Mabel Withee
{{short description|American actress (c. 1897–1952)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Mabel Withee
| image = MabelWithee1919.png
| alt = Mabel Withee, from a 1919 publication
| caption = Mabel Withee, from a 1919 publication
| birth_name =
| birth_date = c. 1897
| birth_place = Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
| death_date = November 3, 1952 (aged 54-55)
| death_place = Bayside, Queens, New York City, U.S.
| nationality =
| other_names =
| occupation = Actress
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse = {{plainlist|
- {{marriage|Herman Leon Sarshik|1926|1928|end=ann.}}
- {{marriage|Larry Puck|1928}}
}}
| children = 1
}}
Mabel Withee (c. 1897 – November 3, 1952) was an American actress on stage and in silent film.
Early life
Withee was born in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of Leonard Withee.{{Cite news|title=Mabel Withee to Marry|date=February 8, 1926|work=The New York Times|page=23}}
Career
File:LesterAllenMabelWitheeGeorgeWhite1919.png, Mabel Withee, and George White, from Scandals of 1919.]]
Withee's Broadway appearances were mainly in musical comedies and revues, including roles in Sinbad (1918–1919, with Al Jolson and Kitty Doner),{{Cite journal|date=March 2, 1918|title=Sinbad|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9e1DAQAAMAAJ&q=Mabel+Withee&pg=RA7-PA5|journal=Dramatic Mirror of Motion Pictures and the Stage|volume=78|pages=5}} George White's Scandals (1919), Just a Minute (1919), The Rose Girl (1921, the first show at the Ambassador Theatre),{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=adJ5J1kwj3wC&q=Mabel+Withee&pg=PA188|title=The Golden Age of American Musical Theatre: 1943–1965|last=Naden|first=Corinne J.|year=2011|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810877344|page=188|language=en}} Sonny (1921), The Rose of Stanboul (1922),{{Cite journal|date=May 1922|title=The Rose of Stamboul|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pu1LAQAAIAAJ&q=Mabel+Withee&pg=PA308|journal=Theatre Magazine|volume=35|pages=308}} The World We Live In (1922–1923), Lady Butterfly (1923), Dew Drop Inn (1923), Artists and Models (1924–1925), The Cocoanuts (1925–1926, with the Marx Brothers).{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LRmGDwAAQBAJ&q=Mabel+Withee&pg=PA160|title=The Complete Book of 1920s Broadway Musicals|last=Dietz|first=Dan|year=2019|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9781538112823|pages= 50–52, 101–04, 160–62, 293–96|language=en}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2ZXRAQAAQBAJ&q=Mabel+Withee&pg=PT85|title=Broadway Musicals: Show by Show|last=Green|first=Stanley|author-link=Stanley Green (historian)|date=2011|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=9781557837844|language=en}} She also starred in Mary Ann (1927) on vaudeville.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31664573/mabel_withee_1927/|title=Mabel Withee Will Headline at Palace|date=July 9, 1927|work=The Akron Beacon Journal|access-date=May 17, 2019|page=3|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31664775/mabel_withee_1928/|title=Sings Comic Songs on Vaudeville Bill|date=July 10, 1928|work=The Evening Sun|access-date=May 17, 2019|page=22|via=Newspapers.com}}
She acted in one silent film, Once to Every Man (1918).[https://books.google.com/books?id=mbQDXsM_HS4C&dq=Mabel+Withee&pg=PA317 "Youth"] Theatre Magazine (November 1918): 317.
Theatre critic George Jean Nathan considered Withee to have "the most beautiful legs in the world".{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31664165/mabel_withee_1926/|title=Discriminating Mr. Nathan Says that Mabel's Legs are Prettiest|date=February 14, 1926|work=The Des Moines Register|access-date=May 17, 2019|page=52|via=Newspapers.com}} She retired from show business in 1928, when she married her second husband.{{Cite news|title=Miss Withee, Played in Musical Comedies|date=November 4, 1952|work=The New York Times|page=29}}
Personal life
Withee was "wooed" by Egyptian prince Mohammed Ali Ibrahim in 1922, but rejected his proposal of marriage.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31663921/mabel_withee_1922/|title=How it Feels to be Wooed by a Real Sheik|date=June 18, 1922|work=The Des Moines Register|access-date=May 17, 2019|page=49|via=Newspapers.com}} She married real estate broker Herman Leon Sarshik in 1926. She asked for the marriage to be annulled on the basis of fraud in 1928.{{Cite news|title=Actress Seeks Annulment|date=February 22, 1928|work=The New York Times|page=14}} She married again, to producer Larry Puck, later that year, and through him was the sister-in-law of actress Eva Puck. She had one son, Emmett Puck. She died in 1952, in her mid-fifties, in Bayside, Queens.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31668579/mabel_withee_1952/|title=Mrs. Mabel Puck, Ex-Broadway Star|date=November 4, 1952|work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle|access-date=May 17, 2019|page=7|via=Newspapers.com}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category}}
- {{IBDB name|id=65428}}
- {{IMDb name|id=0936699}}
- [https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2014712503/ A photograph of Mabel Withee] in the George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress.
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Withee, Mabel}}
Category:American vaudeville performers
Category:Actresses from Detroit
Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:American musical theatre actresses