Ida St. Leon (16 January 1894 – 8 July 1961) was an Australian circus performer and actress.
Early life Ida Jeannie Jones was born in Sydney, Australia, though some publicity suggested she was born in China."Circus Girl to be a Star" New York Times (7 June 1909). Her parents were Alfred St. Leon and Vernon Ida St. Leon"Circus in Australia – A way of life for 70 years, 1847–1917" About Australia. of the "Famous St. Leon Family of European Acrobats".Program , Polly of the Circus (1908), in the Chicago Public Library, Chicago Theatre Collection. As her parents' work suggests, the younger Ida and her siblings were working as circus performers from an early age."Queen in Sawdust Ring Now is Stage Favorite" Los Angeles Herald (7 January 1911): 29. via California Digital Newspaper Collection When Ida was thirteen, the family were on Broadway, in Margaret Mayo's show Polly of the Circus (1907);George Jean Nathan, "Through a Star to Stardom" The Burr McIntosh Monthly (September 1909): 12-16. Ida St. Leon took over the lead role from Mabel Taliaferro in 1909,"Miss Ida St. Leon, The Youngest Leading Woman" The Bega Budget (6 November 1909): 3. via Trove and toured with the show for a few years after that.Cover illustration, Town Talk (10 December 1910): 1.
Career Stage credits for Ida St. Leon included Finishing Fanny (1912),"Theatrical: Ida St. Leon in Finishing Fanny" Greenville News (15 December 1912): 17. via Newspapers.com Our Children (1913), Help Wanted (1914),"Tells How She Bounced from Circus to Legitimate Stage" New York Herald (15 February 1920): 42. via Newspapers.com Little Women (1914),"'Little Women' Best Play" Tacoma Times (13 February 1914): 7. via Newspapers.com Upstairs and Down (1916), Rachel Barton Butler's Mamma's Affair (1917),Burns Mantle, "Ladies First" Green Book Magazine (April 1920): 65.Thomas S. Hischak, Broadway Plays and Musicals (McFarland 2012): 281. The Wheel (1921),Gerald Bordman, American Theatre: A Chronicle of Comedy and Drama 1914-1930 (Oxford University Press 1995): 155. and Lightnin (1923)."'Lightnin' at Germania Sunday" Freeport Journal-Standard (24 March 1923): 7. via Newspapers.com
Of her work in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1916), one unimpressed Los Angeles critic wrote that "Ida St. Leon drawls out her snippy lines in that nasal twang described as 'cute.'"Edwin Arthur Hunt, "Our 'Respectable' Actors" Out West Magazine (July 1916): 34. Photographers considered her photograph a "bestseller" in 1913."Her Face, Her Fortune" San Francisco Call and Post (24 December 1913): 4. via Newspapers.com
Personal life Ida St. Leon's engagement to businessman Leo Maurice Rosenberg was announced in 1916."Love God Tempts Star from Path of Stage Success" Oakland Tribune (14 August 1916): 14. via Newspapers.com The Rosenbergs had a son, Leo in 1917, were "estranged" from 1918 to 1920, then reunited."Home and Baby Son Lure Actress from Stage" San Bernardino County Sun (15 August 1920): 5. via Newspapers.com She was named a co-respondent in the divorce of Eugenia and George McIntyre, with accusations that Ida St. Leon was being "overfriendly" with the husband, and accepting significant gifts of cash from him."Abandoned Wife Accuses Actress" Washington Times (4 May 1920): 1. via Newspapers.com
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