{{short description|American actress}}
{{Infobox person | name = Kay Laurell | image = Kay_Laurel,_prior_to_1927.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Kay Laurell prior to 1927 | birth_name = Ruth Leslie | birth_date = {{birth date|1890|06|28}} | birth_place = Erie, Pennsylvania, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1927|01|31|1890|06|28}} | death_place = London, UK | resting_place = London<ref>{{cite news|title=Kay Laurel to Be Buried in London|date=February 3, 1927|work=The New York Times}}</ref> | occupation = Actress, model, stage performer | years_active = 1914–1927 | spouse = {{marriage|Winfield Sheehan|1916|1917|end=separated}} | partner = Joseph Whiteside Boyle | children = 1 }}
'''Kay Laurell''' (born '''Ruth Leslie'''; June 28, 1890<ref name=will>{{cite book|last=Rogers|first=Will|editor=Wertheim, Arthur Frank |editor1-link=Arthur Frank Wertheim|title=Will Rogers: At the Ziegfeld Follies|year=1992|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=0-806-12357-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/willrogersatzieg00roge_0/page/247 247]|url=https://archive.org/details/willrogersatzieg00roge_0/page/247}}</ref><ref name=new>{{cite book|title=The New International Year Book|year=1928|publisher=Dodd, Mead and Company|page=570}}</ref> – January 31, 1927) was an American stage and silent film actress and model.
Laurell began her career as an artists' model. After catching the eye of Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., she was cast in the ''Ziegfeld Follies'', where she debuted in 1914. A popular performer who was noted for her beauty, she was called "one of the most beautiful women on the stage". In 1918, Laurell left the ''Follies'' to embark on an acting career. She appeared in stage productions on Broadway and in vaudeville and made three silent films. In the 1920s, she moved to Europe, where she continued her stage career. She died during childbirth at the age of 36 in London.
==Early life== Laurell was born Ruth Leslie in 1890<ref name=will /><ref name=new /> (some sources state 1894) in Erie, Pennsylvania.<ref>{{cite book|last=Vazzana|first=Eugene Michael |title=Silent Film Necrology|edition=2|year=2002|publisher=McFarland|isbn=0-786-41059-0|page=303}}</ref><ref name="miami">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=6CsuAAAAIBAJ&pg=2515,790134&dq=kay+laurell+pennsylvania&hl=en|title=The Frugal Follies Girl's Fortune for her Love-Child|date=November 30, 1930|work=The Miami News|access-date=November 24, 2012}}{{Dead link|date=September 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref> She left Erie at the age of 16 to pursue a career in show business in New York City. She initially found work as a telephone operator before she was hired as an artists' model. During her stint as a model, she posed for artists and illustrators, including Howard Chandler Christy and William Glackens. During this time, she changed her name from Ruth Leslie to Kay Laurell.<ref name="miami" />
In 1914, Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., saw Laurell while she was appearing in a tableau staged at the annual Illustrators' Ball. Ziegfeld was impressed by Laurell's appearance and offered her a spot in the ''Ziegfeld Follies''.<ref name="miami" />
==Career==
===''Ziegfeld Follies''=== Laurell made her stage debut in the ''Ziegfeld Follies of 1914''. The following year, she caused a sensation when she appeared in the opening scene of the 1915 ''Follies'' as a semi-nude Aphrodite. The scene was designed by Joseph Urban and featured an elaborate set with a pool surrounded by greenery. Laurell rose out of the water, flanked by two golden elephants with raised trunks from which water poured.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Adams|first1=Katherine H. |last2=Keene|first2=Michael L. |last3=Campbell Koella|first3=Jennifer |title=Seeing the American Woman, 1880–1920: The Social Impact of the Visual Media Explosion|year=2011|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-786-46661-0|page=75}}</ref> According to Doris Eaton Travis's 2003 autobiography ''The Days We Danced'', Laurell became known for "naked-above-the-waist poses". At that time, performers were permitted to appear nude onstage as long as they did not move. This loophole in the law inspired stage producers and set designers to come up with more inventive and elaborate ways to feature nudity in their shows. Eaton Travis later recalled, "The story was that Ziegfeld asked for a volunteer to be naked above the waist, and Kay Laurell was the first to consent. Hers became the most revealed breasts on Broadway in that era."