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Beryl Wallace Profile

Beryl Wallace
Beryl Wallace
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(Beryl Heischuber)
09 / 11 is born in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, New York. Beryl is the oldest of nine children of Austrian immigrants Harry and Fanny Heischuber. She has four brothers:Sidney, Morty, Allie and Mickey; her sisters are Pearl, Mari, Milli, and Rosalind. A close-knit Jewish family, Beryl helps with their support her entire life.
Mr. Heischuber works as a waiter. His employer is so impressed with him that he offers to help him establish his own restaurant. Unfortunately, Beryl's father does not have time to learn much English, and the language barrier prevents what would have been a great boon to the large family.
is a beautiful and outgoing child with brown eyes and wavy brown hair and is a fair student, showing more interest in singing and dancing than academics. She harbors dreams of being a stage star and, with money earned from babysitting, attends as many stage shows and movies as possible. In her spare time, she fills scrapbooks with photos of movie stars and listens to radio programs.
November 24 tunes in one evening to the late-night radio talk show on WHN. Hosted by Nils T. Granlund, his guest is Broadway impresario Earl Carroll, known for his lavish musical revues and beautiful showgirls. Beryl is utterly fascinated by Carroll's voice, develops an instant rapport for him, and starts dreaming of one day becoming an Earl Carroll girl.
a few days later, she becomes angry when reading that Carroll is in hot water over the broadcast. Supposedly, he was given permission to talk only about his new stage show, not to put out a call for prospective chorus girls. The American Radio Association and some of the public launch protest against WHN and Earl Carroll, going so far as to ask Congress to pass legislation regulating radio broadcasting. Carroll was accused by some as being a "seducer" of young girls.
sees her first photo of Carroll in Brooklyn's Eagle newspaper. She cuts out the photo and places it in her scrapbook next to that of Rudolph Valentino.
December 25 ever in pursuit of publicity, Earl Carroll hires his own Santa to distribute toys and food from the bandstand in New York's Central Park to needy children. Carroll, an experienced World War I pilot, will fly the plane himself. Beryl is in the crowd and gets her first glimpse of the man who will play such an important part in her life.
28 a casting call is placed in the daily newspapers for Earl Carroll's 1928 Vanities. More than 2,000 girls show up. One of the first chosen is Beryl; she will star in all of Carroll's future shows. He changes her last name to "Wallace." Lillian Roth and W. C. Fields star in this year's revue.
28-48 Earl Carroll, a notorious womanizer, tries to pass off a fatherly image to other girls when Beryl is around. Although not faithful to her, the once-married but never-divorced Carroll keeps a very special place in his heart for Beryl. He considers his unhappy marriage a blessing in disguise. "She's my protection," he says of his wife. There was no chance of other girls hooking him as long as he remained married.
23 September 29 is on stage opening night in Earl Carroll's Sketch Book at the New Amsterdam Theater. Jack Benny makes his Broadway debut in the show. Considered risqué for the day, the show is raided by police on the afternoon of the first matinee. There is grumbling from some of the clergy and press that Carroll has gone too far this time. Three police sedans with twelve patrolmen drive up to the West 41st Street entrance. A crowd of 1,500 gathers outside the theater. Seven warrants are served, but not until the show is over. A jury later finds the seven defendants not guilty.
30 stars in Earl Carroll's New Vanities, which runs for 215 performances and plays to packed houses.
26 July 30 just keep on your toes—and be good skates! That’s a hot weather hint from her and four other dancers in a Broadway show as they are photographed for newspapers, having taken up hockey on an indoor ice rink for a scene in the show.
12 March 31 is “Miss September” in a calendar that Earl Carroll distributes to advertise a group of his girls. Each page bears a photo of an Earl Carroll beauty, accompanied by a description of her. The color pictures have the usual calendar prettiness, but the descriptions are word pictures such as we can never hope to paint. Her entry reads: “A Vital, Volcanic Venus. Eighteen until the 29th of this month. A Magnificent Gesture of the Mysterious Sculptor. In her eyes the spell of a sleepy moonlight. In her voice the soft tones of a velvet flute. In her soul the throb of some wild thing—and on her lips a crimson crash of never-to-be-forgotten melodies. Oh, the swoon of it!”
