Augusta Glosé (June 2, 1877 – September 24, 1976), also known as Augusta Glose, later Augusta Glose Leeds, was an American comedic actress and musical performer in vaudeville.
Early life
editAugusta Linda Glose was born in Philadelphia,Pennsylvania,[1] the daughter of musician, vocal coach, and composer Adolph Frederic Glose, who was also her piano teacher. Her mother, Linda Weisgerber Glose, was a soprano. When she was 12, Augusta met Helena Modjeska and was inspired to pursue a career on the stage.[2]
Career
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Glosé appeared on Broadway twice, in William Gillette's Because She Loved Him So (1899) and in The Liberty Belles (1901-1902).[3] She also played duets with her father in concert, for a time.[4] In 1903 she performed at a benefit concert for the New York Home for Destitute Crippled Children.[5]
She developed a novelty vaudeville act, a "pianologue", that involved telling jokes and stories while playing a piano.[6] (Another American woman performing pianologues in the same period was Cora Folsom Salisbury. Journalist Kate Field also worked in this format for a time, after rehearsing with Adolph Glose.[7]) "I really like this vaudeville work," she assured an interviewer in 1904. "Audiences are kind, and I think they rather like my daring."[2]
She announced a retirement from the stage when she married in 1907, but soon resumed her performances.[8][9] In 1918 she joined Stage Women's War Relief to present a canteen entertainment for soldiers and sailors in New York City.[10]
Personal life
editGlosé became the second wife of Kansas City businessman Charles Starr Leeds in 1907.[11] They had a daughter, Linda Augusta Leeds (1912-1988). Augusta Glose was widowed when Charles S. Leeds died in 1939,[12] the same year her father died.[13] Augusta Glose Leeds died in 1976, aged 99 years.[14]
The future Princess Anastasia of Greece and Denmark was briefly (from 1907 to 1908) Glosé's sister-in-law, when they were both married to brothers (Charles S. Leeds and William B. Leeds).[15] In widowhood Nancy Leeds opposed Augusta Glosé's stage career, believing it threatened the Leeds family's social respectability.[16]
References
edit- ^ Dixie Hines, Harry Prescott Hanaford, eds., Who's who in Music and Drama (H. P. Hanaford 1914): 137.
- ^ a b Lucile Vivien Pierce, "How Madame Modjeska Inspired Augusta Glose, the Dainty Actress" Los Angeles Herald (December 11, 1904): 6. via California Digital Newspapers Collection
- ^ Augusta Glose's listing at IBDB.
- ^ "The Musical World" Peterson Magazine (November 1897): 1124.
- ^ "Concert for Charity" New York Times (November 13, 1903): 9.
- ^ "Augusta Glose Delights Audiences With Musical Monologue" San Francisco Call (November 1, 1906): 5. via California Digital Newspapers Collection
- ^ Gary Scharnhorst, Kate Field: The Many Lives of a Nineteenth-century American Journalist (Syracuse University Press 2008): 138-139. ISBN 9780815608745
- ^ "Good for Vaudeville!" New York Star (November 21, 1908): 23.
- ^ "Augusta Glosé's Return" New York Star (December 19, 1908): 16.
- ^ "Stage Aids Soldiers" New York Times (February 25, 1918): 6.
- ^ "Augusta Glose Weds a Westerner" New York Times (April 8, 1907).
- ^ "Charles S. Leeds, Financier, was 80" New York Times (June 5, 1939): 21.
- ^ Adolph Glose, 85, Retired Pianist" New York Times (October 12, 1939): 33.
- ^ "Augusta G. Leeds" New York Times (September 26, 1976): 39.
- ^ "Two Mrs. Leeds in a Row Over Stage" Inter Ocean (August 15, 1909): 8. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "New York's 'Four Hundred' May Ostracize Popular Actress" Pittsburgh Press (November 28, 1909): 11. via Newspapers.com
External links
edit
- Augusta Glose's listing at IBDB.
- A 1909 photograph of Augusta Glosé in the American Vaudeville Museum Archive, University of Arizona.