Amy Busby (January 19, 1872 – July 13, 1957) was an American actress.
Early life Amy Busby was born in Rochester, New York, the daughter of Thomas Mark Busby and Eliza Ann Bennett Busby.
Career Amy Busby went to New York City as a teenager, hoping for a career on the stage. Described as "a vastly pretty woman","Our Gallery of Players CXLV: Amy Busby" The Illustrated American (October 20, 1894): 506. she was a protegee of actress Helen Barry for a time, and later was engaged by Stuart Robson and William H. Crane for their companies."Amy Busby" Opera Glass (October 1895): 147-148. She appeared in London Assurance, Victor Durand, The Pembertons, The Henrietta, She Stoops to Conquer, Is Marriage a Failure? The American Minister, On Probation, Brother John, For Money, The Senator, and Arms and the Man."Amy Busby" Gallery of Players (Illustrated American Publishing Company 1894): 12. Busby's Broadway credits included The Fatal Card (1894), Madame (1896), The Law of the Land (1896), and Secret Service (1896).Gerald Martin Bordman, Thomas S. Hischak, The Oxford Companion to American Theatre (Oxford University Press 2004): 554-555.
Theatrical producer William Berkeley Enos took the professional name "Busby Berkeley" from Amy Busby, who was his parents' friend.Jeffrey Spivak, Buzz: The Life and Art of Busby Berkeley (University Press of Kentucky 2011): 7. Sam Insull met his wife, actress Gladys Wallis, at an 1897 dinner party hosted by Amy Busby and Eugene H. Lewis.Forrest McDonald, Insull: The Rise and Fall of a Billionaire Utility Tycoon (Beard Books 2004): 77.
In the late 1880s, Between The Acts cigarettes ran an advertising campaign featuring actors and actresses on coloured lithograph collectors cards. Amy Busby was featured on one in a series issued from 1880 - 1892.
Personal life Amy Busby was rumoured to be engaged to actor William Gillette, but they did not wed."Miss Amy Busby Explains" New York Times (March 17, 1897): 7. She married several times. In 1892"To Be Married by the Mayor" Chicago Daily Tribune (January 9, 1892): 3. she married English actor Aubrey Boucicault;Mary C. Francis, "The 'Alimony Poor'" The Scrap Book (August 1907): 383. they divorced in 1893."Victory Bateman Exonerated" New York Times (December 15, 1893): 3. Her next marriage was to lawyer Eugene Howard Lewis, in 1897;"Miss Amy Busby Married" Washington Post (March 20, 1897): 7. they had three daughters (Amy, Rosamund, and Eugenia) before his death in 1907."Obituary Note" Electrical Review (March 9, 1907): 433. She married again in 1908, to mining engineer Theodore Olynthna Douglas;"Amy Busby Lewis Married" New York Times (October 8, 1908): 9. they had two daughters (Theodora and Ruth) before he died in 1920.John William Leonard, William Frederick Mohr, Herman Warren Knox, Frank R. Holmes, 0infield Scott Downs, eds., Who's Who in New York (City and State) (Who's Who Publications 1918): 308. She was married a final time in 1923, to a man named John James Roy; they separated by 1938. Late in life, she enjoyed baseball as a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers."Amy Busby Plays Full Career of Life" The Pocono Record (July 16, 1957): 15. via Newspapers.com Amy Busby died in 1957, aged 85 years, in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania."Amy Busby, Star of the '90s" Washington Post (July 16, 1957): B2."Amy Busby Dies; Retired Actress" New York Times (July 15, 1957): 15.
References
External links
Photographs of Amy Busby in the New York Public Library's Digital Collections online.