27 August 31 stars in the ninth edition of Vanities, which begins playing at the new Earl Carroll Theater. Due to the Depression, it runs only a little over six months.
11 February 32 Walter Winchell writes, "that Beryl Wallace girl is much prettier since shelving that tonnage…Why did she get stout?…so she remarked that when a girl appears in a show with so many well-rounded ladies, she doesn’t look too heavy…That’s no reason, at all…I mean, that’s no reason for anyone who has charm to bulge over and out and etceteras..."
18 February 32 resides in a cottage in a suburb outside New York City and commutes to Broadway each day
32 stars in this year's Vanities, which runs 87 performances. Also in the international revue are Milton Berle, Helen Broderick, Robert Cummings and Patsy Kelly. The critics are not kind with their reviews.
3 May 32 while in Paris, she takes in an evening at the Lido Club with Earl Carroll and Leon Garfield, former Stanford University football player, who is currently dancing at the Lido under the name of Gary Leon. During this particular evening, Mickey Devine, a Broadway showgirl, meets man-eating heavyweight boxer Primo Carnera. Miss Devine jokingly taps Carnera on the nose, but her diamond ring hurts him. “This is no joke,” the big boxer growls. Devine then gives him a second, heavy punch. The management finally separates the two battlers, declaring the brawl was just in fun. Carnera rubs his smarting face, and the incident is closed, furnishing the boulevards with an amusing topic of conversation.
6 December 32 writes an article for the newspapers that is entitled “My Beauty Hint.” She tells us that: “Careful study will tell you that perfumes should never level or distort one’s personality. When selecting perfumes, remember—they should give a true projection of your real self, achieving full fragrance after they have touched one’s skin. The time and place, too, should be considered, for there are moments when a faint, subtle perfume is the most effective.
13 February 33 O. O. McIntyre writes in his "New York Day by Day" column, "Diary of a modern Pepys: Lay late, and came a despairing note from the clown. Bluch Landorf, about the plight of many of the circus folk. So, a goodish breakfast of cakes made from Ted Woodyard’s water-ground buckwheat. And Earl Carroll and Beryl Wallace, out for a stroll, dropped in a moment..."
22 February 33 advertises for Danderine—the one-minute hair beautifier. Get it in all drug stores—only 35 cents!
26 May 33 appears in newspapers across the country modeling a charming dress of mossy crepe drawn work for spectator sports wear. Muslin details and a crystal buckle are the trimmings.
33 stars in Murder at the Vanities, which debuts at the New Amsterdam Theater. Bela Lugosi is in the cast.
February 34 Earl Carroll sells screen rights for Murder at the Vanities to Paramount. Earl, Beryl, and ten of his most beautiful showgirls are bound for Hollywood on a special railroad car and gather publicity along the way. Beryl's screen career will last until 1944.
4 March 34 about three years ago she and J. P. McEvoy lived in the same New York apartment house. They saw each other almost every day but never did once speak. The other day when they met at the Paramount studio, their whoops could be heard all over the lot.
25 January 35 Earl Carroll attends the races in Miami mostly with her, but there is a coterie of chorines in the offing--all of them shunning the sun. Max Baer is seen KO-ing a cocktail and posing with Ohio Governor George White.
2 February 35 the bathing suit styles that have found favor among Florida vacationers indicate that the beach censors will have their work cut out for them next summer. She is one of several harbingers of fashion modeling bathing suits at the Roney Plaza Cabana Sun Club in Miami. Her suit features net inserts down each side from shoulder to strap to hip.
June 35 stars in Earl Carroll's Sketch Book of 1935, which runs 8 months and is a straight revue.
5 August 35 during a terrible heat wave in New York, she smiles coolly and asks columnist Paul Harrison whether it’s hot enough for him. Gr-r-r!
8 August 35 Earl Carroll, big flesh-and-tune magnate, lives on the attention and applause of his shows. But the Earl himself can’t take it. He steps a rhumba with Beryl at a seaside casino, and all the other dancers leave the floor by plotted agreement. Carroll grows red and embarrassed in his spot-lighted solitude, quits right in the middle of a measure, and fleas—dragging her along.
