Hazel Dawn

{{Infobox person

| name = Hazel Dawn

| image = Hazel Dawn on The Theatre cover, August 1914 (crop).jpg

| caption= Dawn in 1914

| imagesize =

| birthname = Henrietta Hazel Tout

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1890|3|23|mf=y}}

| birth_place = Ogden, Utah

| death_date = {{death date and age|1988|8|23|1890|3|23|mf=y}}

| death_place = New York City, New York

| othername = The Pink Lady

| yearsactive = 1914–1931

| spouse = {{marriage| Charles Edward Gruwell | 1927 | 1941 | end= his death }}

| children = 2

}}

Hazel Dawn (born Henrietta Hazel Tout; March 23, 1890 – August 28, 1988) was an American stage, film and television actress, and violinist. She was born to a Mormon family in Utah, and studied music in Europe where her father was a missionary. Dawn rose to fame as the title character in Ivan Caryll's The Pink Lady, which opened in 1911 on Broadway and ran for over 300 performances; it earned Dawn the eponymous nickname. She performed extensively on Broadway and began work in film in 1914, appearing in a total of 13 feature films. Dawn died at age 98 in New York City.

Early life

Dawn was born Henrietta Hazel Tout{{sfn|Hunter|2013|p=234}} in Ogden, Utah, in 1890.{{sfn|Slide|2012|p=123}} She went to Wales with her family at the age of eight when her father served as a Mormon missionary there. Dawn studied violin and voice in London, Paris, and Munich.{{sfn|Slide|2012|p=123}} She especially was impressed by the attentiveness of teachers she studied under in Paris. Her sister, Nancy Tout, was an opera singer who sang with the Opéra-Comique in Paris.{{Citation needed |date=September 2024}}

Career

=Stage work=

She met producer Ivan Caryll at a party in London. Caryll suggested the stage name Hazel Dawn for her, considering Tout to be "impossible". She met composer Paul Rubens, who offered her a part in Dear Little Denmark at the Prince of Wales Theatre (1909), where she made her theatrical début. She then starred in The Balkan Princess in 1910 as Olga. She achieved a great success with her performance in Ivan Caryll's Edwardian musical comedy, The Pink Lady (1911).{{sfn|Slide|2012|p=124}} The show ran a total of 316 performances on Broadway and then toured, making Dawn famous.{{cite web|url=https://www.deseret.com/1996/6/11/19247966/utah-actress-hazel-dawn-lit-up-the-stage-and-screen |work=Deseret News |author=Van Leer, Twila |title=Utah Actress Hazel Dawn Lit Up the Stage and Screen|date=11 June 1996|access-date=22 July 2017}} In the production, she introduced "My Beautiful Lady", which she sang and played on her violin. Subsequently, she was known as "The Pink Lady",{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/31/obituaries/hazel-dawn-stage-actress-is-dead-at-98.html|work=The New York Times|title=Hazel Dawn, Stage Actress, Is Dead at 98|author=Fraser, C. Gerald|date=31 August 1988|access-date=24 July 2017}} and the Pink Lady cocktail may have been named for her.{{Cite book| title=Pseudonyms |author=Joseph F. Clarke|publisher=BCA|date=1977|page=48}}

She starred in the operetta The Debutante (1914) at the National Theater in Washington, D.C. under the management of John C. Fisher. Harry B. Smith wrote the book and play adaptation. The setting of the operetta is in London and Paris, and Dawn played a young American girl pursued by a nobleman, who desires her fortune. She plays the violin during a scene where she runs away to Paris and makes her musical debut before an appreciative audience. In December, she appeared in The Debutante at the Knickerbocker Theatre in Washington. The shows she appeared in include The Great Temptations, Avery Hopwood's Getting Gertie's Garter and The Demi-Virgin, as well as vaudeville. Her last appearance on Broadway was in Wonder Boy (1931).{{IBDB name|37542|Hazel Dawn}}

She emerged from retirement in June 1948 to appear on stage with her daughter Hazel Dawn Jr. in a revival of Ruth Gordon’s play Years Ago at the Casino Theatre in Newport, Rhode Island.The Billboard, June 12, 1948, p.44

