Advertisement

Dorothy Anderson <I>Donovan</I> Hale

Advertisement

Dorothy Anderson Donovan Hale

Birth
Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, USA
Death
21 Oct 1938 (aged 33)
New York, New York County, New York, USA
Burial
Newport, Newport County, Rhode Island, USA Add to Map
Memorial ID
View Source
Subject of the painting "The Suicide of Dorothy Hale, 1938" by Frida Kahlo. The painting was commissioned by Clare Booth Luce. The finished painting was stored for some 30 years before being donated to the Phoenix Art Museum.
_____
16-Floor Fall Kills Actress Born Here
Dorothy Donovan Hale, Once Rumored Engaged To WPA Chief Hopkins, Reported Suicide By New York Officers.

Dorothy Donovan Hale, the Pittsburgh born beauty -who last summer was rumored as engaged to Harry Hopkins, WPA administrator, early yesterday morning jumped oi fell from a hotel sixteenth floor window in New York City. Her father, James P. Donovan, Pittsburgh real estate operator, of !5S3 South Negley avenue, left at once for New York. Clad in a black evening gown, a corsage of tea roses still pinned tot the shoulder, the young actress's body was found on the sidewalk below the window of her apartment in the Hampshire House, facing Central Park. Detectives listed the case as "fell or jumped, probably suicide." The police theory was substantiated by three "apparent suicide" notes that the medical examiner's office late last night disclosed had been left behind by the actress whose life had been marked by ill fortune since she left her Pittsburgh home to tussle with Broadway. All three letters, mailed to her attorney, John H. Vincent, anticipated death. The first was dated, September 14. the second was undated, and the third October 19 and 20. , Friends of Administrator Hopkins, who is in seclusion at the temporary White House at Hyde Park, said he was "deeply shocked." Hopkins and Mrs. Hale were introduced last spring by James Roosevelt, son of the President. They were frequently seen together and last summer their engagement was rumored. Neither, however, would discuss the rumor. Friends of the young woman, whose greatest ambition was to star in Broadway plays, could give no reason why she might have decided to end her life. Thursday she gave a cocktail party in her apartment for Lawrence A. Steinhardt. United States minister to Peru, and later went to dinner and the theater, her friends said. Margaret Case, editor of Vogue, a close friend, said that she was with Mrs. Hale until 7 o'clock Thursday night and that "she was in good spirits and said she planned to leave the next day for a visit in Washington."
Was Ailing, Lawyer Says.
However, Vincent said that she had been subject to a recurring illness and had been in the hospital several times in the last five years. On the door of Mrs. Hale's hotel. room was a note, - apparently addressed to her maid, reading: "Do not disturb today." There was a letter in her room from her sister, Elizabeth Donovan, publicity director of Webster Hall, who lives in the Fairfax Hotel. Miss Donovan said that only Thursday she had received a letter from Mrs. Hale in which she told of trying to get a part In a new show. Mrs. Hale's last thoughts apparently were of her late second husband, Gardner Hale, noted mural artist who was killed in an automobile accident the same year they were married., "I want my body cremated and the ashes sent' to Newport, (R.I.) to be placed alongside Gardner," the last letter said. "I have no possessions to leave to anyone, and would appreciate your keeping this letter on file in case anything happens to me." In the September 14 letter was the phrase "Please give Margie any of my possessions that she desires." The undated letter was similar to the others. Mrs. Hale was born in Dunmoyle place. East End, in 1905. She was educated in a Greensburg convent and then attended the drama school at Carnegie Institute of Technology. When she was just 16 she ran away from home to try to find a job on the New York stage.
