. Bluebeard that he
became a hero of Chicago’s infamous Iroquois Theater Fire, December
30, 1903. A malfunctioning spotlight set fire to the scenery
backstage, and Foy stayed onstage until the last minute, trying to
keep the audience from panicking. Unfortunately the theatre’s safety
features were woefully inadequate, the theatre personnel untrained,
and some of the exits had been locked from the outside; at least 600
people perished. Foy escaped by crawling through a sewer.[10]
[edit] Eddie Foy and The Seven Little Foys
1955 Poster of Bob Hope as Eddie Foy in "The Seven Little Foys"Between
1910 and 1913, he formed a family vaudeville act, and "Eddie Foy and
The Seven Little Foys" quickly turned into a national institution.
While Eddie was a stern disciplinarian backstage (his wife Madeline
died in 1918) he portrayed an indulgent papa onstage, and the Foys
toured successfully for over a decade and appeared in one motion
picture.[11] When Eddie remarried - to Marie Reilly Coombs - in 1923,
the children went their separate ways. A dedicated trouper, the elder
Foy continued to appear in vaudeville and starred in the hit Broadway
comedy "The Fallen Star" in 1927. He died of a heart attack while
headlining on the Orpheum circuit in Kansas City, Mo. at age 71.[12]
All his children except Bryan are buried with their father at Holy
Sepulchre Cemetery, New Rochelle, New York. The family’s story was
filmed in 1955 as The Seven Little Foys, with Bob Hope as Eddie Sr.
and James Cagney as George M. Cohan; Charley Foy narrated. Eddie Foy
Jr. appeared as his father in several films: Frontier Marshal (1939),
Lillian Russell (1940), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) Wilson (1944), as
well as a television version of The Seven Little Foys with Mickey
Rooney (1964).
Anyone have anything to add?
--
"Twilight Girl" and other song-poems by Will Dockery:
http://www.myspace.com/willdockery
> At 5 she was performing regularly on radio, helping to support her
> family during the Depression with her earnings of $5 a week.
>
> At 12 she landed a contract with MGM, where studio chief Louis B.
> Mayer viewed her as a potential successor to singing sensation Deanna
> Durbin, who was leaving the studio. Foster was groomed for stardom
> alongside Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland.
>
> She was offered the lead in "National Velvet" but turned it down
> because she wanted only singing roles.
>
> MGM soon dropped Foster, and the part eventually went instead to the
> young Elizabeth Taylor, whose luminous performance became Hollywood
> legend.
>
> After losing her MGM contract, Foster signed with Paramount, where at
> 14 she made her film debut opposite Mary Martin and Allan Jones in
> "The Great Victor Herbert" (1939), a biopic about the renowned
> composer.
>
> At 19 she jumped to Universal to star in "Phantom of the Opera." New
> York Times critic Bosley Crowther wrote that she played and sang
> "quite pleasingly" and considered her performance one of the few
> bright notes in the movie.
>
> "She had a kind of open quality, a warmth and a vulnerability and
> sweetness, that came through in addition to the beauty of her voice,"
> Miles Kreuger, president of the Los Angeles-based Institute of the
> American Musical, said Monday.
>
> She made several more pictures at Universal, including a horror movie
> called "The Climax" (1944) with Boris Karloff, but quit Hollywood in
> 1945 to raise her two younger sisters and take them away from their
> alcoholic mother.
>
> After marrying Evans, Foster performed with him in musicals and
> operettas. They had two sons, Phillip and Michael. She is survived by
> Michael and two grandchildren.
>
> Kreuger, who knew Foster for many years, described her as a bright but
> emotionally fragile woman who struggled to raise her sons on her own
> after her marriage to Evans ended in divorce in 1956.
>
> She held a succession of low-paying jobs, including switchboard
> operator and receptionist. At one point she was homeless and lived in
> her car.
>
> She dreamed of a Hollywood comeback but made only one film after 1945,
> appearing in a 1992 remake of the 1945 cult classic "Detour."
>
> Foster was cremated, and plans for a memorial service are pending.
> Donations in her name may be sent to the Actors Fund, 729 7th Ave.,
> New York, NY 10019.
>
> elaine....@latimes.com