Edna Goodrich

Edna Goodrich, born Bessie Edna Stevens on December 22, 1883, was an American actress, author, and media figure whose Broadway career spanned from 1903 to 1908. She died on May 26, 1971. The daughter of Nellie Goodrich and A.S. Stevens, she was raised by her great-grandfather, Abner Scott Thornton, a member of the Logansport Thornton family. His brothers included William Patton Thornton, a physician; Henry Clay Thornton, a lawyer and father of Sir Henry Worth Thornton; and Joseph Lyle Thornton, an educator and manufacturer. Judge William Wheeler Thornton was Abner's nephew, and his cousins included Military Reconstruction Judge James Johnston Thornton and Samuel W. Thornton, a member of the 1887 Nebraska State Legislature. Her grandfather, Justus Goodrich, suffered from mental illness attributed to a sunstroke sustained during the march to the Battle of Gettysburg; he was also shot in the heel during the battle on July 2, 1863, and died in an insane asylum in Kankakee, Illinois on June 3, 1896.

Goodrich and her mother relocated to New York City upon reaching adulthood, where both found work as chorus girls. She joined the cast of the musical Florodora as one of its celebrated sextet members, all of whom were required to be 5'4" and 130 pounds. Of more than 70 women who performed as Florodora girls, Goodrich was among the few who went on to achieve broader recognition. Her connection to the production drew her into the Harry Kendall Thaw murder trial, which William Randolph Hearst's newspapers labeled the Trial of the Century. Thaw had killed architect Stanford White at Madison Square Garden over White's relationship with Evelyn Nesbit, and reports indicated that Goodrich had introduced Nesbit to White at a meeting in White's apartment. Goodrich was served with multiple subpoenas during the proceedings, reportedly tearing one apart in front of the serving agent, and she denied any knowledge of the affair.

Following her time with Florodora, Goodrich became the leading lady of productions starring Nat C. Goodwin, described by contemporaries as the most famous American comedian of his era and a member of a family that had accumulated significant wealth through mining. Their productions played to full houses across the United States and Europe. Her Broadway credits during this period included the musical Mam'selle Napoleon, which ran from 1903 to 1904; the musical A Jolly Baron in 1905; the comedy The Rollicking Girl, which ran from 1905 to 1906; and The Easterner in 1908. She also appeared in The Runaways in 1903 and served as a producer on The Genius and the Model in 1905. Prior to her marriage to Goodwin, she had been married to Edwin Stacey of Cincinnati, Ohio.

In 1908, a prolonged sequence of events preceded Goodrich's marriage to Goodwin. The press had initially linked her to millionaire James H. McMillan, but as a planned wedding date was repeatedly postponed, reports of discord emerged. Goodrich confirmed the engagement and traveled to Europe on a spending spree reported at $20,000. Goodwin sailed to Europe in pursuit, hiring private investigators to follow her; she in turn hired investigators to monitor his. McMillan proposed an immediate marriage in Switzerland, but Goodrich declined, preferring to marry in the United States, and returned home with her purchases. The engagement to McMillan was ultimately called off, with the press attributing the cancellation to McMillan's mother, who objected following reports of Goodrich's involvement in Goodwin's divorce from his third wife, Maxine Elliott. Reports later indicated that Elliott became engaged to McMillan. Goodrich and Goodwin married in the fall of 1908; she reportedly wore more than $60,000 worth of jewelry at the ceremony. The couple had signed a prenuptial agreement entitling her to half of Goodwin's estate and a lifetime income. Initial press estimates placed the value at $400,000, but divorce proceedings later revealed the total exceeded $1.7 million.

By the summer of 1910, reports of the couple's impending separation began to circulate, connected to rumors of Goodwin's involvement with another actress. A two-year legal battle over the prenuptial trust followed, with both parties filing repeated suits. The divorce was granted in New York, with the court permitting Goodrich to resume her maiden name and barring Goodwin from remarrying within the state. From 1914 through August 1915, Goodrich served as a nurse for British Army soldiers wounded in World War I, and her cottage was subsequently converted into a convalescent home for soldiers returning from the front. Her mother's cousin, Sir Henry Worth Thornton, held the distinction of being the highest-ranking American-born officer in the British Army at the time.

Goodrich also worked in silent film during the 1910s, appearing in productions including Armstrong's Wife (1915), The Making of Maddalena (1916), The House of Lies (1916), Queen X (1917), Reputation (1917), A Daughter of Maryland (1917), American Maid (1917), Her Second Husband (1917), Who Loved Him Best? (1918), Her Husband's Honor (1918), and Treason (1918). She was reportedly dismissed from the set of The Golden Chance (1915) by director Cecil B. DeMille due to an alcohol addiction, and she retired from film work in 1918. In addition to her performing career, Goodrich authored the work Deynard's Divorce in 1912.