Anne Elstner Matthews (January 22, 1899 – January 29, 1981) was an American actress best known for her role in the radio
soap opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...
'' Stella Dallas'' during its entire run from 1937 to 1955. For 18 years, Elstner voiced the serial's title character, described by ''
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 ...
'' as "the beautiful daughter of an impoverished farmhand who had married above her station in life."
Early years
Elstner was born in
Lake Charles, Louisiana
Lake Charles (French: ''Lac Charles'') is the fifth-largest incorporated city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and the parish seat of Calcasieu Parish, located on Lake Charles, Prien Lake, and the Calcasieu River. Founded in 1861 in Calcasi ...
, the youngest of eight children born to Joseph and Sallie Elstner. She moved from her childhood home at the age of seven, and began a series of moves across the country with her family, including "a number of years" in San Benito, Texas, as her father, an accountant, moved from job to job.
She attended
Senn High School
Senn High School is a public four-year high school located in the Edgewater neighborhood on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Senn is operated by the Chicago Public Schools system and was opened on 3 February 1913. The school ...
in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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for her freshman year before transferring to
Mount de Chantal Visitation Academy
Mount de Chantal Visitation Academy was a private Catholic all-girls school in the city of Wheeling in the U.S. state of West Virginia.
History
It was founded in 1848 as the Wheeling Female Academy in downtown Wheeling and in 1865 moved to its ...
, a private Catholic all-girls school in
Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling is a city in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Located almost entirely in Ohio County, of which it is the county seat, it lies along the Ohio River in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and also contains a tiny portion extendin ...
that was her mother's alma mater, where she played lead roles in school performances and plays before graduating from the school in 1918.Burstyn, Joan M ''Past and Promise: Lives of New Jersey Women'' p. 222.
Syracuse University Press
Syracuse University Press, founded in 1943, is a university press that is part of Syracuse University. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses.
History
SUP was formed in August 1943 when president William P. Tolley pro ...
, 1996. . Accessed November 2, 2015.
Stage
Moving to New York City, Elstner worked a variety of jobs and enrolled at the
American Academy of Dramatic Arts
The American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) is a private performing arts conservatory with two locations, one in Manhattan and one in Los Angeles. The academy offers an associate degree in occupational studies and teaches drama and related ar ...
. A role as an understudy in the play ''
Liliom
''Liliom'' is a 1909 play by the Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnár. It was well known in its own right during the early to mid-20th century, but is best known today as the basis for the Rodgers and Hammerstein 1945 musical ''Carousel''.
P ...
'' led to her breakout role 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 ...
in the 1923 production of ''
Sun-Up
''Sun-Up'' is a 1925 American silent drama film directed by Edmund Goulding based upon a successful 1924 play of the same name by Lula Vollmer. The film stars Lucille La Verne, replaying her successful New York stage role, Pauline Starke, and ...
''. A July 27, 1923, review in ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' commended Elstner "for her faithful delineation of the unattractive but moving mountain girl."
She married Jack Matthews, Jr., at
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...
's
Little Church Around the Corner
The Church of the Transfiguration, also known as the Little Church Around the Corner, is an Episcopal parish church located at 1 East 29th Street, between Madison and Fifth Avenues in the NoMad neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The con ...
, after which she left the stage and moved with her husband to a farm in Maryland. When the farming didn't work out, she returned to New York in 1928 and was given the opportunity to reprise her lead role in ''Sun-Up''.
Radio
Elstner broke into radio in the early 1930s on the half-hour-long serial drama ''Moonshine and Honeysuckle'', which led to a career in which she performed thousands of roles in radio performances. (Contrary to the aforementioned source's citing "early 1930s," a December 3, 1923, newspaper lists Elstner as a reader in a 7:30 a.m. program on WEAF in New York City. Another newspaper in 1954 reported, "Miss Elstner got her first radio role way back in 1923.") ''Moonshine and Honeysuckle'' ran on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...
1930–1933. Elstner played Cracker Gaddis in "serialized stories about incidents in the lives of a group of mountain people."Terrace, Vincent (1999). ''Radio Programs, 1924-1984: A Catalog of More Than 1800 Shows''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 238.
At one point she was performing on ten radio programs a day.Cox, Jim ''The Great Radio Soap Operas'' p. 238. McFarland, 1999. . Accessed November 2, 2015. Her signature role came in 1936, when she was selected from dozens who auditioned for the title role in '' Stella Dallas'', a serial based on the novel of the same name written by
Olive Higgins Prouty
Olive Higgins Prouty (10 January 1882 – 24 March 1974) was an American novelist and poet, best known for her 1923 novel '' Stella Dallas'' and her pioneering consideration of psychotherapy in her 1941 novel ''Now, Voyager''.
Life and infl ...
. The role of her husband, Stephen Dallas, was portrayed during the course of the show's run by Arthur Hughes, Neil Malley, Leo McCabe and Frederick Tazere. During the show's run she commuted daily from here home in
Stockton, New Jersey
Stockton is a borough in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, United States. The borough sits on the Delaware River at the western end of Amwell Valley. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 538,< ...
, missing only one performance during the show's 18-year-long run on NBC Radio from 1937 to 1955.
Together with her husband, Elstner operated a restaurant in
Lambertville, New Jersey
Lambertville is a city (New Jersey), city in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, Hunterdon County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 3,906,
She joined
Arthur Godfrey
Arthur Morton Godfrey (August 31, 1903 – March 16, 1983) was an American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer who was sometimes introduced by his nickname The Old Redhead. At the peak of his success, in the early-to-mid 1950s, Godf ...
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 ...
'', April 25, 1977. Accessed November 2, 2015.
Death
Elstner died of a stroke on January 29, 1981, at Doylestown Hospital in
Doylestown, Pennsylvania
Doylestown is a borough and the county seat of Bucks County in Pennsylvania, United States. It is located northwest of Trenton,
north of Center City, Philadelphia,
southeast of Allentown, and southwest of New York City.
As of the 2020 ...
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 ...
'', January 16, 1981. Accessed November 2, 2015. "Anne Elstner Matthews, who played Stella Dallas on the long-running radio serial of that name, died of a stroke in Doylestown, Pa., on Jan. 29. Mrs. Matthews, who had lived for many years in Stockton, N.J., was 82 years old." Note that the date of the article precedes that date of her death, indicating a likely error or a remarkable case of clairvoyance.