Boyd Marshall

Boyd Marshall was born on 22 June, 1884, at Port Clinton, Ohio, the son of Thomas J. and Agnes Marshall. Both his parents were immigrates, his father being from Ireland and his mother from Quebec. After Boyd's father died in 1895, he was raised by his single mother on their farm in Carroll, Ohio. Boyd attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor with the thought of becoming a professor of languages, but soon changed his mind and he decided to try grand opera instead, a decision that his mother was not pleased with. He went on to study voice at Michigan University of Music and later the Detroit Conservatory Of Music. Early in his stage career, Boyd appeared with Fritzi Scheff, played a small part in "Mlle. Modiste" a comic opera by Victor Herbert, was a leading man for Kolb & Dill (Clarence Kolb and Max Dill) in San Francisco and was half of the team, Boyd Marshall and Katherine Bell, performing the vaudeville sketch "The Wall Between". He had also performed for Lasky Productions at the Hippodrome in New York City and had been a hit doing musical stock in Elmira, New York. In 1913 Boyd began working for the Thanhouser Film Corporation as a leading man to Muriel Ostriche in their recently created Princess Department. Prior to his employment at Thanhouser, Boyd had never set eyes on a movie camera in his life. For almost a year, he and Muriel Ostriche would perform in at least one Princess film a week. For awhile the studio publicity department tried to bill him as "The Handsomest Man in the Movies", but the campaign never really caught on with the public and he remained relatively unknown. While at Thanhouser, Boyd had also played opposite Reenie Farrington, Mayre Hall and others. In late May of 1920, Boyd married Mitzi Hajo, a well-known Hungarian dancer and stage personality, who was brought to American after an agent for the William Morris Agency caught her cabaret act in Budapest. Boyd and Mitzi performed together in several musical stage plays, the most popular being "Pom-Pom", "Head Over Heels" and "Sari". Mitzi, who occasionally went by the stage name, Dixie Crane, was born in Budapest on 27 April, 1895 (or 1890) and, passed away on 1 June 1970, at Washington, Connecticut. Boyd Marshall died on November 9, 1950 at his home in Jackson Heights, New York. He was survived by his wife and two siblings, Tom and Helen.