Faye Emerson

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Faye Emerson

Emerson in Lady Gangster
Born Faye Margaret Emerson
(1917-07-08)July 8, 1917
Elizabeth, Louisiana, U.S.
Died March 9, 1983(1983-03-09) (aged 65)
Deya, Majorca, Spain
Years active 1941-1961
Spouse(s) Skitch Henderson (1950-1957)
Elliott Roosevelt (1944-1950)
William Crawford (1938-1942) 1 child

Faye Margaret Emerson (July 8, 1917 – March 9, 1983) was an American film actress and television interviewer known as "The First Lady of Television." Beginning in 1941, she acted in many Warner Brothers films. In 1944, she played one of her more memorable roles as Zachary Scott's former wife in The Mask of Dimitrios. She was also notable for being the third wife of presidential son Elliott Roosevelt from 1944 to 1950.

Early life

Emerson was born to Lawrence and Emma (Smythe) in the tiny community of Elizabeth in Allen Parish in southwestern Louisiana. She moved with her mother to San Diego before the war. There she took up acting and by 1940 was a Hollywood starlet.

Career

In 1948, she made a move to television and began acting in various anthology series, including The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre, The Philco Television Playhouse, and Goodyear Television Playhouse. She served as host for several short-lived talk shows and musical/variety shows, including Paris Cavalcade of Fashions (1948) and The Faye Emerson Show (CBS, 1950).

Although The Faye Emerson Show only lasted one season, it gave her wide exposure because her time slot immediately followed the CBS Evening News and alternated weeknights with the popular The Perry Como Show. According to author Gabe Essoe in The Book of TV Lists, on one of the show's segments, her low-cut gown slipped and "she exposed her ample self coast to coast." The show was broadcast from a studio CBS built on the sixth floor of the Stork Club building. The studio, a complete replica of the Stork Club's Cub Room, was built for The Stork Club, also seen on CBS beginning in 1950.[1][2]

After The Faye Emerson Show, she continued in TV with other talk shows, including Faye Emerson's Wonderful Town (1951-1952), Author Meets the Critics (1952), and Faye and Skitch (1953). She also made numerous guest appearances on various variety shows and game shows.

Emerson hosted or appeared on so many talk shows—usually wearing evening gowns—and game shows, such as I've Got a Secret, that she was known as "The First Lady of Television." The glamorous Emerson was so popular in the early 1950s that it was rumored that the newly created Emmy Award was named after her.[citation needed]

Marriages

Faye Emerson married her first husband, William Crawford, a naval aviator, in 1938. However, Faye's activities in the movie industry were not conducive to a stable marriage, and though it produced one son, William Crawford, Jr., the marriage was over by the time Faye met President Franklin D. Roosevelt's son, Colonel Elliott Roosevelt, in August 1943.

Howard Hughes was instrumental in bringing the two together when Colonel Roosevelt visited the Hughes Aircraft Company to evaluate the proposed Hughes XF-11. Though Elliott was married, Faye and he linked up, strongly urged on by the generous efforts of Hughes and his social facilitator, Johnny Meyer. Faye later asserted that despite her doubts, Hughes urged her to advance the relationship, and she knew that she could not defy Hughes. In December 1944, Hughes and Meyer provided the funding and airplanes for Faye's and Elliott's well-publicized marriage at the rim of the Grand Canyon. When Elliott went back to Europe, he named his reconnaissance aircraft "My Faye."[3]

The intelligent and mannered Faye was very popular in the White House, and kept up a warm connection with Eleanor Roosevelt and the rest of the family even after her split with Elliott.[4]

After some months in Beverly Hills in 1945, the couple resided with Eleanor Roosevelt at Hyde Park, N.Y. They had no children. The marriage began breaking up by 1947. In December 1948, Faye Emerson slit her wrists and was briefly hospitalized. In January 1950, Faye obtained a divorce in Cuernavaca, Mexico.[5]

Next year, she married band leader and conductor Lyle "Skitch" Henderson in the same town, and after Skitch got into some problems, divorced him in 1957 in Acapulco, Mexico. Former brother-in-law James Roosevelt wrote that "after an incident involving some teen-age girls he (Skitch) was dropped from Johnny Carson's Tonight TV show and his career went into eclipse. Faye's marriage to Skitch hit the skids. She didn't have much luck in her married life, but she endures, and we think of her fondly."[6]

Retirement and Death

Once a Hollywood starlet enjoying the show business spotlight, the wealthy Emerson moved to Spain and spent the rest of her life in seclusion. She died in 1983 at the age of sixty-five of stomach cancer in Deià, Majorca, a village favored by retired artists and entertainers. For years she lived there with Anne Roosevelt, the divorced first wife of Elliott's brother John Aspinwall Roosevelt.

Filmography

Features

Short subjects

References

  1. ↑ Rau, Herb (21 March 1950). "Raund Town". The Miami News. Retrieved 2 September 1950. 
  2. ↑ O'Brian, Jack (23 March 1978). "Recalling The Stork". Herald-Journal. Retrieved 2 September 2010. 
  3. ↑ Hansen, 405-8
  4. ↑ Roosevelt, 311
  5. ↑ Hansen, 527, 582
  6. ↑ Roosevelt, 311

Bibliography

  • Hansen, Chris. Enfant Terrible: The Times and Schemes of General Elliott Roosevelt. Able Baker Press, 2012.
  • Roosevelt, James. My Parents: A Differing View. Playboy Press, 1976.

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External links

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