Helen Gertrude Barnes (July 5, 1895 â€"June 1, 1925) was an American
musical comedy actress and Ziegfeld Follies Girl.Helen Gertrude Barnes
was born on July 5, 1895, in Shelton, Connecticut, the first of two
daughters raised by William and Anna Barnes. Her father hailed from
Pennsylvania and supported his family as a day laborer and later as a
typewriter salesman. Barnes’ mother was born in England of Scottish
parents and had come to America, presumably with her parents, at
around the age of two. William and Anna married in 1894, and in July
1896 completed their family with the birth of their second daughter,
Ruth. Not long after Ruth’s arrival the Barnes family relocated to
Washington D.C.She began her career at the age of nineteen as a member
of the chorus line in the 1914/15 Broadway musical Watch Your Step at
the New Amsterdam Theatre. In May 1915 Barnes began a four-year
association with Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. as performer in his annual
Ziegfeld Follies shows at the same venue. Later in 1915 Barnes played
Lotta Nichols in the musical comedy Stop! Look! Listen! over its
four-month run at the Globe Theatre.A New York Times reviewer wrote in
a May 14, 1918 review of the play The Squab Farm by Frederic Hatton
and Fanny Hatton, that Helen Barnes appeared to be the audience’s
favorite squab. The play, a satire that compared a motion picture set
to a barnyard, was performed at the Bijou Theatre with Helen Barnes
playing the role of Hortense Hogan. The Squab Farm closed after a
four-week run and had among its cast members sixteen-year-old Tallulah
Bankhead.
musical comedy actress and Ziegfeld Follies Girl.Helen Gertrude Barnes
was born on July 5, 1895, in Shelton, Connecticut, the first of two
daughters raised by William and Anna Barnes. Her father hailed from
Pennsylvania and supported his family as a day laborer and later as a
typewriter salesman. Barnes’ mother was born in England of Scottish
parents and had come to America, presumably with her parents, at
around the age of two. William and Anna married in 1894, and in July
1896 completed their family with the birth of their second daughter,
Ruth. Not long after Ruth’s arrival the Barnes family relocated to
Washington D.C.She began her career at the age of nineteen as a member
of the chorus line in the 1914/15 Broadway musical Watch Your Step at
the New Amsterdam Theatre. In May 1915 Barnes began a four-year
association with Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. as performer in his annual
Ziegfeld Follies shows at the same venue. Later in 1915 Barnes played
Lotta Nichols in the musical comedy Stop! Look! Listen! over its
four-month run at the Globe Theatre.A New York Times reviewer wrote in
a May 14, 1918 review of the play The Squab Farm by Frederic Hatton
and Fanny Hatton, that Helen Barnes appeared to be the audience’s
favorite squab. The play, a satire that compared a motion picture set
to a barnyard, was performed at the Bijou Theatre with Helen Barnes
playing the role of Hortense Hogan. The Squab Farm closed after a
four-week run and had among its cast members sixteen-year-old Tallulah
Bankhead.
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