Mary Eaton was an American stage actress, singer, and dancer in the 1910s and 1920s, probably best known today from her appearance in the first Marx Brothers filmThe Cocoanuts. A professional performer since childhood, she enjoyed success in stage productions such as the Ziegfeld Follies. She appeared in another early sound film Glorifying the American Girl. Her career declined sharply by the mid-1930s and a battle with alcoholism led to her premature death in 1948 from liver failure.
Biography
Early life and career
Eaton, a native of Norfolk, Virginia, began attending dance lessons in Washington, DC, along with her sisters Doris and Pearl, at the age of seven. In 1911, all three sisters were hired for a production of Maurice Maeterlinck's fantasy playThe Blue Bird at the Shubert Belasco Theatre in Washington, D.C. While Eaton had a minor role in the show, it marked the beginning of her career in professional theatre. After The Blue Bird ended, in 1912, the three Eaton sisters and their younger brother Joe began appearing in various plays and melodramas for the Poli stock company. They quickly gained reputations as professional, reliable, and versatile actors, and were rarely out of work. A 1914 newspaper article described Mary Eaton as "the newest and littlest member of the company", adding that she had "admirable poise and grace." In 1915, all three sisters appeared in a new production of The Blue Bird for Poli; Doris and Mary were given the starring roles of Mytyl and Tytyl. The siblings then were invited to reprise their roles for a New York and road tour of the play, produced by the Shubert Brothers. When the show closed, on the recommendation of the Shuberts, Mary began studying ballet in earnest with Theodore Kosloff.
Professional theatre
Of all of the Eatons, Mary was perhaps the more famous and the more popular. An exceptionally talented dancer, she earned raves in a production of Intime in Washington, DC in 1917. In 1916, she made her Broadway debut, dancing a ballet specialty in Follow Me. The next year, she performed in the Shubert Brothers' Over the Top with Fred and Adele Astaire. Throughout the 1920s, Eaton was a constant presence on Broadway, appearing in eight different productions. She was featured in three editions of the Ziegfeld Follies, those of 1920, 1921, and 1922. Eaton's trademark dance routine, which she performed in the Follies, involved a complicated sequence of pirouettes around the stage en pointe.
Film career
Eaton also had a brief film career, appearing in two important early sound movies that were filmed in New York. She was the ingenue in The Cocoanuts with the Marx Brothers. Glorifying the American Girl, which included a brief Technicolor sequence, was produced by Flo Ziegfeld and included a cast of stage notables. Eaton's singing and dancing routines, including her signature pirouette sequence, were featured. The film's commercial failure, however, signaled the end of Eaton's starring career in sound movies. Her speaking voice on film was a carefully affected, high-pitched twitter that enunciated dialogue carefully, probably a remnant of her stage training. Her actual speaking voice, without the affectation and in a lower, more realistic range, can be heard briefly in Glorifying the American Girl.
Personal life
Many of the Eaton siblings, including Mary, found their careers waning in the early 1930s. She made her final stage appearance in 1932. Beset by career woes and three consecutive difficult marriages, Eaton struggled with alcoholism. Although her siblings tried to intervene on numerous occasions, and she entered rehabilitation programs several times, she was unable to overcome her alcohol addiction. Eaton married Millard Webbin the summer of 1929. At the time of her death she was married to actor Eddie Laughton. Eaton died at age 47 in Hollywood, California. She was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles alongside other members of the Eaton family.
