Cissie Sewell

Elizabeth H. Sewell, known professionally as Cissie Sewell, was an English-born stage actress, dancer, and ballet mistress born in London around 1893. She trained as a dancer under Adeline Genée and later studied with William C. Zerffi. Sewell was married to Irish-born Canadian performer Cyril Biddulph, whom she wed in 1912. Biddulph, a stage actor serving as a lieutenant in Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, died in August 1918 during World War I. Immigration records from Ellis Island indicate that Sewell remained a widow through at least 1923.

Sewell made her earliest known stage appearance as a child in the London production of Alice Through the Looking Glass, which ran in 1903 and 1904. She and her younger sister Georgie performed together as a touring dance act, and a third sister, Marie, was also an actress. In 1919, Sewell created the dances for the London production of the musical Kissing Time, and in 1940 she served as ballet mistress for a London production of Lights Up. Her work as ballet mistress extended to the American and Australian productions of Bitter Sweet, on which she collaborated with playwright Noël Coward, music director Elsie April, and producer Charles B. Cochran. In his autobiography, Coward recalled Sewell's exceptional memory and described her as possessing an outspoken critical faculty alongside a notably kind disposition.

Sewell's Broadway career spanned from 1910 to 1920 and encompassed a range of musicals and plays. Her credits included The Bachelor Belles in 1910, A Winsome Widow in 1912, The Girl from Montmartre in 1912 and 1913, The Marriage Market in 1913, The Girl from Utah in 1914, Hitchy-Koo in 1917, Her Regiment in 1917, The Girl Behind the Gun from 1918 to 1919, Miss Millions from 1919 to 1920, and Honey Girl in 1920. Off the stage, Sewell also endorsed musical instruments.

In 1920, while staying at a hotel in Boston, Sewell was present when a fire broke out in the building. Rather than immediately evacuating, she delayed her departure in order to retrieve a photograph of her late husband, leaving behind her jewelry, clothing, and bonds. Sewell was documented as still living as late as 1954.