Yvonne Hughes
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Yvonne Hughes (1900 - December 26, 1950) was a dancer in the Ziegfeld Follies and an actress in silent motion pictures.
[edit] Ziegfeld Follies & silent movies
Hughes appeared in films with Gloria Swanson and once danced with Rudolph Valentino. Her movie appearances came in 1923 and 1924. Yvonne had roles in Lawful Larceny, Zaza, Big Brother, A Society Scandal, and Monsieur Beaucaire. The lovely actress also appeared in Rio Rita.
[edit] Murder victim
Miss Hughes was murdered in 1950 in the hotel room of Birger Nordkvist, an apple picker who worked for a western New York cider firm. The locale was the Ashland Hotel, 429 Fourth Avenue, New York, New York. Nordkvist was 41 years of age and was born in Moklink, Sweden. Birger came down from his upstate New York home in Hamlet, New York. He got into a cab driven by John McDonald, who had lived with Yvonne for fourteen years. McDonald offered to take him to the Ashland, where he kept a room. Nordkvist met Hughes, who demonstrated some old dance routines for him, and they drank beer through the night and into the next morning; all the while, McDonald was driving his taxi. The apple picker was firmly rebuffed when he propositioned the former actress. Birger strangled her when she tried to scream by tying his handkerchief around her throat and stuffing a silk scarf into her mouth. Nordkvist was arrested in Utica, New York where he went after leaving the hotel.
Police believe that Miss Hughes was the Yvonne Evelyn Hughes who was a dancer in the Ziegfeld Follies and in 1928 married a Harvard University senior named Gordon Godowsky. He was the son of a noted Russian pianist. The marriage took place on Valentine's Day and lasted but a year. The couple separated in 1929. Godowsky, despondent over finances, ended his life in 1932 by inhaling gas.
[edit] References
- New York Times, Apple Picker Held For Hotel Killing, December 29, 1950, Page 12.
- Pasco, Washington Tri-City Herald, Question Apple Picker After Aging Follies Beauty Found Strangled, December 27, 1950, Page 2.
- San Mateo, California Times, Ziegfeld Girl Strangled, December 26, 1950, Page 2.
