Edith Helena

American soprano (1876–1956). Born in Brooklyn. She made her first appearance as a flower girl with Mapleson's Opera Company at the Academy of Music, New York, when she was only seven-years old. Her professional debut was at the Brighton Beach Music Hall, New York, in July, 1902, where she was in a vaudeville singing act under the stage name of Edith Helena. She became an international star sailing to Europe for the Rembrandt Theater, Amsterdam. For two years she sang across Europe (Dusseldorf, London, Munich, Berlin, Paris, Marseilles, Toulon, Nice, Barcelona, Rome, Genoa, Milan, Bologna, Frankfort, Strassburg, and Brussels). Back in the United States, she sang Violetta in "La Traviata" with the Royal Italian Grand Opera Company in the Academy of Music and the Grand Opera House, New York, June 1907. After 1921 she devoted herself to Vaudeville and the musical comedy. Due her very wide vocal range (over 3 octaves), she developed a novelty specialization in "violin imitations" with her voice. During the 1920s she sang under the pseudonym ''Mme Pompadour'' in rococo costumes. In 1941 she sang at the Roxy Theater in New York. When she retired from singing, she opened a furniture store in Mt Kisco, NY.