Grace Hazard

Grace Hazard, from a 1908 publication.
Grace Hazard, from a 1909 publication.
Grace Hazard, in Scottish costume, from a 1909 publication.

Grace Hazard (May 24, 1875 — 1957), also seen as Grace Hazzard, was an American singer and actress in musical theatre and vaudeville.

Early life

Lucia Grace Hazard was from St. Louis, Missouri,[1][2] the daughter of William B. Hazard (1843-1888) and Gertrude Maude Holmes Hazard (1847-1914).[3] Her father was a veteran of the American Civil War and a medical doctor, who was superintendent of the St. Louis Insane Asylum and a professor at the medical college in that city. Her parents were both born in Vermont. She had an older brother, Robert H. Hazard (1869-1912), who became a journalist and novelist.[4][5]

Career

As an actress, Hazard appeared in Babes in Toyland, as "Angela" in Florodora (1902),[6] and starred in The Parisian Model (1909), on a tour of American and Canadian cities.[7][8] She toured with the Grau Opera Company in 1901, and sang with the Valley Opera Company of Syracuse, New York for two summers.[6]

Her vaudeville act, "Five Feet of Comic Opera" (1907),[9] involved "exceptionally dainty"[10] Hazard singing songs from various operas, with monologues and costume changes between songs, without leaving the stage.[11]

Hazard acquired a set of custom half-sized bagpipes in Scotland in 1908,[12] and learned to play them.[13] In February 1909 she was scheduled to perform "Five Feet of Comic Opera" at "The Greatest Scottish Concert Ever Given in America", at Carnegie Hall, with Harry Lauder headlining.[14] She also opened for Lauder in Chicago that year.[15]

In 1910, she was listed among the "very few, really high-class artists" in vaudeville, along with Cecilia Loftus, Vesta Tilley, Harry Lauder, Albert Chevalier, and the duo Cressy and Dane.[16] Hazard was still touring with "Five Feet of Comic Opera" in 1912,[17] with additional dance and musical elements.[18][19] In 1918 she performed at a wartime benefit for the American Red Cross.[20]

Personal life

Grace Hazard eloped to marry fellow vaudevillian Fred Duprez in 1912, in London.[21] The marriage did not last; Duprez was remarried in 1916.

References

  1. ↑ "Some People of the Stage" St. Louis Post-Dispatch (January 2, 1903): 11. via Newspapers.com
  2. ↑ "Little Comedienne Marries Londoner" St. Louis Star and Times (July 1, 1912): 12. via Newspapers.com
  3. ↑ "Charlotte" Burlington Free Press (September 10, 1914): 8. via Newspapers.com
  4. ↑ Caroline Elizabeth Robinson, The Hazard Family of Rhode Island, 1635-1894 (1896): 195-196.
  5. ↑ R. H. Hazard, The House on Stilts (G. W. Dillingham Company 1910).
  6. 1 2 "Note and Comment" The National Magazine (December 1902): 391.
  7. ↑ "Stage Notes" The Bellman (September 5, 1909): 1146.
  8. ↑ "Toronto: Grace Hazard Makes a Strong Hit; Good Bill at all the Houses" New York Dramatic Mirror (September 18, 1909): 8.
  9. ↑ Sime, "Grace Hazard: Five Feet of Comic Opera" Variety (1907): 8.
  10. ↑ "New York Reopens with Vaudeville" New York Times (August 25, 1907): 7.
  11. ↑ "Brooklyn N. Y." Billboard (November 21, 1908): 45.
  12. ↑ "Plays the Pipes" Anaconda Standard (October 10, 1909): 20. via Newspapers.com
  13. ↑ "Five Feet of Comic Opera" New York Star (October 17, 1908): 29.
  14. ↑ "Grace Hazard" The Caledonian (February 1909): 455.
  15. ↑ "Vaudeville Jottings" New York Dramatic Mirror (December 4, 1909): 24.
  16. ↑ "Plays and Players: The Decay of Vaudeville" American Magazine (April 1910): 848.
  17. ↑ "Grace Hazard — Vaudeville" Buffalo Enquirer (May 4, 1912): 7. via Newspapers.com
  18. ↑ "Big Leading Features" Scranton Truth (April 11, 1912): 3. via Newspapers.com
  19. ↑ "An Actress with an Idea" Evening Star (March 3, 1912): 22. via Newspapers.com
  20. ↑ "Adele Rowland, Impresario" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (June 30, 1918): 31. via Newspapers.com
  21. ↑ "Finally Succeeds in Wedding Singer" Salt Lake Tribune (July 1, 1912): 9. via Newspapers.com
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