244:. Although her voice had firmly cast her in light operatic roles, May longed for an opportunity to prove herself as a dramatic actress and was given the opportunity when the famous French actor Monsieur de Max wanted to introduce her to Paris as 'Juliet' to his 'Romeo'. However, her French was too weak, and although de Max was prepared to pay her expenses for six months whilst she prepared for the part, she was forced to decline. Six months out of her career was a luxury she could not afford, so she carried on with her musical comedy roles. Two years later she did go to Paris, where she was rapturously received by the French audiences. Returning home to the US after that engagement, she was temporarily reported missing by her parents when they did not hear from her for over five weeks.
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203:. With thirty four speaking and singing roles and a chorus of sixty it was said to be the largest musical organization so far seen in America. Next she was engaged as understudy for the great Alice Nielson in San Francisco and in 1902 had the opportunity to accompany her to London but demurred on that occasion due to a fear of the sea crossing. Instead she joined the cast of the hugely popular and long-running operatic fantasy
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his spendthrift ways. Worse, she alleged that he frequently beat her, always being careful to restrict his blows to her torso so as not to leave marks that might give away his abuse or impair her ability to earn money. In
December 1914, after two turbulent years, she divorced him on the grounds of cruelty and financial desertion.
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Although it was reported that she would be marrying a nobleman, in April 1910, she married stockbroker Eaton Arthur Haines in
Haverstraw, New York. It was a troubled marriage from the start. Haines, it appears, had misrepresented his wealth to her before their marriage, and she had to support him and
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Now she was a major star on both sides of the
Atlantic and it seemed she had the World at her feet. Personal tragedy struck on January 31, 1910, however, when her mother was discovered dead in a gas-filled room. It was not determined whether the tragedy had been a suicide or an unfortunate accident.
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and took a job in
Chicago as a scrubwoman in the public-school system. Her years of internment had taken their toll on her health however, and soon she was forced to quit working because she was too weak to continue. Without means to support herself, her condition worsened through malnutrition and
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she died penniless, a charity case in the county hospital, on 8 August 1948. Once the toast of Europe and
America whose voice had thrilled both royalty and the masses, she died alone, unable even to feed herself. Her body lay unclaimed in the morgue and was interred in a paupers grave, at age 63.
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Continuing her career on both sides of the
Atlantic, she was in France shortly before the outbreak of the Great War and escaped the German invasion by the margin of only a few weeks. De Sousa played the role of a model Juliette in the 1911 play of
387:"New York To See "Dollar Princess". Charles Frohman Gets American Rights And Expects To Make A Hit. Wants May De Sousa In It. She Is Now Playing Engagement in Berlin Offered Her Just as She Was Sailing for This Country"
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May attracted such attention that at end of her first full season in 1901, whilst still only a teenager, she was engaged by Frank L. Perley as one of the principals for his touring company for the musical comedy
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Eaton Arthur Haines, a stockbroker, of Nunda, New York. They married
Haverstraw, New York, on 24 April 1910 and divorced in 1914, reportedly after De Sousa was beaten by her husband for years. Haines died in
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Dr. William E. O'Hara (1879—1941), an
Australian surgeon. They met in 1918 while De Sousa was in Australia in a theatrical production and married in Melbourne, Australia, in either 1919 or 1920; he died in
282:. She performed in several productions for the Amateur Dramatic Club there. Her husband died in 1941, and in 1943, following a seven-month imprisonment as a civilian internee under the Japanese in
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police detective, John De Sousa (born 1856 died 1941), and his wife, Bridget
Caroline (Carrie) Walsh (1861—1910). She had a younger sibling, Marvin De Sousa (1891—1921).
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She went to London after all, but as a star in her own right, and first appeared on the London Stage as 'Cinderella' at
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for the J.W. Williamson
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Civil Assembly Center, in Shanghai, China, she returned to the United States on the
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Captives of Empire: The Japanese Internment of Allied Civilians in China, 1941-1945
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In 1918, De Sousa appeared in a touring theatrical production in Australia,
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1900 U. S. Federal Census, accessed on ancestry.com on 13 September 2012
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166:(November 6, 1884 – August 8, 1948) was an American singer and a
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and in September of that year followed that same actress in
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524:"May De Sousa Was an April Bride",
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626:American musical theatre actresses
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363:. August 23, 1948. Archived from
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616:19th-century American actresses
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447:"May De Sousa's Mother Dead",
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581:May De Sousa; Stagebeauty.net
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463:"May De Sousa A Bankrupt",
16:American actress and singer
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571:Internet Broadway Database
414:Casey, Robert J. (2007) .
224:Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
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621:American stage actresses
511:"La Belle Americaine",
241:The Girls of Gottenberg
191:Bathhouse John Coughlin
260:he Count of Luxembourg
586:MementoMori, portrait
539:The Milwaukee Journal
187:Dear Midnight of Love
631:Singers from Chicago
420:. pp. 18, 241.
126: 1910;
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513:The Nunda (NY) News
467:, 28 September 1913
417:Chicago Medium Rare
367:on February 1, 2011
113:Eaton Arthur Haines
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526:The New York Times
500:Lodi News-Sentinel
465:The New York Times
164:May Alvos de Sousa
51:May Alvos de Sousa
451:, 31 January 1910
427:978-1-4067-5819-1
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78:(1948-08-08)
25:May de Sousa
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595:Categories
325:References
235:The Geisha
206:The Storks
57:1884-11-06
399:March 14,
295:Marriages
288:Gripsholm
174:Biography
170:actress.
100:1898–1918
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313:See also
280:Shanghai
168:Broadway
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180:Chicago
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360:Time
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