Laura Guerite

Laura Guerite, born Laura Leon Garrett on March 3, 1879, in Chicago, Illinois, was an American actress, dancer, singer, comedian, playwright, and vaudeville performer who appeared on Broadway between 1904 and 1910. She died on February 2, 1947, in Los Angeles, California, and is buried in Glendale, California.

Guerite was the daughter of Lawrence Garrett, a Great Lakes sailor, and Julia M. Jardee Garrett. Her maternal grandparents were from France and Switzerland, and her paternal grandparents were Canadian. She was at times described as French by birth, an impression that may have been reinforced by her respelled stage surname. Her sister Pauline Garrette Kimball was the mother of film actress Clara Kimball Young, making Young Guerite's niece.

Her Broadway career encompassed several productions across musical and revue formats. She appeared in Mr. Wix of Wickham in 1904, followed by The Gay White Way and The Orchid during the 1907–1908 season. She starred in the musical Mr. Hamlet of Broadway from 1908 to 1909, and subsequently appeared in A Broken Idol in 1909 and The Girl in the Taxi, Dick Whittington, and Get Busy with Emily in 1910. She later appeared in Peg O' My Heart in 1917. In London, she performed in the revue Oh! La! La! from 1915 to 1916. From 1914 to 1923, she undertook an extended world tour, and during the 1930s she performed in vaudeville, variety, and cabaret shows in Singapore and India.

Guerite was recognized for her "Salome" dance, performed in a minimal gauzy costume. She designed her own gowns and was noted in the entertainment press for wearing the latest Parisian fashions. She also wrote a one-act play, The Flivver, in 1916, and contributed a recipe for Brussels sprouts and chestnuts to a 1918 actors' cookbook compiled to raise funds for war relief.

Beyond the stage, Guerite had a well-documented interest in automobiles, boats, and airplanes. She owned a motor boat named the Laura G., which ran aground at Little Hell Gate in 1910 with Guerite, her husband, actress Edna Wallace Hopper, and two others aboard. Two years later, she and actress Rose Parnett used the same vessel to rescue thirteen men from a foundering yacht, the Count, in Flushing Bay, interrupting a tennis game to do so. By 1917, Guerite held a pilot's license and flew a stunt plane over a fundraising event at the Sheepshead Bay Speedway. In 1921 and 1922, while touring in Australia, she flew over Adelaide and Melbourne. She designed her own aviation costume and commented on the practicality of wearing trousers while flying, noting that women were adopting them across England and France.

Guerite married businessman John J. Parker in 1904. By 1922 she had married a second time, to H. M. Craig, and she was known at the time of her death as Laura Garrett Craig.