Ilka Chase

Chase was born in New York City and educated at convent and boarding schools in the United States, England, and France. She was the only child of Francis Dane Chase, a merchant mariner who became a dry goods salesman and then the general manager of New York's Hotel Colonial, and Edna Woolman Chase (ne Allaway). Her mother, who became the editor-in-chief of Vogue, described Chase's father, whom she married in 1902, as "a lovable, good-looking, irresponsible young man from Boston. His father had been a banker, and depending on when you met them, the family had money."{{cite book| first1=Edna Woolman| last1=Chase| first2=Ilka| last2=Chase| title=Always in Vogue| url=https://archive.org/details/alwaysinvogue00chas/page/40/mode/2up?q=banker| publisher=Doubleday| location=Garden City, NY| year=1954| page=40| access-date=March 29, 2022}} After her parents' divorce, her father married artist Theodora Larsh. Her mother married engineer Richard Newton.{{Citation needed |date=August 2023}}

Chase made her stage debut at the age of eight in a convent-school production of Puss in Boots.{{Cite web |title=Chase, Ilka (1905–1978) {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/chase-ilka-1905-1978 |access-date=2024-08-30 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}} After graduating from France's Château de Groslay boarding school, Chase made her society debut in December 1923 at a celebrity-studded banquet hosted by Edna at the Cosmopolitan Club in New York City. The 250 guests included Edna's employer, Condé Nast, Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Frank Crowninshield, and future Harper's Bazaar editor-in-chief Carmel Snow."Miss Ilka Chase Makes Her Debut". The New York Times. 18 December 1923, page 19, column 1.

File:Small-Miracle-Stage-3.jpg (1934)]]

Chase's Broadway debut occurred in 1924 in The Red Falcon.{{cite news| title=Ilka Chase's 'Penthouse Party' New WHP Summer Program| url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2358130/harrisburg_telegraph| newspaper=Harrisburg Telegraph| date=June 7, 1941| page=26| via=Newspapers.com| access-date=May 5, 2015}} Her stage appearances included roles in Days Without End, Forsaking All Others, While Parents Sleep, Small Miracle, On to Fortune, Tampico, Co-Respondent Unknown, Keep Off the Grass, and In Bed We Cry, an adaptation of her novel of the same name. She was in the original Broadway cast of Clare Boothe Luce's play The Women (1938), and many years later appeared in Neil Simon's Broadway hit Barefoot in the Park.{{IBDB name|35131}}

Her films included Fast and Loose (1930), The Animal Kingdom (1932), Now, Voyager (1942), Once a Sinner (1950), and The Big Knife (1955). Her last motion picture was in Ocean's 11 (1960) as Mrs. Restes.

In the early 1940s, Chase was the hostess for Penthouse Party on CBS{{cite news |title=Ilka Chase 'Penthouse Party' Heard Half-Hour Earlier| url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2357804/ilka_chase_penthouse_party/| newspaper=Harrisburg Telegraph| date=June 21, 1941| page=26| via=Newspapers.com| access-date=May 5, 2015}} and Luncheon Date With Ilka Chase, on NBC Red.{{cite news| last1=Burr| first1=Eugene| title=Program Reviews: 'Luncheon Date With Ilka Chase'| url=http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Billboard/40s/1942/Billboard%201942-02-14.o.pdf| access-date=29 March 2015| magazine=Billboard| date=February 14, 1942|page=8}} For several years, she hosted the radio program Luncheon at the Waldorf.

