I was part of a theater roundtable last week, and one of the participants was 99-year-old Doris Eaton, who has considerably more energy than I do.
She appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies from 1918–21, understudied Marilyn Miller in Sunny; danced with Fred Astaire in The Band Wagon (1931) and made nine films between 1921–33 (as well as Man in the Moon, a few years ago). And, she earned a college degree in her 80s!
She’s one of the half-dozen or so Ziegfeld Girls left, and it was Very Cool to meet her. Here’s a recent photo of her in performance, and here’s one of her in the 1920s.
I am very jealous of you Eve. It sounds like an interview of a lifetime. Imagine, in addition to the ones you mentioned, she was in the wings with, or onstage with the likes of Bill Robinson, Will Rogers, Fanny Brice, Ed Wynn W.C. Fields and Mae Murry. She probably rubbed elbows with the likes of Jolson, Canter, Gershwin and Berlin.
I didn’t actually interview her, we just had a social lunch–but she did tell stories of working with Fanny Brice and Marilyn Miller (both very nice, she said), dancing with Astaire (a terrible perfectionist), and working with Eddie Cantor (also a nice fellow).
She also said what a magical world 42nd Street and Times Square were in the 1910s and '20s–“so safe, and glamorous, teeming with beautifully dressed people, bright lights, those lovely theaters that are gone now.” Of course, she was young then, too, which I’m sure has something to do with it.
When a performer got up and sang A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody, you should have seen the look on her face, as she thought back–I wish I could have gotten into her head just then.