Laura Joyce Bell
| Laura Joyce Bell | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Laura (or Hannah) Joyce Maskell 6 May 1854 London, England |
| Died | 30 May 1904 (aged 50) New York City |
| Occupation | Actress, singer |
| Spouse(s) | James Valentine Taylor (1874–1878) Digby Valentine Bell (1883–1904) |
Laura Joyce Bell (6 May 1854 – 30 May 1904) was an English-American actress and contralto singer mostly associated with Edwardian musical comedy and light opera. She was the wife of the American comedian Digby Bell with whom she frequently appeared with over the last two decades of her career.
Bell was born in London, the daughter of Maria Dauncey, a well-known dramatic elocutionist and voice teacher, and James Henry Maskell, a London theatrical agent. She attended the Royal Academy of Music, a student of Francesco Schira, and made her London debut in a comic opera entitled Mina. She later appeared at the Royal Strand Theatre as Gertrude in a production of James Planché's Loan of a Lover. During this early period Bell played the Count of Flanders in a piece entitled Cupid 'Mid the Roses, possibly inspired by the ballad from Joseph Knight, and The Ring and the Keeper, from John Pratt Wooler. She later participated in a British tour that showcased her talents in a two-hour presentation called Happy Hours, that was followed by a season at the Theatre Royal, Manchester and an engagement with Dion Boucicault as a soubrette singer at Covent Gardens.
Bell made her first notable appearance in New York in the spring of 1872 at Niblo's Garden performing in the "spectacle pantomime" Azeal, possibly based on the earlier musical by Daniel Auber, and afterward made a hit in the title role of the Edward E. Rice and J. Cheever Goodwin extravaganza, Evangeline, first played at the old Boston Globe Theatre on 7 June 1875 and reprised the following season at the Boston Museum. Bell played Buttercup in H. M. S. Pinafore in May 1879 with the Grand English Opera Company at Haverly's Lyceum Theatre and the next year joined the company of actors and singers at Daly's Broadway Theatre in productions of the Edgar Fawcett musical comedy Our First Families, the musical comedy, Zanina, taken from Nisida by Richard Genée, Cinderella at School, a long running musical comedy by Woolson Morse from the Thomas William Robertson musical School, that in turn was adapted from the German Aschenbrödel, by Johann Strauss II; and productions of Fawcett's comedy Americans Abroad.
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