Edith Day

Edith Marie Day was born on April 10, 1896, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and went on to become a celebrated actress and singer in both Broadway musicals and London's West End. She died in London on May 1, 1971, at the age of 75.

Day launched her Broadway career in 1916 with two productions, Pom-pom and Follow Me. The following year she appeared in Going Up, a musical comedy that sustained a run of 351 performances. During this period she also worked in silent films, with screen credits including The Grain of Dust (1918), A Romance of the Air (1918), and Children Not Wanted (1920).

Her Broadway breakthrough came in 1919 when she took the title role in Irene. Five months into the production's run, she was dispatched to London to originate the same role at the Empire Theatre, where critics received her warmly. That same year she married theatre producer Carle Carleton; the marriage ended in divorce in 1922. She subsequently appeared in two further Broadway productions, Orange Blossoms in 1922 and Wildflower in 1923. In 1920, she recorded "Alice Blue Gown," the hit song from Irene, and later recorded excerpts from several other shows.

Having established herself with London audiences through Irene, Day chose to base her career in the West End, where she became a leading figure in musical theatre. Among her successes there were Rose-Marie in 1925, which ran for 581 performances at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane; The Desert Song in 1927, which achieved 432 performances; Show Boat in 1928, with 350 performances; and Rio Rita in 1930. Her second husband was actor Pat Somerset, whom she had met while performing in the London production of Irene; they married in 1923 and divorced in 1927. Their son died during World War II. Her third husband, Henry Horne, predeceased her.

In addition to her stage work, Day broadcast on numerous occasions and performed at variety theatres. She retired from acting in the early 1940s, with her final stage appearance coming in Sunny River in 1943. She returned briefly to the stage in 1960 in Noël Coward's Waiting in the Wings, and in 1962 she appeared in the London production of Coward's musical Sail Away at the Savoy Theatre, with her performance documented on the cast album. Following her death, actress Anna Neagle gave a reading at a memorial service held in her honor at St Paul's, Covent Garden.