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Ida Brooks Hunt

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Ida Brooks Hunt
A white woman in profile. She is wearing a high-necked white blouse and a dark over dress with puffy sleeves. Her hair is back and caught in a visible hair ornament behind her head.
Ida Brooks Hunt, from a 1905 publication.
Born
Ida Grace Brooks

August 7, 1878
Panama
DiedDecember 6, 1929
New York
Occupation(s)Singer, actress

Ida Grace Brooks Hunt (August 7, 1878 – December 6, 1929) was an American singer and actress.

Early life

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Ida Grace Brooks was born in Panama, the daughter of an American banker father and a musical mother from Barcelona. She attended a convent school there, and St. Francis Xavier school in Brooklyn.[1] In 1908 she spent some time studying music in Paris, in the company of fellow American singer Oriska Worden.[2]

Career

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Hunt was an actress with "an unusually high soprano" voice,[3] who starred in the musicals Woodland (1904–1905)[4][5] Algeria (1908),[6][7] and The Chocolate Soldier (1909–1910).[8][9] In 1906, she tossed the first pitch at a New York Giants baseball game.[10] She had a musical act in vaudeville with Alfred de Manby.[11] During and after World War I, she entertained American troops in Europe,[12] under the auspices of the YMCA. She spent months in French hospital recovering from health issues incurred during that work.[13] Her last New York stage appearance was in Robin Hood, just a few weeks before she died in 1929.[14]

Personal life

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In 1898,[15] Ida Brooks married George Edwin Hunt,[16] a dental surgeon.[17] They lived in Indianapolis,[18] and they divorced in 1906.[19] He remarried in 1908.[20] She died at her cousin's home in Brooklyn in 1929, after a stroke.[14]

References

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  1. ^ "Ida Brooks Hunt". Boston Sunday Post. April 23, 1905. p. 5. Retrieved June 17, 2020 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  2. ^ Powers, Ethel (December 12, 1908). "Miss Worden's New Move". New York Star. p. 22. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  3. ^ "Indianian Scores in New Opera". The Indianapolis Star. 1908-08-25. p. 2. Retrieved 2020-06-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ The Burr McIntosh Monthly. Burr McIntosh Publishing Company. March 1905.
  5. ^ "Woodland". The Cast. 19: 199. March 13, 1905.
  6. ^ ""ALGERIA" AT ATLANTIC CITY: Ida Brooks Hunt Prima Donna In the New Musical Comedy". The New York Times. August 25, 1908. p. 7 – via ProQuest.
  7. ^ Bordman, Gerald; Bordman, Gerald Martin; Norton, Richard (2010). American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle. Oxford University Press. pp. 287, 297. ISBN 978-0-19-972970-8.
  8. ^ "Scores in 'Chocolate Soldier'". The Indianapolis News. 1909-09-08. p. 5. Retrieved 2020-06-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Three of the Principal Characters in 'The Chocolate Soldier'". The Courier-News. 1910-04-30. p. 11. Retrieved 2020-06-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Hernández, Lou (2018-10-22). Manager of Giants: The Tactics, Temper and True Record of John McGraw. McFarland. pp. 44–45. ISBN 978-1-4766-7070-6.
  11. ^ "'My Hero' Helped a Heroine to Fame". Evening Public Ledger. 1917-07-21. p. 9. Retrieved 2020-06-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ Evans, James William; Harding, Gardner L. (Gardner Ludwig); McMein, Neysa; Parkhurst, Anita; Rundquist, Ethel (1921). Entertaining the American army : the American stage and lyceum in the world war. University of California Libraries. New York : Association Press. p. 190.
  13. ^ "MRS. IDA BROOKS HUNT, OPERETTA SINGER, DIES: Former Prima Donna Last Appeared in 'Robin Hood'--Entertainer for Soldiers in World War". The New York Times. December 8, 1929. p. N9 – via ProQuest.
  14. ^ a b "Ida Brooks Hunt, Prima Donna, Dies". Times Union. 1929-12-07. p. 13. Retrieved 2020-06-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ Indiana Dental Journal. 1898. p. 716.
  16. ^ "Indianapolis Member of Savage Opera Company Visiting in City". The Indianapolis News. 1905-10-28. p. 26. Retrieved 2020-06-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "Dental College Faculty". The Indianapolis Journal. 1899-05-26. p. 8. Retrieved 2020-06-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "Indianapolis Singers' Success in Boston". The Indianapolis News. 1904-04-28. p. 14. Retrieved 2020-06-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ "Ida Brooks Hunt Testifies". The Indianapolis Star. 1906-06-03. p. 34. Retrieved 2020-06-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ "Married at Louisville". The Indianapolis News. 1908-06-23. p. 3. Retrieved 2020-06-17 – via Newspapers.com.
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