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Few people today have heard of Edna May but 100 years ago she was the toast of London and New York. Millionaires sought her hand in marriage, train loads of admirers would follow her where ever she went, she commanded some of the highest fees of her day, and her exploits were reported on both sides of the Atlantic.
Born on the 2nd of September 1878 at 195 Gifford Street, Syracuse, New York, USA. Her father Edgar Pettie, a postman, her mother's name was Cora. Edgar had changed the spelling of the family name from "Petty" to "Pettie" sometime between 1878 and 1895.
Edna May first took to the stage at the age of 5, when she played Little Willie Allen in a production of "Dora". By the age of 7 she had joined a children's opera company and performed Gilbert & Sullivan productions in Syracuse.
After this early start she went on to study music at the New York Conservatory and made her professional debut in 1895. The same year Edna married to her first husband Fred Titus who had found fame in his own right as holder of the one hour bicycle record. It had been at Fred's sister's suggestion Edna applied to Oscar Hammerstein for a place in the chorus for "Santa Maria".
In 1897 Edna moved to the New York Casino to play Violet Grey in "The Belle of New York". The following year Edna and the Casino players took the production to the London stage appearing at the Shaftesbury Theater.
In 1904 Edna divorced Fred Titus.
Edna continued to perform on both sides of the Atlantic until 1907, when she announced her retirement from the stage upon her marriage to Oscar Lewisohn. Oscar Lewisohn had, some years before, inherited several million dollars from his father who had been know as "the copper king". After her final appearance young men from the audience unhitched the horses and pulled her in her carriage to the Ritz where she was dining that night.
In 1911 she was enticed back to the stage for a week of benefit performances of "The Belle of New York". Edna and Oscar had now settled in England, moved to Cranborne Court near Windsor. In 1915, fearing the outcome of the war they, moved to New York.
In 1916 Edna was tempted once more into the public's gaze, this time to star in the moving picture "Salvation Joan". Directed by Wilfrid North, the film retells the story of "The Belle of New York".
In 1917 Oscar Lewisohn died leaving Edna $5,000,000.
Edna's two sisters, Jane and Marguerite, also took to the stage but neither attained the success of their older sister.
Edna returned to Syracuse in 1935, renewing friendship from her school days.
Edna died on the 1st of January 1948 in Lausanne, Some obituarists would suggest Edna had moved to Switzerland during the war, however it would seem that Edna was still in London at the very end of the war. A more likely explanation is Edna traveled to Switzerland in an attempt to find a cure in the Swiss Clinic. Her body was brought back to England and she was laid to rest beside her mother in north London.
© Mark R. Rimmell 2003 (do not reproduce without permission)
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