Mary Lewis

Mary Sybil Kidd Maynard Lewis (January 7, 1900 – December 31, 1941) was an American soprano and actress who an active performance career in musicals, operas, vaudeville, and in film during the first half of the twentieth century. After beginning her career as a chorus girl in 1919, she was signed by the Christie Film Company to star in a series of comedic silent films made in 1920; most notably A Bashful Bigamist (released 1921). She later appeared in the Vitaphone Varieties, some of the earliest sound films made by Warner Bros., in 1926. Her first major stage role was as a featured singer in the Broadway musical revue Ziegfeld Follies of 1921. In 1923 her career reoriented towards opera, beginning with her opera debut at Vienna State Opera. After performing in European opera houses for a few years, she returned to the United States to join the roster of leading sopranos at the Metropolitan Opera in 1925 where she remained committed through 1930. Early years Lewis was born Mary Kidd, the daughter of Charles Kidd and Hattie Lewis, in Hot Springs, Arkansas or Dallas, Texas. She had a brother, Joe. After the children's father died in 1899, their mother was unable to care for them and put them in an orphanage. Lewis gained a new home after she was found outside a church while she waited to meet a friend when the service ended. Her foster parents were William and Anna Fitch. (His name is also given as Frank F. Fitch.) He was a Methodist minister and a music teacher who taught her to play piano. As an adult, Lewis said that she received "a good musical education" in "a strict Methodist home". Her father spanked her when he felt that she had not practiced enough. She danced with no music in her room even though "dancing was strictly forbidden". She was also "thoroughly whipped" for playing jazz music on the piano. Her foster mother frequently caught her dancing and punished her each time. "She thought I was headed straight for the devil," Lewis said later. "She looked on the stage with horror." In 1912, Lewis ran away from the Fitch home and, until 1915 she lived with H. F. and Carrie Auten, who had children about Lewis's age. During that time she went to Little Rock High School. She also took music, including lessons on a pipe organ, and became the organist at Second Baptist church.