Helen Raymond

Helen Raymond (September 3, 1878 – November 26, 1965) was an American stage actress who did comedy roles on Broadway, and also appeared in Hollywood motion pictures and in vaudeville.

Early years Raymond was born September 3, 1878, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music with an emphasis in piano.

In 1931, Raymond starred in Stepping Sisters in Philadelphia. The play, in which Raymond portrayed a burlesque queen, ran for seven months in Chicago and for 10 months in New York. In June 1941, Raymond called that role her "greatest personal success" up to that time.

Raymond portrayed Mrs. Wadsworth T. Harcourt in a 64-week run of Anything Goes (1934) Her final appearance in a Broadway production was as Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn in The Music Man, from 1957-1960. and she acted with the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera at the Jones Beach Marine Theater. Raymond made her first motion picture in 1920, the feature, Dangerous to Men. She next starred as Mary Pickford's maid in Through the Back Door (1921). Raymond acted in at least seven films all together, the final one being The Huntress (1923). She appeared in an episode of the TV series Producers Showcase in 1955, entitled The Women.

Personal life On November 19, 1914, Raymond married Ira John Perry, a "wealthy St. Louisan", in Baltimore, Maryland. The couple lived in St. Louis until she left in January 1915 to resume her career. She went to New York and starred in Twin Beds. He sued for divorce on July 5, 1916, on grounds of desertion. He specified in the complaint, "She told me that she regretted the marriage and that she preferred a stage life to that of the home." She had previously lived at 610 Cathedral Parkway.