Laura Joyce Bell

Laura Joyce Bell (née Maskell; 6 May 1854 – 30 May 1904 ) was an English-American actress and contralto singer mostly associated with Edwardian musical comedy and light opera.

After beginning her career as Laura Joyce in concerts and theatre in Britain, she moved to the United States in 1872 where she earned good notices in the spectacular shows at Niblo's Garden. With a success in the title role of Evangeline (1875), a season in East coast cities with John T. Ford, and seasons at Daly's Broadway Theatre and the Bijou Opera House, among others, her career was established. She married the American comedian Digby Bell, with whom she frequently appeared with over the last two decades of her career. The two appeared extensively with the McCaull Comic Opera Company in Gilbert and Sullivan, Offenbach and many other comic operas. Throughout her career, she also appeared in comic plays and dramas.

Early life and career Bell was born in London, the daughter of Maria Dalton Dauncey, a dramatic elocutionist and voice teacher (died 1917), and James Henry Maskell (1824–1897), a sometime theatrical agent and merchant. At Christmas 1871, she played Oberon in the prologue to The Children in the Wood at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and the following year she toured with Howard Paul.

She made a hit in the title role of Evangeline at the old Boston Globe Theatre in 1875 and reprised the following season at the Boston Museum. In between, at Christmas 1875, she starred at the Boston Globe as Prince Amabel in Turko the Terrible, then appeared in concert with the Berger Family and Jules Levy. She next played Polly Eccles in Caste and appeared in Our Boys with the New England Comedy Company.

1882–1903

She next signed with the Bijou Opera House where, from June 1882, Bell played Lady Jane in the Gilbert and Sullivan opera Patience, which featured Digby Bell as Archibald Grosvenor. In October she appeared with Bell as Lady Sangazure in The Sorcerer (Lillian Russell played Aline). In January 1883, she sang the role of Mrs. Cowslip at the Bijou in the Solomon and Stephens opera, Virginia. In March 1883, she married Digby Bell. The same year, she was with the McCaull Comic Opera Company at the Casino Theatre performing Manola in an English adaptation of Offenbach's La princesse de Trébizonde, and that November, with Rice's Opera Bouffe Company, she appeared at the Bijou as Diana, then Juno, in Orpheus and Eurydice, Max Freeman's adaptation of Offenbach's Orphée aux enfers. Other roles during this period included Bathilde in Olivette, Donna Scolastica in Heart and Hand, Lady Clare in Nell Gwynne. Bell continued to tour with McCaull for many years, often with her husband.

In 1903, she was with her husband as Mrs Bardell and Sam Weller in the long run of Mr. Pickwick (from the Charles Dickens novel, The Pickwick Papers) at the Herald Square Theatre (also starring De Wolf Hopper) and later the Grand Opera House.

Personal life and death With Taylor, Bell had two sons, Valentine and Herbert.

She married Digby Bell a day or two after he had received his divorce from Lillian Brooks. Since Brooks had accused the couple of infidelity, a charge that was denied by both and never proven, the divorce decree forbade the two from marrying in New York. They wed in Pennsylvania and used a similar case involving a divorced New York judge as precedence for their marriage to be recognised in New York State. The couple had a daughter, Mrs. Harry C. Schlichting.