Edna Wallace Hopper
Edna Wallace Hooper (Jan 17, 1872 - Dec 14, 1959), American actress on stage and in silent films.
Early life
Born Edna Wallace in San Francisco, California to Waller Wallace and Josephine. She was probably born on January 17, 1872, but she refused to give her age and said no one could find out for sure because her birth records were destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Her father was head night usher at the California Theater. He and Josephine had two children.
When Edna was still young, Wally and Josephine took in a wealthy boarder, Alexander Dunsmuir (1853-1900), co-heir to the Dunsmuir coal and shipping fortune. Alex and Josephine fell in love, and Wally left with the children. Josephine was lonely for her children, and they made a cash settlement with Wally, so they could have Edna back.
Wally sued for divorce, but Alex had parents who disapproved of his new love and so their marriage had to wait.
Alex began to drink heavily. In the Spring of 1886, he disappeared in San Francisco on a drinking binge. He went missing for ten days, and shortly after being found suffered from delerium tremens.
After Alex's father died in 1889, Alex and his brother tried to buy their mother out, but she had been left in control. Finally it happened. Alex then bought the estate of Souther Farm, now known as Dunsmuir House, near San Leandro at a cost of $350,000 and deeded it to Josephine.
On their much-delayed wedding day, Alex made out a will leaving everything else to his brother James. They married Dec 21, 1899 at a hotel in San Pablo, Califoria and honeymooned in New York City.
To New York
Edna had gone to New York to train for the stage. While there, she had married DeWolf Hopper (1858-1935)on 28 Jun 1895. They appeared in several comic operas together, including John Philip Sousa's "El Capitan," before they divorced in 1898. The couple presented a striking physical contrast on stage. DeWolf, at 6' 3", was exceptionally tall for the time, while Edna stood at under five feet tall and weighed less than 100 pounds. By the time of her mother's marriage to Alex, Edna was already a star on Broadway.
Edna met up with her mother, and new step-father while they were in New York. Alex sick with alcohol withdrawal got worse every day and died on New Year's Day in a New York City hospital.
Josephine returned a widow, to her new San Leadro estate. She died of cancer there on Jun 22, 1901.
By this time Wallace Hopper had starred in her most famous role, Lady Holyrood in the popular London importation Floradora. Though not playing one of the renowned Floradora Sextettes, she shared in some of the wild adulation of male admirers who mobbed the backstage door after every performance.
Wallace Hopper remained active on stage over the next decade, including starring in George M. Cohen's "Fifty Miles from Boston" in 1907. Edna married Wall Street broker Albert O. Brown in 1908. Her professional activity lessened in the 1910's but resumed in a new direction in the 1920's. One of the earlier stage actors to have a facelift, Wallace Hopper had the operation filmed and then made personal appearance tours over the next eight years showing the film and giving beauty tips.
Later Years
"The June 8, 1953 issue of Life Magazine featured an article on Edna Wallace Hopper, who was a popular stage actress and singer during the turn of the 20th Century. In this article, Mrs. Hopper, in her 80's at the time of the article, performed the same role she began her acting career with in 1893. It was to be the final performance of the Empire Theater in New York City, which was scheduled for demolition." [1]
She put her name on a line of products, noted for keeping her looking youthful -- Edna Wallace Hopper Cosmetics, part of American Home Products.
Wallace Hopper separated from her second husband and he died in the 1930's. She went on to become the only woman of the thirty-six member board of L. F. Rothchild & Co. She traveled daily by subway to her office to handle investments until shortly before her death in New York City from complications of pneumonia on December 14, 1959, at the reported age of 94. 2
Sources
- Source 1
- Tale of Love and Hate in Old San Francisco, Millie Robbins; Chronicle Books, San Franciso. 1971
- Source
Source 2
- "New York Times," 15 December 1959, 39.
