Edna Luby
{{Short description|American actress (1884–1928)}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Edna Luby
| image = Edna Luby, vaudeville actress (SAYRE 5479).jpg
| imagesize =
| caption = Edna Luby in 1912
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1884|10|12|mf=y}}
| birth_place = New York City, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1928|10|01|1884|10|12|mf=y}}
| death_place = Bronx, New York City, U.S.
| resting_place =
| othername =
| occupation = Actress, comedian
| years_active = 1900–1928
| spouse = Samuel Thor
| relatives = Sigmund Lubin (uncle)
}}
Edna Luby (October 12, 1884 – October 1, 1928) was an American actress and comedian. She acted on stage and in silent films and performed in vaudeville as a celebrity impersonator. Luby was the niece of Sigmund Lubin, a pioneer film producer.Edna Luby, Actress, Dead. New York Times, October 3, 1928, p. 31
Early life
Edna Luby was born in New York City to Jewish parents Louis and Emma Luby.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ETD2Ke_2Tm8C&q=edna+luby+jewish |title=The Advocate: America's Jewish Journal |date=1928 |language=en}} Her father was an optician. A short while later Luby and her family relocated to London, England, where as a young girl she attracted some attention by mimicking her classmates. She soon developed a keen interest in the theatre that was nourished by her mother when, at the age of ten, she began receiving elocution instructions from the American-born British actress, Geneviève Ward.[https://books.google.com/books?id=qaNmAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA288 Browne, Walter - Koch, E. De Roy Who's Who on the Stage, 1908, 1908, p. 288] accessed 5.10.13
Career
Luby was back in New York by 1900 where she made her professional stage debut at the Garden Theatre as a stand-in for actress May Buckley in Hearts Are Trumps that year during its February to May run. Hearts Are Trumps, a four-act melodrama, was written by Cecil Raleigh, produced by Charles Frohman and had also introduced to Broadway theatergoers a young Cecil B. De Mille. In late 1902 Luby was well received at the Madison Square Theatre, New York after she succeeded Jessie Busley in the rôle of Estelle in The Two Schools.[http://www.ibdb.com/show.php?id=8964 The Two Schools Internet Broadway Database] accessed 5.10.13 In December 1903 Luby played Greta opposite Fritzi Scheff in Babette at the Broadway Theatre,[http://www.ibdb.com/show.php?id=1771 Babette Internet Broadway Database] accessed 5.10.13 and a subsequent road tour. In May 1907 she joined the cast of the Anna Held hit musical comedy A Parisian Model at the Broadway Theatre.[http://www.ibdb.com/show.php?id=6942 A Parisian Model Internet Broadway Database] accessed 5.10.13 and later that year she appeared in the original 1907 Ziegfeld Follies production, playing Miss Mimique and Miss Edna Might.[http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=6349 Ziegfeld Follies of 1907 Internet Broadway Database] accessed 5.10.13
During this time Luby often appeared in vaudeville at venues operated by Tony Pastor, Keith and Proctor and Percy G. Williams, performing her imitations of popular celebrities. She played in at least four silent films between 1910 and 1916. The Immortal Flame, her last, was a five-reel melodrama written and produced by Ivan Abramson and starred Maude Fealy.[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0523992/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 Edna Luby - Internet Movie Database] accessed 5.10.13[https://books.google.com/books?id=saMbAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA1662 The Moving Picture World, Volume 27, January-March, 1916, p. 1940] accessed 5.10.13
Death and burial
Sometime after Luby married Samuel Thor, a pharmacist, she left the stage to reside in Great Neck, Long Island. She died after an extended illness at Montefiore Hospital, Bronx, New York, just 2 weeks shy of her 44th birthday.
She is buried in Mount Zion Cemetery in New York City.{{cite news|title=Edna Luby, Actress, Dead – Former "Follies" Girl Was in Private Life Mrs. Samuel Thor|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1928/10/03/317391262.html?pageNumber=31|access-date=18 April 2016|newspaper=New York Times|date=October 3, 1928|page=31}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Commons}}
- {{IMDb name|0523992}}
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Category:American stage actresses
Category:American silent film actresses
Category:American vaudeville performers