Chase became host of Fashion Magic on WCAU television in late 1950. The half-hour show was broadcast on Monday and Friday afternoons.{{cite news |last1=Stretch |first1=Bud |title=Air Waves |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/courier-post-big-town/149854403/ |access-date=November 23, 2024 |work=Courier-Post |date=December 7, 1950 |location=New Jersey, Camden |page=15|via = Newspapers.com}} She appeared as a panelist on several programs in the early years of television, including Celebrity Time (1949–50), Who Said That? (1950–55), and Masquerade Party (1952–56). She also hosted the CBS TV series Fashion Magic{{Cite web |date=2017-12-06 |title=Ilka Chase, hostess of the CBS television show "Fashion Magic" poses... |url=https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ilka-chase-hostess-of-the-cbs-television-show-fashion-magic-news-photo/887037144 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329201528/https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ilka-chase-hostess-of-the-cbs-television-show-fashion-magic-news-photo/887037144 |archive-date=2024-03-29 |access-date=2024-03-29 |website=Getty Images |language=en-us}} (1950–51).{{Citation needed |date=December 2020}}

In 1957, Chase performed the role of the Stepmother in the television production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, which starred Julie Andrews. In 1963, she made a rare television sitcom appearance as Aunt Pauline on The Patty Duke Show.{{Cite web |title=The Patty Duke Show Season 1 Episodes |url=https://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/the-patty-duke-show/episodes-season-1/1030394739/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329200454/https://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/the-patty-duke-show/episodes-season-1/1030394739/ |archive-date=2024-03-29 |access-date=2024-03-29 |website=TV Guide |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Kay |first=Linda |date=2014-07-15 |title=The Patty Duke Show – " The House Guest" |url=https://cinemacats.com/the-patty-duke-show-the-house-guest/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329200302/https://cinemacats.com/the-patty-duke-show-the-house-guest/ |archive-date=2024-03-29 |access-date=2024-03-29 |website=Cinema Cats |language=en-US}}

Chase was a regular in The Trials of O'Brien on CBS in the mid-1960s.{{cite news| title=EX-Mother-in-Law Is OK!| url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2358172/trials_of_obrien/| newspaper=The Berkshire Eagle| location=Pittsfield, Massachusetts| date=October 9, 1965| page=19| via=Newspapers.com| access-date=May 5, 2015}}

Her novel In Bed We Cry appeared in 1943{{cite news| newspaper=The New York Times| access-date=December 25, 2020| url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1943/11/07/85131520.html| date=November 7, 1943| title=Gleanings from the Crop of Fall Novels: Cafe Society Amours| first=Philip | last=Wylie}} and was adapted for the stage, with Chase in the leading role.

Her autobiography Past Imperfect (volume I), in which she wrote, "Those who never fail are those who never try," was published in 1942, and Free Admission (volume II) was published in 1948. She also wrote more than a dozen other books, including The Care and Feeding of Friends, a guide to lighthearted entertaining with over 80 recipes and 20 menus.{{Cite web |title=Ilka Chase Books |url=https://www.shakariconnection.com/ilka-chase-books.html |access-date=2024-08-30 |website=Shakari Connection}}

Among her other books are several travel books which recount her adventures while traveling around the world with her husband Dr. Norton Brown.

Chase was married three times, first to stage and movie actor Louis Calhern. The couple met while performing in summer stock with the George Cukor Company in Rochester, New York, married in June 1926, and divorced six months later, in February 1927.{{Citation needed |date=August 2024}}

She next wed William Buckley Murray, a former music critic of The Brooklyn Daily Eagle and onetime executive of NBC, in Greenwich, Connecticut, on 13 July 1935. Murray also had been a concert manager for the Baldwin Piano Company and became the head of radio and television at the William Morris Agency. In 1932, Chase and Murray had adapted We Are No Longer Children, a play by French playwright Leopold Marchand. From this marriage, she had one stepson, William Buckley Murray Jr. Murray's only child by his previous wife, Natalia Danesi, an opera singer. William Jr., later became a crime novelist and writer for The New Yorker. Ilka and William Sr., were divorced in Las Vegas, Nevada, on 4 December 1946."Ilka Chase Married to William B. Murray". The New York Times. 14 July 1935. page 74.

