Beth Lydy ( 1896 – February 6, 1979), who also used the name Lyda Betti, was an American actress, operetta singer, writer, educator, and theatrical producer; she was the wife of violinist and broadcaster Eddy Brown.
Early life Lydy was born in Indiana and raised in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, where her father John W. Lydy worked as a government teacher on a Sioux reservation. She and her sister Ruth Lydy attended school in Frankfort, Indiana, and in Chicago.Burns Mantle, "What's What in the Theatre" Green Book Magazine (December 1916): 994-995.
Career Lydy's musical stage roles included Hilma in The Girl from Brazil (1916);"44nd Street: The Girl from Brazil" Theatre Magazine (October 1916): 204b. Marlene in Her Soldier Boy (1916-1917), a wartime romance;William A. Everett, Sigmund Romberg (Yale University Press 2008): 87-89. and the title role in The Rainbow Girl (1918)."New Amsterdam: The Rainbow Girl" Theatre Magazine (May 1918): 316.Louis Achilles Hirsch, The Rainbow Girl (M. Witmark & Sons 1917). During World War I Lydy performed in a vaudeville show in Greenwich, Connecticut put on by Stage Women's War Relief."For Stage Women's War Relief" New York Times (August 7, 1917): 7. She also contributed a recipe for "Deviled Crabs" to a 1916 celebrity cookbook that raised funds for the Red Cross.Beth Lydy, "Deviled Crabs" in Mabel Rowland, Celebrated Actor Folks' Cookeries (Mabel Rowland 1916): 194.
In the 1930s, Lydy wrote radio scripts for WOR, the New York radio station where her husband was musical director. The pair also produced summer musical programming in Connecticut between the World Wars.John Anthony Maltese. "Eddy Brown" American National Biography Online (January 2002 update). After World War II, she and Eddy Brown established the Accademia Internazionale di Bel Canto in Bordighera, Italy.Obituary, Jewish Post (February 16, 1979): 16.
In 1956, they accepted a joint position at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, as artistic coordinators and master teachers.Susan Lennis, "Eddy and Lyda Betti Brown: Keeping Alive Musical Tradition" Indianapolis Star Magazine (February 27, 1972): 24-31.
Personal life Lydy married violinist Eddy Brown as his second wife in 1926, in Riverside, California."Eddy Brown Weds Miss Beth Lydy" New York Times (September 23, 1926): 22. She was widowed when Eddy Brown died in 1974."Eddy Brown, Violinist, 78, Dies; Prodigy Made Disks in 1920s" New York Times (June 18, 1974): 42. Lydy Brown died in 1979, in Peru, Indiana. She was about 83 years old.
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