She is the same little Edna we knew in the early ’90s, so far as personal appearance goes, and the magical results from plastic surgery, give occasion for headline position. Who would ever have thought that Edna Wallace Hopper would beat the illustrious Ponce de Leon in his quest for the fountain of eternal youth? Such is the case, however, and this week the little lady is giving visible proof of her successful search. The 1921 operation was widely reported in the press and she showed the film she had taken of it – called ‘The Facial Side Lift’ – as part of a vaudeville act she gave in various cities across the United States. 73) – her interest in the stock market may have come from her marriage to Albert Oldfield Brown – and went on tour to help rectify her financial situation. In a 1931 interview, she revealed that she had lost money in the stock market crash of 1920 (Lazar, 1931, p. The effect was supposed to last from three to four years.īy 1922 – when she was approaching fifty but claiming to be sixty – Edna Wallace Hopper was getting as much attention for her ‘agelessness’ as she was for her stage roles and was well on her way to becoming the ‘The Eternal Flapper’.Ībove: 1922 Edna Wallace Hopper (second from the left), her age listed as sixty, photographed with a group of young ‘flappers’ most of whom are sixteen years-old.Įdna lied about her age to help her capitalise on the fact that she had undergone plastic surgery. The treatment consisted of twelve injections, each of about 5 grams of plasma. These involved injections of blood plasma taken from a young person, possibly even a child.Ībove: c.1925 Edna Wallace Hopper receiving an injection from Dr. Louis Berne, described as a noted surgeon from Vienna.ĭuring of her frequent trips to Paris Edna also received rejuvenating medical treatments conducted by Dr. Willis Amey of 306 West 75th Street, New York, possibly assisted by Dr.
There also appears to have been an operation in 1921 which Edna Wallace Hopper had filmed. This reduced the mask-like effect created by earlier face-lift operations.Ībove: 1940 Edna Wallace Hopper undergoing facial surgery at the LeRoy Sanitarium in New York. His operation tightened the underlying muscles of the face rather than just the skin. Irving Daniel Shorell at the LeRoy Sanitarium in New York. I have not been able to verify the 1926 operation but there are photographs of the 1940 face-lift carried out by Dr. 44).Ībove: 1920 a drawing from a newspaper article describing the processes involved in a face-lift undergone by Eva Tanguay, Blanche Bates, Maxine Elliot, Edna Wallace Hopper and other stage celebrities (The Washington Times). Gertrude Steel who advertised herself as a “Cosmetic and Plastic Surgeon for Both Sexes-Skin and Feature Specialist” (Variety advertisement, December 30, 1921, p. The first of these may have been done in Los Angeles, California by Dr. Some have suggested there were three, undertaken in 1919, 19. However, as she approached fifty she decided to undergo plastic surgery and other rejuvenating medical procedures to help maintain her youthful appearance.Įxactly how many facial operations Edna had is an open question. Her height and facial features meant that she looked a lot younger than her real age but she also exercised regularly to keep herself trim and supple.Ībove: 1899 Edna Wallace Hopper boxing with Jack Cooper. These roles went to younger actresses and this put pressure on Edna to maintain her youthful looks. Her acting abilities, physical features and personality were not suited to dramatic roles so she usually played an ingénue in a stage play or a soubrette in musical comedies. 150 cm), had a vivacious personality, grey-blue eyes, a good set of legs which she frequently displayed, and a light singing voice. They separated in 1913 but she refused to give him a divorce so they were still married on the day he died.Įdna was less than five feet tall (approx. In 1908, she married the Wall Street stockbroker Albert Oldfield Brown. She travelled with the play to New York where she met and, in 1893, became the third wife of the performer and producer William DeWolf Hopper, divorcing him in 1898. Her first role was Mabel Douglas in ‘The Club Friend’ in Boston.
She took to the stage in 1891 after meeting Roland Reed while he was playing in San Francisco (Strang, 1900, p. She frequently lied about her age but most accounts suggest that the year of her birth was 1872. Edna Wallace was born in San Francisco, California.
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