Blanche Deyo

Blanche Lillian Deyo, born Blanche Lillian Pixley on June 6, 1878, and died August 29, 1933, was an American dancer, actress, and singer whose career spanned Broadway, vaudeville, burlesque, ballet, and international variety theaters during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Deyo was born into a family with deep roots in the entertainment world. Her father, Robert "Bob" Franklin Pixley, was a Canadian mining engineer who died in San Francisco, California on February 24, 1908. Her mother was Lillian Scott. She had two sisters: Pearl (1873–1950) and Grace Scott Pixley (1877–1970), an actress who married theater producer and literary agent R. L. "Larry" Giffen (ca. 1873–1946). On her father's side, her aunt Annie Pixley (1856–1893) was a well-known actress, and her uncle Gus Pixley worked as a stage comedian.

Deyo made her first New York stage appearance in 1895, introduced as a discovery of producer Edward E. Rice. In her early career she performed a solo dance act and was billed simply as "the Beautiful Deyo," or in European engagements as "Mademoiselle Deyo." Beginning in May 1897 she performed in London theaters and subsequently toured internationally. By 1903, following success in several plays, she had begun performing under her full name.

Her Broadway career ran from 1902 to 1907. She appeared as Miss Carruthers in A Country Girl between September and December 1902. In October 1904 she played Peggy Sabine in the musical play The Cingalee at Daly's Theatre, a production featuring elaborate costumes and settings with oriental motifs. The following year she appeared as Ozma in The Woggle-Bug (1905), after which agent Frank L. Perley, who also represented Mabel Hite, signed her for a role in The Winning Girl, staged at the Shubert Park Theatre in Brooklyn, New York. In February 1906 she was part of the company presenting Mexicana at the Lyric Theatre in New York, a production by Sam S. Shubert. That April, she took part in a benefit performance at the Casino Theatre for victims of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Deyo also appeared in the Broadway musicals The Spring Chicken and The Social Whirl, and starred in Miss Pocahontas.

Beyond Broadway, Deyo continued an active stage life. In October 1908 she starred in Joe Weber's production of Salome at the Duquesne Theatre in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The production drew complaints to the Pittsburgh Police Department over its religious subject matter and costuming, and the department's Director of Public Safety attempted without success to stop the October 13th performance. Mayor George W. Guthrie intervened, directing the Chief of Police to inspect Deyo's costume before permitting the October 14th performance to proceed. In November 1908 she appeared alongside her husband Walter Jones, Grace Griswold, and Joe Weber in The Merry Widow and the Devil at the Grand Opera House on 23rd Street in Manhattan, a production staged by Julian Mitchell with music by Franz Lehár, in which Blanche Ring served as leading lady. The season before touring with comedian Franker Woods in The Echo in 1911, following that show's successful run at the Globe Theatre, Deyo had appeared as Paulette Devine in The Blue Mouse. In the 1914–1915 season she appeared in All Over Town at the Belasco Theatre in Washington, D.C., the final production of that season, where she performed a Charlie Chaplin number with eight chorus members and teamed with Roy Atwell in a diamond robbery motion picture specialty during the opening act.

In April 1908 Deyo married tramp impersonator Walter Jones in Crown Point, Indiana, in what was her second marriage. Jones had divorced his previous wife, Beatrice, two months prior, and the divorce decree referenced his infidelity with Deyo. The couple had a daughter in December 1913, also named Blanche Deyo. In November 1913, theatrical manager Edwin A. Weil listed a debt of $1,692 owed to Deyo when he filed for bankruptcy. Outside of her professional life, Deyo collected dancing slippers, a hobby that began when she acquired a pair belonging to Marie Taglioni. She eventually filled two glass display cases in her Philadelphia, Pennsylvania home with slippers worn by notable dancers.