Faye Emerson

Faye Margaret Emerson was born on July 8, 1917, in Elizabeth, Louisiana, the fifth child of Lawrence L. and Jean Emerson. The family relocated frequently during her early years, living at various points in El Paso, Texas, and New Mexico. Her parents separated when she was three, and in 1924 she moved to Chicago to live with her father and stepmother. At age ten she settled in San Diego, California, with her mother, where she would spend the rest of her formative years. Her interest in performance developed during two years at the Academy of San Luis Rey, a Roman Catholic boarding school in Oceanside, California. She subsequently attended Point Loma High School and, for one year, San Diego State College. Emerson joined the San Diego Community Theatre and the St. James Repertory Theater, taking part in summer stock productions throughout California. On October 29, 1938, she married William Wallace Crawford, Jr., a naval aviator; the couple had a son, William Wallace Crawford III, in 1940.

Her professional film career began in 1941, when a Warner Bros. talent agent spotted her during a stage production of Here Today at the San Diego Municipal Theater. She signed a studio contract and appeared in bit parts before taking supporting roles in Bad Men of Missouri and Nine Lives Are Not Enough, both released that year. Her first starring role came in Lady Gangster (1942), a low-budget remake in which she took the role originated by Barbara Stanwyck. She went on to appear in Howard Hawks's war film Air Force (1943) and co-starred with Zachary Scott in three crime dramas: The Mask of Dimitrios (1944), Danger Signal (1945), and Guilty Bystander (1950). Additional film credits from the period include Nobody Lives Forever, opposite John Garfield, and Crime by Night, opposite Jane Wyman. Murder in the Big House, made in 1942, was re-released in 1945 under the title Born for Trouble after co-star Van Johnson became a prominent figure. In 1960, Emerson received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to the motion picture industry; it is located at 6529 Hollywood Blvd.

In 1943, Emerson met Colonel Elliott Roosevelt, son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The two married on December 3, 1944, at the rim of the Grand Canyon, while Emerson was filming Hotel Berlin nearby. The couple later resided with Eleanor Roosevelt at Hyde Park, New York. By 1947 the marriage had deteriorated, and on January 12, 1950, Emerson obtained a divorce from Roosevelt in Cuernavaca, Mexico. That same year she married bandleader and conductor Lyle "Skitch" Henderson, also in Cuernavaca. The two appeared together on the television program Faye and Skitch from 1953 to 1954. Emerson and Henderson divorced in 1957 in Acapulco, Mexico.

Emerson's Broadway career spanned 1948 to 1958. She made her Broadway debut in The Play's the Thing, and subsequently appeared in Back to Methuselah, Protective Custody, The Heavenly Twins, and La Parisienne. Concurrent with her stage work, she transitioned into television beginning in 1948, acting in anthology series including The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre, The Philco Television Playhouse, and Goodyear Television Playhouse. She also hosted Paris Cavalcade of Fashions on NBC in November 1948 and served as hostess and narrator of NBC's Cavalcade of Fashion from August 13 to December 16 of that year.

The Faye Emerson Show debuted on CBS on October 24, 1949, and ran until April 12, 1952. The program was a 15-minute late-night talk show, at times broadcast on both CBS and NBC simultaneously, and was produced from a studio CBS constructed on the sixth floor of the Stork Club building — a complete replica of the club's Cub Room. During the same period, Emerson hosted a separate version of The Faye Emerson Show on NBC from April 15 to May 20, 1950, followed by Fifteen with Faye on NBC from June to August 1950. She was also a panelist on NBC's Leave It to the Girls and a frequent guest on Who Said That. After The Faye Emerson Show concluded, she continued with Faye Emerson's Wonderful Town (1951–1952), Author Meets the Critics (1952), and Faye and Skitch (1953–1954). Her frequent appearances as a panelist on programs such as To Tell the Truth and I've Got a Secret earned her the nickname "The First Lady of Television." During this period she was earning up to $200,000 per year.

Emerson formally retired from show business in 1963 and relocated to Europe. She remained there until her death on March 9, 1983, when she died of stomach cancer in Deià, Spain, at the age of 65.