Theatre Register

Marion Davies

Shows · Marion Davies

Actor 1897–1961 On stage 19141920

Marion Davies (born Marion Cecilia Douras; January 3, 1897 – September 22, 1961) was an American actress, producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist. Educated in a religious convent, Davies left the school to pursue a career as a chorus girl. As a teenager, she appeared in several Broadway musicals and one film, Runaway Romany (1917). She soon became a featured performer in the Ziegfeld Follies. While performing in the 1916 Follies, the nineteen-year-old Marion met the fifty-three-year-old newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst and became his mistress. Hearst took over management of Davies' career and promoted her as a film actress. Hearst financed Davies’ pictures and promoted her career…

On stage 10 productions, 6 years

1914 Chin Chin Globe Theatre · Original · directed by Signor Luigi Albertieri 295 perf.
1915 Miss Information George M Cohans Theatre · Original · directed by Robert Milton 47 perf.
1915 Nobody Home Princess Theatre · Original · directed by J. H. Benrimo 135 perf.
1915 Stop! Look! Listen! Theatre not recorded · Original · directed by R. H. Burnside 105 perf.
1916 Betty Globe Theatre · Original · directed by Edward Royce 63 perf.
1916 Ziegfeld Follies of 1916 New Amsterdam Theatre · Original · directed by Ned Wayburn 112 perf.
1917 Miss 1917 Century Theatre · Original · directed by Ned Wayburn 72 perf.
1917 Oh, Boy! Princess Theatre · Original · directed by Edward Royce, Robert Milton 463 perf.
1917 Words and Music Fulton Theatre · Original · directed by Leon Errol 24 perf.
1920 Ed Wynn's Carnival New Amsterdam Theatre · Original · directed by Ned Wayburn 150 perf.

Each row is a staging this name appears in the cast list of, read from the production record rather than from the person record. The person record names works instead, and a work cannot say which run somebody was in — that is how Elaine Stritch ends up filed under Show Boat 1927 when she was in the 1994 revival. No row here says what part was played, because no cast list records it.

Worked with more than once12 names

Tot Qualters 4 productions
Lillian Rice 4 productions
Justine Johnstone 4 productions
Hazel Lewis 4 productions
Flo Hart 4 productions
Eugene Revere 4 productions
Eleanor St Clair 4 productions
Anna Stone 4 productions
Evelyn Conway 3 productions
Vivian Morrison 2 productions
Peter Page 2 productions
Peggy Dana 2 productions

Both names in the same cast list, more than once. It is not evidence of a partnership — a long-running company puts the same forty people together every night — but it is where one would start looking. 11 of these names are not links because we hold no record behind them; the name is set from the identifier and its punctuation may be wrong.

Also credited on1 work

Ziegfeld Follies

These come off the person record, which names a work and not a production. So we can say this name is attached to the work and we cannot say which staging, or in what capacity. For a composer or a writer that is the whole career we hold; there is no cast list to find them in.

In the literature4 passages

  • Cast: Marie Carroll, Tom Powers, Anna Wheaton, Hal Forde, Edna May Oliver, Marion Davies, Justine Johnstone, Dorothy Dickson & Carl Hysonebooks/Green, Stanley/Broadway Musicals, Show By Show - Seventh Edition - Stanley Green & Cary Ginell.txt
  • Nothing Frances Goldwyn did was happenstance. She had eliminated any sign that she had begun life as a Ziegfeld showgirl along with Marion Davies. Now she was the wife of the most distinguished independent movie producer in town and her old friend was the mistress of the most despised newspaper publisher in any town, William Randolph Hear…ebooks/Laurents, Arthur/Original Story By_ A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood - Arthur Laurents.txt
  • a Princess Theatre musical with Anna Wheaton, Tom Powers, Edna May Oliver, Hal Forde, Marion Davies, Justine Johnstone ’ ‘ . . Carroll. sicals F runs werre longy runs which; had Other— musicals and Marie » Carroll.theatre-pdfs/A Pictorial History of the American Theatre, 1860-1985 (Blum).txt
  • Poor little Marilyn Miller Others say I look like Marion Davies. Whom else would you suggest? I look like sweet Mae West! I know I show great promise as an actress And you can bet I'll get one yet.theatre-pdfs/Thou Swell Thou Witty-The Life and Lyrics of Lorenz Hart - Hart, Dorothy.txt

Passages naming this person, found by keyword across 178 books. A keyword match is not a biography, and a common name will pull in the wrong one.

What this page does not know

  • What this person played. No cast list we hold records a character against a performer.
  • Which of the credits above the roles on this record — actor — apply to. The roles sit on the person and never on a credit, so a director who also acted looks the same here as one who did not.

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