Isabel Dawn(1897-1966)
- Writer
Isabel Seitz (aka Isabel Dawn), born October 20, 1897, was the daughter
of John and Mary Seitz. Isabel was a 1916 graduate of Central High
School in Evansville, Indiana and then worked on the editorial staff
with the Evansville Courier, later working for the Kokomo Dispatch and
Louisville newspapers. Isabel Seitz attended Valparaiso University. She
began acting in stage plays in New York City in 1922. The first
"talkie" in which she appeared was in 1929 in the two act comedy, "The
Family Car." Previously she had proven to be versatile in a number of
radio roles, including the origination of the character Dorothy in
"Dorothy and Jack," and Joan in "Old Man Donaldson's Adventures." Jack
in "Dorothy and Jack" was Frederick Marsh. A New York critic had
written in a review that "Miss Dawn has an elastic voice and a charming
disposition." The radio character "Mimi" was done in 1929 by Miss Dawn
for director and playwright David Belasco. On March 16, 1930 Miss Dawn
participated in the premier presentation of the National Broadcasting
Company in their New York radio studio, "The Auditorium of the Air."
Isabel was the featured actress in Collier's Radio Hour feature,
"Social Error." Her first journey to Los Angeles was later in 1930 to
assume the lead role in a stage play, "Marathon," that she wrote in
collaboration with Herbert Howe Winslow and Hugh Strange. Isabel spent
Fall 1932 in London, England before "Marathon" had a successful run in
1933 at the Mansfield Theater (now the Brooks Atkinson Theater) in New
York City. In December 1932 a tea was given at London's Park Lane
Hotel. Many notables were present including Somerset Maugham. She was a
guest of the Marchioness of Townshend at Raynham Castle, Norfolk, 100
miles north of London. A special gift was received by Miss Dawn in
early 1934 from James Caldwell, British vice-consul of Saltillo,
Coahuala, Mexico. The gift was named "Dawn the Royal Tiger" and was
presented in turn as a gift to the Mesker Park Zoo in Evansville,
Indiana. In 1937 she and husband Boyce DeGow wrote the screenplay "Girl
of the Golden West" for Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. Among her
best known scripts were those written for "If I Had a Million" (1932),
"The Girl of the Golden West" (1938), and "Up in Mabel's Room" (1944).
Her only television series appearance as an actress was as Powder Kate
Hadigan in the 1958 "Ghost of the Cimarron" episode of Cheyenne. She
died on June 29, 1966 of a pulmonary infection (cancer) at The Motion
Picture Country Home and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California USA.
