Audrey Maple (born Elsie H. Schroeder; 1899 – April 18, 1971) was an American actress, singer, and vaudeville performer.
Early life Audrey Maple was born Elsie H. Schroeder in Trenton, New Jersey. Her father was a musician."Audrey Maple's Career" Evening Public Ledger (October 7, 1922): 11. via Newspapers.com
Career
Audrey Maple performed in vaudeville in a novelty act called Pianophiends."Stageland" The Scrap Book (September 1907): 457. In the operetta The Love Waltz (1908-1909), she was half of a highly publicized "eight-minute kiss" during a dance scene."Theatrical Chatter" Buffalo Enquirer (May 11, 1908): 2. via Newspapers.com"At Poli's: 'The Love Waltz' With Its Eight-Minute Kiss" Hartford Courant (January 30, 1909): 11. via Newspapers.com
She appeared in Broadway productions, mostly musical comedies, including The Arcadians (1910), The Firefly (1912-1913), Molly O (1916),"Cort: Molly O'" Theatre Magazine (July 1916): 11. Katinka (1916),"'Katinka' Opens at Schubert" Boston Post (August 29, 1916): 7. via Newspapers.com Good Night, Paul (1917),"Hudson: Good Night, Paul" Theatre Magazine (October 1917): 207. Her Regiment by Victor Herbert (1917),"The Theatres Before the Holidays" The Sun (December 9, 1917): 4. via Chronicling America"Bewitching Music in 'Her Regiment'" New York Times (November 13, 1917): 11. via Newspapers.com Monte Cristo Jr. (1919), Tangerine (1921-1922), Princess April (1924), Naughty Riquette (1926), My Princess (1927), Sunny Days (1928), Angela (1928-1929), and The Street Singer (1929-1930).Thomas S. Hischak, Broadway Plays and Musicals (McFarland 2012): 19, 143, 307, 318.
Maple appeared in two films, The Plumbers are Coming (1929) and Enlighten Thy Daughter (1934).
Personal life Maple's personal life involved enough gossip, scandal, and legal entanglements to prompt commentary in newspapers: "What again! It's perfectly terrible the way wives pick on poor little Audrey Maple, the pretty musical comedy star, and try to make out that she is a naughty girl.""Come Audrey, the Witness Chair is Waiting Again!" Pittsburgh Press (April 26, 1925): 115. via Newspapers.com"Romance Loses Steiner his Heritage and Wife's Love" Daily News (May 27, 1925): 3. via Newspapers.com"Help! Those Stars Stole Our Husbands!" Tampa Tribune (October 25, 1925): 47. via Newspapers.com In 1928 she survived a car accident in Chicago that killed one of her co-stars, dancer Rosalie Claire."Audrey Maple Escapes Fate of Companion" Daily News (June 18, 1928): 2. via Newspapers.com
In 1940, Audrey Maple married engineer and inventor Ernest A. Zadig,Bob Thomas, "Genius? No, Just Practical Inventor" Florida Today (September 26, 1973): 1D. via Newspapers.com and retired from the stage. She died in New York in 1971, aged 72 years."Audrey Maple Dies; Actress of '20s, 72" New York Times (April 19, 1971): 40.
References
External links
A photograph of Audrey Maple in the Billy Rose Theatre Collection Photograph File, New York Public Library Digital Collections.