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Eaton Travis|first1=Doris|last2=Eaton|first2=Charles|last3=Morris|first3=John Randolf|others=Eaton, Joseph|title=The Days We Danced: The Story of My Theatrical Family from Florenz Ziegfeld to Arthur Murray and Beyond|year=2003|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=0-806-19950-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/dayswedancedstor00trav/page/62 62]|url=https://archive.org/details/dayswedancedstor00trav/page/62}}</ref> During this time, Laurell's popularity grew, and she was often noted for her physical beauty and "perfect" figure.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=EP19160916.2.85|title=The Picture World|date=September 16, 1916|work=Evening Post|page=11|access-date=November 24, 2012}}</ref> She was referred to as "one of the most beautiful women on the stage" and "the prettiest chorus girl on Broadway."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=MBcOAAAAIBAJ&pg=1640,261194&dq=kay+laurell+stage&hl=en|title=Here's A Prize Beauty From Top To Toe|date=February 8, 1924|work=The Evening Independent|page=10B|access-date=November 24, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=pSRhAAAAIBAJ&pg=1138,4641000&dq=kay+laurell+prettiest&hl=en|title=Do Actresses Make Good Wives?|date=February 9, 1919|work=Evening Tribune|access-date=November 24, 2012}}</ref> Florenz Ziegfeld stated that Laurell was the embodiment of feminine beauty.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rodgers|first=Marion Elizabeth|title=Mencken:The American Iconoclast|year=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0-195-07238-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/menckenamericani00rodg/page/593 593]|url=https://archive.org/details/menckenamericani00rodg/page/593}}</ref>
In May 1916, Laurell married Winfield Sheehan, the former secretary to Rhinelander Waldo, in London. Shortly after the marriage, Laurell retired from the stage.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ssNcAAAAIBAJ&pg=1592,1334239&dq=kay+laurell+beauty&hl=en|title=The Battle for the Beauties|date=September 10, 1916|work=Evening Tribune|access-date=November 24, 2012}}</ref> In July 1917, she filed for legal separation from Sheehan, citing "cruelty".<ref name="youngstown">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=cCpKAAAAIBAJ&pg=2372,2326181&dq=kay+laurell+divorce&hl=en|title=Kay Laurell Seeks Divorce|date=July 14, 1917|work=Youngstown Vindicator|page=8B|access-date=November 24, 2012}}</ref>
thumb|upright|Laurell as "The Spirit of the Allies" in the ''Ziegfeld Follies of 1918''
After separating from Sheehan, Laurell resumed her career and returned to the ''Follies'' in June 1918. She was again featured in the opening scene, this time posing as "The Spirit of the Allies" atop a lighted, spinning globe. Because World War I was still on, the globe showed Europe in flames. One of the more memorable tableau scenes of that year's ''Follies'' featured patriotic and war imagery designed by Ben Ali Haggin. Social historian Allen Churchill later described the scene: "Actors in battle dress stood frozen in the act of tossing grenades, bayoneting cringing Huns... Follies Girls as Red Cross nurses, waifs in war-torn undress and goddess of war. Dominating the vivid scene was Miss Kay Laurell representing the Spirit of the Allies, her costume in enough disarray to expose one...breast." While the ''Follies'' typically featured light-hearted themes, audiences enjoyed the war themed scene of the 1918 ''Follies''. The show ran until the Armistice with Germany in November 1918.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bush Jones|first=John |title=Our Musicals, Ourselves: A Social History of the American Musical Theater|year=2003|publisher=UPNE|isbn=0-874-51904-7|page=41}}</ref>
thumb|Laurell in 1915
===Stage and films=== Like many other Ziegfeld girls, Laurell attempted to parlay the success she found in the ''Follies'' into an acting career. In 1919, she made her film debut in ''The Brand'', opposite Russell Simpson. Later that same year, she played a supporting role in ''The Valley of the Giants'', starring Wallace Reid.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=crViAAAAIBAJ&pg=915,6541710&dq=kay+laurell+valley+of+the+giants&hl=en|title=Kay Laurell With Reid|date=April 10, 1919|work=Providence News|access-date=November 24, 2012}}</ref> Laurell received positive reviews for her acting but would make only one more silent film, ''Lonely Heart'', in 1921.
