Sylvia Ashley

Sylvia Ashley
Born Edith Louisa Sylvia Hawkes
(1904-04-01)1 April 1904
Paddington, London, England
Died 29 June 1977(1977-06-29) (aged 73)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Other names Sylvia Hawkes
Lady Ashley
Princess Sylvia Djordjadze
Occupation Model, actress
Spouse(s) Anthony Ashley-Cooper, Lord Ashley
(m. 1927; div. 1934)
Douglas Fairbanks
(m. 1936; his death 1939)
Edward John Stanley, 6th Baron Sheffield and Stanley of Alderley
(m. 1944; div. 1948)
Clark Gable
(m. 1949; div. 1952)
Dimitri Djordjadze
(m. 1954; her death 1977)
Parent(s) Arthur Hawkes
Edith Florence Hyde

Sylvia Ashley (1 April 1904 – 29 June 1977) was an English model, actress, and socialite[1] who was best known for her marriages to British aristocrats and American movie stars.

Personal life

Ashley was born Edith Louisa Sylvia Hawkes in Paddington, London, England, a daughter of Arthur Hawkes and Edith Florence Hyde. (Although she preferred giving her year of birth as 1906, the England and Wales Civil Registration Index, Vol. 1a, Page 26, shows it was recorded during the June quarter of 1904, District of Paddington.) Her sister, Lillian Vera Hawkes (6 March 1910 – 1 January 1997), married British film producer Basil Bleck.

Hawkes was married five times:

Professional career

Using her middle name Sylvia, she worked as a lingerie model and became a Cochran Dancer, the British equivalent of a Ziegfeld Follies girl. After this brief career in the chorus line of musical comedy, she went on to appear in a number of West End plays. In 1924, she made her debut in Midnight Follies. She appeared in Primrose. In 1925, she acted in Tell me More at London's Winter Garden Theatre, and in The Whole Town's Talking.

On 1 March 1941, Lady Ashley filed articles of incorporation to establish an organisation known as the British Distressed Areas Fund. Organised along with her sister, Vera Bleck, Constance Bennett, and Virginia Fox Zanuck, as directors the Fund focused on soliciting financial support to provide food, clothing and medical aid for refugees of World War II. The headquarters of the organisation was located in Los Angeles.

Primrose audition

In their joint memoir Bring on the Girls!, P. G. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton relate the story of Sylvia's audition for George Grossmith Jr. for the 1924 musical Primrose:

"Must I sing, Mr Grossmith?"

"Yes, Sylvia, you must. All of you have to sing if you want jobs as showgirls in Primrose. The Gershwin score demands it."

"Oh very well," she replied petulantly, and, going down to the floats she handed over a piece of music to the pianist in the pit. The piano struck a chord.

"God save our gracious King,
Long live our noble King,
God save the King."

Grossmith, a strict observer of ritual, rose and stood at attention. His minions rose and stood at attention. Guy, on his way to announce his arrival, stood at attention.

As the anthem came to the normal stopping point, George started to sit down, but there is more, much more of the fine old choral than is generally known. James Carey is credited with a three-stanza version; in another version John Bull... has expressed the same sentiment in his own way; while James Oswald... also got into the act. A printing is extant giving them all. Sylvia Hawkes sang them all. The pianist stopped playing, but that didn't stop Sylvia. They wanted her to sing, did they? Well, sing she would. Of course no one dared to call a halt. The national anthem is sacrosanct – especially if you're an actor-manager clinging to the hope of a belated knighthood.[2]

Death and burial

Lady Ashley died of cancer at age 73 in Los Angeles. She is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood; her grave is 680 feet north of that of her second husband, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., at the north end of the "Garden of Legends", aka "Section 8".

Titles and styles

References

  1. ↑ "Lady Sylvia Ashley". National Portrait Gallery, London.
  2. ↑ Wodehouse and Bolton, Bring on the Girls! (1953), Chapter 13, section 3
  3. ↑ Style of a Former Wife of a Peer by Courtesy – website Debrett's
  4. ↑ Address of a Former Wife of a Baron – website Debrett's
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