Grace Hazard (born Lucia Grace Hazard; May 24, 1875 — July 8, 1957), also credited as Grace Hazzard, was an American singer and actress in musical theatre and vaudeville.
Early life Lucia Grace Hazard was from St. Louis, Missouri,"Some People of the Stage" St. Louis Post-Dispatch (January 2, 1903): 11. via Newspapers.com"Little Comedienne Marries Londoner" St. Louis Star and Times (July 1, 1912): 12. via Newspapers.com the daughter of Dr. William B. Hazard (1843–1888) and Gertrude Maude Holmes Hazard (1847–1914)."Charlotte" Burlington Free Press (September 10, 1914): 8. via Newspapers.com Her father was a veteran of the American Civil War and a medical doctor, who was superintendent of the St. Louis Insane Asylum and a professor at the medical college in that city. Her parents were both born in Vermont. She had an older brother, Robert H. Hazard (1869–1912), who became a journalist, novelist and one of the first White House correspondents.Caroline Elizabeth Robinson, The Hazard Family of Rhode Island, 1635-1894 (1896): 195-196.R. H. Hazard, The House on Stilts (G. W. Dillingham Company 1910).
Career
As an actress, Hazard appeared in Babes in Toyland, as "Angela" in Florodora (1902),"Note and Comment" The National Magazine (December 1902): 391. and starred in The Parisian Model (1909), on a tour of American and Canadian cities."Stage Notes" The Bellman (September 5, 1909): 1146."Toronto: Grace Hazard Makes a Strong Hit; Good Bill at all the Houses" New York Dramatic Mirror (September 18, 1909): 8. She toured with the Grau Opera Company in 1901, and sang with the Valley Opera Company of Syracuse, New York, for two summers.
Her vaudeville act, "Five Feet of Comic Opera" (1907),Sime, "Grace Hazard: Five Feet of Comic Opera" Variety (1907): 8. involved "exceptionally dainty""New York Reopens with Vaudeville" New York Times (August 25, 1907): 7. Hazard singing songs from various operas, with monologues and costume changes between songs, without leaving the stage."Brooklyn N. Y." Billboard (November 21, 1908): 45.
Hazard acquired a set of custom half-sized bagpipes in Scotland in 1908,"Plays the Pipes" Anaconda Standard (October 10, 1909): 20. via Newspapers.com and learned to play them."Five Feet of Comic Opera" New York Star (October 17, 1908): 29. In February 1909 she was scheduled to perform "Five Feet of Comic Opera" at "The Greatest Scottish Concert Ever Given in America", at Carnegie Hall, with Harry Lauder headlining."Grace Hazard" The Caledonian (February 1909): 455. She also opened for Lauder in Chicago that year."Vaudeville Jottings" New York Dramatic Mirror (December 4, 1909): 24.
In 1910, she was listed among the "very few, really high-class artists" in vaudeville, along with Cecilia Loftus, Vesta Tilley, Harry Lauder, Albert Chevalier, and the duo Cressy and Dane."Plays and Players: The Decay of Vaudeville" American Magazine (April 1910): 848. Hazard was still touring with "Five Feet of Comic Opera" in 1912,"Grace Hazard — Vaudeville" Buffalo Enquirer (May 4, 1912): 7. via Newspapers.com with additional dance and musical elements."Big Leading Features" Scranton Truth (April 11, 1912): 3. via Newspapers.com"An Actress with an Idea" Evening Star (March 3, 1912): 22. via Newspapers.com In 1918 she performed at a wartime benefit for the American Red Cross."Adele Rowland, Impresario" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (June 30, 1918): 31. via Newspapers.com
Personal life Grace Hazard eloped to marry fellow vaudevillian Fred Duprez in 1912, in London."Finally Succeeds in Wedding Singer" Salt Lake Tribune (July 1, 1912): 9. via Newspapers.com The marriage did not last; Duprez was remarried in 1916. Hazard then married Whitman B. Daniels in 1916, but were divorced by 1920. Around 1922, she married Ralph Wormelle. Grace died in Washington, D.C., on July 8, 1957, and is buried in Glenwood Cemetery.
References
External links A photograph of Grace Hazard in costume, from the Billy Rose Theatre Collection Photograph File, New York Public Library Digital Collections.