1. Mary Ellis achieved enduring fame in the leading roles of the original productions of two Ivor Novello pieces: Glamorous Night and The Dancing Years.
19 Facts About Mary Ellis
1. 2.
Mary Ellis worked in radio, television and film; including in The 3 Worlds of Gulliver in 1960.
3.
Mary Ellis's career spanned more than half a century of her 105-year-long life.
4.
Mary Ellis was born in Manhattan in New York City, to German parents, Herman Elsas and Caroline Elsas, who was a pianist.
5.
Mary Ellis first became interested in performing around 1910, and in a vocational course began to train her lyric soprano voice under the tutelage of Belgian contralto Freida de Goebele and Italian operatic coach Fernando Tanara.
6.
Mary Ellis made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera on December 14,1918, in the world premiere of Puccini's Il trittico, creating the role of Genovieffa in Suor Angelica, the second of the evening's three one-act operas.
7.
Mary Ellis appeared in the premiere of L'oiseau bleu by Albert Wolff, singing Mytyl, in 1919.
8.
On Broadway, Mary Ellis played the roles of street urchin and errand girl in Louis in 1921, Nerissa in the 1922 production of Merchant of Venice and The Dancer from Milan in Casanova.
9.
Mary Ellis gained wider notice by creating the title role in Rudolf Friml's long-running operetta Rose-Marie in 1924.
10.
Mary Ellis played Leah in The Neighborhood Playhouse's 1925 adaptation of The Dybbuk, and her later Broadway roles included Anna in The Crown Prince, Kate in a long-running revival of The Taming of the Shrew, The Baroness of Spangenburg 12,000 and Jennifer in Meet the Prince.
11.
In 1930, Mary Ellis emigrated to England with Basil Sydney, her third husband, whom she had married in 1929.
12.
Mary Ellis starred in several films in the 1930s, including a film version of Glamorous Night in 1937.
13.
For most of World War II, Mary Ellis was absent from the theatre, performing welfare work in hospitals, and from time to time giving concerts to entertain members of the armed forces.
14.
In 1954, Mary Ellis was cast as Mrs Erlynne in Coward's musical After the Ball, but her singing voice had deteriorated drastically, and much of her music had to be cut.
15.
Mary Ellis appeared in the 1960 movie The 3 Worlds of Gulliver and made her last stage appearance in 1970, playing Mrs Warren in Shaw's Mrs Warren's Profession at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford.
16.
Mary Ellis appeared in 1993 and 1994 in two episodes of the television series Sherlock Holmes and again in 1994.
17.
Mary Ellis became a centenarian in 1997 and died at her home in Eaton Square in London on January 30,2003, at the age of 105.
18.
Mary Ellis published her memoirs in 1982 under the title Those Dancing Years.
19.
Mary Ellis was the last surviving performer to have created a role in a Puccini opera and the last to have sung opposite Caruso.