Laurell focused mainly on stage work for the remainder of her career. In 1922, she joined the production of ''Ladies Night''. She remained with the play for a season before headlining the vaudeville circuit with stock companies in Yonkers and Washington.<ref>{{cite book|title=Theatre Magazine, Volumes 35-36|year=1922|publisher=Theatre Magazine Company|page=322}}</ref> In December 1924, she joined the cast of ''Quarantine''. The play ran for a total of 151 performances at Henry Miller's Theatre through April 1925.<ref>{{IBDB title|id=9361|title=Quarantine}}</ref> Laurell then co-starred in ''Nocture'', which premiered at the Punch and Judy Theatre in New York City on February 16, 1925. The play ran for three performances before closing later that month.<ref>{{IBDB title|id=9651|title=Nocture}}</ref>
She later moved to Europe, where she found work in a French stock company in Paris. Laurell then moved to London. By this period, her career began to decline, and her roles were no longer reported in theater trades.<ref name="miami" />
==Personal life== In May 1916, Laurell married Winfield Sheehan. The couple separated in July 1917 but never divorced.<ref name="pittsburg">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=jr4cAAAAIBAJ&pg=1348,4859392&dq=kay+laurell&hl=en|title=Son Survives Follies Beauty|date=October 3, 1930|work=The Pittsburgh Press|page=48|access-date=November 24, 2012}}</ref> Sheehan later became the general manager and vice president at 20th Century Fox.<ref name=painsville>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=TMVZAAAAIBAJ&pg=2790,3507927&dq=kay+laurell+death&hl=en|title=Kay Laurell Is Taken By Death|date=February 22, 1927|work=Painesville Telegraph|access-date=November 24, 2012}}</ref>
While separated from Sheehan, Laurell began a relationship with Joseph Whiteside Boyle, a businessman and the son of Klondike Joe Boyle. The couple planned to marry after both obtained divorces from their respective spouses. In 1926, Laurell became pregnant.<ref name="pittsburg" /><ref name="yonkers">{{cite news|url=https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:haUnzJMyGBIJ:fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%252018/Yonkers%2520NY%2520Statesman/Yonkers%2520NY%2520Statesman%25201931/Yonkers%2520NY%2520Statesman%25201931%2520-%25200108.pdf+&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgVWtAXmuc9Kvw6CtO0DUNu4b-4y-wO4HUwATOYw4uruWLBlcQ8qKWJlpAlBlSCpDct-7kQP5mUJJKfLgqtFJmwZoCF_jfH5lSZ0hcvOGgjVISAEv7_SpTGEkjpsLg6XGJTV2ru&sig=AHIEtbRxElGL0qGoPZR-DAyZxo9HJuy_XA|title=Young Son Claims Estate Of Former Yonkers Beauty|date=January 8, 1931|work=The Yonkers Statesman|page=15|access-date=November 24, 2012}}</ref>
==Death== On January 31, 1927, Laurell died in London at the age of 36. Laurell's death was initially attributed to pneumonia. She was cremated and her ashes were buried in London.<ref>{{cite news|title=Kay Laurell Dead. Ex-'Follies' Star. Victim of Pneumonia in London. Recently in Comedies and Moving Pictures |url= http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40810F83C5F17738DDDAB0894DA405B878EF1D3|newspaper=New York Times |date=February 2, 1927|access-date=September 11, 2012}}</ref> In 1930, the press discovered that Laurell actually died while giving birth to her only child.<ref name="pittsburg" /><ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HXAbAAAAIBAJ&pg=6219,1923224&dq=kay+laurell+follies&hl=en|title=Death of Helen Walsh Seventh 'Follies' Tragedy|date=July 30, 1931|work=The Pittsburgh Press|page=31|access-date=November 24, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=aKNRAAAAIBAJ&pg=1729,305063&dq=kay+laurell+follies&hl=en|title=Former Follies Beauty Left Rich Estate|date=October 30, 1930|work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|page=26|access-date=November 24, 2012}}</ref> The child, a boy named Joseph K. Boyle, survived.<ref name="pittsburg" /><ref name="yonkers" />
