- Born
- Died
- Birth nameIsabel Seitz
- 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.- IMDb Mini Biography By: SAGE STEPS
- SpouseBoyce DeGaw(1934 - 1941) (divorced)
- Co-writer with Monte Brice of "Singing in the Corn." The screenplay was typical of many of Miss Dawn's scripts, i.e., full of daffy twists and happy-go-nutty action.
- Gossip columnists noted that Isabel and Ray Herr were dining at Don the Beachcombers in Huntington Beach, California (USA).
- In late 1941 to support the preparation for the war effort Isabel Dawn canceled a trip to New York in order to turn her guest house over to the Red Cross.
- Prior to her divorce from Boyce DeGaw it was widely rumored that there was a romance between Isabel and Bill Wellborne. They were seen relaxing at the home of Charley Foy (one of the Seven Little Foys).
- As a leading lady for the Blunhall Players, a Broadway Stock Company in Brooklyn, opened as the lead actress in Violet Hemming's play, "This Thing Called Love." Her leading man was to be Louis Benmson. He was unable to to so. A few weeks before the opening he murdered actress, Margaret Lawrence, and then committed suicide.
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