Throwback Thursday and Doris Eaton Travis
Born on March
14, 1904 in Norfolk City Virginia, Doris Easton Travis was the last of the
Ziegfeld girls. She lied about her age and was selected as a Ziegfeld girl at
the age of 14. She had been part of a family of entertainers known as the “seven
little Eatons” where family friends included such notables as George Gershwin
and Charles Lindbergh.
After three
years as a Ziegfeld girl, she went on to perform in stage productions and in
silent films. In 1938 she opened the first Arthur Murray dance studio outside
of New York in Detroit, Michigan.
It seems she
never stopped dancing. Two weeks before she died she appeared in the annual
Easter Bonnet Competition held by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. She
performed a few kicks and apologized that she could no longer do cartwheels.
She died on May 11, 2010, and is buried
in the Guardian Angel Cemetery in Rochester, Michigan. She was 106 years old.
From the Big
Blue Book of Ballet Secrets
Dance History Secret #250:
“Doris Eaton Travis was the last of the Ziegfeld girls.”
Link of the Day:
Quote of the Day:
“Florenz
Ziegfeld, to us and our family, was just a delightful person. My sisters, Mary
and Pearl, my brother Charlie and I all worked for him, and he treated us just
beautifully, almost like a father. When I went with my mother up to his office,
he was always gentlemanly and kindly. He was sort of a quiet person.”
-
Doris Eaton
Travis
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