Had Chance In Movies
She finally became a chorus girl in "Lady Be Good". A few years later she married T. Gaillard Thomas, II, the millionaire clubman. After their marriage she, maintained homes in Paris and at Southampton, L. I. When they were divorced she married Gardner Hale, the artist who helped to revive the art of fresco painting. That same year, 1931, he was killed when his automobile went over a 500-foot cliff in California. Among . her other relatives in Pittsburgh is a sister, Mrs. Marjorie Weeks of Howe street, and a brother, James P. Donovan, Jr., of Dunmoyle place. Her mother died 16 years ago. Funeral plans last night had not yet been completed.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) 22 Oct 1938, Sat
_____
Ashes Of Actress Dorothy Hale Are Buried By Husband
New York. Oct. 22 (AP) - Private funeral services were held Saturday for Dorothy Hale, actress and society beauty, who plunged to death from her 16th-floor apartment Friday. In accordance with a note left for her attorney, the body will be cremated and the ashes buried beside the body of her late husband. Gardner Hale, Mural painter, in Newport, RI. Only a half dozen relatives attended the simple services at a funeral chapel near the exclusive apartment house where Mrs. Hale lived. They included her father, James P. Donovan, and her sister, Elizabeth Donovan, both of Pittsburgh.
The Times Herald (Port Huron, Michigan) 23 Oct 1938, SunAmerican socialite and aspiring actress. Hale's stage work was limited to several seasons in stock companies and some work as a dancer and Ziegfeld girl. In the summer of 1935, Hale and her friend Rosamond Pinchot, another New York socialite and aspiring actress, opened in Abide with Me, a psychological drama written by their friend Clare Boothe Luce. Though the three friends enjoyed the experience tremendously, the play was panned and it died quietly. When her husband's car went over a Santa Maria cliff in December 1931, she was left in severe financial difficulties. No longer able to maintain her high-society lifestyle, Hale began to accept the largess of rich lovers and generous friends, such as Luce, to whom she was close. "We all believed that a girl of such extraordinary beauty could not be long in either developing a career or finding another husband. Dorothy had very little talent and no luck. Hale repeatedly yet unsuccessfully tried to find work as an actress. In 1932, an acquaintance with Samuel Goldwyn led to an uncredited role in Cynara, as well as a minor role in Catherine the Great (1934). Her screen tests were dubbed a failure. Hale became despondent over her stalled career, constant debt, and unhappy love life, and on October 21, 1938, Hale threw herself out of the window of her apartment. Later on, the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo made a famous painting of Dorothy known as "The Suicide of Dorothy Hale." She was cremated before burial.
Subject of the painting "The Suicide of Dorothy Hale, 1938" by Frida Kahlo. The painting was commissioned by Clare Booth Luce. The finished painting was stored for some 30 years before being donated to the Phoenix Art Museum.
_____
16-Floor Fall Kills Actress Born Here
Dorothy Donovan Hale, Once Rumored Engaged To WPA Chief Hopkins, Reported Suicide By New York Officers.