14 September 35 columnist Paul Harrison pays her a compliment. He says that Earl Carroll should sue his tailor, “…he looks less like a Broadwayman than almost anyone I know. But the frequently glorified Beryl Wallace, usually to be seen with him of an evening, compensates for his lack of glamour.”
20 November 35 who are New York’s most beautiful women? Murray Korman, who has photographed more lovely-to-look-at women in the nearly-nude than any other cameraman names these: Beryl Wallace, Marion Martin, Hilda Knight, Elsi Rossi, Joan Mitchell, Mary Louise Harper, Maxine Martin, Drucilla Strain, Beth Feth, Mary Alice Moore, and June Knight.
30s, 40s counts among her many escorts Rudy Vallee, Conrad Nagel, and General Douglas MacArthur. MacArthur and Earl Carroll are close friends since World War I. Carroll and Beryl pay many visits to MacArthur when he is superintendent of West Point. They are also his guests at the yearly Army-Navy game. Even though her admirers are many, Beryl remains devoted and faithful to Carroll.
31 December 35 is hostess at Earl Carroll's New Year's Eve bash.
26 December 38 the Earl Carroll Theatre Restaurant opens. Carroll wanted to outdo Broadway by building the most modern theater in the country. It has the first double revolving stages, 90 feet in circumference. For a montage effect, there is also a floating stage. It is the first theater with fluorescent illumination on the ceiling. Reservations are mandatory. The main dining auditorium seats 1,000. The parking lot alone is an acre and a half. A lifetime cover charge of $1,000 allows patrons the privilege of a private, patent leather-padded room. At the entry, patrons pass under signage which proclaims: "THROUGH THESE PORTALS PASS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRLS IN THE WORLD." The show, Broadway to Hollywood, stars 60 beautiful and talented showgirls, headed by Beryl.
25 December 39 Christmas carols and Earl Carroll will become a motif for San Francisco’s holiday spirit when the famous Earl Carroll Vanities opens at the Geary in San Francisco tonight. Scheduled for a two-week run, this performance will mark the first time in theatrical history that San Francisco has scooped New York by previewing an Earl Carroll Vanities. Following it’s run at the Geary, the show will jump into New York City for an indefinite run.
10 March 40 travels to St. Louis with Earl Carroll’s Hollywood Vanities, which plays at the American Theatre there
25 May 40 Fidler in Hollywood asks if Earl Carroll, producer of pretty girl shows, is secretly wed Beryl Wallace, his prettiest
40 purchases a house at 6263 Leland Way, behind the dinner theatre, for her family.
8 October 40 was that Beryl Wallace, Earl Carroll’s heart-beat, with Conrad Nagel at the Bar of Music? It looked very much like her.
14 October 40 she and Conrad Nagel are a new twosome
9 November 40 if Shodoll Beryl Wallace isn’t Mrs. E. Carroll, whose wedding ring was she wearing when she and the producer dined at Monte Carlo the other eve?
4 March 41 ask Earl Carroll if Beryl got back her fur coat, stolen when they were playing a rival nite club the other eve
11 June 41 Earl Carroll switches from her to Lavonne Moyer
4 August 41 Tommy Harmon tripped a fine fantastic in the Michigan backfield, but seems to be doing even better at Earl Carroll’s nightclub in Hollywood, where he collected kisses backstage from the chorus beauties and responded with a dance with Beryl
7 November 41 appears in a newspaper promotion: ATTENTION MOVIE FANS—This week we are offering a free autographed photograph of Beryl Wallace, beautiful Earl Carroll star, soon to appear in Paramount’s Tombstone, to Fan Club members only. If you are not a member of the club and want the picture, accompany your letter with 5 cents to cover postage and handling. Wrote to Hollywood Today, Crossroads of the World, Hollywood, California, and be sure to mention this paper.
7 November 41 Jimmy Fidler writes that the Earl Carroll-Beryl Wallace romance (it’s flourished for years) is being iced
4 June 42 notwithstanding shortages, priorities, restrictions and war, the Associated Apparel Manufacturers of Los Angeles are continuing to indulge in their annual custom of selecting a California “Sweater Girl” and she’s it!
