Evelyn Hoey (December 15, 1910 – September 11, 1935) was a

Broadway theatre Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, American and British English spelling differences), many of the List of ...

torch singer ''Torch Singer'' is a 1933 American pre-Code Paramount Pictures film directed by Alexander Hall and George Somnes and starring Claudette Colbert, Ricardo Cortez, David Manners and Lyda Roberti. The screenplay was written by Lenore J. Coffee ...

and

actress An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

Life and career

Evelyn Hoey was born in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

on December 15, 1910. She was noted for her performances in ''

Fifty Million Frenchmen ''Fifty Million Frenchmen'' is a musical comedy with a book by Herbert Fields and music and lyrics by Cole Porter. It opened on Broadway in 1929 and was adapted for a film two years later. The title is a reference to the hit 1927 song "Fifty Mil ...

'' and '' Good News''. She began performing at the age of 10 in Minneapolis. As an adult she appeared in

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, England and

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, France. She had one movie credit with a role in the 1930 comedy ''Leave It To Lester''. The film was directed by Frank Cambria and co-starred

Lester Allen Lester M. Allen (November 17, 1891 – November 6, 1949) was an American actor, dancer, singer, comedian, and circus performer. After beginning his career as a child acrobat with the Barnum and Bailey Circus, he became a performer in minstrel ...

and Hal Thompson.

Hoey's death

Hoey was found shot to death in an upstairs bedroom of oil heir Henry H. Rogers III's Indian Run Farm house, Wallace Township near Downingtown, Pennsylvania, in 1935. A bullet was discharged in her brain on the night of September 11. She had been a guest at the home for a week. Others present were Rogers, photographer William J. Kelley, a Japanese cook, George Yamada, a butler, and Rogers' chauffeur, Frank Catalano. Later the body was taken to the county hospital in

West Chester, Pennsylvania West Chester is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough and the county seat of Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located in the Delaware Valley, Philadelphia metropolitan area, the borough had a population of 18,671 at the 2020 census. West ...

, for an autopsy.

Coroner's inquest

At the inquest, Rogers and Kelley said they were seated in the living room on the first floor when they heard the shot that caused Hoey's death. Their testimony was supported by Yamada, Catalano, and a farmer who was present when he called to collect some wages he was owed. The coroner's jury returned an open verdict that Hoey killed herself in the second floor bedroom.

Grand jury

In October 1935 District Attorney William E. Parke requested that a grand jury investigate Hoey's death. He also asked for an investigation into the conduct of members of the coroner's jury and the people with whom they had been in contact. He wanted to identify any association with certain newspaper men who covered the inquest. A jury convened in West Chester on November 12, 1935. Among the witnesses was Hoey's singing coach Victor Andoga. Andoga testified that he believed Hoey committed suicide because of anguish over a love affair with a New York theatrical man. He said she was also worried that her voice was failing. She twice told him she wanted to end her life. Hoey confided to Andoga in 1932 that a man wanted to marry her but she was unwilling because of her affection for the theater man. She asked him to test her voice when she returned from a trip to

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

in 1934. Hoey told Andoga that she took the trip with the idea of jumping overboard, but lost her nerve. The grand jury concluded on November 18 that Hoey committed suicide by shooting herself in the head. They found that members of the coroner's jury were too intimately associated with news reporters. The grand jury found no criminal interference with any juryman or the deputy coroner.

References

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