Kate Condon

Kate Condon (February 4, 1877 – May 27, 1941) was an American contralto who performed in light and grand opera on Broadway and in opera houses during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Born in Bloomington, Illinois, she was the second youngest of six children born to William and Bridget Condon, both Irish immigrants who had come to America before the Civil War and married in 1859. The family's first child arrived in 1860, and William Condon established himself as a well-known merchant in Bloomington. Some records list Condon's birth year as 1880, though this is considered unlikely given that her brother Thomas was born in October 1879.

Before reaching Broadway, Condon was a member of the Castle Square Company in Boston. Her first significant New York appearance came in November 1900, when she played Siebel in the English Grand Opera Company's production of Charles Gounod's Faust at the Metropolitan Opera. Her Broadway debut followed in 1902, when she originated the role of Molly O'Grady in The Emerald Isle. Over the course of her Broadway career, which spanned from 1902 to 1918, she appeared in productions including The Press Agent, Iolanthe, and The Hot Mikado. In 1913 she took part in revivals of two Gilbert and Sullivan operas, and her final Broadway role came in 1917–18 in a successful revival of the musical Chu Chin Chow. Throughout her career she performed alongside notable figures of the era, including Jefferson De Angelis, De Wolf Hopper, Fritzi Scheff, and Tyrone Power, Sr. During the First World War, Condon traveled to France to entertain American troops serving with the American Expeditionary Force.

Condon's personal life was marked by a series of extraordinary circumstances. On May 16, 1903, she married Edward Burke Scott at New Haven, Connecticut. Scott worked as a theatrical advance man and treasurer for the Frank Daniel's Opera Company, which was then managed by Charles Dillingham. Only six months after the wedding, Scott vanished while Condon was on a Midwest tour, and several thousand dollars were found to be missing from the opera company's accounts. He was never seen again.

Five years after Scott's disappearance, Condon traveled to Rome to seek a Papal dispensation releasing her from the marriage so that she could wed comedian Peter F. Dailey. On May 23, 1908, she cabled Dailey to report that the Pope had granted the dispensation, not yet knowing that the forty-year-old comedian had fallen ill and would die before her message reached him.

The mystery of Scott's fate was not resolved until decades later. In September 1926, a man named William B. Victor, a partner in a New Orleans real estate firm, died by suicide. A relative subsequently contacted Condon with the suggestion that Victor and Scott might be the same person. Condon traveled to New Orleans in February 1927 and confirmed the identification by examining her husband's remains.

Condon died on May 27, 1941, at her Chicago residence after a prolonged illness, at the age of 64. She was survived by two brothers and a sister.