Throwback Thursday and Martha Mansfield
I've written before about the perils
faced by young “ballet girls” who often died due to coming too close to the gas
jet lighting so popular in the 1800s. But there are more recent deaths that occurred
in a similar fashion. Martha Mansfield is a case in point.
Born on July 14, 1899, Martha Mansfield
was a silent firm actress who also appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies. Her real
name was Martha Ehrlich, but she adopted the name Mansfield from the town in
Ohio where her mother was from.
Her career began at age fourteen, when
she performed in the Broadway production of Little
Women. She then danced in the musical Hop ‘ My Thumb in 1913. She signed a
six-month contract with Essanay Studios in 1917 and appeared in three films
under the name Martha Early.
Her first movie in Hollywood was Civilian Clothes (1920), and she soon gained
recognition in the film Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde, playing a role originally offered to Tallulah Bankhead. She then
signed a contract with Selznick Pictures before returning to vaudeville for a
tour in 1921. She also acted in two independent films in between performing on
the vaudeville circuit. In 1923 she fulfilled her contract with Selznick and
signed on with Fox Film Corporation, acting with such notables as Bela Lugosi.
On November 29, 1923, Martha Mansfield
was in San Antonio, Texas, filming scenes for the movie The Warrens of Virginia. Another cast member tossed a match aside
and it caught her costume – a heavily layered hoop skirt – on fire. The fire
was quickly put out, but it wasn’t soon enough to save her. She was taken to a
local hospital where she died. Martha Mansfield was only 24 years old.
She is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in
Bronx County, New York.
From the Big
Blue Book of Ballet Secrets
Dance History Factoid #136:
“Martha Mansfield was another victim of an onstage
fire.”
Link of the Day:
Quote of the Day:
“Why do
they not teach you that time is a finger snap and an eye blink, and that you
should not allow a moment to pass you by without taking joyous, ecstatic note
of it, not wasting a single moment of its swift, breakneck circuit?”
― Pat Conroy
― Pat Conroy
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