Ida Hawley

Ida Hawley (April 26, 1876 – December 9, 1908) was a Canadian soprano and musical comedy actress who built her career primarily in the United States, appearing on Broadway between 1898 and 1907. Born in Belleville, Ontario, she was raised in Toronto, where she attended Loretto Abbey Catholic Secondary School. When not working in the United States, she kept a residence at the Hotel Flanders in Toronto, where her father also lived.

Hawley began her professional life in 1897 as a stock actress with Augustin Daly's company, performing Shakespeare's The Tempest in both Philadelphia and Boston. After that season of repertoire work, she departed Daly's company to play Yvonne in Alexandre Dumas' Paul Jones at the Schiller Theatre in Chicago, then took a part in A Runaway Girl at the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia. The following season brought her to New York's Fifth Avenue Theatre, where Three Little Lambs, a musical comedy by R.A. Barnett with music by E.W. Corliss, premiered on Christmas Day, 1899. She next appeared in the musical extravaganza A Million Dollars, written by Louis Harrison and George V. Hobart, which opened on September 27, 1900, to unfavorable reviews.

Her fortunes improved with the successful run of The Burgomaster, a musical comedy by Gustav Luders and Frank Pixley, in which she played Ruth. Critics praised her performance as Princess Soo-Soo in A Chinese Honeymoon, written by George Dance with music by Howard Talbot. Shortly afterward she took on the role of Edith in another Luders and Pixley collaboration, The Prince of Pilsen, during its extended run at the Broadway Theatre. In August 1905, she played Polly Premier at the Broadway Theatre in The Pearl and the Pumpkin, written by Paul West with music by John W. Bratton. Her Broadway credits also included the play The Lady from the Sea and the musicals Boccaccio and Fatinitza.

In late 1903, Hawley joined the national tour of opera singer Fritzi Scheff as her understudy, working across two comic operettas: Babette, by Victor Herbert and Harry B. Smith, and Two Roses, based on Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer. When a severe sore throat forced Scheff to withdraw from the tour in May 1904, Hawley stepped in and completed the remainder of the season in her place. In 1906 she toured in an off-Broadway production of The Blue Moon by Howard Talbot and Paul Rubens. The following year she played the lead role in The Lady from Lane's, a musical comedy by Gustav Kerker and George Broadhurst that ran for 47 performances at the Casino Theatre.

Hawley died on December 9, 1908, at the age of 32, at Alston's Sanitarium on West 61st Street in Manhattan, from complications following an operation for appendicitis. Her remains were returned to Toronto, where her father resided. Her performing career, which spanned barely more than a decade, encompassed stock theater, touring productions, and Broadway appearances across both dramatic and musical forms.