Augusta Glosé
Augusta Glosé (June 2, 1877 – September 24, 1976), also seen as Augusta Glose, later Augusta Glose Leeds, was an American comedic actress and musical performer in vaudeville.
Early life[edit]
Augusta 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[edit]
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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[edit]
Glosé 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.