I didn't know Esther well. She was a friend of friends. After she passed away, there was a box filled with snapshots she'd taken. Many were recognizable theatre celebs of long ago. Other photos were of her and others. Some photos had inscriptions on the reverse, which I've noted. Others had nothing. This box was destined for the trash bin. I saved it.


07 September 2009

Could these be Marguerite Benton?














































They're marked South Station (Boston) or Shubert and Panama Hattie 1940.

             ****************************************


Two commenters, Bill and Douglas
thought the photos might be of Lucille Bremer,
a featured dancing girl. 
Here are two photos of Lucy I grabbed from the internet. 
I thought posting them might help with the mystery.



 



*************************************************

(Addendum: July 2, 2014)

An anonymous commenter has written that these photos of Esther's could, "no way" be Lucille Bremer, but thinks they are Marguerite Chapman. I just did another google search and found a photo of Miss Marguerite Benton. 


This photo comes from the J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical 
Photographs found in the University of Washington's digital collection.

Miss Benton graced the cover of the March 18, 1940 
edition of Life magazine, 
where it reported that she was appearing in "DuBarry was a Lady."


This cover story was about the chorus of, "DuBarry" and asked us to, 
"meet" them as well as give the reader a glimpse of their home life.



I think that Esther did in fact meet Marguerite Benton and someone 
was kind enough to snap those photos of Esther & Margie.




5 comments:

Bill said...

This might be Lucille Bremer. Another Panama Hattie dancer and Judy Garland's older sister, Rose, in Meet Me in St. Louis.

Douglas said...

Lucille Bremer.

normadesmond said...

DOUGLAS! my lord, it was like a tomb in here, you startled me!

thanks for stopping in, i know esther's thrilled!

well, looks like the consensus is building towards lucille. i'll throw a shot of her in here.

Anonymous said...

Lucille Bremer??!! No way!!


Yes, the lovely lady does indeed look like Columbia Pictures beauty Marguerite Chapman.

normadesmond said...

why hell-o there Anonymous! thanks for popping in! it's been so long since i've been in to see esther, i've had to reacquaint myself with these images. thanks to you, i just did a bit more sleuthing & will post these results....again, thanks!