12 May 43 receives deep welts on her back when she is sent spinning into a drum in the orchestra pit during the filming of a raucous saloon fight scene for the movie The Kansan. Over 200 stuntmen and extras, supplemented by a corps of 35 stunt girls, were commandeered to film the battle royal between a notorious gang of outlaws and Richard Dix, the star of the movie. In no time at all, the set was a shambles, with men and women fighting from the balconies, roping from chandeliers, and shooting from the floor. Sixty-three cases of skinned knuckles, sprains, cuts, abrasions, contusions, and welts were treated on the set by an attending nurse. After the riot was over, it was found that veteran feature player Francis McDonald suffered a swollen jaw and a cracked rib when he was thrown off the bar by Dix.
1 April 44 during a noon luncheon date with Erskine Johnson, she yoo-hooed at a waiter: “And save me a piece of that banana cake!” The waiter nodded as if he’d already made a mental note of it. Not knowing her, Johnson was a bit startled. The cake was just a chaser. She already had ordered a shrimp cocktail, chicken potpie, and a salad. She explained: “I am always up by 9 o’clock in the morning. And I always eat a lot. I work it off. I drop 4 pounds in a two-hour ballet lesson. Why, do you know my schedule? I work at Carrolls from 8:30 to 2:00 a.m. every night. I do two 15-minute radio shows and one half-hour show. I dance with the boys at the Hollywood Canteen on Sunday afternoons. I take four dramatic lessons a week, a dancing lesson, a singing lesson, and a ballet lesson. And on Saturday nights between shows, I help entertain soldiers at the Masquers Club and then I work in pictures. Why, I practically know myself out.”
Johnson asks her if she doesn’t make enough money just parading around minus her clothes at Carrolls. “Yes, but I love to work. I don’t want to be a film star—some of the stars I know are very unhappy—I just want to be a good performer…What was that crack about parading around without any clothes?” “Wel-l-l,” he welled, “we had heard rumors." She replies, “That was last year. The Carroll girls are wearing more clothes than ever this season. It’s a new trend. Lots of clothes but lower cut with split skirts. Why, when I take a step in one dress I’ve got, they can see my whole leg. Say, that’s a lot more effective than nudity.”
44 about her upcoming role as Dr. Goebbels’s girlfriend in The Private Life of Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels she says, “It’s a pretty good part. Lots of drama, and that’s what I like.” She started out a couple of years ago in Westerns, “but I got tired of them. All I ever got to say was, ‘Oh, no, don’t take away our ranch.’”
44 Flossie Friedman is her dramatic coach, and she is practically a press agent for Flossie. “She’s the best coach in town. When I heard she taught Peter Lorre how to speak eight pages of dialog in English when he didn’t know any English at all, I knew she was the one to help me lose my Brooklyn accent.”
31 October 47 Earl Carroll makes his will and bequeaths half of his estate, estimated at more than one million dollars, to his "beloved friend" Beryl.
31 December 47 is hostess at Earl Carroll's last New Year's Eve party. As the hundreds of guests approach the house, they encounter signs on every tree which read, "Beware of the Thing," giving allusions to a particular prowess of the host. There are sights of nude girls swimming in a large pool surrounded by terraces and waterfalls. Errol Flynn is one of the last to leave when the party breaks up at 4:00 a.m.
at the party, Carroll is asked by magazine writer Jack Holland whom he considers the most beautiful girl he's ever seen. Carroll replies there are two, Dorothy Knapp and Beryl Wallace. He adds, "Beryl has something Dorothy never had - intelligence." Fortunately, Beryl is within hearing distance. She says that is perhaps the greatest compliment he's ever paid her; she never realized he thought of her in terms of intelligence.
