May Naudain

Mary Arnaud "May" Naudain was born on October 12, 1880, in Burlington, Iowa, though some sources cite 1872 as her birth year. She was raised in Omaha, Nebraska, the daughter of Thomas Nelson Naudain, a banker, and Mary M. Calloway. Naudain went on to establish herself as an American musical theatre actress and singer, with a Broadway career spanning from 1903 to 1915.

Naudain made her Broadway debut in Babes in Toyland during the 1903–1904 season, launching a run of prominent stage appearances over the following decade. She appeared in It Happened in Nordland in 1904–1905 and Victor Herbert's Concert in 1905, followed by His Majesty in 1906. That same year she took a role in The Little Cherub, which ran into 1907. Her starring role came with The Girl Behind the Counter in 1907–1908, and she subsequently appeared in The Girls of Gottenberg in 1908. Her final Broadway credit of that period was Katinka, which ran from 1915 into 1916.

In 1916, Naudain recorded the song "Rackety-Coo," a hit number from Katinka. The following year she performed on the vaudeville circuit alongside Anatole Friedland, and she continued touring in vaudeville through 1918. In 1919 she returned to Broadway as part of The Society of American Singers in a production of The Gondoliers. During World War I, Naudain also gave benefit concerts and raised money for war bonds.

In June 1909, Naudain married banker Charles Henry "Harry" George. She died from a heart ailment in Jacksonville, Florida, in February 1923.