Joan Gardner (Broadway actress)

Joan Gardner (born March 7, 1903) was a Broadway actress and Chorus girl in the early 20th century. She was known for being in the Ziegfeld Follies as a tall beauty standing at 5'8".

Biography

Gardner was born in Oklahoma in 1903.[1][2]

Gardner met actress Ina Clare while attending school at the University of Seattle where she was studying stenography and also waiting tables in Spokane, Washington.[3][1][4] Clare told Gardner she was a "Follies type" and offered to put in a word with Florenz Ziegfeld.[1] She then wen through showgirl training, on how to walk and stand for the Ziegfeld Follies.[5] In the summer 1923, Gardner began performing with the Ziegfeld Follies on Broadway in New York.[2]

One of her first Broadway musicals she had a starring role was Sally, in the Fall of 1923, where she played Helen. She also performed on Broadway with Kid Boots: A musical comedy of Palm Beach and Golf, starring as Miss Putter/Putty, alongside Eddie Cantor and Mary Eaton. [6]

In New Year's Eve in 1923 New York City, she married Edwin T. Hall (born June 30, 1895 in Chicago, Illinois), a businessman from Boston, Massachusetts.[7] It was a double wedding with another Follies girl, Helen Morgan. [8] Gardner planned to continue stage work after her marriage.[9] In 1924, she gave a candid interview with New York N.E.A. writer Josephine Van de Grift describing her time on Broadway and being a stage actress of the times. [10]

"Well I got a job in the Follies and I was all excited but the glamour soon left. When you’re in the show business you don’t have time to meet the people you’d like to meet, you don’t get a chance to do the things you’d like to do. Most of the show girls I’ve met aren’t happy. They want to get married and settle down." [10]

On the 1930 census, she is shown living at 328 Church street in Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut with husband Edwin T. and a son John, age 4, born in Boston. In 1940, she is living in Birmingham City, Oakland, Michigan with her husband and son.[11]

Stageography

References
  1. "I. Claire, Scout, Discovers New 'Follies' Beauty". Daily News. 1923-06-16. p. 16. Retrieved 2019-12-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. Mantle, Burns (1923-06-24). "One Jump and Joan Gardner Hits Broadway". Detroit Free Press. p. 69. Retrieved 2019-12-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. "Toast of Town". New Castle Herald. 1923-06-16. p. 2. Retrieved 2019-12-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Waitress Here; On Stage in N.Y." The Semi-Weekly Spokesman-Review. 1923-06-25. p. 5. Retrieved 2019-12-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. "From Waitress to a 'Follies Girl Beauty'". The Pittsburgh Press. 1923-09-16. p. 101. Retrieved 2019-12-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. Dietz, Dan. The Complete Book of 1920s Broadway Musicals, Rowman & Littlefield. (2019) p. 185. https://books.google.ca/books?id=LRmGDwAAQBAJ
  7. "Joan Gardner Now Mrs Edward T. Hall". Lansing State Journal. 1924-01-14. p. 12. Retrieved 2019-12-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. The Jewelers' Circular. Vol. 87, Issue 2, p. 85. https://books.google.ca/books?id=1UEcAQAAMAAJ
  9. "'Flo's' Beauty Weds". The Birmingham News. 1924-01-03. p. 21. Retrieved 2019-12-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. Van de Grift, Josephine. (January 14, 1924) "Broadway Beauty Who Weds for Love, Not Money, Blasts Popular Illusion." Lansing State Journal, p. 12.
  11. U.S. Census Reports
  12. "The New Play". 1924-01-03. p. 6. Retrieved 2019-12-18 – via Newspapers.com.
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