Art Linkletter asks Beryl what Carroll gave her for Christmas. She is tickled to take a group upstairs to show them her prized gift, a mink toilet seat! When Ken Murray asks her what she gave Carroll, she jokingly replies, "A parking meter for his john!" Actually, she purchased a LeCoultres watch from Magnin's in Beverly Hills. Beryl was quite taken with the friendly saleslady. When Beryl mentions she would like the watch engraved, but not with the overused "I Love You," the saleslady suggests the words "Forever Yours." As she leaves the store, Beryl speaks to the store manager about the good service she received and asks the name of the saleslady. The manager is surprised Beryl doesn't know that the saleslady is Dorothy Knapp, Earl Carroll's former paramour. Beryl never mentions this to Carroll. She lets him continue to think that Knapp entered a convent in France after their breakup. "I wouldn't spoil his little dream story for anything in the world," she says.
c. 47 accompanies Earl Carroll on several trips to Japan to gather information for a documentary on the people of Nippon. While in Tokyo, they are guests of General Douglas MacArthur.
c. January 48 Earl Carroll adds a codicil to his will. It contains a clause indicating "accident or disaster," resulting in simultaneous deaths of Beryl and him. "It is my wish that after I and my beloved friend, Beryl Wallace, have departed this life, our remains shall be placed together in the final resting place which I have selected." In the event that the two of them die together, $50,000 of her inheritance is to be used for the memorial. The balance of her share is to be donated to the University of Southern California for the research of cancer in women. By this act, Carroll hopes to thank all of the women who gave him fame and fortune.
18 March 48 is now a star on Larry Finley’s late-night radio talk show
16 June 48 written warning goes out to all DC6 airplane crew warning them to wear oxygen masks during flights due to possible danger. These luxury airliners had been grounded for four months the previous winter after several mishaps caused by the seepage of carbon dioxide fumes into the pilot's cabin from fire extinguishers; these fumes adversely affected the flight crew's respiratory reactions. Unfortunately, the warning is not received by the crew of United Airlines flight 624 before departure.
departs for New York with Earl Carroll on United Airlines flight 624. After New York, they will fly to Philadelphia to attend the Republican convention. Earlier in the morning, Carroll received a phone call from Maxie Rosenbloom, who was scheduled to appear in Carroll's next show. Rosenbloom asks Earl if he and Beryl could stop in Detroit for a few hours to discuss the show and then go on to New York and Philadelphia. Earl asks Beryl for a coin from her purse and tells Rosenbloom, "We're tossing a coin Maxie. If it's heads, we stop in Detroit. If it's tails, we fly straight through to New York. It's spinning now-and it came up tails. So, we'll see you in Manhattan."
17 June 48 the flight is uneventful until approximately 1:40 p.m. near Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania. Captain George Warner, Jr., a twenty-year veteran, radios the CAA saying he is making an emergency descent. As is her usual practice, Captain Warner's wife listens to the conversation on a short-wave radio and hears her husband say, "I'm going down."
on banking, one wing strikes an electrical transformer that carries 60,000 volts to a colliery; this will stop the electric clock at the Midvalley Colliery at 1:40 p.m. and fix the time of impact. It is later determined that the entire flight crew was asphyxiated before impact from the fire extinguisher fumes. With all four engines running at high power, the plane runs into the steep rocky hillside surrounding the colliery. It barely misses a coal breaker where approximately 90 men are working. A horrified eyewitness said, "I turned and looked up and it looked like a big torch. I saw a mass of fire, explosions, plane wreckage and bodies hurling from the air. The whole scene looked like a living hell." A pilot in another plane nearby said, "The big silver plane was going so fast its momentum shot it half a mile up the mountainside, shooting flames 90 feet up."
George Bolich, Sr., 47, of Wilburton, Pennsylvania, was operating a mine locomotive with jack Bradley, of Catawissa, Pennsylvania, when he saw the plane coming in about 100 feet from the ground. “I sure was afraid when he winged over my head. After he hit, it was quiet except for the licking of flames. That was just about the worst thing I ever saw.”
scattered debris litters the hillside for 600 feet on each side of the crash. There are no survivors. Among the dead 39 passengers and 4 crew are two children; Henry L. Jackson, men's fashion editor of Collier's magazine; and Mrs. Venita Varden Oakie, former wife of actor Jack Oakie.
