Sixteen-year-old Ethel M. Lytle (1887–1961) was a dancer in the Mr. Bluebeard production company.^▼1 She was the only daughter of Louisa J. Moore Lytle (1868–1970),^▼2 and the late Robert E. Lytel (?–1895?).  Louisa worked in costumes and traveled with the theater company, sometimes cited as assistant to the Pony Ballet.  She had shown musical skills as a ten year old in pageants at their Methodist church in Altoona, Pennsylvania.  When she was around thirteen her widowed mother took her to New York City for further training in theatrical skills.  In October ,1903, a press release about Ethyl appeared in the Franklin, Pittsburgh newspaper reporting that she was in the Bluebeard cast and claiming it was one of several important productions she'd appeared in.  Problem with the story is that according to the Altoona, PA newspaper the month prior, she was still performing in their Methodist church there, and I found no prior references to Ethel's professional capacity.  I suspect the truth was that her career started when the Bluebeard company opened in Pittsburg on September 28 and she joined the chorus.  The traveling company hired chorus performers in each city as needed.  Ethel and Louise took advantage of it to inflate a single gig into a budding sensation.  In an industry where fantasy and truth were equal, the Lytle women were up for it..

Milestones in Ethel's and Louise's lives:

• Age nine — Ethel Lytle (1888–) sold enough newspaper subscriptions to win a bicycle.  The Lytle's lived in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania then, at 81 Isabella St.
• Age eleven — Louisa and Ethel moved to New York City so Ethel could receive training in theatrical skills.
• Age thirteen — Ethel became a chorus girl.
• Age fifteen — she performed at the Pan-American Exposition in the "Trip to the Moon" exhibit.
• Age sixteen — she danced in Mr. Bluebeard and survived the Iroquois Theater fire, along with her mother.
• Age seventeen — she May have moved to Portland, Oregon and performed as a soprano vocalist in amateur productions or it might have been another girl altogether who married a man named Booth.
• Age eighteen — Louisa remarried, to Thomas J. Newkirk, manager of a fireworks company.
• Age twenty — Louisa prevented Ethel from marrying Frank Perley,^▼3 an accountant for a theater producer.  Louisa did not want Ethel to marry within the theater industry.  So reported newspaper stories that may have been planted by mother and daughter.
• Age 21 — performing as "Dolly" in A Bunch of Keys
• Age twenty-six — she performed at Churchill's Cabaret in New York City.
• Age twenty-nine — she performed as a dancing vaudeville comedienne with Gus Shy's Passing Parade Musical Comedy Company and in That Other Woman, earning a dismal review in Variety .
• Age thirty-three — Ethel finally became engaged to Frank Perley, manager of East is West.
• Age sixty-three — Ethel lived in NYC with her mother, who by then was eighty-two years old, and worked as "handwriting graphologist" in a nightclub.
• 1961 — Ethel's death, with an obituary in her home state of Pennsylvania that confused her name with Louise's.
• 1970 — Louise died at age 101.

Discrepancies and addendum

1. There were conflicting newspaper references about Ethel's role in Mr. Bluebeard, and discrepancies in her interview with Inter Ocean.  She was elsewhere referred to as a member of the chorus and her mother assisted the Pony Ballet.  According to her 1920 passport, she had blue eyes, brown hair and a fair completion.  Significantly, she was 5'1" tall, her petite stature lending credence to her claim in an Inter Ocean newspaper interview that she was one of the aerial ballet dancers.  The Grigolatis dance company had originated in Europe and most of the dancers spoke German but their managers spoke English.  Because dancers were suspended via wires connected to ropes that were muscled by men on the stage floor, only small women were candidates to join the aerial company. Being small and with the stage familiarity of a theater worker's daughter, Ethel may have been given a chance to train with the company during its Mr. Bluebeard road tour.  She may also have filled in on the chorus sometimes.  I found nothing in subsequent newspaper stories relative to her talent, however.

2. Ethel's 1961 obituary inaccurately cited her mother Louise Newkirk as her daughter.  I found no evidence that Ethel married or bore children.

3.  There were two men named Frank Perley in the entertainment industry:

• Frank L. Perley (using a middle initial, "L") was a well known producer and theater manager.  He was a London native who began his career in the circus industry, later switching to acting and talent management, including Alice Nielsen, and theater management, including the Knickerbocker in NYC.  His brother, Herman Perlet, directed musical comedies.
• Frank Perley (without the middle initial L.) Ethel Lytle's fiancé, entered the industry as a performer and moved into management of traveling theater companies.

irqperformers

Story 2692