Bogota, New Jersey
Bogota is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 8,187,actress
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a Character (arts), character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek ...
,
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
performer,
playwright
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Etymology
The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
, and
songwriter
A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...
who had an active career on stage and radio during the first half of the 20th century.
Life and career
Born in
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
, Stephens was one half of the vaudeville team Stephens & Hollister; the other half being her first husband, the actor and playwright Len D. Hollister (1884-1936). The duo toured in the major vaudeville circuits during the first two decades of the 20th century, and in the 1930s and 1940s they had their own program on
CBS Radio
CBS Radio was a radio broadcasting company and radio network operator owned by CBS Corporation and founded in 1928, with consolidated radio station groups owned by CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W since the 1920s, and Infinity Broadc ...
, ''The Hollisters''.
Stephens also worked as an actress on
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
, beginning with the role of Lottchen Spring in the
Gustav Kerker
Gustave Adolph Kerker (February 28, 1857 – June 29, 1923) was a German-born composer and conductor who spent most of his life in the US. He became a musical director for Broadway theatre productions and wrote the music for a series of operettas ...
The White Hen
''The White Hen'' is a 1921 British silent comedy film directed by Frank Richardson and starring Mary Glynne, Leslie Faber and Pat Somerset. It was based on a novel by Phyllis Campbell.
Cast
* Mary Glynne as Celeste de Crequy
* Leslie Fabe ...
'' at the Casino Theatre in 1907. Her other Broadway credits included Tillie Ticker in the musical ''Let George Do It'' (1912), Mrs. Schaeffer in the play ''The Come-On Man'' (1929), Lissa in the musical ''
Right This Way
''Right This Way'' is a Broadway production that opened at the 46th Street Theatre on January 5, 1938, and ran for fifteen performances. It was categorized as an original musical comedy and was set in Paris and Boston. It starred Joe E. Lewis as ...
'' (1938), and Greeny Gorman in the play '' Dark of the Moon'' (1945). As a playwright, only one of her plays was staged on Broadway, ''The Morning After'' (1925,
Hudson Theatre
The Hudson Theatre is a Broadway theater at 139–141 West 44th Street, between Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. One of the oldest surviving Broadway venues, the Hudson was built ...
).Bordman, p. 263 In 1912 she toured nationally in the
Eddie Foy
Edwin Fitzgerald (March 9, 1856 – February 16, 1928Cullen, Frank; Hackman, Florence; and McNeilly, Donald. ''Vaudeville, Old and New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America''. Routledge Press, September 2006, . pp. 406–410), ...
musical ''Over the River''.
After the death of her first husband and stage partner in 1936, Stephens continued to perform through the 1940s. She was also active as a songwriter during this period, and several of her songs were published.
Leona Stephens Hollister West died on July 22, 1982, in
Bogota, New Jersey
Bogota is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 8,187, The Manuscripts and Archives Division of the New York Public Library holds the "Leona Stephens papers 1878-1952"; a collection of personal documents, letters, photographs, sheet music, and other artifacts which document her career.