Paula Shay

Paula Shay (April 22, 1893 – October 14, 1972) was an American actress, writer, and artist who worked in stage and silent film during the 1910s and 1920s and later pursued careers in teaching, writing, and visual art. Born in Toledo, Ohio, to William D. Shay and Jessie Shay, she was also known at various points in her life as Paula Sleicher, Paula Shay Davis, and Paula T. Crawford.

Shay's screen career spanned 1915 to 1922 and included the melodramas Forbidden Fruit (1915) and The Immortal Flame (1916), both directed by Ivan Abramson. Her other film appearances included A Fool's Paradise (1916), The City of Illusion (1916), Fresh Air (1917), Ashes of Love (1918), The Spirit of Lafayette (1919), The Black Panther's Cub (1921), and A Stage Romance (1922).

Her stage work ran concurrently with her film career. In 1917 and 1918 she starred in a touring production of Everywoman, produced by Henry W. Savage. Her Broadway appearances spanned 1919 to 1924 and included roles in The Whirlwind (1919–1920), Toto (1921), The Teaser (1921), and Whitewashed (1924). In 1923 she also appeared in a summer stock production of Lawful Larceny.

During World War I, Shay joined the Red Cross, stating that stage performers, despite their reputation for lightness, had serious commitments to their country and had been touched by the war. In 1923 she was invited to participate in an Actors' Equity Association exhibition of art by actors, held in New York City.

From the 1930s through the 1940s, Shay taught art and acting. Her writings included the poem "November," published in American Poetry Magazine in 1937, two one-act plays from the same year — The Last Proposal and Radiant Memory — and the full-length play Lightning Strikes Twice (1943), co-written with Margaret F. Bower. In 1947 she published an instructional text, Individualized Lessons on the Fundamentals of Good American Speech, and in 1964 contributed the piece "Painting for Pleasure" to The Palm Beach Post. The Strait Museum in Florida exhibited her visual artwork in the 1950s, and she remained an active member of the Lake Worth Art League into the 1960s.

Shay married industrial engineer Ralph H. Sleicher in the 1930s; he died in 1950. She subsequently married Joseph Davis in October 1951. Her third husband was writer Merwin R. Crawford, who survived her. Shay died on October 14, 1972, in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the age of 79.