Tragic songstress Lillian Roth (nee Lillian Rutstein) was born in Boston,
Massachusetts, on December 13, 1910. She was given her first name in honor
of singer Lillian Russell. She was the daughter of stage parents who
groomed her and younger sister Ann for stardom at an early age.
The girls did not disappoint. In 1916, Lillian moved with her family to New
York City, where the youngsters found work as extras in films. Lillian's
precocious talent was picked up on quickly, and at age six she made her
Broadway debut in "The Inner Man." All the while, the girls trained at
the Professional Children's School. They became billed as "Broadway's
Youngest Stars" after putting together a successful vaudeville tour
billed as "The Roth Kids." In this act Lillian did serious dramatic
impersonations of famous stars of the day, with Anna delivering amusing
satires of Lillian's readings.
Lillian's vocal talents also impressed, and she was cast in the show "Artists and Models" at age 15. Shy by
nature, the ever-increasing thrust into the limelight caused Lillian to
develop severe nervous disorders, but somehow she persevered. At age
17, Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. signed her up as an ingénue headliner in his new show
"Midnight Frolics."
This attention led to impresario Ernst Lubitsch's
invitation to Hollywood for his glossy musical Liebesparade (1929) with Maurice Chevalier and
Jeanette MacDonald. Lillian was a hit in her second lead role. She also impressed
as Huguette in Der König der Vagabunden (1930), a rather dated early musical talkie. Paramount
cast her in Honey (1930), in which she debuted her signature standard "Sing
You Sinners." Other roles included Cecil B. DeMille's Madam Satan (1930) and the Marx
Brothers' vehicle Animal Crackers (1930), which countered her vocal stylings with the
boys' zany antics.
The sudden death of her fiancé in the early '30s
drove Lillian over the brink. She found that liquor gave her a calming
sensation, which led to a full-scale addiction. Marriages, one to
renowned Municipal Court Justice Benjamin Shalleck, came and went at a
steady pace. There would be six in all. Her career deteriorated as
she spiraled further and further down into alcoholic delirium.
Decades would be spent in and out of mental institutions until she met
and married T. Burt McGuire, Jr., a former alcoholic, in the late '40s.
With his support, Lillian slowly revived her career with club work. She
became a singing sensation again and toured throughout the world,
receiving ecstatic reviews wherever she went. Lillian's daring
autobiography, "I'll Cry Tomorrow," was published in 1954 and topped The
New York Times Best Seller list. She left out few details of her
sordid past and battles with substance abuse. She became the first
celebrity to associate her name with alcoholism and Alcoholics Anonymous, putting a
well-known face on the disease (as Rock Hudson would later do for AIDS,
albeit less willingly) while doing her part in helping to remove the
social stigma.
A bold, no-holds-barred film adaptation of Lillian's
book followed. Susan Hayward's gutsy portrayal of Lillian won her a fourth
Oscar nomination. Lillian herself would return to films in her twilight
years, but only in small roles and to minor fanfare. A beautiful and
touching vocalist and actress, she put her own wonderful spin on such
vintage songs as "When the Red, Red Robin," "I Wish I Had My Old Gal
Back Again," and "Eadie Was a Lady." She overcame unimaginable odds
and somehow lived to tell about it.
Lillian's turbulent life came to an end in New York City after suffering a fatal stroke on May 12, 1980. She was 69.