Three days later, on 7 December 1946, she married Norton Sager Brown, a physician, in Las Vegas. Chase and Brown had divorced their spouses so they could marry one-another."Ilka Chase Wed in Nevada", The New York Times, 8 December 1946 They remained married until her death in 1978. From this marriage, Chase had a stepson, James Brown.{{Citation needed |date=August 2023}}

Chase died of internal hemorrhaging on February 15, 1978, in Mexico City, Mexico. She was 72.{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/02/16/archives/ilka-chase-actress-and-author-72-is-dead-in-mexico-criticism-etched.html | title=Ilka Chase, Act'ress and Author, 72, is Dead in Mexico | newspaper=The New York Times | date=16 February 1978 }} She was buried beside her mother in Locust Valley Cemetery on Long Island, New York.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7-DgDAAAQBAJ&dq=ilka+chase+westchester+hills+cemetery&pg=PA131 | title=Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed | isbn=9780786479924 | last1=Wilson | first1=Scott | date=22 August 2016 }}

Chase's personal papers, as well as those of her mother, are in the Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library.{{cite web| url=http://archives.nypl.org/the/21235| title=Ilka Chase papers| website=New York Public Library| access-date=March 29, 2022}}

{{Incomplete list|date=January 2023}}{{bots|deny=Citation bot}}

• {{cite book |author=Chase, Ilka |title=In Bed We Cry |location= |publisher= |year=1943}}
• {{cite book |author=Chase, Ilka |title=I love Miss Tilli Bean |location= |publisher= |year=1946}}
• {{cite book |author=Chase, Ilka |title=New York 22 |location= |publisher= |year=1951}}
• {{cite book |author=Chase, Ilka |title=The Island Players |location= |publisher= |year=1956}}
• {{cite book |author=Chase, Ilka |title=Three Men on the Left Hand |location= |publisher= |year=1960}}
• {{cite book |author=Chase, Ilka |title=Dear Intruder: A novel about an indiscretion |location= |publisher= |year=1976}}

• {{cite book |author=Chase, Ilka |title=The Care and Feeding of Friends |location= |publisher= |year=}}

• {{cite book |author=Chase, Ilka |title=Past Imperfect |location= |publisher= |year=1942}}
• {{cite book |author=Chase, Ilka |author-mask=1 |title=Free Admission |location= |publisher= |year=1948}}

• {{cite book |author=Chase, Ilka |title=The Carthaginian Rose |location= |publisher= |year=1961}}
• {{cite book |author=Chase, Ilka |title=Elephants arrive at half-past five |location= |publisher= |year=1963}}
• {{cite book |author=Chase, Ilka |title=Second Spring and Two Potatoes |location= |publisher= |year=1966}}
• {{cite book |author=Chase, Ilka |title=Fresh From The Laundry |location= |publisher= |year=1967}}
• {{cite book |author=Chase, Ilka |title=The Varied Airs of Spring, Chase |location= |publisher= |year=1969}}
• {{cite book |author=Chase, Ilka |title=Around the World and Other Places, Chase |location= |publisher= |year=1970}}

• {{cite book |author=Chase, Ilka |editor=Birmingham, Frederic A. |title=The Girls from Esquire |location=London |publisher=Arthur Barker |date=1953 |pages=129–135 |chapter=It was good enough for Father}}

;In Bed We Cry

• {{cite news| newspaper=The New York Times | url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1943/11/07/85131520.html| date=November 7, 1943| title=Gleanings from the Crop of Fall Novels : Cafe Society Amours| first=Philip | last=Wylie}}

{{reflist}}

{{Commons category|Ilka Chase}}

• {{IMDb name|0153772}}
• {{IBDB name}}
• {{find a Grave|92758030}}
• [http://www.nypl.org/archives/4257 Ilka Chase papers, 1850-1977 bulk (1916-1977)], held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
• [http://catalog.nypl.org/record=b18893760~S1 Photographic portraits of Ilka Chase by Cecil Beaton, Arnold Genthe, Man Ray, and Edward Steichen, 1925-1930s], held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

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Category:1905 births

Category:1978 deaths

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:20th-century American novelists

Category:20th-century American women writers

Category:Actresses from New York City

Category:American expatriates in France

Category:American film actresses

Category:American radio actresses

Category:American stage actresses

Category:American television actresses

Category:American women novelists

Category:Burials at Locust Valley Cemetery

Category:Esquire (magazine) people