Mary Hay (actress)
| Mary Hay | |
|---|---|
Photoplay Magazine,1920
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| Born |
Mary Hay Caldwell August 22, 1901 Fort Bliss, Texas, U.S.A. |
| Died | June 4, 1957 (aged 55) Inverness, California, U.S.A. |
| Occupation | Dancer, Stage and Screen Actress |
| Spouse(s) |
Richard Barthelmess (1920–1927; divorce) 1 child Vivian Bath (1927–1934) Richard Hastings |
Mary Hay (August 22, 1901 – June 4, 1957) was an American dancer, musical comedy and silent screen actress, playwright and former Ziegfeld girl, active over the decade popularly known as the Roaring Twenties.
Mary Hay Caldwell was born at Fort Bliss in Texas, the daughter of Frank Merrill Caldwell (1866–1937), a West Point graduate and noted career army officer, and Mary Hay (1865–1957), the daughter of an Oshkosh, Wisconsin, hardware merchant. Hay was a graduate of the Anna Head School for Girls in Berkeley and had studied dance at Ruth St. Denis’ Denishawn studio in Los Angeles. During this period film directors would often recruit Denis’ students to fill minor dancing roles, a process that one day led to Hay being chosen by D. W. Griffith to play the little French dancer in the 1918 World War I film, Hearts of the World.
Taking Griffith’s advice to get stage experience before entering film, the following year Hay traveled to New York where she was given the opportunity to play in a Ziegfeld Follies comedy skit opposite a talented trick performing dog. The dog was played by comedian Phil Dwyer. Realizing she had stage presence, Ziegfeld soon elevated Hay to dance in his Nine O’clock Frolic, Ziegfeld Follies of 1919 and Ziegfeld Girls of 1920 performances staged at the New Amsterdam Roof Theatre
In 1920 Hay convinced D. W. Griffith that she was ready to assume the role of the 'squire’s niece' after the untimely death of actress Clarine Seymour during the filming of his adaptation of the Parker - Grismer pastoral play, Way Down East. Hay had known actor Richard Barthelmess, who starred in the film opposite Lillian Gish, since she had worked on Hearts of the World. Their engagement and subsequent wedding on June 18, 1920, at Manhattan’s Church of the Heavenly Rest was widely covered by the press and entertainment tabloids of the day.
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