Una Fleming
American dancer (1899–1966)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marian Una Strain Fleming Adams (1899 – October 26, 1966), known on stage as Una Fleming, was an American dancer and actress on Broadway.[1]
1899
Una Fleming | |
|---|---|
Una Fleming, from a 1919 publication | |
| Born | Marian Una Strain 1899 California |
| Died | October 26, 1966 (age 67) Ridgewood, New Jersey |
| Other names | Una F. Adams, Una F. Wood, Una F. Glassell |
| Occupations | Dancer, actress |
| Spouse | Freeman Wood |
Early life and education
Una Strain was raised in Los Angeles,[2][3] by her mother Carrie B. Malcolm Strain Fleming, and her stepfather, A. F. Fleming.[4] Her Irish-born father John Strain died in 1904. She attended the Egan School of Music and Drama in Los Angeles, and studied dance with Matildita Fernandez.[5] She danced at public events from her early teens,[6] and was crowned the Queen of May at May Day festivities in Los Angeles in 1914.[7][8] In 1915, she joined a vaudeville dancing act.[9] In 1916, she was premiere danseuse in the ballet of the California Grand Opera Company.[10]
Career
Fleming appeared in the silent film The Talk of the Town (1918).[11][12] On Broadway, she was a dancer in The Velvet Lady (1919),[13] The Sweetheart Shop (1920) and Her Family Tree (1921).[14][15] She also danced in vaudeville programs in New York.[16]
Theatre critic Burns Mantle described Fleming as dancing "with such unusual grace", and considered her part of a trend for "'plain American girl' dancers" who were cast in specialty roles once only assigned to foreign dancers.[13] McClure's Magazine also placed her among other young women dancers in a photo feature in 1919, with the comment that "she seems to be fashioned mostly out of chiffon and grace".[17]
Fleming married in 1920. She was still dancing on stage in 1925, with the George M. Cohan show Little Nellie Kelly in Oakland,[18] and in 1926, when she appeared with Gloria Foy and Lou Holtz in Patsy in San Francisco and Los Angeles.[19][20]
Personal life
Fleming was married four times, to three different husbands. Her first husband was businessman Carleton Adams in 1920;[21] they had a daughter, Barbara. They divorced in 1927, then remarried in 1928, then divorced again in 1935.[22] She married again, to actor Freeman Wood, by 1940. She married a third time, to Gardner T. Glassell, in 1949. Gardner Glassell died in 1958,[23] and she died in 1966, in Ridgewood, New Jersey, at the age of 67.[24]