Mary Lewis

Mary Sybil Kidd Maynard Lewis (January 7, 1900 – December 31, 1941) was an American lyric soprano and actress who had an active performance career in musicals, operas, vaudeville, and in film during the first half of the twentieth century. After beginning her career as a chorus girl in 1919, she was signed by the Christie Film Company to star in a series of comedic silent films made in 1920; most notably A Bashful Bigamist (released 1921). She later appeared in the Vitaphone Varieties, some of the earliest sound films made by Warner Bros., in 1926. Her first major stage role was as a featured singer in the Broadway musical revue Ziegfeld Follies of 1921. In 1923 her career reoriented towards opera, beginning with her opera debut at Vienna State Opera. After performing in European opera houses for a few years, she returned to the United States to join the roster of leading sopranos at the Metropolitan Opera in 1925 where she remained committed through 1930.

Early years

Lewis was born Mary Kidd, He was a Methodist minister and a music teacher who taught her to play piano. and by the time the show opened, she had been named its prima donna. She became the Ziegfeld Follies ' leading singer in 1921. She also performed in the 1922 and 1923 editions of the Ziegfeld Follies. Her operatic debut was "a little more than one year after she had first taken up the study of grand opera". She also performed as The Merry Widow in Paris, toured England for three months, and sang in Monte Carlo. Lewis performed in Hugh the Drover (1924) when it premiered,

Following her Metropolitan Opera debut, Lewis had "an extensive concert tour" and recorded arias and songs for the Victor Talking Machine Company.

Lewis countered with a breach of contract suit against Pathe, asking for the remaining $22,500. The studio's response said that Lewis "had failed to conduct herself with due propriety and had become intoxicated and involved in a scandal".

Commenting about the suits, Lewis (who was touring Europe in opera) described herself as "a good girl" and said: "I obtained an interlocutory divorce decree recently, and I am getting my final decree in August. But ask my husband if I am immoral. He doesn't even want a divorce." — the first time such documentation was used in place of a written agreement. The subsequent conflict attracted attention from other actors because it was one of the first legal actions to enforce the morals clause that had recently become a standard part of most stars' contracts.

Radio programs on which Lewis appeared included The Atwater Kent Hour on NBC and Melody Moments on the Blue Network.

In 1933, Lewis was soloist with the New York Civic Orchestra in a concert at the Brooklyn Museum. In 1934, she sang in a recital sponsored by the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences at the Academy of Music and at a concert in Paterson, New Jersey.

In 1936, Lewis sang on Ben Bernie's NBC radio program and performed at a nightclub in New York, singing two popular songs and three operatic airs.

In 1937, Lewis starred in the Concert Hall of the Air radio program, with Rosario Bourdon directing the concert orchestra. She recorded 52 electrical transcriptions.

Recordings and book Mary Lewis: The Golden Haired Soprano, a set of two compact discs (Marston 52047) was released in 2009. The set was produced by Ward Marston, and it contains "all known Lewis recordings, both acoustic and electric", including six previously unpublished numbers.

Alice Fitch Zeman wrote Mary Lewis, the Golden Haired Beauty With the Golden Voice, a biography that was published by Rose Publishing in Little Rock, Arkansas. That marriage ended in divorce on August 16, 1930, in Los Angeles. She later married oil company executive Robert L. Hague, who died in 1939.

Lewis died on December 31, 1941, at Le Roy Sanitarium in New York City, aged 41.