Beryl is thrown clear of the plane before impact, and her body is easily identified. Earl Carroll can only be identified through fingerprints.
found half-burned in the debris is Beryl's TV script from the show she appeared in the night before; eerily, the show was titled, "The Sky's the Limit." Earl Carroll's wallet, with $1,024 in cash, is also found.
all bodies are taken to the Joseph Stutz Funeral Home in Centralia, Pennsylvania. United says it will fly special planes for relatives to identify the bodies.
18 June 48 just before the curtain goes up at 9:15 for the first show, the entire company gathers in the wings, tears streaking down the cheeks of many of the chorus girls, as Master of Ceremonies Billy Rayes steps into the spotlight and says, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I am sure you are all aware of the great tragedy that has befallen us. In deepest respect to Mr. Carroll and Miss Wallace, tonight’s performance will go on with no changes because it was always Mr. Carroll’s express wish that no matter what happened, the show must go on. And now we present the Earl Carroll Vanities.” The near-capacity audience hears the announcement without demonstration or applause. Virginia Dew, Beryl’s stand-in, takes the stage.
28 June 48 funeral services for the two are held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale). Among the throng attending are luminaries such as Al Jolson, Lilian Roth, William Powell, Vincent Minelli, Robert Young, Jack Benny, and Milton Berle, as well as many of the famed Earl Carroll beauties.
two floral pieces, shaped like life-sized costumed showgirls, are among the many arrangements that adorn the bier.
Felix Slantkin plays "Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life" on the violin. The Reverend A. J. Soldan, pastor of the Village Church of Westwood, conducts the service. Fourteen years later, he will conduct services for another member of his congregation, Marilyn Monroe.
their ashes are entombed on a $6,000 parcel together with those of Earl Carroll's brother Jim
29 June 48 Walter Winchell says talk about coincidence—“The American Weekly front cover has Beryl Wallace on it (as Delilah, who died in flames), which is how poor Beryl perished in that burning wreckage last week”
3 July 48 her handwritten will is filed for probate giving her real name as Beatrice Heischuber. The will bequeaths everything to her mother, her four brothers and her four sisters. An attorney estimates she left an estate valued at $100,000.
6 July 48 in an article entitled "Looking At Life," an ailing Erich Brandeis recounts a long distance telephone call that he received yesterday from a close friend who learned of Brandeis’ illness through a newspaper article. His friend wanted to know how he was progressing and to wish him a speedy recovery. The lengthy conversation with his good friend must have cost close to $15. During the conversation, Brandeis asked his friend why he never wrote him a letter, not even once a year. His friend replied, "What is there to write about?" That reply stuck with Brandeis the rest of the day. Brandeis then picked up the newspaper, looked at the variety of stories in it, and can’t believe that people find "nothing to write about." Referring to articles in that paper, he writes: "…Nothing to write about?…Love, emotions, pinup girls, steaks, robots—one could write a whole book about these and other subjects…Nothing to write about?...In the Wednesday issue of the Citizen-News, there was a gay picture taken at Catalina Island. The caption was, ‘Grand Climax Reached in Catalina Clean-Up Week.’ The picture showed a beautiful girl in a scanty, little bathing suit, painting some sort of little beach shack. A fellow dressed in a flashy sports outfit was helping her. Both were laughing and having a wonderful time. Those two, according to the caption were Beryl Wallace and Earl Carroll. I took the next day’s—Thursday’s—paper out of its wrapper. On Page One there was another picture of Beryl Wallace and Earl Carroll. Above it in an eight-column headline: ‘Earl Carroll, 42 Others Killed in DC-6 Crash.’ NOTHING TO write about! Don’t be silly. Perhaps nothing personal, but about a thousand much more interesting things to write about. Now sit right down and write that letter to someone who is waiting for it!"
13 March 49 her mother, Mrs. Fannie Heischuber, 61, is found in her home in a coma and taken to Hollywood Receiving Hospital. Once stabilized, she is removed to a private hospital. Mrs. Pearl Blank/Blanc and Marilyn Wallace, her daughters, tell police their mother took too many pills by mistake; she had been ill for several months.
