Ray Cox (September 18, 1881 - November 7, 1957) was an early 20th century American actress and vaudeville performer. Cox was born in

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties i ...

, attended

South Division High School South Division High School is a public high school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. South Division is part of the Milwaukee Public Schools. History The building was built after an 1890 motion by the Milwaukee Board of School Directors, as a second Mil ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, and went to

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

. Vaudeville performer

Mabel Hite Mabel Hite (May 30, 1883 – October 22, 1912) was a vaudeville comedian and musical comedy actress. Life and career Hite was born in Ashland, Kentucky May 30, 1883, the daughter of Lewis and Elsie Hite. Her family relocated to Pocatello, Ida ...

encouraged her stage aspirations, and Cox first appeared on stage in

Peoria, Illinois Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria ...

in 1903. She debuted in New York at Tony Pastor's Theatre on October 25, 1903. She became a headliner in

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 ...

,Ray Cox
''Variety'', p. 7 (May 1908)(November 28, 1913)
Ray Cox Hurt by Fall on Stage
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''(June 4, 1912)
Miss Ray Cox, Who Has Comic Act at Oakland Orpheum
''San Francisco Call''(September 30, 1911)
"Ray Cox on Long Tour"
''New York Clipper'' (describing Cox as "one of the most popular performers in the East"); accessed August 11, 2015. with one popular sketch portraying an athletic girl at a baseball game, and which was made into an audio recording by Edison.(October 15, 1917)
"Athletic Actress to Wed 'Coach'"
''Milwaukee Journal''; accessed August 11, 2015. She was often billed as the "Southern girl" or "girl from Dixie". Her play roles including the part of Signora Monti in the popular 1914 play '' Twin Beds''. She also appeared in

Lew Fields Lew Fields (born Moses Schoenfeld, January 1867 – July 20, 1941) was an American actor, comedian, vaudeville star, theatre Management, manager, and Theatrical producer, producer. He was part of a comedy duo with Joe Weber (vaudevillian), Joe We ...

's ''The Never Homes'' (1911), and ''The Charity Girl'' (1912).Who's who in Music and Drama
pp. 78-79 (1914)(July 28, 1918)
"'Billy Sunday of the Stage', Her Friends Have Dubbed Her"
''Milwaukee Journal''; accessed August 11, 2015.Ray Cox (sketch)
''The Philistine'', pp. 72-74 (July 1912)"Some Recent Hits"
''Theatre Magazine'', November 1914, p. 234(December 8, 1912)
"Ray Cox to Head Program of Merit at Chase Theater"
''Washington Times'', December 8, 1912; accessed August 11, 2015.

Personal life

Cox's first husband was Henry Cox Fishel, whom she divorced for desertion in 1916. She married Harvey J. Flint, a manager at

Goldwyn Pictures Goldwyn Pictures Corporation was an American motion picture production company that operated from 1916 to 1924 when it was merged with two other production companies to form the major studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was founded on November 19, 1 ...

, in September 1917.(September 26, 1917)
"Ray Cox Gets License"
''

''; accessed August 11, 2015.(September 30, 1917)
"Ray Cox Marries Harvey J. Flint"
''

''; accessed August 11, 2015. Thereafter known as Ray Cox Flint, she died in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

on November 7, 1957, and was buried at Swan Point Cemetery. Madge Kennedy and Ray Cox 1914

References

External links

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Vaudeville sketch (audio recording) - The Baseball Girl
(1909)
Sketch on Matrimony by Cox
in ''One Thousand Laughs from Vaudeville'' (1908) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cox, Ray 1881 births 1957 deaths American stage actresses Vaudeville performers 20th-century American actresses Actresses from Baton Rouge, Louisiana Vassar College alumni Burials at Swan Point Cemetery 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American actresses