Blythe Daley

Blyth Daly: Star of Stage, Screen and Radio Blyth Daly was born in London, England, on December 5, 1901 to acting legend Arnold Daly (1875-1927) and wife Mary Blythe (1884-1958) a respected actor who like her husband was an American working on the celebrated London stage at the time of their daughters birth. Returning to the United States and settling at Elm Point, Great Neck, Long Island, NY. Arnold Daly was a personal friend of George Bernard Shaw and introduced his works to the States by successfully adapting several of works for the Broadway Stage, earning both critical acclaim. Blyth was born at the dawn of a new age, Queen Victoria had just died and the world was in the process of great social change. The role of women was in flux, the chains that bound them in stereotypes were breaking. The emergence of "the new woman" as H.G. Wells so termed them, women freed to live their lives on their own terms and express themselves and their sexuality as they wished was becoming a reality. As Blyth blossomed into womanhood in the 1920's her parents high social status gained her entry to elite circles of society on both sides of the Atlantic, one of the "Pretty Young Things" of British high society where she hobnobbed with aristocracy and worthies of the day and a "Flapper" in American high society. For years her amorous adventures and rumors of engagements featured in society columns and tabloids. Her inherited but well honed acting talent saw her embark on a successful career on the Broadway stage, making her debut as teenager in a production by her father and work steadily thereafter on both the Broadway and London stage. Also touring the United States with theatre companies treading the boards with many of the finest young actors of her generation, including James Cagney in the glorious era between the two world wars. She embraced the new medium of Radio and made numerous appearances in spoken word productions, radio soap operas and commercials. Blyth would come to embody her age, the glamour of the society Flapper and the starlet of endless energy and ambition. Working hard during the day and dancing the night away, sipping champagne and helping put the roar in the Roaring Twenties. Her wit and vivacious personality gaining her entrance to the illustrious Algonquin Round Table, whiling away evenings at the Algonquin Hotel in New York surrounded by the leading writers, critics and theatrical producers of the day. She was known as one of the "Four Riders of the Algonquin" which included Tallulah Bankhead, Estelle Winwood and Eva Le Gallienne. The Stock Market Crash hit Broadway hard, producers could not find funding and those that could were unable to find audiences and the theatre district was all but decimated. Actors, writers and producers headed West to Hollywood which was weathering the Depression well, churning out a high volume of movies to satisfy the demand of the new movie houses. With little to hold her in New York she like many of her peers headed for California where she soon became part of the Hollywood social scene, tabloids detailed her having a grand time dancing in the Coconut Grove and a host of romances including one with the heir to the Tiffany fortune. Described as tanned and athletic, her Passport discription as blond with grey eyes and fair complexion she enjoyed the Californian climate, regularly playing tennis and riding horses. A stunningly attractive woman Charlie Chaplin once got too fresh with her at a party, wouldn't take no for an answer and pulled Blyth close to steal a passionate kiss and she bit his lower lip with vigor making it bleed. Although she had many suitors, a legion of male admirers and was reportedly bisexual, she never married. Blyth acted in local theatre productions and tried her luck with the movie industry, although she preferred the stage she appeared in several silent and talkies including; "Her Man" (1930) and "That's Gratitude" (1934). During WWII she did her part on the home front and then afterwards appeared in "It's a Joke, Son!" (1947) - "The Model and the Marriage Broker" (1951) - "A Star Is Born" (1954) and "The Chapman Report" in 1962 before ill health resulted in her retiring from show business and living quietly. Blyth Daly died October 16, 1965 at the age of 64 years and was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills, surrounded by many of her friends from old Hollywood and the New York Stage of yesteryear, the passage of over half a century has not dimmed her star. JG