15 March 49 her mother dies in Los Angeles
13 April 49 in Los Angeles, the Superior Court grants her attorney, Leo Shapiro, permission to file a damage suit against United Airlines in the District Court of Pennsylvania. Shapiro says he will charge negligence in the operation of the airplane and seeks $1,020,000.
13 May 49 because several members of his family died of cancer, Earl Carroll provided in his will for a charity cancer research clinic, explains attorney Sam Wolf. But Carroll’s niece, Mrs. Patricia Carroll Peck, 20, of Baltimore, Maryland, claims the codicil providing for the bequest is invalid because it does not specify the clinic as a charity, as required by law, and challenges the will in a court battle. She was left $5,000 in the will. Wolf prepared the codicil and told the court that Beryl favored Carroll’s plans. Superior Judge William J. Palmer comments: “The law itself is in some state of confusion in reference to this important aspect.”
7 May 50 a federal court jury found United Airlines not to blame for the crash that killed Earl Carroll and others. By this verdict, the panel of six men and six women denied damages of $2,000,000 brought by Mrs. Jessie I. Schuyler, executrix of the Carroll estate. The jury reached its decision after some seven hours of deliberation last night, but the sealed verdict was not opened until court convened today. Counsel for the plaintiff indicated in advance that an appeal would be made if the verdict were unfavorable for his client. The plaintiff charged the airlines with negligence, alleging fire broke out aboard the plane before it struck a power line near a coal mine and shattered against a rocky hillside. It was claimed specifically the alleged fire was not fought properly in the air. It was theorized carbon dioxide in the fire-fighting systems aboard the plane overcame the pilots, thus causing the crash. Mrs. Schuyler, in her suit, said the 57-year-old Carroll had a life expectancy of 16 years at the time of his death and had he lived, he would have earned somewhat more than $2,000,00 during that time. Action brought against the airlines by the Wallace estate and some others is still pending.
27 April 51 Los Angeles Superior Judge John Gee Clark authorizes a $10,000 payment from Earl Carroll’s estate to start work on what is expected to be a $50,000 gravesite memorial. The statue, featuring a replica of Carroll’s hands holding a nearly life-sized figure of an undraped Beryl, is to be cast in bronze and to be raised over the marble sarcophagus that contains the bodies of the two. Special permission is granted by the city for the entire gravesite to be surrounded by winged nude forms of showgirls. “If he wanted to spend his money that way,” Clark says, “he had a right to, although in approving that I am wrestling with my conscience.”
8 February 52 her estate obtains court permission to settle its million-dollar suit against United Air Lines for $25,000. Sam Wolf, executor of her estate, filed the petition.
5 May 52 a life-sized statue of a nude woman, cast in bronze 37 years ago by Adolph Weinman, German sculptor, is placed over the tomb containing her ashes and those of Earl Carroll. Executors of the Earl Carroll estate purchased the statue, Winged Hope, for $50,000. On the wall behind the sculpture the following is inscribed: “In Life We Weep at the Thought of Death, Perhaps in Death We Weep at the Thought of Life.”
76 thanks to the Earl Carroll Memorial Clinic, women in poor and middle-class rural areas where hospital care is unavailable receive medical services.
Author: Cheryl Messina
Sources:
The Body Merchant by Ken Murray, The Lima Times Democrat, Frederick, Maryland's The News, Nevada State Journal, Ironwood Daily Globe, Indiana Evening Gazette, The Bismark Tribune, The Holland Evening Sentinel, The Coshocton Tribune, The Dothan Eagle, Fitchburg Sentinel, Middletown Times Herald, The Frederick Post, Council Bluffs Nonpareil, The Bridgeport Telegram, The Helena Independent, The Times Recorder, The Oakland Tribune, The Chronicle Telegram, The Lethbridge Herald, Long Beach Independent, The Daily Northwestern, The Lima News, Charleroi Mail, Berkshire Evening Eagle, Zanesville Signal, Monessen Daily Independent, The Mexia Weekly Herald, San Mateo Times, Sunday Times Signal, Syracuse Herald Journal, Port Arthur News, The Nebraska State Journal, Mansfield News Journal, Edwardsville Intelligencer
Recommended Books:
The Body Merchant by Ken Murray
Links:
Filmography