Barbara Newberry
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Barbara began her career at the age of eight, in "Penrod." At the age of nine, she was the lead child ballet dancer in "La Juive," with Caruso, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. She studied dance with Merriel Abbott in Chicago, and at the age of fifteen she was hired by Florenz Ziegfeld as a specialty dancer. She performed in the 1925 Follies, "No Foolin'" in 1926, "Oh Ernest", "Betsy", and "Golden Dawn," in 1927, with an unknown Englishman from Bristol by the name of Archie Leach (Cary Grant.). She performed in "Good Boy," in 1928, and in the closing days of "Showboat," she replaced Eva Puck. She was a star in "Showgirl" in 1929, after being named "The Most Beautiful Legs In America," by Ziegfeld in the same year. She married Eddie Foy Jr., in 1930, and the marriage failed two years later. Following her marriage she signed with the Shubert Bros., doing "The Blue Mask," in Chicago, and "A Little Racketeer," in New York. Barbara did three short films for Warner's in New York. "Fashions Mirror," 1930, "Footlights," in 1931, and "Hello Good Times," in 1932. She performed in the Muny Theatre in St. Louis, in the summer season of1932, and then returned to New York to tour London, becoming the opening dance act at the new Dorchester Hotel in the Mayfair district of London, along with dance partners Carl Randall, and William Holbrook. She danced in Monte Carlo, Paris, and London, performing at the Hippodrome Theatre with Laddie Cliff. In 1934 Cole Porter contracted Barbara to do the choreography for "Gay Divorce," with Clare Luce and Fred Astaire. She retired from show business in 1936, marrying Robert Foster, head of the Colgate Palmolive Peat Corporation, in London. The marriage failed in 1952. Her last marriage was to Paris Singer Jr., The marriage failed four years later. She died in New York City in 1986, and is buried in Coldwater, Michigan, with her mother, as Barbara Newberry Singer.