Madge Evans

Madge Evans was a frequent presence as the quintessential nice girl in 1930s films. Her career began at a very young age, with appearances in Fairy Soap commercials at age two, where she sat on a bar of soap holding a bunch of violets with the tagline "Have You a Little Fairy in Your Home?" As "Baby Madge," her name was also used by a children's hat company. In 1914, at age five, she was discovered by talent scouts and appeared in the William Farnum film *The Sign of the Cross* (1914), followed by *The Seven Sisters* (1915) with Marguerite Clark. By the end of the next year, she had accumulated around twenty film credits, appearing alongside notable stars of the time such as Pauline Frederick and Alice Brady. All of her early films were produced on the East Coast, primarily at studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey. In 1917, at age eight, Madge made her Broadway debut in *Peter Ibbetson* with John Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore. She returned to the stage in 1926 as an ingenue in *Daisy Mayme* and the following year appeared with Billie Burke in Noël Coward's costume drama *The Marquise* (1927). Her appealing looks and personality soon caught the attention of Hollywood, and she was signed by MGM in 1931. Over the next decade, she appeared in several major productions, including *Dinner at Eight* (1933) as Lionel Barrymore's daughter and *David Copperfield* (1935) as Agnes Wickfield. She co-starred with James Cagney in the gangster film *The Mayor of Hell* (1933), with Spencer Tracy in *The Show-Off* (1934), and appeared alongside Bing Crosby in *Pennies from Heaven* (1936). Madge received praise for her performance in *Beauty for Sale* (1933), and the *New York Times* review of January 13, 1934, described her acting in *Fugitive Lovers* (1934), opposite Robert Montgomery, as "spontaneous and captivating." Many of her "typical American girl" roles limited her ability to showcase the broader acting range she clearly possessed. Too often, she was cast as the "nice girl"—a role that rarely allows for dramatic impact. On rare occasions when she was given the role of the "other woman," such as in *What Every Woman Knows* (1934), audiences found it difficult to believe her character due to her wholesome image. When her contract with MGM expired in 1937, Madge gradually reduced her film appearances and, after her marriage in 1939, focused on being the wife of celebrated playwright Sidney Kingsley. She last appeared on stage in one of his plays, *The Patriots*, in 1943.