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American National Biography Online Lewis, Mary (29 Jan. 1897-31 Dec. 1941), opera singer, was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, the daughter of Charles Kidd and Hattie Lewis, occupations unknown. Her early life was spent in poverty; her parents were soon separated, and her mother married Ed Maynard. Lewis and her brother were placed in an orphanage and a series of foster homes until being reunited with their mother. While living in the slums of Dallas, Texas, Lewis attracted the attention of Mrs. Frank F. Fitch, the wife of a Methodist minister. The Fitches took Mary into their home and nurtured her musical talent, teaching her the song "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam." In 1908 the Fitches were called to a pastorate in Judsonia, Arkansas, and the following year moved to Little Rock. Their extreme strictness led to revolt. Lewis's singing had attracted the attention of H. F. Auten, a prominent Arkansas lawyer, real estate developer, and Republican politician, who moved Lewis into his household and arranged for formal music lessons under Alice Henniger. Lewis disappointed Auten by falling in love, and in 1915 she married J. Keene Lewis. This marriage did not last, and in 1918 Mary left Little Rock as a member of a touring company. After several years of chorus work and minor singing engagements, she joined the Fanchon and Marco vaudeville company, made films for Christie's Comedies, and in 1920 moved to New York, appearing in the Village Follies. The following year she was engaged by Florenz Ziegfeld for his Follies. Unsatisfied with a Broadway career, Lewis took singing lessons with William Thorner, the former teacher of Rosa Ponselle. Banker Otto H. Kahn recommended her to Metropolitan Opera general manager Giulio Gatti-Casazza, who suggested Lewis go to Europe. She intended to study with the renowned tenor Jean de Reszke, but there is no evidence that she did. She did work with Jean Perier of the Paris Opera Comique before making her debut as Marguerite in Faust in Vienna on 19 October 1923. Aware of the value of publicity, Lewis made sure the event was well-reported in the American press. She then sang in Bratislava and Monte Carlo before signing with the British National Opera Company in London, where she starred in La Boheme and an English version of Les contes d'Hoffman, The Tales of Hoffman. Her most notable role was that of Mary in the premiere of Ralph Vaughan Williams's great English folk opera, Hugh the Drover. During her European stay she made records for the Gramophone Company, including highlights from Hugh the Drover. Lewis debuted as Mimi in La Boheme at the Metropolitan Opera on 28 January 1926. Warmly greeted by her friends, she received mixed critical notices. Shortly thereafter came the debut of Marion Talley, and the two Americans were often compared and sometimes cast together. Lewis then undertook an extensive concert tour, which included a stop at Little Rock, where she was welcomed by Governor Thomas J. Terral. In addition, she recorded arias and songs for the Victor Talking Machine Company. Her southern accent, which she had labored to remove, was useful for the song "Dixie." In the summer of 1926 she sang at the Opera Comique in Paris, returning to the United States, her concert tours, and the Metropolitan Opera in 1927. That year she married the German bass-baritone Michael Bohnen. The first hint of trouble came in 1927 when Vitaphone sued her, claiming drunkenness had rendered her film work unusable. She and Bohnen separated in 1929 and were divorced in 1930. In her last performance at the Metropolitan Opera in 1930, she reportedly was "as drunk as a lord" (John C. Sicignano to author, 12 Feb. 1975). Despite considerable fanfare, a motion picture career failed to materialize in 1930. Although Lewis sued Pathe, the company cited her drinking and invoked the "morals clause." After an unsuccessful trip to Europe, she returned to the United States and married Robert L. Hague, a millionaire marine architect for Standard Oil of New Jersey. She had no children in any of her marriages. She continued her career, giving a well-received Town Hall concert in New York in 1934, and sang frequently on the radio. She made some additional records in New York, but at least one recording session was marred by her arriving in an intoxicated state. In 1936 she returned to Arkansas to participate in the state's centennial and sang at the inauguration of New York governor Herbert Lehman. She and Hague quarreled and were separated prior to his death in 1939. In 1939 she undertook a concert tour of Puerto Rico, but a swelling in her throat led to its cancellation. Her illness continued, and she died at the Roy Sanitarium from what the New York Times called a heart attack and the Arkansas Gazette a bladder ailment. It is highly probable that radiation poisoning was the cause of her death, for during her Broadway days she had worn a dress decorated extensively with radium that glowed in the darkened theater. Lewis's life embodied many elements of the Roaring Twenties. Although she never became a major operatic figure, she managed at the time to capture extensive newspaper coverage. Considered by Ziegfeld to be the most beautiful of his prima donnas, Lewis was, in the judgment of her contemporary, singer Jessica Dragonette, "a touching enigma, evidently bent on destroying herself in spite of her excelling gifts" (Faith Is a Song [1951], p. 75). Bibliography Still unlocated are the records Mary Lewis made in the late 1930s. Miscellaneous scrapbooks are in the private possession of Lawrence F. Holdridge. Lewis is mentioned in most operatic reference books, notably K. J. Kutsch and Leo Riemens, A Concise Biographical Dictionary of Singers (1969); Oscar Thompson, The American Singer: A Hundred Years of Success in Opera (1937); and Irving Kolodin, The Story of the Metropolitan Opera (1953). Much published data about her early life is in error. The first scholarly treatment exists in two versions: Michael B. Dougan, "A Touching Enigma: The Opera Career of Mary Lewis," Arkansas Historical Quarterly 36 (Autumn 1977): 258-79, contains footnotes; the same text appears in Record Collector 23 (Dec. 1976): 172-91, without footnotes but with a discography by W. R. Moran. In addition, an unpublished (1994) full-length study of Mary Lewis was done by Alice Zeman of Paw Paw, Ill. Obituaries include the New York Times and the Little Rock Arkansas Gazette, both 1 Jan. 1942. Michael B. Dougan Back to the top Citation: Michael B. Dougan. "Lewis, Mary"; http://www.anb.org/articles/18/18-03046.html; American National Biography Online Feb. 2000. Access Date: Copyright (c) 2000 American Council of Learned Societies. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Note: This email has been sent in plain text format so that it may be read with the standard ASCII character set. Special characters and formatting have been normalized. Copyright Notice Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the American National Biography of the Day and Sample Biographies provided that the following statement is preserved on all copies: From American National Biography, published by Oxford University Press, Inc., copyright 2000 American Council of Learned Societies. Further information is available at http://www.anb.org. 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