Gloria Foy

Gloria Foy (October 25, 1901 – February 27, 1977) was a dancer, singer, vaudeville performer, and star of musical revues. She was a slim and energetic blonde from Lima, Ohio. Her family were theatrical people. Her father was Harry Foy.

Theater Dancer

Her build was strong and husky, yet piquant. One reviewer described her dancing style as rampageous. Foy came to prominence in the John Murray Anderson Revue in March 1920. This assemblage was the successor to the theater director's Greenwich Village Follies. Aside from Foy the production showcased an attractive singer named Rosalind Fuller and a dancer, Allyn Kearns.

Foy claimed that she gained an inch of height simply by dancing during performances of Up She Goes (1922). She was twenty-one years old at the time. Her instructor explained that this happened because muscles stretch during vigorous dancing. By June 1923 she was dancing two hours per night during performances, appearing in two matinee shows per week, and also practising two hours daily. Another hour of her day was devoted to a dancing lesson.

She obtained the role of Sally in Up She Goes when Marilyn Miller wed Jack Pickford and fell out with Florenz Ziegfeld. Percy Hammond of the New York Tribune considered Foy a better dancer, a better actress, and a better looker than Miss Miller.

In November 1924 Foy played the title character in Betty Lee, a musical comedy which had an all-star cast. The show gave her the opportunity to demonstrate her ample singing and dancing talent. Joe E. Brown brought humorous life to his character, a valet-trainer. William Gaxton, formerly of the Music Box Theatre Revue, had the part of the bluffing college cheerleader.

Lou Holt and Foy were the principal players in Patsy which debuted at the Mason Operahouse in Los Angeles, California on March 8, 1926. 100 showgirls participated in the production which was conceived and produced in southern California. Among the song divertissements was a rendition of Tiger Eyes which showcased Foy and five dancers. Patsy concluded its Los Angeles run in mid-May and was put on the road to San Francisco, California and then other American cities.

Foy was Hal Skelly were signed by the Shubert Theater owners in March 1927. The two were engaged to present The Circus Princess for theater audiences. During the fall and winter season of 1930 Foy toured on the RKO vaudeville circuit. George Jessel, Viola Dana, Aunt Jemima (Tess Gardella), Georgia Price, and Anna Seymour also toured. During her vaudeville shows Foy entertained with imitations, gags and satire. Sometimes she was assisted in her skits by Alan David and Sam Critcherson.

Inheritance

At the age of twenty-two Foy inherited a fortune estimated to be in excess of $1,500,000, in November 1923. The money came from the will of an uncle, Richard Foy. He was a wealthy coffee planter in Rio de Janeiro. She obtained access to one third of this amount immediately. According to its terms, the inheritance specified that she would be entitled to another third, providing that she married within three years time. The final instalment would come to Foy if she lived with her husband for ten years. By the end of December she had received more than 5,000 proposals from suitors worldwide. One of her first purchases after the bequest was a 1924 Buick Brougham Sedan.

Foy had some definite ideas concerning marriage. Some of these angered members of the Lucy Stone League, as well as women in general. She was quoted as saying that marriage should be journey's end to modern couples like it was to their grandparents. She believed that many women did not feel deeply enough about marriage. To them it was like buying a new frock or obtaining a new job.

Sole Film

Her only screen credit is a small role in Dancing Lady (1934). The MGM motion picture reunited Clark Gable and Joan Crawford for the fourth time on film. This time in a musical comedy.

Sometime in 1934 Foy returned to New York and resumed work as a star of musical comedy. She returned to Los Angeles and was the guest of Kay Kyser at the Miramar Theater in September. While Kyser entertained with music, Foy and Edwards danced together with Sidney Blackmer and Suzanne Kaaren.

Personal life

Foy sent a $25 bill to a New York telephone company in 1920, requesting that it correct its errors. She said that she had been forced to get out of bed three times in a single week because of wrong numbers.

She was called the sweetest girl in the world by the New York American Legion. The phrase was uttered at a Legion banquet which convened at the Drake Hotel in Chicago, Illinois, in October 1923.

Foy was in an auto accident near Westerly, Rhode Island in July 1931. Eddie Foy, Lenore Ulric, and Sidney Blackmer were with her in the wreck, but no one was injured. Comedian Eddie Foy was no relation to Gloria.

She married a broker named Easterday in July 1924. Later she married stage actor Alan Edwards. Edwards and Foy were seen together at the Cocoanut Grove (Los Angeles) in May 1934.

Foy became an aviator and soloed for the first time in August 1933.

Death

Gloria Foy died in Hollywood of kidney disease in 1977. She was 75 years old.

References

• Bismarck Tribune, Some Feminists Disagree With Famous Beauty in Discussion, July 16, 1924, Page 8.
• Burlington Daily Times-News, Joan Crawford And Clark Gable Graham Mon.-Tues., Saturday, February 17, 1934, Page 3.
• Fitchburg Sentinel, News And Comment Of Stage And Screen, July 11, 1931, Page 5.
• Los Angeles Times, Proposals Pour In To Heiress, December 27, 1923, Page I10.
• Los Angeles Times, Love Lures All Mates Of Dancer, July 27, 1924, Page B29.
• Los Angeles Times, Forget Ancient Traditions, March 7, 1926, Page 21.
• Los Angeles Times, Society of Cinemaland'', March 7, 1926, Page 38.
• Los Angeles Times, When Tiger Eyes Are Smiling, May 4, 1926, Page A11.
• Los Angeles Times, Hobnobbing In Hollywood, August 22, 1933, Page A7.
• Los Angeles Times, Hobnobbing In Hollywood, May 26, 1934, Page 6.
• Los Angeles Times, Around and About in Hollywood, September 6, 1934, Page 19.
• Los Angeles Times, Around and About in Hollywood, September 12, 1934, Page 18.
• Modesto Evening News, Girl Adds More Than Inch To Her Height By Dancing, Saturday, June 23, 1923, Page 19.
• Modesto Evening News, Young, Pretty And Wealthy, This Girl Wants A Husband, Monday, November 26, 1923, Page 2.
• Modesto Evening News, Gloria Foy Chooses Buick, Saturday, December 8, 1923, Page 30.
• New York Times, John Murray Anderson's Revue, March 20, 1920, Page 14.
• Oakland Tribune, Exits And Entrances, March 24, 1927, Page 17.
• Oakland Tribune, Cohens, Kellys Bring Laughs At Orpheum, January 15, 1931, Page 24.
• Ogden Standard-Examiner, Percy Hammond's Letter, Sunday Morning, November 19, 1922, Page 19.
• Sandusky Star Journal, Monday, March 22, 1920, Page 7.
• Syracuse Herald, Wieting Offers Betty Lee For Week-End Run, November 9, 1924, Page 52.
• Syracuse Herald, Up And Down The Rialtos, Wednesday Evening, September 3, 1930, Page 17.
• Syracuse Herald, The Stage, February 28, 1924, Page 19.