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Grace Larue
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Grace LaRue (April 23, 1880 – March 12, 1956), born Stella Gray, was an actress, dancer, and singer in Broadway theater, vaudeville and film. She also composed songs. She was reported to have earned $12,500 annually as a stage actress in 1914.
e LaRue was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1880.
ctober 1905 she teamed with Charles Burke in a medley of song and dance entitled the Silver Moon.
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Encyclopedia
Grace LaRue (April 23, 1880 – March 12, 1956), born Stella Gray, was an actress, dancer, and singer in Broadway theater, vaudeville and film. She also composed songs. She was reported to have earned $12,500 annually as a stage actress in 1914.
Early life
Grace LaRue was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1880.
Acting career
In October 1905 she teamed with Charles Burke in a medley of song and dance entitled the Silver Moon. They performed at the Alhambra Theatre in Harlem. LaRue was in the cast of entertainers who supported Anna Held in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1907. She appeared with Emma Carus, Lillian Lee, Frank Mayne, and others, singing all new numbers.
The Follies debuted at the Savoy Theatre in Atlantic City, New Jersey, before moving to the Jardin de Paris, (Olympia Roof Garden) Broadway at 44th Street, in New York City.
LaRue sang with the company of Sam Bernard in Nearly A Hero at the Star Theatre, Broadway (Manhattan) and 13th Street, in 1909. She was in a production of Molly May at the Hackett Theatre, (Lew Fields Theatre), 254 West 42nd Street, in April 1910.
On July 2, 1911 the Follies Bergere, 46th Street and Broadway, presented LaRue with a cast of 150 entertainers, 90% of them girls. She sang on a vaudeville bill with Bernard Granville and Alick Lauder at Hammerstein's Victoria, 1481 Broadway, in January 1915. LaRue added some new songs and gowns for her show at the Colonial Theatre, 1887 Broadway, several weeks later.
As a vaudeville player LaRue headlined a 1915 concert at the Alhambra Theatre, 126th Street and 7th Avenue. Owned by B.F. Keith, the performance hall presented fourteen big acts.
In 1918 LaRue assisted the Army and Navy Athletic Fund and the Stage Women's War Relief with two shows. The former event was staged at the Hippodrome Theatre, New York City and the latter at the Metropolitan Opera House.
LaRue performed with Hale Hamilton in Dear Me, which opened at the Lincoln Square Theatre in Decatur, Illinois, in September 1920. The play's theme dealt with the founding of a home for artistic and literary failures. LaRue impersonated April, the maid. The comedy features songs by LaRue. In the role she writes to herself when there is no one else to send letters to. Thus the title, Dear Me. In July 1922 LaRue and Hamilton were in the comedy, Monica, written by Christopher Wyatt.
She was in the second Music Box Theatre Revue which opened on October 23, 1922. Also in the cast were comedians Clark and McCullough, who became Broadway favorites via the burlesque circuit. The Music Box playhouse was a joint venture on 239 West 45th Street built by Sam H. Harris, Irving Berlin, and Joseph Schenck.
Private life
She was linked romantically to Byron Chandler during her time with the Bernard troupe in 1909. Chandler's wife was suing him for divorce. LaRue became the third wife of Chandler, who was known as the Millionaire Kid. He introduced motorized transportation to compete with the horseless carriage of Alfred Vanderbilt. Chandler was ordered by the New York Supreme Court to pay LaRue $60 per week in alimony in July 1914. LaRue claimed that having to carry her mother from city to city during acting engagements was expensive to her.
By 1919 she was married to Hale Hamilton and they appeared in a silent film together that year called That's Good. As Mrs. Grace LaRue Hamilton she leased an apartment at the San Carlos Hotel, 150 East Fiftieth Street, New York City, in 1927. The apartment was leased from Butler & Baldwin, Inc. She was a guest at a house party hosted by Mr. and Mrs. Harry Frazee which honored Mayor James J. Walker in June 1927. The Greenwich, Connecticut event celebrated the birthday anniversaries of Walker and Mr. Frazee.
She died in Burlingame, California in 1956.
External links
- New York Public Library Digital Gallery photo
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