===Estate=== Before her death, Laurell drew up a will leaving her property and personal effects to Joseph Whiteside Boyle (who was presumed to be the child's father) and named him the executor of her estate. Laurell left her $100,000 estate to Boyle because she was unaware that her son, who was born out of wedlock, could legally inherit her assets. However, one month before Laurell's death, the Legitimacy Act 1926 was passed in England, which allowed her son to inherit her assets. A similar law in New York (where Laurell also had bank accounts and property) also allowed her son to inherit his mother's estate.<ref name="miami" /><ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=K7wVAAAAIBAJ&pg=3127,331870&dq=kay+laurell+follies&hl=en|title=Actress Left $100,000|date=October 3, 1930|work=The Milwaukee Sentinel|access-date=November 24, 2012}}{{Dead link|date=September 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref>
Concerned for the child's welfare, Laurell's brother Raleigh J. Leslie, sought a letter of administration for her estate, naming Joseph K. as her next of kin.<ref name="pittsburg" /> He later dropped the matter after discovering that the boy's father, Joseph Whiteside Boyle, had been caring for the child since birth and had no plans to claim Laurell's estate.<ref name="miami" /><ref name="yonkers" /> One month after Laurell's death, her mother, Mrs. A. A. Leslie, died in Erie, Pennsylvania. Laurell's mother was never told of her daughter's death as she was dying at the time. Upon Mrs. Leslie's death, she left her Erie, Pennsylvania, home and assets to Laurell; they were subsequently inherited by Laurell's son, who died in 1996.<ref name="miami" /><ref name=painsville />
==Stage career== {| class="wikitable sortable" |- ! Date ! Production ! Role |- | June 1 – September 5, 1914 | ''Ziegfeld Follies of 1914'' | Performer |- | June 21 – September 13, 1915 | ''Ziegfeld Follies of 1915'' | Performer |- | June 18, 1918 – date unknown | ''Ziegfeld Follies of 1918'' | Performer |- | December 16, 1924 – April 27, 1925 | ''Quarantine'' | Pamela Josephs |- | February 16, 1925 – February 1925 | ''Nocturne'' | Jenny Blanchard |- |}
==Filmography== {| class="wikitable sortable" |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |- | 1919 | ''The Brand'' | Alice Andrews | |- | 1919 | ''The Valley of the Giants'' | Moira McTavish | |- | 1921 | ''Lonely Heart'' | | (final film role) |- |}
==In popular culture== H.L. Mencken said Laurell possessed "all the arts of the really first-rate harlot" and was "the most successful practitioner of her trade of her generation in New York." He said, "Much of what I got from her, in fact, went into ''In Defense of Women''", his 1918 book.<ref>Marion Elizabeth Rodgers, ''Mencken: The American Iconoclast'', Oxford University Press, 2005, pages 241-2.</ref> Playwright Channing Pollock wrote, however, "Kay could have gone far if she had been willing to exchange her favors for advancement, but she didn't 'want to get ahead that way'."<ref>Channing Pollock, ''Harvest of My Years - An Autobiography'', page 356</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category}} * {{IBDB name}} * {{IMDb name|0491042}} *[https://www.flickr.com/photos/puzzlemaster/5418598334/in/set-72157605223652067 Kay Laurell's 1920 passport photo] at Flickr
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Laurell, Kay}} Category:1890 births Category:1927 deaths Category:20th-century American actresses Category:American artists' models Category:American expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:Female models from Pennsylvania Category:American silent film actresses Category:American stage actresses Category:Deaths in childbirth Category:Actresses from Erie, Pennsylvania Category:American vaudeville performers Category:Ziegfeld girls