Corliss Palmer

Corliss Palmer (July 25, 1899 (Though some sources note Palmer's birth year as 1902, according to NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,240,181, she was born in 1899 and, at the 1900 census, resided in Brooks, Georgia.) younger brothers, Hoke and Grady, and a younger sister, Ennis.

Career In 1920, Palmer entered the "Fame and Fortune Contest" advertised in Motion Picture Magazine. She won the contest, and was heralded by the magazine as the "most beautiful girl in America." and also appeared on the cover of Beauty, a women's magazine.

Personal life She married Eugene V. Brewster in October 1926. The couple lived on a $500,000 estate in Morristown, New Jersey, but were forced to relocate to a one-bedroom apartment in Hollywood, California in 1931 after Brewster's estate was squandered when his former wife sued him for alienation of affection. The couple would divorce in 1931.

After her divorce, Palmer became an alcoholic, and on January 31, 1933, was committed to a hospital in San Francisco under the pseudonym Edith Mason, a name she had adopted in an attempt to revitalize her film career. It was noted in a March 12, 1933 article in the Portsmouth Daily Times that Palmer "had been drinking steadily for several days," and the hospital staff "feared she might harm herself or set fire to her room." Broadway Fever Lila Leroy