=Transition to film=

File:Under Cover.jpg

She made her screen debut as Kate Shipley in One of Our Girls (1914). Her association with Famous Players–Lasky film company dated from this movie. Dawn followed this role with others in Niobe (1915), Clarissa (1915), and The Masqueraders (1915). She made The Fatal Card (1915) with Paramount Pictures.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}}

In My Lady Incog (1916), Dawn played a female detective in a movie that is a mystery film, comedy, and a romance. Playing the character Nell Carroll, she co-starred with George Majeroni. In The Lone Wolf (1917), she acts with Bert Lytell in an adaptation of a novel by Louis Joseph Vance. Producer Herbert Brenon was responsible for adaptation to film from the book. Her last film credit was Devotion (1921).

Personal life

Dawn married Charles Edward Gruwell, a mining engineer from Montana, in 1927. At the time, Gruwell was purported to be one of the "richest men in the West." The couple had two children, Dawn Gruwell and Charles E. Gruwell. Her daughter had a career as an actor and singer on film, television and Broadway under the name Hazel Dawn Jr.{{IBDB name|530449|Hazel Dawn Jr.}} Many public records confuse the two.Los Angeles Times Sept. 3 1988 Following Gruwell's death in 1941, Dawn worked in the casting department of J. Walter Thompson advertising agency. She retired in 1963.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}}

Dawn made a claim for $4,643 against the London Theatre Company, which filed for bankruptcy in August 1915. The company, which produced and staged plays, was located at 1476 Broadway. Dawn was once the mascot of both the U.S. Military Academy and the U.S. Naval Academy at one of their annual football games. At one point, West Point cadets tossed their hats onto the stage, one of them belonging to future U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Death

Hazel Dawn died at the home of her daughter in Manhattan in 1988 at age 98.

Legacy

Actress Ruth Gordon cited Dawn as her inspiration for becoming an actress.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/11/01/archives/going-home-to-history-at-80-ruth-gordon-recalls-her-side.html|work=The New York Times|title=Going Home to History at 80, Ruth Gordon Recalls 'Her Side'|date=1 November 1976|author=Gussow, Mel|page=82}} A 14-year-old Adele Astaire saw Dawn's performance in The Pink Lady and idolized her, thinking her to be "the most lovely, graceful creature" she had seen.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}}

In 1953, Dawn was portrayed by Kay Williams in the film The Actress.{{cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/27615|work=Turner Classic Movies|title=The Actress|access-date=22 July 2017|author=Soares, Emily}}

Filmography

Year ! Title ! Role ! Notes
class="wikitable sortable"
1914	One of Our Girls	Kate Shipley
1915	Niobe	Niobe
1915	Gambier's Advocate	Clarissa
1915	The Heart of Jennifer	Jennifer Hale
1915	The Fatal Card	Margaret Marrable
1915	The Masqueraders	Dulcie Larendie
1916	My Lady Incog.	Nell Carroll
1916	The Saleslady	Helen
1916	The Feud Girl	Nell Haddon, 'The Spitfire'
1916	Under Cover	Ethel Cartwright
1917	The Lone Wolf	Lucy Shannon
1917	National Red Cross Pageant
1921	Devotion	Ruth Wayne

References

Works cited

{{cite book|last=Hunter|first=James Michael|title=Mormons and Popular Culture: The Global Influence of an American Phenomenon. Literature, Art, Media, Tourism, and Sports|year=2013|volume=II|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-39167-5}}
{{cite book|last=Slide|first=Anthony|title=The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville|year=2012|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-1-617-03250-9}}

External links

{{IBDB name}}
{{IMDb name|0206008}}
[https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/search/index?utf8=%E2%9C%93&keywords=hazel+dawn Hazel Dawn] photo gallery NY Public Library Billy Rose Collection

Category:Latter Day Saints from Utah

Category:American musical theatre actresses

Category:American silent film actresses

Category:American stage actresses

Category:American television actresses

Category:People from Ogden, Utah

Category:American vaudeville performers

Category:1890 births

Category:1988 deaths

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:Actresses from Utah

Category:20th-century American violinists