Doris Eaton Travis (1904 - 2010), the last surviving Ziegfeld Follies Girl, died Wednesday, May 12, at the age of 106.
If you followed last year's series of Follies posts to Stage Whispers, you'll remember that the Eaton siblings, male and female, were superb dancers who, for many years, formed the strong backbone of the dancing chorus. Tiny Doris (barely 5 feet tall) was the youngest Eaton. In 1918, when she was just 14 years old, she auditioned for the Follies by tagging along with her older sister, Mary.
After three seasons with the Follies, she went on to other projects, and during the Great Depression, she worked for the Arthur Murray Dance Studios, where she met her husband, Paul Travis. The Travises operated a horse farm in Norman, Oklahoma for nearly 75 years, but after Paul died in 2000, the farm became too much work for Doris to handle alone, so she gave it up in December of 2008, when she was 104.
So much energy and talent in one tiny bundle, Doris Eaton Travis was the last icon of a fabled era. Another light just went out on Broadway.
Stage Whispers is published by carlacushman.blogspot.com/
Carla,
ReplyDeleteThis is my second attempt to write a comment. I hope I hit the right 'button' this time.
Of course, I will not remember exactly what I said on the first one. The first one written is always better, because it is more spontaneous. I do like your Stage Whispers. I have a great deal of interest in the theatre also, although based on Musical Theatre and pretty much starting with South Pacific (1949). My mother bought the LP before she had a record player on which to listen to it. I still have it, and quite a few more, They are in storage and I never get to listen to them.
I would like to sell them but I am not registered with eBay or any other site from which to sell these sorts of things. A year or so ago, I saw one of my albums being sold for $49. But I procrastinate...........
I have done some theatre work with Amil Tellers here in Lima, set design and backstage stuff. Mostly around 1970/71.
We should talk. Calli
P.S. This time I copied and pasted the comment so I would not have to write it again, should I be stupid enough to goof up the posting again.