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Cissie Sewell

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Cissie Sewell
A young white woman with bobbed hair brushed over her forehead
Cissie Sewell, from a 1920 publication
Bornabout 1893
London
Occupation(s)Actress, dancer, ballet mistress
Known forLongtime association with Noël Coward and Charles B. Cochran
SpouseCyril Biddulph

Elizabeth H. "Cissie" Sewell (born about 1893 – died after 1954) was an English-born stage actress, dancer, and ballet mistress, wife of Irish-born Canadian performer Cyril Biddulph.

Early life

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Sewell was born in London. She trained as a dancer with Adeline Genée,[1][2] and later with William C. Zerffi.[3]

A white man and white woman in matching dance poses, side-by-side and knees up
Photo of Mercer Templeton and Cissie Sewell in Broadway production of Honey Girl (1920)

Career

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Sewell appeared on the London stage as a child in Alice Through the Looking Glass (1903–1904),[4] and created dances for the London production of the musical Kissing Time (1919).[5] Her Broadway credits included roles in The Bachelor Belles (1910), A Winsome Widow (1912), The Girl from Montmartre (1912–1913), The Marriage Market (1913),[6] The Girl from Utah (1914), Hitchy-Koo (1917), Her Regiment (1917),[7] The Girl Behind the Gun (1918–1919),[8] Miss Millions (1919–1920), and Honey Girl (1920).[9][10]

Off-stage, Sewell endorsed musical instruments,[11] and worked with playwright Noël Coward, music director Elsie April, and producer Charles B. Cochran,[12][13] especially as ballet mistress on the American and Australian productions of Bitter Sweet.[14][15] She was also ballet mistress for a London production of Lights Up! in 1940.[16] "Cissie's memory was fantastic," recalled Noël Coward in his autobiography. "In addition to her other virtues, an outspoken critical faculty allied to the kindest heart imaginable."[17]

She and her younger sister Georgie toured as a dancing act together.[18][19] A third Sewell sister, Marie, was also an actress.[20]

Personal life

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Sewell married Canadian-stage actor Cyril Biddulph in 1912. He died in World War I, in August 1918; he was a lieutenant in Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.[21][22]

In 1920, when fire broke out in the Boston hotel where she was staying, she delayed her evacuation until she rescued a photograph of her late husband, "disregard[ing] her valuable jewels, clothing and bonds".[23] Ellis Island immigration records state that Sewell remained an unmarried widow through at least 1923.[24][25]

References

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  1. ^ "Cissie Sewell Who Dances in 'Honey Girl'". Boston Sunday Globe. March 21, 1920. p. 60. Retrieved August 13, 2022 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  2. ^ "What's What on Broadway". Green Book Magazine. 20 (6): 970–971. December 1918 – via Internet Archive.
  3. ^ "Cissie Sewell Studying with Zerffi". Musical Courier. 81 (6): 33. August 5, 1920 – via Internet Archive.
  4. ^ Wearing, J. P. (2013-12-05). The London Stage 1900-1909: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. Scarecrow Press. p. 165. ISBN 978-0-8108-9294-1.
  5. ^ Monkman, Phyllis (May 21, 1919). "Dancing Days and Nights". The Sketch. 106: 246.
  6. ^ "Donald Brian Dances to his own Music". Boston Sunday Post. January 11, 1914. p. 33. Retrieved August 13, 2022 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  7. ^ "Bewitching Music in 'Her Regiment'; Victor Herbert's Melody the Chief Feature of a Rather Old Style Operetta". The New York Times via TimesMachine. November 13, 1917. p. 11. Retrieved 2022-08-13.
  8. ^ "Gay Military Musical Play; "The Girl Behind the Gun" Is Right Up to the Minute". The New York Times. 1918-09-17. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-08-14.
  9. ^ Dietz, Dan (2021-06-15). The Complete Book of 1910s Broadway Musicals. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 232, 279, 403, 446, 517. ISBN 978-1-5381-5028-3.
  10. ^ Dietz, Dan (2019-04-10). The Complete Book of 1920s Broadway Musicals. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 15–16. ISBN 978-1-5381-1282-3.
  11. ^ "Very Popular Among Artists" The Music Trade Review (August 21, 1920): 42.
  12. ^ Coward, Noel (1986). Autobiography: Consisting of Present Indicative, Future Indefinite and the Uncompleted Past Conditional. Methuen. p. 193. ISBN 978-0-413-60660-0.
  13. ^ "The Cochran Invasion". Liverpool Echo. 1933-09-01. p. 8. Retrieved 2022-08-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ Hoare, Philip (1998-05-22). Noel Coward: A Biography. University of Chicago Press. pp. 210–211. ISBN 978-0-226-34512-3.
  15. ^ "Partners– At a Distance". Sun. 1931-02-15. Retrieved 2022-08-13 – via Trove.
  16. ^ Wearing, J. P. (2014-08-22). The London Stage 1940-1949: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-8108-9306-1.
  17. ^ "My Life Story by Noel Coward; "Bitter Sweet" Waltz was Composed in Taxi". Sydney Morning Herald. 1937-05-20. Retrieved 2022-08-13 – via Trove.
  18. ^ "Both Sewell Sisters With Donald Brian". Los Angeles Evening Express. 1922-09-21. p. 18. Retrieved 2022-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ "Jazz Retains Place in Public Affection, Dancing Sisters Say". The Baltimore Sun. 1923-07-04. p. 5. Retrieved 2022-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ National Highways Association (1912). The National Highways Association Asks You to Attend the National Theatre, Washington, D.C., During the Week of April 16 to 22, 1922: The Performance of Fred Stone and His Company in "Tip Top".
  21. ^ Veterans Affairs Canada (2019-02-20). "Cyril Biddulph". The Canadian Virtual War Memorial. Retrieved 2022-08-13.
  22. ^ "Lieutenant Biddulph Killed". Billboard. Vol. 12, no. 30. October 12, 1918. p. 41 – via Internet Archive.
  23. ^ "Blaze on the Roof of the Hotel Westminster". The Boston Globe. March 11, 1920. p. 1.
  24. ^ Name Search. The Statue of Liberty – Ellis Island Foundations, Inc.
  25. ^ Cissie S. Biddulph 1923 immigration record The Statue of Liberty – Ellis Island Foundations, Inc.
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