Dorothy Donovan Hale, the Pittsburgh born beauty -who last summer was rumored as engaged to Harry Hopkins, WPA administrator, early yesterday morning jumped oi fell from a hotel sixteenth floor window in New York City. Her father, James P. Donovan, Pittsburgh real estate operator, of !5S3 South Negley avenue, left at once for New York. Clad in a black evening gown, a corsage of tea roses still pinned tot the shoulder, the young actress's body was found on the sidewalk below the window of her apartment in the Hampshire House, facing Central Park. Detectives listed the case as "fell or jumped, probably suicide." The police theory was substantiated by three "apparent suicide" notes that the medical examiner's office late last night disclosed had been left behind by the actress whose life had been marked by ill fortune since she left her Pittsburgh home to tussle with Broadway. All three letters, mailed to her attorney, John H. Vincent, anticipated death. The first was dated, September 14. the second was undated, and the third October 19 and 20. , Friends of Administrator Hopkins, who is in seclusion at the temporary White House at Hyde Park, said he was "deeply shocked." Hopkins and Mrs. Hale were introduced last spring by James Roosevelt, son of the President. They were frequently seen together and last summer their engagement was rumored. Neither, however, would discuss the rumor. Friends of the young woman, whose greatest ambition was to star in Broadway plays, could give no reason why she might have decided to end her life. Thursday she gave a cocktail party in her apartment for Lawrence A. Steinhardt. United States minister to Peru, and later went to dinner and the theater, her friends said. Margaret Case, editor of Vogue, a close friend, said that she was with Mrs. Hale until 7 o'clock Thursday night and that "she was in good spirits and said she planned to leave the next day for a visit in Washington."
Was Ailing, Lawyer Says.
However, Vincent said that she had been subject to a recurring illness and had been in the hospital several times in the last five years. On the door of Mrs. Hale's hotel. room was a note, - apparently addressed to her maid, reading: "Do not disturb today." There was a letter in her room from her sister, Elizabeth Donovan, publicity director of Webster Hall, who lives in the Fairfax Hotel. Miss Donovan said that only Thursday she had received a letter from Mrs. Hale in which she told of trying to get a part In a new show. Mrs. Hale's last thoughts apparently were of her late second husband, Gardner Hale, noted mural artist who was killed in an automobile accident the same year they were married., "I want my body cremated and the ashes sent' to Newport, (R.I.) to be placed alongside Gardner," the last letter said. "I have no possessions to leave to anyone, and would appreciate your keeping this letter on file in case anything happens to me." In the September 14 letter was the phrase "Please give Margie any of my possessions that she desires." The undated letter was similar to the others. Mrs. Hale was born in Dunmoyle place. East End, in 1905. She was educated in a Greensburg convent and then attended the drama school at Carnegie Institute of Technology. When she was just 16 she ran away from home to try to find a job on the New York stage.
Had Chance In Movies
She finally became a chorus girl in "Lady Be Good". A few years later she married T. Gaillard Thomas, II, the millionaire clubman. After their marriage she, maintained homes in Paris and at Southampton, L. I. When they were divorced she married Gardner Hale, the artist who helped to revive the art of fresco painting. That same year, 1931, he was killed when his automobile went over a 500-foot cliff in California. Among . her other relatives in Pittsburgh is a sister, Mrs. Marjorie Weeks of Howe street, and a brother, James P. Donovan, Jr., of Dunmoyle place. Her mother died 16 years ago. Funeral plans last night had not yet been completed.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) 22 Oct 1938, Sat
_____
Ashes Of Actress Dorothy Hale Are Buried By Husband
New York. Oct. 22 (AP) - Private funeral services were held Saturday for Dorothy Hale, actress and society beauty, who plunged to death from her 16th-floor apartment Friday. In accordance with a note left for her attorney, the body will be cremated and the ashes buried beside the body of her late husband. Gardner Hale, Mural painter, in Newport, RI. Only a half dozen relatives attended the simple services at a funeral chapel near the exclusive apartment house where Mrs. Hale lived. They included her father, James P. Donovan, and her sister, Elizabeth Donovan, both of Pittsburgh.
The Times Herald (Port Huron, Michigan) 23 Oct 1938, SunAmerican socialite and aspiring actress. Hale's stage work was limited to several seasons in stock companies and some work as a dancer and Ziegfeld girl. In the summer of 1935, Hale and her friend Rosamond Pinchot, another New York socialite and aspiring actress, opened in Abide with Me, a psychological drama written by their friend Clare Boothe Luce. Though the three friends enjoyed the experience tremendously, the play was panned and it died quietly. When her husband's car went over a Santa Maria cliff in December 1931, she was left in severe financial difficulties. No longer able to maintain her high-society lifestyle, Hale began to accept the largess of rich lovers and generous friends, such as Luce, to whom she was close. "We all believed that a girl of such extraordinary beauty could not be long in either developing a career or finding another husband. Dorothy had very little talent and no luck. Hale repeatedly yet unsuccessfully tried to find work as an actress. In 1932, an acquaintance with Samuel Goldwyn led to an uncredited role in Cynara, as well as a minor role in Catherine the Great (1934). Her screen tests were dubbed a failure. Hale became despondent over her stalled career, constant debt, and unhappy love life, and on October 21, 1938, Hale threw herself out of the window of her apartment. Later on, the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo made a famous painting of Dorothy known as "The Suicide of Dorothy Hale." She was cremated before burial.


Sponsored by Ancestry

Advertisement

See more Hale or Donovan memorials in:

Flower Delivery Sponsor and Remove Ads

Advertisement