Georgia O'Ramey

Georgia O'Ramey, from a 1914 publication.
Georgia O'Ramey, from a 1916 publication.

Georgia O'Ramey (January 1, 1883 – April 2, 1928) was an American actress in comedies and musical theatre.

Early life

Georgia B. O'Ramey was born in Fredericktown, Ohio, the daughter of William B. O'Ramey and Emma Tude O'Ramey. She attended Oberlin College.[1]

Career

The cast of Miss Springtime, from a 1916 publication. Left to right: John E. Hazzard, Sari Petrass, George MacFarlane, Charles Meakins, Georgia O'Ramey, and Jed Prouty.

O'Ramey played violin in revues as a young woman.[2] She acted, sang and danced regularly in Broadway musicals and comedies through the 1910s, with roles in the shows Lonesome Town (1908), The Chaperon (1908-1909), Seven Days (1909-1910),[3] The Point of View (1912), The Switchboard (1913), A Pair of White Gloves (1913), Dancing Around (1914-1915), Around the Map (1915-1916), Miss Springtime (1916-1917), Leave It to Jane (1917-1918),[4] The Velvet Lady (1919),[5] Daffy Dill (1922),[6] Jack and Jill (1923),[7] and No, No, Nanette (1925-1926).[8][9]

O'Ramey appeared in one silent film, The $5,000,000 Counterfeiting Plot (1914). She also had stints on vaudeville.[10] "Every day I am adding to my vaudeville vocabulary," she confessed in 1920, "and when I go back to the legitimate I am afraid my friends who have never been in vaudeville will not understand me."[11]

During World War I, she and her costar Oscar Shaw posed for photos to promote Liberty Loans.[12]

Personal life

Georgia O'Ramey married businessman Robert B. Griffin in 1912.[13] They divorced. After weeks of headaches,[14] she died suddenly in 1928, aged 45 years, at a hotel in New Haven, Connecticut, just hours before the opening night of the show Nize Girl, in which she was to star. Her obituary in the New York Times noted that she was "Distinguished on the American stage for a dozen years as one of the few woman comedians who could successfully sustain a broad burlesque role."[15][16] The Baltimore Sun recalled as "one of the best of our woman clowns. In a fuller sense than many of the others, she had the comedy spirit."[17] She left her estate to her parents and to the Actors Fund of America.[18]

References

  1. ↑ Matthew White, Jr., "The Stage" Munsey's Magazine (March 1916): 337.
  2. ↑ "'Wizard of Oz' and 'Miss Mazuma' Will Be Played This Week" San Francisco Call (September 18, 1904): 19. via California Digital Newspaper Collection
  3. ↑ "Astor: Seven Days" New York Dramatic Mirror (November 20, 1909): 5.
  4. ↑ David A. Jasen, A Century of American Popular Music (Routledge 2013): 37-38. ISBN 9781135352714
  5. ↑ "New Amsterdam: The Velvet Lady" Theatre Magazine (March 1919): 143.
  6. ↑ "Daffy Dill" Musical Courier (August 31, 1922): 40.
  7. ↑ "Georgia O'Ramey is Home Again in 'Jack and Jill'" Buffalo Courier (March 11, 1923): 18. via Newspapers.com
  8. ↑ Stanley Green, Broadway Musicals: Show by Show (Hal Leonard Corporation 2011). ISBN 9781557837844
  9. ↑ Gerald Martin Bordman, Richard Norton, American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle (Oxford University Press 2010): 232, 374, 388, 430. ISBN 9780199729708
  10. ↑ "Georgia O'Ramey Pleases Belasco Vaudeville Fans" Washington Times (February 6, 1922): 10. via Newspapers.com
  11. ↑ "Vaudeville Twice as Hard as the 'Legitimate' Stage, Insists Georgia O'Ramey" New-York Tribune (February 15, 1920): 36. via Newspapers.com
  12. ↑ "Leave it to Jane Pair First New Loan Buyers" Philadelphia Inquirer (September 22, 1918): 22. via Newspapers.com
  13. ↑ "Georgia O'Ramey Will Wed" New York Times (May 22, 1912): 13. via ProQuest
  14. ↑ "Miss O'Ramey Long Ill" New York Times (April 4, 1928): 27. via ProQuest
  15. ↑ "Georgia O'Ramey, Stage Star, is Dead" New York Times (April 3, 1928): 32.
  16. ↑ "Georgia O'Ramey Funeral" New York Times (April 6, 1928): 23. via ProQuest
  17. ↑ "Georgia O'Ramey's Death" Baltimore Sun (April 8, 1928): 59. via Newspapers.com
  18. ↑ "Georgia O'Ramey Estate $11,995" New York Times (April 10, 1931): 27. via ProQuest
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